Exploring legal boundaries
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This module gives you the opportunity to research a legal topic of your own choice. It will support your research on your chosen topic and help you present your findings as a written report of your research methods and in poster format. You will work with other students to prepare your poster and will be encouraged to help each other in your academic endeavours.
What you will study
This module will enable you to develop critical research skills and present your findings in relation to a topic of your choice that has a legal focus. You'll be encouraged to explore the interrelationships within law and across disciplines. The aim is to enable you to explore legal boundaries by selecting your own choice of legally relevant subject matter.
The module provides teaching and support for the development of a skills base to enable you to develop as a researcher. It will provide the scope to research comparative and interdisciplinary issues of relevance to law. Additionally, it will enable you to develop your skills of academic critique and mature as a researcher. This will be achieved by various means, including reflecting on peer-to-peer critique, tutor critique and personal reflection on research performance.
The type of skills covered will be relevant to:
- formulating an appropriately focused research question
- planning, designing, and researching a legal topic in depth
- presentating your ideas in an appropriately focused and structured manner
- reflecting on your own research, presentation and interpersonal skills.
These skills are directly relevant to Personal Development Planning, so this module will help you to gain skills for whatever you intend to do on completion.
The choice of question to study and research will be key to your success on this module. From the outset, you'll be encouraged to engage with the process of choosing a research topic suitable for exploration in a research poster. You'll also be encouraged to post an image in OpenStudio in the first two weeks of the module to start a discussion with your peers about a topic you might like to research. It is anticipated that you will not have experience of framing research questions, and therefore support in the form of written and interactive materials will help you with the mechanics of choosing of topic to research. This support will continue throughout your research and assist you in formulating the topic appropriately and presenting your initial thoughts about your research.
The first assignment will enable dialogue between peers and tutors regarding your choice of question to research and the thinking behind selecting the topic, permitting you to adjust the research topic and question in the light of feedback. The second assignment enables you to reflect on your research for your poster and to present and critique both the methodology of your research and its findings.
Entry requirements
As this is a research module, you will need to have completed 120 credits from modules at each of the OU levels 1 and 2 or, if you are a graduate entrant to the degree programme, at least 60 credits of OU level 2 modules.
If you are studying this module towards the Academic degree or Foundations of Legal Knowledge route as part of the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LLB) (R81) or Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry) (LLB) (R82), then you will need to have studied or be studying on a presentation of Trusts law (W311) before enrolling on W340.
What's included
You’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
- a week-by-week study planner
- module guide and materials
- audio and video content
- assessment guide
- small group online tuition, booked directly with your tutor.
Computing requirements
You’ll need broadband internet access and a desktop or laptop computer with an up-to-date version of Windows (10 or 11) or macOS Ventura or higher.
Any additional software will be provided or is generally freely available.
To join in spoken conversations in tutorials, we recommend a wired headset (headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone).
Our module websites comply with web standards, and any modern browser is suitable for most activities.
Our OU Study mobile app will operate on all current, supported versions of Android and iOS. It’s not available on Kindle.
It’s also possible to access some module materials on a mobile phone, tablet device or Chromebook. However, as you may be asked to install additional software or use certain applications, you’ll also require a desktop or laptop, as described above.