First Year Law- A Breakdown Based On My Experience (Part 1)

Hello offer holders and anyone interested in first year law at Warwick! Today I will be breaking down the core modules that Law students study in first year- Tort Law and Property Law will be covered in part 1 whilst Criminal Law, Legal Theory and MELS (the Modern English Legal System) will be covered in part 2!

TORT LAW

If you’ve never heard of tort law before, don’t worry- I’ve been in the same position and so have many of my peers! Tort law is the law of “civil wrongs”- in other words, it looks at “civil liability for wrongfully inflicted damages or injuries”. Tort law focuses on case law and the precedents set by it rather than on legislation, and it is constantly being developed (I’m sure there will be a few new cases for you all to look at when you start studying)! The most memorable case for me, and probably the first one you will come across, is Donoghue v Stevenson- this was a case where a customer found a decomposed snail at the bottom of her drink’s bottle and consequently fell ill; she then sued the manufacturer of the drink and after the case proceedings, the principle of upholding a ‘duty of care’ towards the ‘ultimate consumer’ was developed, which is upheld to this day. This is just a snippet of the interesting cases you will come across when studying the law of torts! Here are some links to the Tort Law webpages if you want more information: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/aro/dar/quality/modules/undergraduate/la/la124/ https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/current/undergraduate/materials/LA124

INTRODUCTION TO THE LAW OF PROPERTY RELATIONS

You might have come across property law in your everyday life- do any of the words ‘mortgages’, ‘property register’, ‘trusts’, or ‘leases’ sound familiar? You may have heard your parents or teachers talking about these- that’s right, these all fall under property law and are covered in the curriculum! Property law at Warwick focuses on the ownership, use and development of land- all of which have very interesting cases to accompany them! The most memorable case for me in Property Law was Parker v British Airways Board (BAB), in which a man found a gold bracelet in the airport and handed it over to BAB, asking for it to be returned to him if no one came to claim it. BAB then sold the bracelet for £850 since it was unclaimed, and Mr Parker challenged them for this action, claiming that he had a right over the bracelet since he found it first. It was decided that the original owner of the item has the most right over it, followed by the owner of the the land on which the item is found ONLY IF they can show that they “exercise sufficient control” over the area; BAB could not show this since the area was frequented by the public and so they had less control over it. Therefore it was decided that Mr Parker had a better claim to the bracelet. Property law was always so intriguing because of all the complicated cases like this one, so it was very enjoyable for me! Here are some links to the property law webpages if you want more information: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/current/undergraduate/materials/LA103 https://warwick.ac.uk/services/aro/dar/quality/modules/undergraduate/la/la103/

I hope this breakdown of some of the first year modules helps many of you ease into first year- as always, let me know if you have any questions in the comments and I will get back to you as soon as possible! Part 2 will cover Criminal Law, Legal Theory and MELS, so stay tuned!