SOC6142 - Justice Punishment and Human Rights

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Evaluate the relevance of the philosophical concepts on human rights and their justification in the application of punishment offset and balanced with notions of justice
Critically appraise historical and contemporary issues that relate to the contexts Justice, Punishment and Human Rights
Recognise the impact of human rights for a functional and fair criminal justice system
Demonstrate a sound knowledge and understanding of relevant theoretical/conceptual frameworks
Enhance transferable skills/personal skills (e.g. communication skills, teamwork, self-evaluation, problem solving)

Content:

This module allows the students to critically explore concepts, debates, literature and research that relates to justice, punishment and human rights. These three interlocking elements are vital for a functional and fair justice system. This module will invite students to consider whether the contemporary Criminal Justice System achieves an appropriate balance of these. To do this, the module will be broken down into 2 sections: History of Punishment, and Contemporary Philosophies of Punishment.

The aim is to engage with the historical content when considering human rights, assessing the basis and importance of protecting and maintaining human rights within punishment. Here students will engage with key philosophers, including John Locke, Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault.

Learning and Teaching Information:

This module will deliver its teaching and learning strategies by way of a range of methods delivered in a manner which will aime to enhance the students’ learning experience. This will include the delivery of flexible teaching and learnining by way of lectures and workshop settings/pre-live-post learning activities/independent and collaborative student activities.

Lecture
Hours: 20
Intended Group Size: Cohort

Workshop
Hours: 10
Intended Group Size: 30

Guided independent study
Hours: 170

Further details relating to assessment
Formative assessment will be provided to monitor student learning and to provide ongoing feedback to students. The purpose of this formative method/s of assessment is to provide students with oral continuing feedback to help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, and enable students to improve their self-regulatory skills so that they manage their skills and to enhance their learning experience with this module.

During Semester 1 you will be provided with oral feedback on your engagement to and with individual and group activities with assessment component 001 and 002 [as above]. For assessment component 3 - a 1500 word essay - an assessment ‘unpacking session’ will be scheduled during Semester 2 for students to engage with.
You are advised to refer to the Module Handbook for full details of the assessments and of the activities you will be required to engage with to complete the module assessments.

Assessment:

001 Plan for group debate; 500 words; mid semester 1 30%
002 Group debate; 10 min; 2,000 word equiv.; end of semester 1 30%
003 Essay; 1,500 words; end of semester 2 40%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - PRS_CODE=
Level - 6
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 6YL

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