Courses Description

Credits: 4 (4-0-0) Prerequisite: none

This course is a core component of the Preparatory Year Program (PYP) who are intending to read for the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree offered by PSU. The course will provide the students with a broad overview of definitions, institutions, sources, systems, substantive and procedural laws within Saudi Arabian, British and American law. Additionally, the students will also be taught the fundamentals of legal research and the basic skills of a lawyer dealing with a client. This course paves the way for a more in-depth study of the law in Law 002.
Learn more about the Preparatory Year Program(PYP)

Credits: 4 (4-0-0) Prerequisite: none

This course is a core component of the Preparatory Year Program (PYP) Students who are intending to read for the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree offered by PSU. The course is to introduce the students to some specific areas of law such as contract law, the law of torts, property law, and intellectual property, all within the context of the British legal system, and to provide students with an opportunity to see how rules and principles can be applied to particular factual situations.
Learn more about the Preparatory Year Program(PYP)

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: none

This course is a core component of the first year of the Bachelor of Laws program offered by PSU. The course explores the theory of law and rights. It is designed to provide the students with the following: the concept of law and the characteristics of legal rules, different types of law, resources of legal rules, how law is interpreted and the agencies that apply the law. In addition, it considers the definition, typologies, and sources of rights, who enjoys certain rights and how rights can be implemented and forfeited.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

The general theory of obligations is considered one of the important theories in law. Therefore, this course is a prerequisite for LAW 223. It provides an inclusive overview of theory of obligation, willful sources (contracts and unilateral act) and non-willful sources (tort and unjust enrichment).

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

This is an obligatory course. This course is designed to provide students with a general introduction and critical understanding of Tort Law, providing general concepts and theories of the law of torts from a common law and comparative civil law perspective. It differentiates between a civil and a criminal wrong. It encompasses a representative range of several types of civil wrongs from a common law perspective: negligence, defamation, nuisance, intentional torts, nervous shock, misrepresentation, strict liability, occupier’s liability, and vicarious liability and compares them to the analysis under comparative civil law.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: none

This course is one of the important courses of administrative law. It covers the genesis of administrative law, state administrative organization, public facilities, administrative discipline, civil service, administrative decisions, and public funds. These topics are important for law students, as they form the principles of organizing administrative authority, administrative work in the state. Thus, this course is necessary to ensure great understanding of legal provisions and achieving the state’s public interest at an individual and authority level.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: none

Students who plan to work in almost any area of law, as well as those interested in the academic study of legal history have much to gain from this History of Law course elective. The Program of Study in Law and History offers students a chance to examine law and its relationship to the larger world of philosophy, religion, politics, and government – in the context of studying law in a period of time, different from our own. It is designed to reflect the present evolution of interdisciplinary university education in our rapidly changing world. Law and History offers students a chance to contrast our present circumstances with the past, a chance to understand the long path of development that led to the legal problems we grapple with in the present, and the chance to see the deep roots of the social forces that are changing the shape of our own world.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

The course Constitutional Law is a first-year course that highlights the importance of constitutionalism all around the world. The course focuses mainly on the Constitutions of three countries: the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The approach of presenting these three countries allows students to compare the different legal systems and provides them with the basic and general knowledge of constitutional law.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: none

This course is an elective course on Comparative Political systems. This course offers a broad introduction to comparative politics, the subfield of political science concerned mainly with political ideas, institutions, and behavior within states. Politics, the distribution, exercise, and consequences of power – exists at multiple levels of our society and in our daily lives. We experience politics in action, for example, during international negotiations, government policy choices, in the workplace, and in our own families. This course focuses on the formal, public sphere of politics and power relations through a systematic study and comparison of types of government and political systems.

