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On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1	Evaluate and apply the foundational principles of Australian constitutional and administrative law to a range of problems, and undertake legal research at a foundational level with primary and secondary materials.
2	Apply public law to complex issues, and critique the operation of public law from a policy perspective, either individually or as part of a team.
3	Develop effective and concise arguments to convince a legal audience. Communicate effectively individually and as part of a team.
4	Exercise professional judgement in conducting a cooperative project on a current topic in public law.  Interact effectively as a member of a team.
5	Analyse the impact of public law from policy perspectives, and in the context of social and cultural diversity.
6	Reflect on individual ability to effectively undertake legal work as a member of a team. Utilise feedback to inform improvement in knowledge and skills development.

The Legal Practitioners' Education and Admissions Council (LPEAC) sets rules for the academic requirements for admission to legal practice in South Australia. Students must demonstrate a satisfactory level of understanding and application of 11 core areas of legal knowledge. This course teaches the following topics within these core areas:

Administrative Law:

• Organization and structure of the administration
• Administrative law theory
• Administrative Appeals Tribunal (introduction)

Federal and State Constitutional Law:

• State constitutions and constitutional systems
• The Commonwealth Constitution and constitutional system (introduction)
• The constitution and operation of the legislature, executive and judiciary
• The relationship between the different institutions of government and the separation of powers
• The relationship between the different levels of government

The course textbook is:
Gabrielle Appleby, Megan Davis, Dylan Lino and Alexander Reilly, Australian Public Law (Oxford University Press, 4th ed, 2024)

You will also need:
A copy of the Australian Constitution, and the Constitution Act 1934 (SA). Both are available on MyUni.

LexisNexis, Concise Australian Legal Dictionary (6th ed, 2020).

Pre-Lecture Videos

In weeks 1 - 9 of the course, students will be expected to watch a series of online videos before attending the lecture. At the lecture, we will be working through activities which will require you to know the material in the videos.

Pre-Lecture Quizzes

Because of the importance of understanding the material covered in the videos, and to enable you to test your learning from the videos before you attend the lecture, in each week with pre-lecture videos there will be a pre-lecture quiz to be completed on MyUni before the lecture. Further information on the pre-lecture quizzes is available below under 'Assessment Detail'.

Online Learning Tools

Additional course-related material is available through the Professional Legal Skills MyUni course, which all students are expected to undertake. This includes:

• An interactive online learning module on legal citation (leading to the Online Legal Citation Quiz);
• An interactive online learning module on secondary source research (assisting with the Human Rights Advocacy Exercise).

Online Communication

The MyUni Discussion Board will be activated by the start of teaching. All questions relating to substantive course content and assessment should be posted on the Discussion Board, rather than emailed to staff. Guidelines on communication, including the use of the Discussion Board, will be posted on MyUni.

Students are expected to check MyUni regularly to keep up to date with announcements during the semester.

The teaching in Principles of Public Law has (from 2014 onwards) moved away from the 'traditional' lecture-seminar format to embrace blended learning and flipped classroom pedagogy.

Blended learning essentially combines online and traditional face-to-face teaching and learning modes. We are using this because it enables us to spend more of our face-to-face or interactive online time actually working with you, rather than talking at you; and because it gives you much more control and flexibility to manage your own learning.

The flipped classroom describes inverting the traditional use of lecture time for didactic (talking-head) presentation of content to a passive body of students (who, research tells us, do not in fact learn very much from this). Instead, we will use lectures for active learning, where students are solving problems (for example, applying the law to a practical situation), learning and practising skills (for example, advanced skills of case analysis) and working together to develop teamwork and practice peer instruction (that is, to help teach each other) - again, research tells us that this contributes to much better learning outcomes for students (and, also, to better grades).

In our seminars, we will be undertaking traditional problem-solving activities, and consider different perspectives on the law under examination, to foster the development of critical thinking skills.

Your learning process for each week should be structured as follows:

Pre-Lecture

• Read the assigned readings
• Watch the pre-lecture videos
• Make topic notes based on this material
• Prepare for the in-lecture activities
• Complete the pre-lecture quiz on MyUni

In Lecture

• Engage and participate actively in all of the in-lecture activities
• Make special note of new skills or understandings that you have developed, or errors/difficulties that you have identified

Pre-Seminar

• Update your topic notes based on what has occurred in the lecture, and if necessary refer again to the readings and pre-lecture videos
• Prepare for the seminar activities

In Seminar

• Engage and participate actively in all of the seminar activities
• Make special note of new understandings that you have developed, or errors/difficulties that you have identified

Post-Seminar

• Revise your topic notes to ensure they capture all that you have learned
• Refer again to the readings and pre-lecture videos if you have any areas of uncertainty
• Attend the PASS seminar (the following week) to further consolidate your learning
• If you have any questions, post them on the Discussion Board

Lecture Recording

Traditional lecture-style content is available on MyUni in the form of pre-lecture videos.

