Course

Dispute Resolution:Principles,Processes&Practices - LAWS8314

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2

Enrolment Requirements:

Pre-requisite: Academic Program must be 9200 or 9210 or 9230 or 5740 or 9235 or 5235 or 9231 or 5231 or 9220 or 5750.

Equivalent: JURD7314

Excluded: JURD7314, LAWS3314

CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Legal education commonly focuses on the litigation process, case law, and the role of the courts as providers of justice. This fosters the assumption that litigation, or legal advice predicting the outcome of litigation, is the normal method of resolving disputes. In fact only a small proportion of disputes are resolved by litigation Instead, there is a growing dissatisfaction with the cost, speed and adversarial character of litigation, and a corresponding interest in alternative forms of dispute resolution. This course examines the legal and policy context of dispute resolution, and surveys and critiques a range of nonadversarial approaches to contemporary legal practice.


LLM Specialisations

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

At the completion of the program, students will be able to:
  • Appreciate the practical, policy and philosophical reasons for including dispute resolution within a justice system;
  • Have insight into the nature of conflict and how lawyers work with conflict in legal practice;
  • Understand the major dispute resolution mechanisms and approaches to non-adversarial justice;
  • Compare, contrast and critique these different mechanisms and approaches;
  • Have insight into the changing nature of legal practice.

Main Topics

  • Dispute resolution, and non-adversarial justice in modern legal practice;
  • Understanding and analysing conflict;
  • The dispute management continuum and the selection of dispute resolution methods;
  • Overview of the primary dispute resolution processes, legal controversies and policy issues;
  • Approaches to nonadversarial justice, such as restorative justice and collaborative practice;
  • Professionalism, quality and regulation in contemporary practice.

Assessment

Class Participation 10%
Leanring Journal 20%
Research Essay 70%

Course Texts

Prescribed
King, Freiberg, Batagol and Hyams, Non-Adversarial Justice, Federation Press, 2009.

Resources

Additional resources for this course are linked, or made available, through Blackboard.
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Study Levels

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