Credits: 2 (2-1-0) prerequisite: none

This course covers family law and the legal provisions related to it. For example, marriage, its pillars, conditions, impacts, and divorce and its impacts. It also covers other types of couple’s separation, such as Khul’ divorce, dissolution of marriage contract or due to a flaw, custody, and infant feeding. In this course, the students will learn the Legal conduct of personal status, as it shows the mainstays of the family and stresses on the duties and rights of each member. In addition, it will allow the students to acquire knowledge, in terms of settling families’ disputes and personal status’s related cases.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

The course offers an introduction for law students about doctrinal rules. It explains its four pillars which are; the evidence (and its types), the signified (the consideration of judgment, the judge, the convict), the connotations (abrogation, its types, its provisions), and the inferred (ijtihad, qualifications of the mujtahid, types of ijtihad, the provisions of ijtihad- imitation - fatwa). By the end of this course, students will be able to link between the legal text and the legal provision based on it, clarify the reasons for the practical provisions and the goal behind them, and write reports in the light of the legal provisions and legal evidence topics.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 112

This course is considered part 2 of civil law courses of Bachelor of Laws program offered by Prince Sultan University. In this course, the students will be able to complete what they took in LAW111&LAW112. This course covers the effects of obligation, natural obligation, civil obligation, modified descriptions of obligation effects, condition and deadlines, multiple obligation, multiple obligation parties, and means of preserving the rights of creditors in implementation. Furthermore, the course covers transfer of obligation, assignment of right, assignment of debt, methods of fulfillment or equivalent to fulfillment of compliance obligation, fulfillment in return, renewal, deputation in fulfillment, compensation, collective liabilities, and compliance obligation without fulfillment.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 111

The course explains to the student the ways and procedures used to obtain legal rights based on Saudi systems such as the Law of Procedure Before Sharia Courts. It specifically explains the procedures of civil and commercial lawsuits, by explaining the formation of the courts and the competent authorities. Therefore, through this course, the student will be able to apply knowledge to practice.

Credits 2 (2-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 111

This course is one of the civil law courses series. It covers contract theory. Therefore, the students in this course are introduced to the most important provisions and issues related to the most common civil contracts, namely sales and lease contracts, by focusing on how they are created, implemented, and expired. In addition, the most important provisions related to the general terms and conditions of these contracts. It covers as well how to resolve civil conflict related to sale and rent by reviewing precedents from Saudi courts and international arbitration committees.

Credits: 3(3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

This course introduces the students to practices, procedures and protocols of legal writing in Arabic. The focus is on the Arabic language and drafting of different legal documents, including various pleadings and defense documents, drafting contracts, conducting legal research, writing legal memos, providing legal consultations, and presenting their work in writing and in oral argument. This course is designed to prepare the students for the job market in accordance with the targeted legal areas.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 112

The course is an obligatory course. It aims to give practical training to law students about writing, drafting legal documents. These documents are considered essential part of any law degree. Students receive first-hand experience of what a law firm require in legal writing, once they join the job market. The course has various areas of legal written practice of making documents for clients and court proceedings like pleading papers or contracts. Students will have opportunities to learn and apply their legal English skills by becoming familiar with resources available to students, observing real-world legal situations

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 111

This course is concerned with the organization of labor relations according to the employment contract in the private sector, employment contracts for employees Under Budget wagetory item or in the public sector. It covers the most important provisions related to the establishment, implementation and termination of the employment contracts of a Saudi and foreign employee and how to resolve disputes related to them. The reason behind linking the Labor Law to the Insurance Law is that the two are an integral part of the other. In addition, the Insurance Law is the law under which the employee remains after the end of his contractual relationship that is protected by the Labor Law in order to face social risks and obtain the pension.

Credits: 3 (3-1-0) Prerequisite: LAW 213

This course is part 1 of the Commercial Law System. It covers three sections: the first one introduces Commercial Law, by indicating the scope of Commercial Law application, the criteria of differentiating commercial from civil transactions, and the effects of the distinction between them. The second section explains the conditions for acquiring the status of a trader, its obligations, and the commercial place and its required licenses. As for the third section, it covers the definitions of commercial papers, their types (the bill of exchange, the promissory note and the check), their creation, their circulation, and the guarantees of their fulfillment.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

This course is an obligatory course. This course focuses on the relations between states, international organizations, and other legal actors within the public international framework. It explores competing notions of sovereignty and the dilemma of conflict resolution between parties under international law. Special attention will be paid to the recognition of states and the consequent obligations of states, the law of treaties, and topical issues in international law, for example illegal settling of territories, the law of the sea, the requirements and obstacles of state formation and humanitarian law.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

