Legal culture and comparative law (BRV330)

The Norwegian legal culture has recently been under a lot of pressure. This is mostly due to the international obligations that the students learn more about in the courses BRV230 Human rights and BRV200 Norwegian and International Legal Institutions. These obligations lead to major changes in the Norwegian legal culture, as well as the other legal cultures that have ratified the same international obligations. In BRV330, we will learn about the Norwegian, English, French and German legal cultures and how they have become as they are today. Further on, we will discuss the challenges that these legal cultures face today due to the above-mentioned international obligations. From 2025 the course will be held parallel with other courses in the same semester.


Course description for study year 2024-2025. Please note that changes may occur.

Facts

Course code

BRV330

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

5

Semester tution start

Spring

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Spring

Language of instruction

English

Offered by
Time table

View course schedule

Content

This course will give the students knowledge of how legal cultures are defined, how they are established and to what extent a legal culture undergoes changes when encountering other legal cultures. It will especially focus on the six legal cultural elements of conflict resolution, norm production, ideal of justice, legal method, degree of professionalisation. Thereafter the students will obtain knowledge about the English, French and German legal cultures.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: Upon completion of the course, the students should:

In terms of legal culture in general:

  • Have the necessary background knowledge regarding law as culture
  • Have knowledge about how legal cultures are formed
  • Have knowledge about the encounter among legal cultures
  • Have knowledge about legal cultures and reception of law
  • Have knowledge about the tools used when analysing a legal culture

Regarding the Norwegian, English, French and German legal cultures:

  • Have general knowledge about common law and civil law
  • Have knowledge of the Norwegian legal culture
  • Have knowledge of the English legal culture
  • Have knowledge of the French legal culture
  • Have knowledge of the German legal culture
  • Have knowledge about the challenges that EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights are raising for the English, French and German legal cultures.

Skills: Upon completion of the course, the student should be able:

  • To explain and discuss how legal cultures are composed by the legal cultural elements of conflict resolution, norm production, ideal of justice, legal method, degree of professionalisation and character of internationalisation.
  • To explain and discuss the character of the abovementioned legal cultural elements in the Norwegian, English, French and German legal cultures.
  • To be able to explain and discuss ongoing changes of the above mentioned legal cultural elements in the abovementioned legal cultures.

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Homeexam 1/1 28 Hours Letter grades

Coursework requirements

Obligatorisk aktivitet
There is one mandatory assignment that will be graded as passed/failed. More information about this coursework requirement will be announced on Canvas.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Lars August Hafting Kvestad

Study Program Director:

Lana Bubalo

Method of work

The course is delivered as lectures, seminars and a mandatory hand-in. We expect the students to use app. 120-150 hours to complete this course. 20 of these hours will be lectures and other organized teaching, work in groups requires 30 hours and self-study and preparing for lectures require 70 hours. Finally, students are expected to spend 30 hours for writing the mandatory assignment and the home exam.

Open for

Law - bachelor's degree program

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course supervisor, the student union representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital subject evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature

Search for literature in Leganto