What the course involves In the first two years of the course, students will study a number of basic English law subjects and in addition they will receive a substantial amount of linguistic and legal preparation for their year in France. The third year of the course is spent in France, at the University of Burgundy, and students will study a selection of the subjects taught by the Facult de Droit to French law students. The year is divided into two semesters. The fourth year of the course is spent back in Manchester. In the Law School at the University of Manchester, our teaching methods are similar to those commonly found in English law schools, that is, usually three formal lectures a week per subject plus five fortnightly seminars in each subject.
Seminars involve discussion of topics with about seven students and a member of the lecturing staff.
The Law School is unusual in teaching the Law of Tort by 'case method', where, instead of the usual lecturing format, students come prepared to explain a set list of cases and are individually called upon to do so by the lecturer. For course taken in the Department of French Studies, the first year language course takes the form of an hour a week of mainly translation classes and one hour a week of conversation classes. The second year language course is taught in French and comprises two hours a week of small group work. The course on Modern and Contemporary France has a one hour lecture each week together with a weekly one hour oral group session and a fortnightly seminar. The degree is awarded on the results of the final examinations taken over the second, third and fourth years of the course.