Undergraduate - UnitLAW4165 - Comparative constitutions and rights

Upon completion of this unit, students should:

1. have a general understanding of the constitutional law and statutory framework that operate in the various countries of the Western liberal-democratic tradition;
2. possess an understanding of the various alternatives in institutional design of principal constitutional organs, and the advantages and disadvantages of each;
3. understand and be able to assess, in their societal contexts, the approaches to federalism in constitutions and court decisions from selected federal countries of the world;
4. have specific understanding of the particular rights studied, and the framework for protection established under the relevant constitutional systems;
5. be able to identify or find the relevant principles, laws and precedents and apply them to resolve issues relating to breaches of individual rights and freedoms;
6. be in a position to assess the merits and demerits of the approach to the protection of human rights pioneered in Canada and copied in Victoria;
7. have further developed legal research and writing, and legal argument skills by undertaking systematic research into legal policy, rules and procedures and comparative perspectives relating to constitutional law and individual rights
8. have developed skills of oral presentation of legal policy, rules and argument in an interactive learning context;
9. be able to identify and assess the broad strands in constitutional interpretation used by Courts within the Western liberal-democratic tradition.