Law and Politics

Throughout the degree, you’ll study the fundamental areas of both Law and Politics, developing a strong academic foundation alongside practical, career-focused skills.

In Law, you will explore core subjects including tort, contract, criminal, and property law, while gaining hands-on experience in case analysis, negotiation, advocacy, alternative dispute resolution, legal drafting, client interviewing, and mooting.

In Politics, you will examine political theory, comparative government, public policy, and the historical and philosophical foundations of political thought. You will analyse how political institutions operate across different national and international contexts, and consider the forces that shape political behaviour, decision-making, and social change.

Both subject areas offer flexibility, allowing you to tailor your studies to your individual interests and career goals. Optional Law modules include cyberlaw, punishment and penology, and international law, with opportunities to draw on perspectives from criminology, sociology, and business. In Politics, you will explore issues that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, investigating the social, cultural, economic, and environmental impact of political systems and ideas at both local and global levels.

The course places a strong emphasis on employability and professional development. You will be encouraged and supported to gain relevant work experience throughout your studies, with placement opportunities available across legal practice, local government, public sector organisations, NGOs, policy institutes, and the voluntary sector. These experiences will help you connect academic study with professional practice, build industry insight, and strengthen your preparation for graduate careers in law, politics, public service, and related fields.

Year one

Gain a broad understanding of English legal systems and criminal law, contextualise your learning, and develop your professional identity and employability skills. You’ll learn how to analyse cases critically, apply legal reasoning, and undertake legal research using established research methods.

In Politics you’ll address the nature and scope of the political, developing the skills required to think and act politically. First year modules follow a broad curriculum that places the study of politics in historical context, while introducing basic research methods and encouraging you to ask questions, challenge your own assumptions and engage in political debate with fellow students.

Year two

In Law, you’ll extend your legal understanding to include subjects such as contract law and EU law while developing a range of skills including negotiation and advocacy.

The second year of Politics modules is designed to facilitate increasing specialisation within a field or area that motivates you, while equipping you with core academic and professional skills through which to apply your knowledge to diverse research problems. You might establish connections with one of the programme’s existing external partners, or forge relations with a new organisation you may seek to partner with or work for. The second year is about shaping your degree to meet your individual learning and employability goals. An optional Professional Placement Year between your second and final year gives you the chance to gain extended experience in the workplace.

Year three

You’ll address property and tort law to a more advanced level, while honing your drafting and presenting skills. You’ll also have the opportunity to explore new areas such as cybercrime, leadership and management, and environmental law.

In Politics, you’ll have the opportunity to pursue a year-long project alongside your suite of final year modules. You’ll identify your own area of study, develop a research proposal and work independently to put it into practice. This might be an extended piece of academic writing, but it could also be a pitch to a local employer, a funding application for a community project, or the creation of digital resources for an external partner. You will also have the opportunity to pursue existing partnership projects, such as writing an article on internal affairs for an esteemed NGO magazine.

At BSU, our courses are designed to equip our graduates with the knowledge and skills they’ll need for the real world. To do this, we are continually improving our courses by responding to feedback from students and other stakeholders. This may mean changes may be made to the curriculum. You’ll always be given notice of any such changes.

For more information on how we approach such changes at the university, please read our policies on

• Suspensions and Discontinuations
• Programme modifications.

You’ll undertake a wide range of authentic assessments, which means your work will be relevant and applied to real-world issues and contexts. You’ll be assessed through essays, case studies, reports, group and individual presentations, practical work experience, critical reflections on learning and practice, podcasts, policy briefings and more.

Lectures and seminars will be combined with practical exercises. Your learning will be supported by our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). 

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our information on Your Learning and Teaching at BSU.

You'll be supported and encouraged to complete a short work placement during the second year, or you could take a ten-month placement between the second and third year by selecting the Professional Placement version of the course.

This course opens you up to a range of careers both within and adjacent to Law and Politics. You might go on to practice law, work for the civil service or local council, become a human rights journalist or work in the voluntary sector.  You’ll graduate with practical, transferable skills, from critical thinking to advanced digital competencies, that are highly valued across different job sectors and industries.

The Professional Placement Year (PPY) provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your PPY, you'll work to identify roles of interest and secure a placement. The Placements Team will support through timetabled sessions and 1:1 appointments.

As well as completing a minimum of 900 placement hours, you will complete two assessments demonstrating your skill development, growth in professional behaviours and how the PPY has impacted your future career aspirations.

Our Politics course is based at Newton Park campus.

You'll have access to excellent facilities and resources such as:

• Virtual Learning Environment
• Library and Digital Learning Spaces
• Writing and Learning Centre
• English Language Unit
• Specialist journals and databases
• All courses on LinkedIn Learning.

Our library offers a wide range of law materials. There's also a wealth of material available via electronic sources. These include Business Source Complete, an online legal database, and an increasing range of ebooks. This online material can be accessed on and off campus, enabling you to work at times that suit you.

All modules can be found on our Virtual Learning Environment, Ultra, providing unlimited online access to learning materials such as handbooks, lecture slides, assessment information, discussion boards and other resources.