Faculty of Law Undergraduate Handbook - Faculty of Law - The ...

Honours Seminar Courses 2010LAWHONS 706 — Criminal Law and PolicyCredit Points: 20 pointsOffered: Full-yearContact Hours: Lectures — 2 hours per weekCoordinator: Peter SankoffCourse Description:An in-depth analysis of current issues in substantive and procedural criminal law including a look at the existing“checks and balances” in the criminal trial, the increasing concern over wrongful convictions and miscarriages ofjustice, and the role of victims in the system. The course will provide students with a deeper appreciation for themanner in which the criminal justice process operates, and a better understanding about the mechanisms that existfor the purpose of ensuring a fair trial.Assessment:100% on-course assessment. Individual components to be advised by the lecturer at the beginning of the course.Prescribed ReadingCriminal Law & Policy Course MaterialsLAWHONS 716 — Legal HistoryCredit Points: 20 pointsOffered: Full-yearContact Hours: Lectures — 2 hours per weekLecturer: Professor David V WilliamsCourse Description:This seminar is concerned to trace the roots of the New Zealand legal system in terms of sources of law andinstitutional structures found in English legal history. There is a public law focus to the major topics of legal historydiscussed in this seminar.In the first semester the lecturer will lead the seminars. Topics likely to be covered include:• The many and diverse sources of the common law — including Anglo-Saxon folk-right procedures, Roman law, theWestminster courts, canon law and the law of ecclesiastical courts.• The justice system — including trials by ordeal, torture and the wide range of severe penalties such as branding,hanging and gibbeting, hanging, drawing and quartering.• Moral panics aimed at witchcraft.• The development of constitutional conventions, civil liberties and ‘rule of law’, especially in 17th century Englandwhen there was civil war and regicide, that established the basis for the constitutional values applied in NewZealand today.• 18th century English cases on the law merchant in commercial law and 19th century legislative reform of laws onthe status of women in both UK and New Zealand.• The extent to which tikanga Maori was first recognized, then suppressed and then partially incorporated into NewZealand law.• How the ‘rule of law’ was sidelined by reliance on martial law and detentions without trial during the war period in19th century New Zealand; whether principles of legality necessarily ‘fall silent’ during world wars andemergencies.2010 Faculty of Law Handbook | 69