We will also continue to record our interactive lecture sessions, mainly because these may be useful revision tools. However, attendance at the interactive lectures is essential to your learning in the course. You should make every effort to attend all of the lectures in this course. Moreover, because the lecture will be interactive, there is a lot that will not be captured on the recording and which you will simply miss. Listening to a lecture online after it is given is, therefore, no substitute at all for personal attendance. If you skip a lecture, you are penalising yourself, your learning in the course will suffer, and so will your grades.

The University expects full-time students (ie those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies during semester. This means that in addition to lectures and seminars, students should spend an additional 9 or 10 hours per week in private study in the course across the semester – this includes doing the readings, watching the pre-lecture videos, taking the pre-lecture quizzes, preparing for the lecture and seminar activities, participating in group work, and undertaking the assessment tasks.

	Pre-Lecture Videos and Lectures	Seminars	Assessment
Week 1	Introduction to Public Law: Constitutionalism as a Check on Unlimited and Arbitrary Power; The Framing of the Australian Constitution; The Role and Operation of Parliament
Week 2	The Constitution of South Australia	Designing a Constitution	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 3	The Separation of Powers in Theory, the Separation of Judicial Power under the Australian Constitution, and Boilermakers	Legislative, Executive and Judicial Powers	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 4	Defining Judicial Power	Identifying Powers, Critical Perspectives on the Separation of Judicial Power	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 5	The Separation of Judicial Power – Applications and Exceptions	The Persona Designata Exception	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 6	The Separation of Judicial Power – Consequences for State Courts	The Kable Doctrine	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 7	Executive Power and the Accountability of the Executive Government	Accountability of the Executive Government	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 8	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the Australian Constitution	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the Australian Constitution	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Week 9	Human Rights Law in Australia	Human Rights Law in Australia	Pre-Lecture Quiz due 1pm Tuesday
Week 10	Exam Workshop	Human Rights Advocacy Exercise	Online Legal Citation Quiz due 2pm Friday
Week 11	Exam Workshop	Human Rights Advocacy Exercise
Week 12	Exam Workshop	Revision

Assessment Task	Individual/Group	Weighting	Due	Length	Redeemable	Learning Outcomes
Online Legal Citation Quiz	Individual	4%	Friday of Week 10, 2pm		No	1,4
Online Pre-Lecture Quizzes - Weeks 2-9	Individual	2% each, total of 16%	Tuesday 1pm in the week to which the quiz relates		No	1,2,5
Human Rights Advocacy Exercise	Group	15%	Seminars in Weeks 10 or 11		No	1,2,3,4,5,6
Exam	Individual	65%	Exam period semester 2	3 hours	No	1,2,3,5

1. Online Legal Citation Quiz

A multiple-choice online MyUni quiz assessing your ability to use appropriate legal citation that complies with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (Melbourne University Law Review Association, 4th ed, 2018).

An important element of legal writing is the ability to reference relevant material in a manner that conveys clearly and concisely the nature of the material referred to, and the means of locating it. This is what the accepted system of citation (of cases, legislation, books, articles and other materials) is designed to achieve. Students’ ability to operate within the conventions of citation will be assessed in this short online quiz.

2. Online Pre-Lecture Quizzes

Because of the importance of understanding the material covered in the videos, and to enable you to test your learning from the videos before you attend the lecture, in each week with pre-lecture videos there will be a pre-lecture quiz to be completed on MyUni before the lecture.

As the online videos and quizzes are available well in advance, there will only be extensions in the most exceptional circumstances.

3. Human Rights Advocacy Exercise

Students will work in small groups to complete an oral advocacy exercise on a topic of human rights law in Australia. The advocacy exercise will be held during regular seminar times in weeks 10 or 11. Groups will be notified well in advance in which week their advocacy exercise will be held. Further information about the Human Rights Advocacy Exercise will be made available on MyUni.

Assessment Item 3: Failure to Contribute Appropriately to your Group

If students fail to contribute appropriately to their group, they will  suffer a marks penalty that adjusts their mark for this item of  assessment to a level commensurate with their contribution. Information about how to work in groups, and the processes to be followed in the event of a failure to contribute appropriately, will be made available on MyUni.

4. Exam

The exam is three hours in length. It will be held in the University examination period. The exam will cover the whole course. It is open book.

