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Unit Summary
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
Module 1: Natural Law and Legal Positivism
Module 2: Continental and American Realism
Module 3: Critical Legal Theories: Class, Race and Gender
Module 4: Postmodernism: Deconstruction and Semiotics
Module 5: Eco-jurisprudence
Module 6: Colonialism and 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: | |
|---|---|
| 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;
- critically reflect upon the philosophical assumptions that inform the teaching, learning and practice of Anglo-Australian law;
- critically appraise the relationship between theory and practice, in particular, the relationship between ideas about law and specific social, cultural, political and legal practices;
- identify and evaluate the ethical frameworks within which our practice, both as lawyers and non-lawyers, operates.
Prescribed texts
- Davies, M, 2017, Asking the Law Question, 4th edn, Lawbook Company, Australia. ISBN: 9780455238067 (print) and 9780455238074 (eBook).
- Wacks, R, 2021, Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to legal Theory, 6th edn, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom. ISBN: 9780198864677.