Assessed Written Work 2016-17

Module:
Jurisprudence LW3JUR

Submission Deadline:
By 12 noon UK time on Wednesday April 19, 2017 (University penalties apply to
late submission – unless you are granted an extension)

Maximum Length:
Not more than 7 pages which must be formatted in accordance with the School of
Law’s Assessed Work Rules (otherwise penalties will apply)

Title:
Please choose one title from the nine options below

Important note
When submitting any assessed coursework, you will be asked online to confirm: “I certify that
neither this piece of work, nor any part of it, has been submitted in connection with another
assessment.” If you foresee any problems with this, consult the module convenor.

Submission Process:
Submission is online – with the time recorded – through the “Assignments and Turnitin” tab in
the Blackboard module site: submit by the deadline a single PDF file containing all of your essay
(text, notes, any bibliography – no coversheet is needed). If the system will not accept your
submission, notify us via the “Ask a Question” function in RISIS attaching your essay (or if the
network is down, phone Law on University extension 6568) and then submit as soon as you are
able.
• No paper submission is required for this module.
• Using a pdf file guarantees the length of your essay will not change during submission:
producing a pdf file is simple – within your final document, using the “Save As” function will
offer a dropdown list of file types, where you can select pdf.
• If you are entitled to use green stickers to notify markers about a condition affecting your
work, include the electronic sticker as the first item in your electronic file – it does not count
as part of your page allowance.

Originality / plagiarism – you have the opportunity to check drafts:

Your online submission – into the Turnitin system – generates an originality report for the
examiners highlighting any passages apparently copied or unoriginal.
You have the opportunity to check a draft of your essay in Turnitin to help you avoid plagiarism:
you are strongly encouraged to do this, leaving yourself enough time to make any necessary
revisions before final submission. (The system can sometimes take a day to generate a report.)
You do this in the Blackboard module site, through the “Assignments and Turnitin” tab, using the
“DRAFT essay” assignment. This will open one month before the submission deadline (and
remains open after the deadline for students with extensions). You can check several drafts.
Guidance on interpreting Turnitin results is in the Programme Handbook: you are advised to read
this before looking at the report on your essay. Reading the Turnitin report and revising your
draft essay is your responsibility; staff cannot be asked to read the report or advise on it.
Further guidance on plagiarism, and how to avoid it, can be found in your Programme Handbook
and in the Law School’s Legal Skills: a Guide.

School of Law Assessed Work Rules:

You must read and comply with all the School of Law’s Assessed Work Rules in the Programme
Handbook, published at the start of the year. (If you are not a Law School student you should
ensure the Module Convenor has made a copy of these rules available to you.)
Assessment Criteria:
The University’s general assessment criteria apply: see the Programme Handbook for details.

Percentage of module mark:

The mark awarded for the assessed work will be out of 100. The Essay is worth 35% of the total
mark for the module.  

Return of essays
General University policy is to return marked essays, with feedback, within 15 working days from
from the submission date: all marks are provisional, subject to revision by the External Examiner
in end of year results.

Essay Titles:

1. ‘...justice as fairness... conceives the unity of the self as something

antecedently established, fashioned prior to the choices it makes in the course
of its experience’ (Michael Sandel Liberalism and the Limits of Justice
(Cambridge University Press 1982) 21)

Critically evaluate this statement and the extent to which Rawls manages
to rescue his notion of the liberal self from the communitarian critique.

2. Is the best understanding of socio-economic justice patterned or unpatterned?

3. On what grounds do the Crits attack mainstream legal theory and is their
critique well-conceived?

4. To what extent is Finnis's natural law theory inconsistent with legal

positivism?

5. To what extent are rights individualistic?

6. ‘The content of the law depends on its sources and not its merits.’ Do you
agree?

7. To what extent does the category of woman constitute a problem for feminist
legal theory?

8. Is there a necessary connection between law and coercion? Critically discuss.

9. Herbert Hart describes his project in The Concept of Law as an ‘exercise in
descriptive sociology’ (Preface). Do you agree with this characterisation of
Hart’s project?

Critically discuss with reference to Ronald Dworkin’s interpretative theory.

10.'Suppose that a businessman in a trade  where "caveat emptor" prevails

converts to a religion whose sacred text enjoins its adherents to deal "honestly
and fairly" in commerce. He will behave differently, and he will sensibly say
that in doing so, he is deferring to the authority of his new religion.’

R Dworkin, Justice in Robes (Harvard University Press 2006) 207

What does Dworkin's critique of Raz's theory of authority entail for the
theory of law? Do you agree with it?