The course introduces Theory of Crime and Theory of Sanction in Sharia and law. It is presented in three parts: Part I – defines crime and lists its characteristics, divisions, and types (legal, material, moral). Part II- deals with the study of the criminal in terms of defining his role as a contributor to the crime, as being directly involved in the crime (original contribution) or a co-creator (associative contribution), according to the acts he committed. In addition, this part is concerned with the statement of the criminal responsibility for what is attributed to him and the availability of the eligibility conditions at the time of committing the crime (perception, freedom of choice). Furthermore, it covers the obstacles of criminal responsibility that may result, under certain conditions, in the absence of criminal responsibility or the removal of the criminal character of the act. Part III- introduces the Theory of Sanction, its divisions, types, and individualization. Moreover, it indicates the reasons for mitigating and aggravating the sanction, the methods of execution, its suspension, its limitations, its alternatives, and the effects of its implementation.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 262

LAW262 is a prerequisite course. This course aims to provide the student with the knowledge, skills and values necessary to understand the principles and detailed provisions related to the elements of each crime or a specific category of different crimes and to apply them to the various-cases related to them. Therefore, this course covers an important aspect of punitive crimes such as bribery and crimes ancillary to it, embezzlement of public funds, counterfeiting the currency circulated in the system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, seals, stamps, signs and papers forgery crimes, drug crimes, money laundering crimes and check crimes.

Credits: 2 (2-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 150

LAW150 is a prerequisite course. This course is considered one of the most important topics of administrative law, as it deals with contractual procedures in governmental agencies, and there is no doubt that these procedures are of paramount importance because they are related to public funds. Therefore, taking this course is an indispensable necessity to understand the legal provisions of contracts concluded by the administrative agencies, in order to verify that these contracts are directed in accordance with the public interest.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 213

This course is related to Civil Law courses in the Law Program of Prince Sultan University. LAW 111& LAW213 are perquisite for this course. During this course, the total accessory real rights with a focus on the right of mortgage and personal guarantees, and sponsorship are covered. By taking this course, the civil law vocabularies will be completely covered for the students, as well as creditor’s private protection methods.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 213

This course is the last course in the series of Civil Law courses in the Law Program of Prince Sultan University. It covers real guarantees, with a focus on property rights. Also, by taking this course, the civil law vocabularies will be completely covered for the student. In addition, it is concerned with teaching the reasons for acquiring a property in Islamic Sharia and law, which enables the student to identify these reasons and realize the extent of compatibility between legal reasons and their legal principles. The course as well will highlight the types of funds and foreigners property rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Credits: 3 (3-1-0) Prerequisite:

This course represents the procedural or formal aspect of criminal law. CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL LAW II are prerequisite courses. This course aims to provide the students with knowledge, skills and values necessary to understand the general principles and detailed provisions of criminal procedures and apply them to the various cases related to this system. This includes the system of criminal procedures and its relationship with other criminal and procedural laws, the main system of judgment and procedural penalties, criminal cases, the inference and the exceptional competencies of criminal police, the preliminary investigation stage, the trial stage, judgments objections and their implementation.

Credits: 3 (3-1-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

This course considers the legal regulation of business organizations, concentrating on commercial companies. It discusses the types of business organizations and the fundamental principles of corporate personality /limited liability which underpin company law. The whole cycle from incorporation to liquidation, bankruptcy regulations of a company’s operations and examined corporate governance, shareholder’s rights, and corporate finances.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: none

This course is an introduction to legal ethics and the philosophy and regulation of morals and values underpinning legal profession. Legal professionals are engaged in the practice and administration of law in the society, the course focus on the establishment and regulation of the legal profession in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world. Topics to be covered include the Role and Responsibilities of Lawyers in Society and the Lawyer-Client Relationship.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

This in an advanced course on contract law that follows up on previous courses on commercial and contract law. The course deals with three important areas of commercial contracts, namely, sale of goods, agency and hire-purchase from an international and comparative law perspective. The course is intended to cover the origins and nature of these contracts, how these contracts may be created, the terms and conditions included in the contracts, possible problems related to the performance of the contracts, the relationship between the parties and the rights and liabilities of the parties.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

