Postgraduate - UnitLAW5347 - Consumer policy and regulation

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.

print version

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	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Law
Offered	City (Melbourne) Trimester 2 2015 (Day)

Notes

For postgraduate Law discontinuation dates, please see http://www.law.monash.edu.au/current-students/postgraduate/pg-disc-dates.html
For postgraduate Law unit timetables, please see http://law.monash.edu.au/current-students/course-unit-information/timetables/postgraduate/index.html
Previously coded as LAW7258

Quota applies

Postgraduate programs are based on a model of small group teaching and therefore class sizes need to be restricted.

Synopsis

Consumer protection legislation is well established in Australia, but moves towards self-regulation in the private sector, and corporatisation and privatisation in the public sector have underlined the importance of establishing and monitoring corporate accountability and compliance with consumer protection obligations. This unit will examine state and federal legislative consumer protection mechanisms; the development, operation and monitoring of self-regulatory and industry-based mechanisms such as licence and contract conditions, Codes of Practice, Customer Charters and Standards; the role of industry regulators; dispute resolution regimes such as industry-based Ombudsman schemes; and compliance, enforcement and monitoring mechanisms. There will also be consideration of the influence of, and importance of achieving compliance with, global consumer protection obligations, together with specific issues raised by new information technologies.c

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will be able to:

apply knowledge and understanding of the regulation of consumer protection in Australia with creativity and initiative to new situations in professional practice
investigate, analyse and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts and theories in relation to the consumer protection
conduct research in consumer protection law based on knowledge of appropriate research principles and methods; and
use cognitive, technical and creative skills to generate and evaluate at an abstract level complex ideas and concepts relevant to the regulation of consumer protection.

Assessment

Research assignment (5,250 words): 70%
Take-home examination: 30%
OR
Research assignment (7,500 words): 100%

Workload requirements

24 contact hours per semester (either intensive, semi-intensive or semester long, depending on the Faculty resources, timetabling and requirements)

Chief examiner(s)

Professor David Cousins Personal ProfilePersonal Profile (http://monash.edu/research/people/profiles/profile.html?sid=695377&pid=6494)