LAW7250 - Administrative justice issues in tribunal adjudication

Leader: Dr Pamela O'Connor

Offered

Not offered in 2008

Synopsis

Online seminar with individual and paired or group activities. Module A: re-opening of tribunal findings in other proceedings; Tribunals' power to correct their own decisions; Jurisdictional consequences of breach of procedural requirements in legislation; Must the government keep its promises? - estoppel and legitimate expectations; Conflict of interest, ethics and the bias rule. Module B: Implications of compulsory referral of parties to alternative dispute processes; Overcoming adversarial culture; Representation and unrepresented parties; tribunal undependence from executive government iinfluence; implications for administrative justive of performance management regimes for tribunals.

Objectives

On completion of this unit students will have demonstrated the ability to:

1. apply principles of Administrative Law to actual or simulated problems in adjudicative practice
2. investigate selected issues of administrative justice in depth
3. compare and evaluate different proposals and responses to the selected issues
4. collaborate in the presentation of a clear and coherent written response, and
5. lead group discussion on their chosen Topic in an online seminar.

Assessment

The assessment will comprise four tasks: Students will select two (2) Topic questions from Module A, and answer in 1,800 words each (each question is 20% of the total assessment). Students will select a Topic question from Module B or seek approval of a Topic of their own devising, and will present a 3,750 word written seminar to the class - 50%. Each student will initiate discussion on his or her seminar topic for Module B by posting an opening message to the online discussion forum of about 750 words - 10%.

Contact hours

The unit requires the equivalent of 12 hours per week over one semester. This will be made up of a combination of: reading the online materials and guided readings, optional further readings, self-directed reading for the Module B group activity, completing assessment activities, leading and contributing to the online discussion forum.