General provisions

Determined on May 7, 2007 by Faculty of Law's Teaching Committee, Uppsala University, by virtue of Chapter 2 Section 5 a of the Higher Education Act and Chapter 6 Section 14 and 15 of the Higher Education Ordinance. The course plan enters into force on July 1, 2007.

In General

The course is 15 university points (15 ECTS credits) and an optional course at advanced level in the studies for the degree of Master of Laws, according to the degree requirements adopted 16 April 2007 by the Board of the Faculty of Law of Uppsala University. The course is held in English.

Entry requirements

In general, Swedish students must have attained five passes out of the six courses given at level 1 of the LL.M programme. All the obligatory phases of the course in which the student has not attained a pass must have been fulfilled. Swedish students must have passed the exam for Term course 6. If special reasons exist, the board of exemption may grant exemption from the acceptance requirements.

Foreign students must have passed their first year of studies in law and must have passed a course in basic constitutional law, whether included in the first year or not.

Learning outcomes

Students, after having completed the course, should have:

Detailed knowledge of the constitutional problems, and solutions found, in a number of states concerning, in particular, norm creation, protection of rights, and constitutional control mechanisms.

Improved knowledge of the theory and methodology of comparative constitutional law.

An ability to use constitutional legal material from the states studied, as well as an ability to analyse and evaluate this material in relation to their own legal systems.

Improved understanding of their own constitutional systems, and how these resemble, and differ from, the states studied.

A basic understanding of how the states studied have developed and applied constitutional principles, particularly in the light of the processes of internationalisation, privatisation and democratisation.

An improved ability to argue and evaluate complicated legal issues from a constitutional perspective.

Content

The course consists of constitutional law, concentrating upon issues of norm creation, protection of rights, and constitutional control mechanisms.

Most of the material comes from European and common law states.

Instruction

The teaching is mainly in the form of seminars and lectures.

All seminar teaching is obligatory. Attendance at all lectures and seminars is compulsory. If special reasons exist, the course director may exempt a student from attending particular seminars, and may require appropriate replacement tasks to be performed.

Each student must actively participate in the teaching, by preparing for the seminars and actively taking part in the seminar discussions. Presentation of short written papers may also be required.

The required preparation for the seminars consists of the literature for the course as a whole, and whatever special reading instructions are given for each seminar.

Assessment

The exam consists of one or more written essays submitted during the course in accordance with instructions issued by course director. If a student fails the course, a written or oral (at the discretion of the examiner) re-take examination will be arranged. Essays must be the individual work of the student. Cooperation with other students in the writing of essays is not permitted. Where plagiarism or cooperation in the writing of essays is proved, disciplinary measures will be taken in accordance with University rules.

The grades given are Fail (U), and the passing grades Pass (B), Pass with credit (Ba) and Pass with distinction (AB).