Research methods
Not offered in 1995
One 2-hour seminar weekly over 13 weeks
The aim of this subject is to develop in students a deeper understanding than provided at undergraduate level of modern methods of legal research and of the resources available for gathering interdisciplinary information in areas of knowledge with which the law is increasingly involved, eg medicine, economics, finance, criminology, psychology, environmental sciences etc. Students will be called upon to consider the strategic and ethical aspects of research and will be exposed to the advantages and disadvantages of empirical data as an adjunct of legal research. They will be required to demonstrate competence in a number of areas of research skill and evidence of a broader and more critical approach to research methods. The course will be taught in a seminar or small group format. Instructional sessions will be held in the computer laboratory located in the law library as well as in classroom settings. Students will also be expected to undertake research exercises using self instruction programs in the law computer laboratory or in other laboratories and libraries in the Monash system and will be required to demonstrate their skills and/or the findings of their research for discussion in seminar sessions. The present plan is for there to be two elements in the assessment scheme. The first will take the form of a series of short research exercises using different library tools. Students will be called upon to undertake as many of these as are necessary to demonstrate that a required minimum level of competency has been attained in the use of print-based and computerised sources. These will carry 50 per cent of the total marks in the subject. The second will involve the design, class presentation and classroom defence of a larger scale `research plan' for an interdisciplinary approach to a research problem set by the instructor in the subject. This will account for the remaining 50 per cent of the total marks.