SQE: legal system, public law and criminal litigation
This module covers a range of relevant SQE1 functioning legal knowledge topics, including the legal system of England and Wales, constitutional and administrative law, EU law, legal services, solicitors’ accounts, and criminal law and practice. The module supports your development of legal and transferable skills (including communication, research and numeracy), professional behaviours and commercial awareness. The module aims to deliver substantive and procedural law in a highly engaging and authentic way. You'll also develop skills and subject knowledge that will support preparation for SQE1 and enhance your employability in the legal profession and beyond.
What you will study
The module is divided into 16 units of study. The first eight units will provide you with a foundational understanding of key areas of law by covering:
an introduction to the module and an overview of professional conduct and ethics
how cases are funded and aspects of the English and Welsh legal system
solicitors’ accounts
certain public law matters, including core state institutions, judicial review, European Union law, and Human Rights
criminal law.
The remaining eight units focus on criminal law in practice and will cover:
advising a defendant at the police station
bail, pre-trial procedure, and hearings
evidence, trial procedure, and plea in mitigation
sentencing, appeals, and the youth court.
Throughout the module, you'll have opportunities to reinforce and consolidate knowledge and develop skills through a variety of shorter and longer activities. The longer activities are designed to simulate a virtual working experience by setting the sorts of tasks typically undertaken by those training for a career in law. At the end of each unit of study, there’s a consolidation activity comprising multiple-choice questions modelled on the approach taken in SQE1. You'll also be encouraged to reflect on ethical and professional conduct issues.
During the module, there will be two online SQE events, open to all SQE students, which will cover areas common to the three SQE modules and be useful for aspiring solicitors. You'll also have an opportunity to hear from legal practitioners talking about their experience of practice and providing advice on how to obtain employment in that area of law. The session with practitioners is provided in an accessible format during employability week.
Entry requirements
If you will be studying this module as part of the:
Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (R81) or Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry)(R82), you must have completed Public law (W211) and Contract law (W212)
previous versions of our law degrees, Bachelor of Laws (Honours)(Q79) or Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry)(Q80), you must have completed Contract law and tort law (W202) and Public law and criminal law (W203).
You must have a law degree which includes English and Welsh law and covers the seven foundations of legal knowledge if you will be studying this module as part of the Professional Certificate in Legal Practice: SQE1 (S36).
You must also have:
at least nine hours available to study per week
a competent level of use with a computer, the internet and Office 365
a strong command of reading and writing in English
reasonable numeracy skills, as part of the module requires the completion of solicitors’ accounts.
Preparatory work
This module will build on your knowledge of the legal system of England and Wales, public law, and criminal law. It is therefore recommended that you look over materials and notes on these subject areas from any relevant previous study in preparation for the module.
If you are studying the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry) (R82), you will not have covered criminal law previously, and you are therefore strongly advised to prepare for this module by studying the supplementary materials on criminal law, which will be made available on the Law Study Home site.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
marking your assignments and offering detailed feedback to help you improve
providing individual guidance, whether that’s for general study skills or specific module content
guiding you to additional learning resources
facilitating online discussions between your fellow students in the dedicated community group forum.
Online tutorials run throughout the module. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate.
There may also be occasional one-off events on legal careers and employability.
Due to the vocational nature of this module, the tutors will take on the role of training principals or mentors. Therefore, the individual contact you have with them will be at a slightly higher level of frequency than you might have experienced on other OU level 3 modules.
Assessment
Course work includes:
2 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
End-of-module assessment
What's included
You will be provided with six eBooks on the following areas:
Constitutional and administrative law
Criminal law
Criminal practice
Solicitors’ accounts
The legal system and services of England and Wales
Ethics and professional conduct
You'll also have access to a module website, which includes:
a week-by-week study planner
module-specific study materials
audio and video content
interactive activities
assignment details and submission section
online tutorials and forums, and tutor support.
Computing requirements
Primary device – A desktop or laptop computer with at least 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor (2.4 GHz minimum speed). It’s possible to access some materials on a mobile phone, tablet or Chromebook; however, they will not be suitable as your primary device.
Peripheral device – Headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone for online tutorials.
Operating systems – Windows 11 or the latest supported macOS.
Internet access – Broadband or mobile connection.
Browser – Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are recommended; Mozilla Firefox and Safari may be suitable.
Our OU Study app operates on supported versions of Android and iOS.
Software – Any additional software will be provided or is generally available for free.
If you have a disability
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying W321 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Future availability
SQE: legal system, public law and criminal litigation starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2027.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2030.