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Australian Bills of Rights in Int & Com. Persp. - LAWS4061
Badabagan

 
Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Faculty of Law
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Postgraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 8
 
 
EFTSL: 0.16667 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 9230, 5740, 9211 or 5211
 
 
Fee Band:   (more info)
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
 

Description

This course will explore the theoretical debates around the desirability of constitutional and other models of bills of rights. It will focus on statutory bills of rights, in particular the existing and proposed State and Territory statutory charters in Australia, and the continuing debate about an Australian federal bill of rights. It will examine the impact of the human rights charters in the ACT and Victoria on policy-making, government decision-making, legislative processes, and in the courts. This will involve a number of case studies and consideration of selected areas of substantive law. Reference will also be made to bills of rights elsewhere, including the UK Human Rights Act, the Canadian Charter, the South African Bill of Rights, and the Hong Kong Basic Law.


LLM Specialisations

International Law; Human Rights&Social Justice

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants should:
  • Understand fundamental concepts of human rights, different categories of rights, and international obligations in relation to domestic implementation of human rights treaty obligations
  • Understand the various approaches to protection of human rights without a bill of rights
  • Understand the various models of bills of rights in operation in comparable jurisdictions
  • Understand the history of debates about bills of rights in Australia, and the broader theoretical debates about the desirability, in particular their impact on the functioning of democratic institutions
  • Understand the origins, structure, content and impact of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004-and the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities
  • Understand the current debates about and prospects of federal charter of rights and possible similar developments at the State and Territory level

Main Topics

  1. Human rights - their origin, meaning and content, and competing models of the protection of human dignity and relationships
  2. International obligations relating to the implementation of human rights at the national level and the different categories of rights (civil and political, economic, social and cultural, and third generation rights
  3. The implementation and protection of human rights without a bill of rights
  4. Models of bills of rights - judicially enforceable and other models, constitutionally entrenched and statutory bills of rights
  5. The theoretical debates - democracy, majoritarianism, the separation of powers and judicial competence
  6. Debates about Bills of Rights in Australia and the development of modern Australian charters of rights
  7. The ACT Human Rights Act 2004-and the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities: origins, structure, content and impact
  8. The prospects for a federal Charter of Rights and future developments at the State and Territory level

Assessment

Assessment information will be available in due course.

Course Texts

Prescribed

Xeroxed reading materials will be available for purchase from the UNSW Bookshop
Recommended
  • G Williams, A Charter of Rights for Australia (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2007)
  • C Evans and S Evans, Australian Bills of Rights-The Law of the Victorian Charter and the ACT Human Rights Act (Chatswood, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2008)
  • H Charlesworth,Writing in Rights (Sydney, UNSW Press 2002)
  • A Pound and K Evans, An Annotated Guide to the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities (Sydney, Thomson LawBookCo, 2008)
  • A Byrnes, H Charlesworth, & G McKinnon, Bills of Rights in Australia: history, politics and law (UNSW Press, 2009)

Resources

Refer to Course Outline provided by lecturer prior to the start of the relevant semester.

URL for this page:

© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.