This course is practical, and it is one of the compulsory Law courses. Commercial Law I is a prerequisite course. This course deals with the definition of Zakat, its characteristics, objectives, and conditions, which assets are subject to Zakat, estimating it in accordance with Saudi law. This course also deals with the tax system in terms of its definition, characteristics, and objectives, types, estimating it, the mechanism of their collection, disputes and objections to assessments assessed by the tax administration.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 150

LAW 150 is a prerequisite course. This course focuses on legal conflicts with government agencies or one of the country’s institutions, departments and authorities. It also explains the principle of legality and judicial control over the administrative authority, the types of lawsuits before the administrative judiciary and the organization of the administrative judiciary in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By completing the three courses on administrative law, the students will acquire plenty of skills, including, the analysis and criticism, research writing, and commenting on administrative judicial law.

Credits: 2 (2-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 101

The course conflict of laws, also known as private international law, is an advanced course that follows up on the understanding gained in previous courses on private and commercial substantive law as well as procedural law. The course focuses on cross-border private and commercial legal relations. Although it introduces new theoretical concepts to the students, it is largely taught from a practical perspective of a lawyer who needs to answer the three basics questions: the courts of which state can hear the cross-border case, what will be the applicable law to the case and will such judgment be recognized and enforced in a foreign state.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 172

This course covers issues of inheritance, by explaining the heirs and associations, the conditions of their inheritance, and how it is distributed among them. It also covers the provisions of wills and endowments, and the application of them by listing the applicable regulations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The course aims to achieve proficiency and excellence in students’s skills to apply law in practice. The final outcome of a course is a successful participation in a simulation of civil litigation, arbitration or criminal procedure in which students are prepared for their future profession of an attorney, judge or arbitrator. The moot court course will be closely linked to either ongoing or future moot court students’ competitions in different legal disciplines (such as Willem C. Vis moot on international commercial arbitration or Jessup). The content of the course depends on the problem/case analyzed and will focus on in depth analysis of the specific legal field required to solve the case, instead of covering broad legal topics.

This course will explore key basic aspects of corporate governance. The course focuses on rules to lead and guide the company that includes mechanisms to regulate the various relationships between the Board, Executive Directors, shareholders and Stakeholders. The aim is to analyze and discuss the rules and procedures to facilitate the decision making process with transparency and credibility to protect the rights of shareholders and stakeholders and achieve fairness, competitiveness and transparency on the exchange and the business environment.

The course deals with contemporary legal challenges faced with the development of artificial intelligence, robotics and information technology. It introduces the students in the current technological development and explores new legal questions arising out of this development. The legal challenges are various and include liability, data protection, e-commerce, cross-border jurisdiction and applicable law. The relationship between the technological development and ethical standards will be discussed.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 342

The course International Commercial Organization is an advanced course that focuses on the role of the international commercial and financial organizations in regard to trade regulation. The aim of this course is to raise students’ awareness of the key roles that international organizations play in global, regional and domestic policy making. The main organizations that the course covers are the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

This is an advanced course which introduces students to fundamentals of international arbitration based on their previous knowledge and skills acquired in commercial law and procedural law courses. Although it introduces new theoretical concepts to the students, it is largely taught from a practical perspective of a practicing lawyer and focuses on drafting of arbitration agreements, writing submissions in arbitration, research and pleading.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 342

This course is an advanced course building on the previously acquired understanding of commercial law designed specifically to understand the capital markets rules and regulations in Saudi Arabia. It is a backbone of the financial system of a country. Capital Market rules and regulations were issued to create a transparent, fair and regulated market that keeps pace with the current developments in other international financial markets.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

Intellectual property law is an advanced course within the Commercial law track designed to provide students with understanding, skills and values of contemporary questions of intellectual property laws of Saudi Arabia, the international treaties and comparative law in the field. Topics covered include general characteristics of intellectual property rights, several types of intellectual property rights such as copyrights, patents, trademark, design etc, and remedies for protection of the rights.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

The course banking law is an advanced course designed for the final year’ students and belongs to the commercial law track. This course covers topics such as: the banking structure and the various types of banks, nature of banker-customer relationship, rights and duties of both banker and customer towards each other and this includes the bankers’ legal liabilities and business aspects of banking. Other related topics include negotiable instruments, recent issues in banking i.e aspects of bank lending and securities, electric banking and money laundering.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 221

