October Update!

Wow! so it was over 3 weeks ago since my last blog post!

Time really is flying by and its almost like 3rd year is going to be a whistle stop tour if im honest!
Over the past few weeks I've been so busy trying to keep up with university work: including seminar prep, meetings and research! alongside my paid job working in the bridges (which I absolutely adore, and kinda wish that I had more hours there despite already being really busy!) and then actually trying to see friends,family and my boyfriend!
Its all rather crazy and slightly stressful but I didn't expect anything less with it being third year.

So what have I actually been doing i hear you cry?
Well like i say things have been pretty hectic with university work, were now into "proper" lectures rather than introduction lectures and I can honestly say that I am loving all my topics! They all have various different aspects to them that are fascinating, I'll briefly explain them to you so you get an idea of what my third year is like:

Family Law: In family law the majority of our work is centered around the institution of marriage, were currently looking at what constitutes a Void, Voidable and Valid marriages, and the statutory provisions governing those areas which are mainly S11 and S12 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 which govern the grounds in which a marriage can be Void or Voidable. This area is fiercely interesting, and creates a lot of debate when in seminars as every person has a different view as to each of the provisions and as to what marriage is to them. There is also large debate regarding the Same Sex Marriages, again which I find very interesting!

Succession: Succession is all about Wills and Probate really, so it can be a rather morbid and potentially upsetting discussing death in the lectures and seminars (especially for myself but we shall leave it at that for the time being!) but lets face it we all have to die eventually and whether it  (god forbid!) be sooner or (hopefully!) later its something that will effect us all eventually - therefore succession is a very practical module in that respect.We are currently discussing the make up of a will and its characteristics - including the problems with home made wills. Again a very interesting subject especially for myself.

Equity and Trusts: This links quite nicely to Succession as it also deals with Wills to a certain extent and deals with the creation of trusts within wills and discusses (lightly) the rules regarding equity. Equity is only a small subject in comparison to Trusts therefore we focus mainly on the trusts side of equity and trusts. We are currently looking at the Three certainties of a trust and this is what we are being assessed on so its paramount for us to understand and for us to research these areas.

Space Law: WOW! What an area!!!! I'm so excited to be studying this module! We only have Space Law every 2 weeks like our other seminars but as we don't have weekly lectures these workshops are 3 hours long. We have had 2 workshops since starting back at university and we are still getting to know the basics of Space law. Its a heavily influenced international law module which I will be truthful I didn't expect but its very interesting as I've never studied any international law previously (I've avoided it if I could!). Our main statute is currently the Outer Space Treaty which we spent the last seminar analysing and discussing to who and what it applied to - In our next seminar we are looking at Astronauts :D

OCT: Yikes! Another HUUUUUGE module that is fascinating! But must be taken very seriously at the same time. For those who may not know "OCT" stands for "Organised Crime and Terror" - so quite controversial and very dangerous territory! We are looking at the legal areas and statutory provisions that govern terrorism and terrorism laws relating to the UK. Its a very fast paced and constantly changing area and for our next seminar we have been given the task of Defining terrorism - a VERY hard task!

Dissertation: Well this is mainly a self taught module as most will know - we have had 2 lectures around how to set out the dissertation and with some general information on methodology and how to structure our dissertations, alongside do's and dont's and lots of helpful hints and tips as to how to go about our dissertation! I started research for mine during the summer but now im focusing in further on a topic so sadly some of that research is now not relevant but there is a lot that is so im still ahead....a little! But now I must ensure that I keep up the work on my dissertation and not let it slip because I don't have lectures or seminars in it. I cant wait to start writing it up.

So a quick (ish) update on what's happening at uni! Not much is happening outside university at the moment accept work but that's just work and its fun! Ooooooo I did treat myself to some gig tickets as well!! My first ever gig will be......(drum roll!) FALL OUT BOY!!!!! Woooo :D That's in March and I cant wait! I'm hoping it will be a little break from everything I'm doing at university and be a little treat, so fingers crossed!

Anyway off to do some more research! Space law this time as I've spent the day reading my articles for my dissertation so I need a little bit of a change :)
Toodle Pip!
Karina