Faculty: Faculty of Law
	School:  Faculty of Law
	Course Outline: See below
	Campus: Kensington Campus
	Career: Postgraduate
	Units of Credit: 6
	EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
	Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 5
	Enrolment Requirements:
	Prerequisite: Academic Program must be 9150.
	Excluded: LAWS1052
	CSS Contribution Charge:Band 3 (more info)
	Tuition Fee:See Tuition Fee Schedule
	Further Information: See Class Timetable

Description

Recommended Prior Knowledge

Course Objectives

• An understanding of the principal legal institutions in Australia, including their history and the relationships between them;
• Foundational legal research skills, a preliminary understanding of appropriate research strategies and an understanding of legal terminologies and the elements of good legal writing;
• A capacity to analyse case law and interpret statutes, and to identify and apply legal principles;
• A feel for the "dynamic" of the law, that is, for the way that it has changed in the past, and will continue to change, in response both to social changes and to the continued operations of the legal system itself;
• A contextual and critical approach to legal principles and institutions, rather than treating them as inevitable phenomena whose desirability cannot be questioned at any level;
• A conception of law as a social phenomenon which may usefully be investigated from the viewpoint of many kinds of investigator - not just the judge, the practising lawyer or the law reformer, but also the historian, the sociologist, the anthropologist, the political scientist, the economist, or the philosopher.

Main Topics

• The current structure of the Australian legal system;
• The historical development of the principal institutions of government under our constitutions - parliaments, the executive and the courts;
• An introduction to some of the significant theoretical ideas underpinning our legal system, including the significance of the idea of the rule of law and theories of justice;
• The role of judges, lawyers and other personnel in the court system;
• How to read and analyse case law, the nature of the common law and the development of precedent;
• The nature of statutes and the techniques for interpreting legislation.
• An introduction to some of the theoretical frameworks that have been used to analyse law and legal decision making;
• The circumstances of the adoption of the common law in the Australian states and the effect on the Indigenous population;
• The different ways in which law can be classified and organised, including key categories such as private law and public law, law and equity, as well as classification within an area of private law, the law of torts;
• How to research primary materials such as case law and legislation;
• An introduction to secondary legal materials;
• Problem solving strategies and legal research;
• Legal citation methods and referencing.

Assessment

Course Texts

• Prue Vines, Law and Justice in Australia: Foundations of the Legal System (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, Melbourne 2009)
• JURD7152 Foundations of Law Research Workbook (available on Blackboard)
• Australian Guide to Legal Citation (Melbourne University Law Review Assn, 3rd ed, Melbourne, 2010(available in hard copy from the UNSW Bookshop or as a free non-printable download from http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/AGLC3)

• LexisNexis Concise Australian Dictionary (LexisNexis Butterworths, 4th ed,Sydney, 2011)
• Michael Brogan & David Spencer, Surviving Law School (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, Melbourne, 2008).
• Bruce Bott, & Ruth Talbot-Stokes, Nemes and Coss’ Effective Legal Research (LexisNexis Butterworths, 4th ed, Sydney 2010) OR Sue Milne & Kay Tucker, A Practical Guide to Legal Research (Lawbook Company, 2nd, Sydney, 2010) OR Robert Watt & Francis John, Concise Legal Research (Federation Press, 6th ed, Annandale NSW, 2009).

Resources