Welcome
| CAO Code | TR 581 |
|---|---|
| Number of Places: | 45 in total for the 3 Joint Honours programmes. (Law & Business, Law and Pol Sci, Law & History) |
| CAO Points | N/A |
Programme Overview
Law regulates every aspect of social life. It stretches from the contracts that we make when we buy products or services through to major political decisions, such as restricting our liberties during the pandemic. Yet the content of the law today, and the nature of our legal system, can only be fully appreciated through having an understanding of how they have been shaped by history. The Constitution was shaped by Ireland’s struggle for, and achievement of, independence, while European Union law arose from the search for structures to maintain peace in Europe after World War II. This course provides the opportunity to learn about Law and History and, through the study of both, to understand better each discipline.
Is this programme right for me?
As a student of Law and History, you learn about laws - what they are, how they work and how they change – but with an appreciation of historical context. As well as learning the skills of a lawyer, you learn the skills of a historian. The Law and History programme trains students to be self-motivated, ethically aware and critically reflective citizens.
This is a new programme, commencing in 2021, but graduates from existing programmes in Law and History often pursue careers in areas such as government and the public sector, the legal profession, business, management and the media/technology. The diversity of careers reflects the wide array of skills amassed by students undertaking degrees in History or Law at Trinity.
Programme Structure
Law and History is a four-year honours degree programme. The first year introduces you to core topics in Law and History. This includes developing key skills for studying Law and History.
At the end of the first year of your programme, you will have several options in relation to the balance between Law and History modules and your degree pathway/award. You can choose to:
- 1. Major – Law, Minor – History (ie greater focus on Law): Degree Awarded - LL.B. (Law with History)
- 2. Joint - continue with an equal combination of Law and History; – Degree Awarded - BA (Law and History) More Information on Joint Honors can be found here
- 3. Move to single honors in Law from your second year onwards – Degree Awarded - LL.B. Law
- 4. Major – History; Minor – Law. Focus more on History: Degree Awarded - BA (History with Law)
- 5. Move to single honors in History from your second year onwards – Degree Awarded – BA History
In the final year of your programme, one-third of your credits will be devoted to the completion of a research project, which we call the ‘Capstone’. This allows you to apply and enhance the research skills that you have developed in the previous three years of the programme. If you choose Law as a Major, then you will complete your Capstone within the School of Law. You will be part of a research group with other students where you will work independently and collaboratively to explore in-depth a topical issue. If you choose to Major in History, your Capstone project will comply with the Department of History curriculum.
Optional Study Abroad
You may choose to apply to study abroad in your third year of studies. Students may apply to spend a semester or full academic year on an exchange programme with one of the Schools or University’s partners. Details can be found on our Study Abroad page (below).
Professional requirements and Career Opportunities
In order to complete the modules that are currently pre-requisites for the professional stage of training to become a solicitor or barrister in Ireland, then you will have to choose to focus on Law from your second year onwards. See option 1 above, Law as a Major subject and History as a Minor subject or Single Honors Law.
Should you choose to spend your third year abroad, you will have the opportunity to choose to follow the relevant part of the third-year syllabus when you return for your final year of studies. This ensures that you are able to complete all the modules currently required in order to fulfil the pre-requisites for entry to the professional stage of training to become either a solicitor or barrister in Ireland.
What will I study?
Year 1: Junior Freshman Year
- Contract
- Torts
- Foundations of Law 1 and 2
- Religion & Society 1095 - 1517
- Ireland 1534 - 1815
- Doing History: Sources
- Doing History: Interpretations
Modules followed in subsequent years will depend upon the pathway chosen. For more information on History modules in Joint Honours programmes, please see: History modules in Joint Honours.
Year 2: Senior Freshman Year
In your second year you may choose your pathway which will lead to an award of LL.B. (Law and History), BA or Single Honors Law (LL.B.) or BA (Joint Honors or Single Honors History). Students who wish to enter professional legal practice are advised to consider the Law Major (or Single Honors in Law) from the SF year onwards.
