Outline Description of Module

The aim of the module is to provide students – particularly those within the Governance and Devolution route of the School’s LLM programme – with a substantial understanding of the legal nature of devolution to Wales.  This includes an understanding of the institutional configuration of devolution in Wales, the constitutional relationships between the Welsh institutions and those in Whitehall and Westminster, and more broadly within the European Union, and the scope of ‘devolved law’.  Students will have the opportunity to engage directly with officials in both the National Assembly and the Welsh Government. 

The module is taught by a mixture of seminars and lectures. The seminars will be based on a combination of group discussion and tutor and student presentations which are collectively discussed. Each student shall have an opportunity to make at least one presentation during the Module and for that presentation to be written up as a formative assessment for tutor feedback.

 On completion of the module a student will be able to:

• Give an informed evaluation of the institutional and procedural arrangements created by the Government of Wales Act 2006.
• Give an informed evaluation of the powers and duties of the National Assembly for Wales and of the Welsh Government and the methods by which they can make law
• Give an informed evaluation of the nature of ‘devolved law’ and the role of Her Majesty’s Government and the UK Parliament in approving additional law making powers, and in making law in the devolved fields.
• Give an informed evaluation of the means by which the decisions and actions of Welsh Ministers may be scrutinised within the Assembly, and the role of other statutory forms of accountability
• Give an informed description of the relationship between the devolved arrangements in Wales and the European Union

How the module will be delivered

There will be 24 contact hours comprising a mix of seminars, lectures and other appropriate activities.

The seminars will provide a flexible mode of tuition, in some of which the tutor will lead with a presentation and require the students to comment critically and evaluatively upon it. In the main, students will lead the class with a presentation, prepared as a formative assessment, which paper will then be discussed by the class. Each student shall have an opportunity to make at least one presentation during the Module. The class will be expected to respond critically and evaluatively to the presentation, and their response, individually and collectively, will be assessed by the tutor in order to develop their individual and team skills in applying their knowledge and critical abilities to propositions and debates.

Students will attend a public session of one of the Assembly’s Committees, together with private talks with Assembly officials. Welsh Government officials will also be invited to give presentations.

Skills that will be practised and developed

Intellectual Skills:

• identify provisions in primary legislation that confer powers on the National Assembly and on the Welsh  Government and explain their scope
• identify likely points of tension between the National Assembly and the Welsh Government and explain how these arise and may be resolved
• identify likely points of tension between the National Assembly, the Welsh Government and HM Government / the UK Parliament in the formulation of the Assembly’s ‘requests’ for law making powers and explain how these arise and may be resolved
• apply relevant provisions of the Government of Wales Act 2006 and of other primary legislation to proposed law making initiatives of the National Assembly and the Welsh Government
• critically evaluate the potential for the National Assembly to pursue an independent legislative agenda within the constraints of the Government of Wales Act 2006
• identify the key issues arising from the relationship between the devolved arrangements in Wales and the European Union

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• analyse Acts of Parliament and identify accurately the scope of their provisions as they affect Wales
• access and use legal databases to identify primary and secondary legislation
• access and use EU databases to identify areas of political and legal connection between the devolved arrangements in Wales and the European Union
• access and use the parliamentary and the National Assembly and Welsh Government websites
• provide informed comment on the legislative procedures of the National Assembly
• apply core understandings about the relationship between an executive and an elected chamber on such matters as Ministers’ accountability for their actions

 Transferable Skills:

• use legal databases and institutional websites
• identify and analyse unfamiliar legal material
• apply understanding gained in other modules, in particular Public Law, to a critical analysis of a discrete legal institution
• prepare and deliver a presentation
• write coherently and succinctly on a subject chosen from a limited range of topics

  Syllabus content

1. Introduction to the devolution settlement: the background to, and scope and implementation of the Government of Wales Act 1998; the pressure to revisit and to expand the National Assembly’s law making powers; the Government of Wales Act 2006 
2. The relationship between the National Assembly, the Welsh Government, the UK Parliament and HM Government, in particular the role of the Secretary of State for Wales
3. The place of the devolution settlement to Wales within the wider changes to governance within the United Kingdom, with particular reference to Scottish devolution
4. The structure of the Welsh  Government, powers of Welsh Ministers to make law, and the mechanisms within the Government of Wales Act 2006 for holding Welsh Government Ministers to account
5. The structure of the National Assembly, the forms of and procedures by which the Assembly may make laws
6. Relationship between the devolved arrangements in Wales and the European Union
7. ‘Devolution issues’; the sources of law and the emergence of a separate jurisdiction in Wales

 Indicative Reading and Resource List:

 A Trench ed (2007) Devolution and Power in the United Kingdom (Manchester University Press)

 R. Rawlings (2003) Delineating Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press).

 R. Hazell and R. Rawlings eds (2005) Devolution, Law Making and the Constitution (Imprint Academic)

 A. Trenched (2008) The State of the Nations (Imprint Academic)