This course is considered the last course in the series of Law courses. LAW 221 is a prerequisite course. This course deals with the definition of execution, the rights that may be executed, the direct authority for execution, the parties to execution, the reasons for execution, the documents necessary for execution, the expedited execution and its forms, the place of execution, and the funds that may not be executed. It also deals with procedures for seizing movable money, objecting to the seizure, seizing debtor’s money with others, cancellation of attachment and its effects, execution on the property and the stages of its completion, precautionary attachment and its procedures, and finally forced sale and forced eviction.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW223

This course is one of the main courses in the advanced Saudi Law course. It shows the concept of insurance, its definition, its importance, the difference between cooperative insurance and commercial insurance, its types (health insurance, vehicle insurance, life insurance), the technical bases of insurance, and insurance guarantees, the effects of insurance on the obligations of the insurance parties, the expiry of the insurance contract, and the settlement of insurance conflicts in accordance with Saudi regulations.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 221

This course covers the objective and procedural rules of proof, the different doctrines of proof, methods of proof: documentary material, testimony, circumstantial evidence, admission, oaths, expertise, court inspection, the procedures and authoritative methods of proof, the role of the judge in Islamic jurisprudence and comparative systems, the practical importance of the burden of proof, and judgments issued for proof and their characteristics.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 340

This course is taught within the course of advanced Saudi Law. It covers many important topics such as identifying the criminal phenomenon in terms of its research problems, starting with defining the concept of criminology, the content of crime and the criminal. Then, the research methods that criminology uses to investigate the facts of this phenomenon. It introduces the students to the factors that may affect a person and push him to social deviation and criminal behavior, and the punitive schools and philosophies. In addition, the forms of the criminal penalty, the methods of punitive execution, the methods of treatment within the penal institutions, and the means of aftercare for that punitive implementation.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 172

This course is one of the courses of the advanced Saudi Law course. It covers many topics related to the jurisprudence, such as the definition of jurisprudence rules, the difference between them and the fundamentalism, the stages of codification of the science of jurisprudence, its most important sources, literature and sections, the major general jurisprudence rules, and the minor jurisprudence rules.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 243

The course aims to provide an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the laws relating to international trade. It provides a deep overview over the laws, rules and conventions on international sale of goods, trade in goods and service, carriage of goods by air, sea, and road, instruments used in various international business contract, dispute resolution etc. This course examines the distinctive issues, current relevant principles, concepts and problems involved in international trade. The course helps the student to understand the basic principles of international business and their impact on the world's economy and to learn the operational mechanism of international trade.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 255

The course of Environmental Law is an advanced course that provides the basis of international environmental law by identifying its sources, regulations, procedures and actors. The course examines both international and national protection of the environment and offers an overview of global environmental challenges and core legal principles.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 255

The course Human Rights Law is an advanced course that offers an introduction to the theory and practice of human rights withing the International law track. It examines the different sources of human rights as well as their enforcement and development. The course also provides students with the analysis of these rights through conventions, international and regional organizations as well as national laws.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 255

The course International Humanitarian Law is an advanced course that explores the development and application of humanitarian law also known as the law of armed conflict. The course focuses on the underlying principles governing armed conflicts and enables a careful evaluation of the various international humanitarian rules intended to protect victims during armed conflict and civil wars. The course is based on many cases from the International Criminal Court to provide a greater understanding of the application of the law of armed conflict at the practical level in the contemporary operating environment.

Credits: 3 (3-0-0) Prerequisite: LAW 255

The course covers the general meaning of international dispute settlement and methods of dispute settlement. This include the definitions of various relevant terms like dispute, settlement and international disputes, the role of international law and institutional institutions in relation to dispute settlements, causes of international disputes and participants in international disputes. It covers also the methods of dispute settlement which include direct methods, third party intervention, the regional approach and judicial settlement. The process for international dispute settlement involving the arbitral tribunal and new model for dispute settlement shall be covered too.

Credits: 10 Prerequisite: Departmental Approval

COOP is a career related professional program available to all Law students. It is designed to help students build on skills already learned in the classroom and acquire new ones as well. COOP education is available to university students who have accumulated 90 or more credits. The COOP option counts for 10 credit hours (CRs) in practical experience over a 7 month period – usually spanning one semester and a summer.