All assessments will be submitted and monitored through text or code comparative software (e.g. Turnitin) where possible.

Students will be provided with submission instructions as part of the assessment instructions for each item of assessment which will be made available on MyUni.

ASSIGNMENT EXTENSION APPLICATION
Requests for extensions must be made electronically according to law school policy. Extensions will be granted only for unexpected illness, hardship or on compassionate grounds in accordance with University Policy. Work commitments, travel, holidays or sporting engagements are not unexpected circumstances.

Finality of Assessment Grades

Students are advised that Course Coordinators will not enter into negotiations of any kind with any student regarding changes to their grades. It is irrelevant, in any given circumstance, that only a minimal number of additional marks are required to inflate a student’s grade for any individual assessment item or course as a whole. Pursuant to the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy and the Adelaide Law School Assessment Policies and Procedures, grades may only be varied through the appropriate channels for academic review (such as an official re-mark).

Moderation

In accordance with the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, course coordinators ‘ensure that appropriate marking guidelines and cross-marking moderation processes across markers are in place’ in each course. Procedures adopted by Adelaide Law School to ensure consistency of marking in courses with multiple markers include:

• assurance of the qualifications of markers, and their knowledge of the content covered in each course;
• detailed marking guidelines and assessment rubrics to assist in the marking of items of assessment;
• sharing of example marked assessments at various grade bands across markers;
• reviewing of selected marked assessments from each marker by the course coordinator;
• comparison of the marks and their distribution across markers;
• automatic double-marking of all interim assessment receiving a fail grade, and of final assessments where a student’s overall result is a fail grade;
• the availability of re-marking of assessments in accordance with Adelaide Law School’s Assessment Policies and Procedures.

Approval of Results by Board of Examiners

Students are reminded that all assessment results are subject to approval (and possible moderation/change) by the Law School’s Board of Examiners. Assessment results at the University are not scaled. Under the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, students are assessed ‘by reference to their performance against pre-determined criteria and standards … and not by ranking against the performance of the student cohort in the course’. However, under that same policy, the Board of Examiners (as the relevant Assessment Review Committee for courses at Adelaide Law School) is required to ‘ensure comparability of standards and consistency’ in assessment. On occasions, the Board of Examiners will form the view that some moderation is required to ensure the comparability of standards and consistency across courses and years, and accordingly provide fairness to all law students. All assessment results are therefore subject to approval (and possible change) until confirmed by the Board of Examiners and posted on Access Adelaide at the end of each semester.

The course is constantly being updated and revised to reflect the evolution of the law, to respond to student feedback, and to engage with the latest teaching practices. Student feedback is collected each time the course is run, including through SELT reports. Previous SELT reports, and staff feedback on them, are posted on the course MyUni site for students to view and consider.

The provides academic learning and language development services and resources for local, international, undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled at the 成人大片.

The centre offers practical advice and strategies for students to master reading, writing, note-taking, time management, oral presentation skills, referencing techniques and exam preparation for success at university through seminars, workshops and individual consultations.

Lex Salus Program

Lex Salus (law and wellbeing) is an initiative of the Adelaide Law School aimed at destigmatising mental health issues; promoting physical, mental and emotional wellness; building a strong community of staff and students; and celebrating diversity within the school. It also seeks to promote wellness within the legal profession, through the involvement of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, the Honourable Chris Kourakis, as the official Patron of the program.

Students can participate in the Lex Salus program by attending barbecue lunches, pancake breakfasts, knitting and crochet circles, seminars, guest speakers, conferences and other activities. Our , and regular all-student emails promote upcoming events, and have tips and information on wellness.

Our Lex Salus YouTube channel also includes videos on topics like managing stress, and interviews with LGBTQ lawyers and their supporters which celebrate diversity and individuality. Students who commit to 10 hours of volunteering with Lex Salus in one year can have their service recognised on their academic transcript and through a thank you morning tea with the Chief Justice and law school staff.

Student Life Counselling Support

The University’s service provides free and confidential service to all enrolled students. We encourage you to contact the Student Life Counselling Support service on 8313 5663 to make an appointment to deal with any issues that may be affecting your study and life.

Academic Integrity

All students must be familiar with the University’s Academic Integrity Policy. Academic Misconduct is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the University. Academic Misconduct (which goes beyond plagiarism) can be a ground for a refusal by the Supreme Court of South Australia to admit a person to practice as a legal practitioner in South Australia. Academic Integrity is an essential aspect of ethical and honest behaviour, which is central to the practice of the law and an understanding of what it is to be a lawyer.