Undergraduate - UnitLAW1101 - Introduction to legal reasoning

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Law
Offered	Clayton Summer semester B 2015 (Day)

Notes

This unit is only offered to students who commenced prior to 2015. The new offering for students who commenced in 2015 and beyond see LAW1111.

Synopsis

The unit begins by examining the foundation and structure of the institutions and processes of the Australian legal system. This introduces the sources of authoritative law - statutes, delegated legislation and judicial precedents. A substantial portion of the study of the Australian legal system will examine how judges use precedents and interpret legislation. We will use a series of cases from a selected area of law to study how the content of common law changes within the constraints of the doctrine and practice of precedent. Students will assess the influence of social change in the development of the common law.

Outcomes

At the conclusion of the course, students should be able to:

explain how the institutions of the Australian legal system shape the content and administration of the law
extract and formulate legal propositions from judicial decisions, and assess their scope, legal validity and weight
identify and articulate the legal issues raised by a given fact situation
locate efficiently the current law on a legal issue using library resources
interpret, analyse, synthesise and apply the law when located, to solve a legal problem
make a legal argument, or provide an opinion, and to do so clearly, accurately and concisely.

Assessment

Multiple choice/matching Research Skills for Law quiz (1hour); 5%; Legal reasoning skills task (equivalent to 1000 words, 1 hour): 20%; Engaging with the Legal System Report and Reflection (1500 words) 30%; and examination (2 hours writing time plus 30 minutes reading and noting time): 45%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Mr Ross Hyams (Summer Semester B)

Prohibitions

LAW7212, LAW1100