6 EC
Semester 2, period 5
5274CLEE6Y
| Owner | Master Forensic Science |
| Coordinator | mr. C. Ganzeboom |
| Part of | Master Forensic Science, year 1 |
| Links | Visible Learning Trajectories |
The purpose of this course is to demonstrate the objectives and effects of criminal law, the position of experts in different stages of the criminal process and the use of expert evidence. The peculiarities of the communication between experts and non-experts in court will be addressed. Because students will not have a background in law and be of different nationalities, the course will not focus on any particular legal system, but instead take a more general perspective. The different aspects of a fair trial as is guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will serve as a framework for discussing the role of forensic experts and their contribution towards judicial fact-finding. Besides gaining knowledge of criminal law and criminal procedure, the course aims to make students aware of the difficulties regarding the communication between forensic experts and legal professionals.
J. Keiler and D. Roef, Comparative concepts of Criminal Law, Cambridge-Antwerp-Portland, Intersentia, 2025 4th edition
Additional literature will be provided on Canvas.
Activity | Hours | |
Tentamen | 3 | |
Werkcollege | 14 | |
Self study | 151 | |
Total | 168 | (6 EC x 28 uur) |
Additional requirements for this course:
This programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER part B).
Additional requirements for this course:
Attending all scheduled education activities is strongly advised. By doing so, you actively contribute to a lively learning community and significantly improve your chances of successfully completing the course. The designated mandatory activities play a crucial role in achieving the course objectives and are essential for your overall progress.
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
20% Written assignment (information supplement) | Must be ≥ 5.5, Mandatory |
|
80% Grade exam (80%) | Must be ≥ 5.5, Mandatory |
All components will be graded on a scale from 1 to 10, with a maximum of one decimal after the point. These grades are used to calculate the final grade. In order to pass the course, all components and the final grade have to be sufficient, i.e. at least a five and a half. When a student has not fulfilled this requirement, the examiner will register the mark ‘did not fulfil all requirements’ (NAV) whether or not the averaged grade is sufficient.
The components will be weighted as follows:
Examination consists of a written assignment in which an expert report is explained in such a way that lawyers can grasp the meaning of the report and a written exam at the end of the course.
The final grade will be announced at the latest on June 16th (= 15 working days after the final course activity). Between June 19th 2020 to July 14th (=35 working days after the final course activity) a post-exam discussion or inspection moment will be planned. This will be announced on Canvas and/or via email.
| LO | Tested in component | EQ 1 | EQ 2 | EQ 3 | EQ 4 | EQ 5 | EQ 6 | EQ 7 | EQ 8 | EQ 9 | EQ 10 |
| 1 | 2 | x | |||||||||
| 2 | 2 | x | |||||||||
| 3 | 2 | x | |||||||||
| 4 | 2 | x | |||||||||
| 5 | 2 | x | |||||||||
| 6 | 2 | x | |||||||||
| 7 | 1 | x |
Table of specification: the relation between the Learning Outcomes (LO) of the course, the assessment components of the course and the Exit Qualifications (EQ) of the Master’s Forensic Science (described in the Introduction in the Course Catalogue)
Component 1: Written Assignment - Expert Report (20% of final grade)
Expert reports can be quite short and lacking of background information. The Netherlands Forensic Institute provides information supplements with general information about forensic topics. In these supplements they explain which methods are used and give general background information on that particular forensic field. Students are asked to write such an information supplement on a specific topic that is provided to you. This is an individual assignment. The target audience are members from the judiciary.
Chain of Evidence
You are asked to write an information supplement on either DNA or glass, however, in each group of the course Chain of Evidence, one student needs to write a report on DNA and one on glass. After handing in your written assignment you are asked to choose one DNA report and one glass report that will be attached to your expert report in Chain of Evidence. This will contribute to the preparation of the non-scientists present during the moot court.
Component 2: The final examination (80% of the final grade)
The exam of this course will be a written examination based on the content covered during the lessons. The final exam will be assessed on an individual basis.
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
Fraud & Plagiarism: General UvA rules apply (https://student.uva.nl/en/topics/plagiarism-and-fraud). All written reports are submitted through Canvas assignments (view/complete assignments) to be automatically checked for plagiarism.
Attendance: Attending all scheduled education activities is strongly advised. By doing so, you actively contribute to a lively learning community and significantly improve your chances of successfully completing the course. The designated mandatory activities play a crucial role in achieving the course objectives and are essential for your overall progress.
Additional requirements for this course:
There is no compulsory attendance required. However, it is highly recommended to follow the lectures. Experience from previous years taught us students who did not attend the lectures, failed to achieve high results on the exam.
Use of GenAI in MFS
Within the Master Forensic Science, you are allowed to use Generative AI (GenAI) to support your learning process process but according to the policy framework and guidelines as defined by the University of Amsterdam. For example, you can use large language models (LLMs) to help your self-study by generating flashcards or generating explanations of concepts. GenAI should be a support tool to help you reach the course's learning objectives, not a system to which you delegate activities that are meant to promote your learning. The course examiner has final say on which use cases are permissible or not within their course.
You may not use GenAI to create any content you submit for assessment, regardless of whether it's graded numerically or on a pass/fail basis. The only exception is if an assignment description explicitly allows GenAI use. In such cases, permissible use is delineated by the course instructor.
Never share personal information, research data, or course materials with a GenAI system, except for UvA AI Chat. This UvA-hosted system was built with GDPR compliance and data security in mind. If in doubt about sharing information, don't share. You can always check with your course coordinator whether any intended use case is responsible.
Teachers are never allowed to use GenAI to grade your work. They may, however, use it to formulate their feedback. Only tools allowed by UvA should be used in research and education. If there is no UvA license for software, use cannot be mandatory in education. This implies that learning objectives must be achievable without the use of non-licensed tools. UvA AI Chat can be used, if used with due consideration and care.
Use within CHoE