Curriculum Information

This module encourages you to think about how social, economic, demographic and political changes had an impact upon attitudes and policies towards crime, criminals and the law.  Behaviour that was considered as sinful, heinous or deviant in an earlier period might no longer be construed as a criminal office later on, and vice versa.  The criteria for what we condemn as illegal, immoral, scandalous or socially unacceptable has changed over time, and laws have evolved to reflect this.  Through selected case studies, we will examine the evolution of legal codes from religious-based to secular, and from laws made on a formalist basis (sometimes called principled law-making) to pragmatic basis.  Examples of the endeavours of individuals and groups who have sought to challenge and change the law, and those who have opposed them, offer an opportunity to evaluate the tension between tradition and reform, and between personal freedoms and social responsibilities.  These are all compelling questions of our time thus an examination of case studies from the past helps us to apprehend today’s questions, dilemmas and challenges in a better- informed and clearer-eyed way.  You’ll develop key skills in historical analysis through the use of primary and secondary source material and foster an awareness of how such materials can be used to formulate an historical argument.  Projects could include: Vice, Scandal and Depravity in Reformation Europe; Morality, Censorship and the Law in Britain, 1857-1969; and History on Trial: Archives and Intergenerational Justice.