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Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Intermediate
Former School/College
Unit aim
Identifies and evaluates some of the theoretical frameworks that inform legal knowledge and legal practice. Analyses a number of philosophical perspectives having implications for law, legal institutions and legal practices. Enables us to better appreciate the ethical and socio-political consequences of our practice as lawyers.
Unit content
Topic 1: Philosophical pursuits and the law
Topic 2: Ethical and political frameworks
Topic 3: Traditional common law theory
Topic 4: Traditional jurisprudence: Legal positivism
Topic 5: Traditional jurisprudence: Natural law
Topic 6: Legal realism and Critical Legal Studies
Topic 7: Law and social theory
Topic 8: Poststructuralism, postmodernism and deconstruction
Topic 9: Feminism, race and colonialism
Topic 10: Historical and anthropological jurisprudence
Topic 11: Ecological jurisprudence
Topic 12: The concerns of legal theory
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | identify the central concerns of both traditional jurisprudence and contemporary legal theory; | |||||||
| 2 | critically reflect upon the philosophical assumptions that inform the teaching, learning and practice of Anglo-Australian law; | |||||||
| 3 | critically appraise the relationship between theory and practice, in particular, the relationship between ideas about law and specific social, cultural, political and legal practices; | |||||||
| 4 | identify and evaluate the ethical frameworks within which our practice, both as lawyers and non-lawyers, operates. | |||||||
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
-
identify the central concerns of both traditional jurisprudence and contemporary legal theory;
- GA1:
- GA3:
- GA5:
-
critically reflect upon the philosophical assumptions that inform the teaching, learning and practice of Anglo-Australian law;
- GA1:
- GA5:
-
critically appraise the relationship between theory and practice, in particular, the relationship between ideas about law and specific social, cultural, political and legal practices;
- GA1:
- GA5:
-
identify and evaluate the ethical frameworks within which our practice, both as lawyers and non-lawyers, operates.
- GA3:
- GA5:
Prescribed texts
- Wacks, R, 2015, Understanding Jurisprudence, 4th edn, Oxford University Press.