Course Catalogue

Justice Studies

Breakdown of delivery and contact hours per week. There will be 33 hours of total delivery for this Module. This will include 3 hours online presentations per week for each of the 11 topics. Additional direct contact is made as and when required between the Student and Module and / or Programme lead. This module integrates with other modules on the MSc Covert Investigation and Specialist Intelligence. It affords the student a holistic and contextual view of the operational considerations when working within a covert Investigatory and/ or specialist intelligence context. It aims to enhance the students awareness of the breadth and scope of ethical issues that may apply to activity when someone is considering how to plan and deploy covert intelligence collection capability against an individual or a particular community. The operational ethics module encourages and enhances student’s critical thinking regarding the ethical considerations underpinning covert action and intelligence collection, of law enforcement, military and national security agencies. The module offers an introduction to the main classical theories of ethics but will seek to apply these in real world operational settings,. By using and exploring case studies, students gain a reinforced understanding of challenges to operatives, to the State, to Individuals and to Communities. This module will enable students to develop an advanced and critical knowledge of key methodological and theoretical issues. Students will critically assess these provisions in the context of debate around operational ethics and covert activity or intelligence collection and use in military, crime, and national security contexts. This curriculum will allow students to generate a critical appreciation of the diverse range of ethical theories in applied settings including the use of bulk surveillance, within and against vulnerable people, overseas custody, prisons, the sharing of intelligence between agencies and partner countries, the use of intelligence for targeted killing and other covert action and finally, enhanced interrogation techniques.

Outline Syllabus:Ethics from historical, contemporary and theoretical perspectives Ethics in the operational context Ethical policy formation within organisations and States Change management and organisational memory. Ethical based codes of conduct Police codes of Ethics Policy

Additional Information:Presentation: The assessment is via an assignment and a 15 minute individual presentation delivered online. The online presentation assignment will be assessed using a marking template which covers presentation slide composition, delivery, pace, content, critical analysis and evidence of wider reading. It also scores against Students responses to questions. The weighting is 50% of the overall module score. Formative feedback is provided to the students immediately after the presentation. Core Topics: Ethical theories Part I LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Ethical theories Part II LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Ethics and the Intelligence profession LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2 Operational ethics – Targeted killings, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Operational ethics – Use of HUMINT within Child Sexual Abuse investigations LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Operational ethics - Bulk Data surveillance and the impact of Snowden LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Operational ethics – The use of torture and enhanced interrogation techniques LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Operational ethics – Interviewing of detainees overseas & consolidated practice LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Operational ethics – International information sharing and cooperation LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4,5 Building organisational confidence through oversight LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4 Towards an ethical code of conduct for Intelligence officers LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1,2,3,4