Law Major / History Minor (40 ECTS Law / 20 ECTS of History) |
Constitutional Law I
|
| Joint | Constitutional Law I Or |
| Law Minor / History Major | Constitutional Law I Optional History modules (40 ECTs) |
| Single Honors Law / Business | Students may choose to take a Single Honors pathway in either Law or History.
If pursuing a Single Honors Law programme, students must study
Optional History modules worth 20 ECTS or Trinity electives/open modules worth 20 ECTS If pursuing a Single Honors in History programme, students must choose Optional History modules (40 ECTs) and |
Year 3: Junior Sophister Year
Students may also apply to spend either one or two terms of their Junior Sophister year abroad, on an Erasmus or international exchange programme, at any university with which the Law School or School of History have links.
Law Major / History Minor A: (40 ECTS Law / 20 ECTS of History) or B: (30 ECTS Law / 30 ECTS History)
|
Administrative Law (compulsory) *History modules TBC |
Joint (30 ECTS Law / 30 ECTS History) |
Administrative Law (compulsory) *History Modules TBC |
Law Minor / History Major A: (20 ECTS Law / 40 ECTS History) or B: (30 ECTS Law / 30 ECTS History) |
Administrative Law (compulsory) *History Modules TBC |
| Single Honors Law / History | Please see Single Honors programme in Law for general course structure and History for Single Honors course structure. |
Year 4: Senior Sophister Year
Law Major / History Minor A: (60 ECTS Law /) or B: (40 ECTS Law / 20 ECTS History)
|
Capstone in Law (compulsory) *History modules TBC In order to be eligible to take modules there may be JS pre-requisites. |
Joint (20 ECTS Law / 20 ECTS History and Capstone (20 ECTS) in Law or History) |
Capstone Law / History (compulsory) 20 ECT Optional History modules TBC |
Law Minor / History Major A: (60 ECTS History /) or B: (20 ECTS Law / 40 ECTS History) |
Please see Single Honors programme in Law or below for optional Law modules Capstone History Optional History modules TBC |
| Single Honors Law / History | Please see Single Honors programme in Law for general course structure and Political Science for Single Honors course structure. |
Modules on offer may vary from year to year. The Schools of Law and the School of History reserve the right to substitute, remove or add to the offerings on offer each year.
Junior and Senior Sophister Law modules
The following modules are currently provided by the School of Law in either Year 3 or Year 4, but please note that this list changes over time.
- Advanced EU law
- Clinical Legal Education
- Collective Labour Law
- Commercial Law
- Competition Policy
- Corporate Governance
- Criminology
- Critical Perspectives on law
- Employment Law
- English Land Law
- Environmental Law
- European Human Rights
- Family and Child Law
- Financial Services Law
- Food Law
- Information Technology Law
- Insolvency Law
- Intellectual Property law
- International Human Rights
- International Trade Law
- Legal Philosophy
- Media Law
- Medical Law and Ethics Penology
- Public Interest Law
- Public International Law
- Refugee and Immigration Law
- Tax Law
If you would like to explore these modules some more, please look at the modules below which are currently on offer for 2020/21.
Programme Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the Joint Honours programme in Law and History, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate an assured and critical knowledge of historical periods, processes, peoples and places employ a set of appropriate methods for the comprehension and analysis of historical periods and processes.
- Apply appropriate legal theories, doctrines and concepts to identify, analyse and solve legal problems within national and international contexts.
- Analyse the relationship between law and society, including the role of law in promoting and responding to social change.
- Analyse and evaluate primary materials in the fields of law and history and conduct independent research among primary materials.
- Compare and assess primary materials against each other and against secondary commentary.
- Cpply skills of summary, synthesis and generalization.
- Apply skills of argument, debate and reconciliation.
- Apply skills of oral and written visual communication.