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Unit of Study LEGL1006 - Jurisprudence (2023)

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Unit Snapshot

Unit description

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 

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Gold Coast
Term2
Term2
Online
Term2
Term2

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:

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 learning resources

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.
Prescribed Resources/Equipment
  • No prescribed resources/equipment.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.