Availabilities:
Unit Summary
Anti-requisites
Not available for students admitted to the Associate Degree in Law (Paralegal Studies) or Bachelor of Legal and Justice Studies.
Unit aim
Explores the origins of Australian law from both jurisprudential and historical viewpoints, and the structure of our legal institutions and divisions of legal personnel. Develops skills of legal reasoning, the ability to interpret cases and statutes, and clear and concise oral and written legal communication.
Unit content
1. Legal Education
2. Statutory Interpretation
3. Precedent: The Standing Cases
4. Legal Theory and Earth Laws
5. Reception of English law
6. Australian Legal Institutions
7. The Role of Discretion, Judges, Police and Policy Makers
8. Land rights: A Case Study in Precedent
9. Statutory Interpretation Revisited
10. The State of Exception: Terrorists, Bikies and Peaceful Protesters
11. Access and Equality Before the Law
12. Revision and Exam Preparation
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: | |
|---|---|
| 1 | explain the ways in which legal and social phenomena are inter-related |
| 2 | critique law from a number of perspectives including ecological, feminist, post-modernist, multicultural and Indigenous perspectives |
| 3 | explain the various legitimating techniques used by the legal system to justify the assertion of sovereignty by centralised authority |
| 4 | utilise specific skills to predict the ways in which legal rules will be interpreted and applied, namely the theory of precedent and the rules governing the interpretation of statutes |
| 5 | critique the role of the judiciary in the mystification and legitimisation of law and assess law's claims to be neutral and objective |
| 6 | communicate face-to-face, online and in writing, with precision and clarity, utilising a variety of media to engage with the process of learning |
| 7 | engage in collaborative group work with other students. |
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
- explain the ways in which legal and social phenomena are inter-related
- critique law from a number of perspectives including ecological, feminist, post-modernist, multicultural and Indigenous perspectives
- explain the various legitimating techniques used by the legal system to justify the assertion of sovereignty by centralised authority
- utilise specific skills to predict the ways in which legal rules will be interpreted and applied, namely the theory of precedent and the rules governing the interpretation of statutes
- critique the role of the judiciary in the mystification and legitimisation of law and assess law's claims to be neutral and objective
- communicate face-to-face, online and in writing, with precision and clarity, utilising a variety of media to engage with the process of learning
- engage in collaborative group work with other students.
Prescribed texts
- No prescribed texts.
- No prescribed texts.
- No prescribed texts.