Justice, Law & Crime: from Robin Hood to the Modern Day

This module provides a historically grounded approach to the study of the law and crime to illuminate the social construction of crime and its politically contested nature. It explores the Robin Hood myth to encourage students to question the assumption of legal neutrality, widely accepted as absent in pre-modern societies but characteristic of the modern rule of law. Using case studies from the early-modern period to the present day the module challenges this assumption, increases students? awareness of the historical and sociological construction of crime and criminality, and thereby develops their analytical and critical skills.