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

1. Analyse the foundational principles of Australian law, including the development and operation of common law, precedent and court hierarchy, and the roles of parliament and the courts, and the role of the law of contract in particular, within the Australian legal system, undertake legal research with primary and secondary materials, and evaluate legal information.
2. Apply Australian law and legal theories, and in particular the law of contract, to complex issues, and critique the operation of the law from a policy perspective, either individually or as part of a team.
3. Structure and sustain concise and cohesive written arguments about case analysis, statutory interpretation and contract law for a legal audience.
4. Develop case reading and analysis skills essential for legal research.
5. Conduct and analyse legal research, and write advice on the basis of that research.
6. Analyse the impact of Australian law generally, and contract law in particular, from both policy and practical perspectives, and in the context of social and cultural diversity.

Reading / Texts
 
The required readings for this course will be made available via MyUni.

Recommended Resources

Finkelstein et al, Butterworths Concise Australian Legal Dictionary (LexisNexis Butterworths, 5th ed, Butterworths, 2015).

Australian Guide to Legal Citation (3rd ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc., 2010). Soft copy available at .

Paterson et al, Principles of Contract Law (Lawbook Co., 4th ed, 2012).

JW Carter, Carter’s Guide to Australian Contract Law, (LexisNexis Butterworths, 3rd ed, 2015).


Recommended Reference Texts

Patrick Parkinson, Tradition and Change in Australian Law (Lawbook Co., 5th ed, 2012).

Catriona Cook et al, Laying Down the Law (LexisNexis, 9th ed, 2014).

Gary Heilbronn et al, Introducing the Law (CCH Australia, 7th ed, 2008).

Gooley et al, Principles of Australian Contract Law (LexisNexis Butterworths, 3rd ed, 2013).

N Sneddon, R Bigwood and M Ellinghaus, Cheshire and Fifoot Law of Contract (LexisNexis Butterworths, 10th Australian ed, 2012).

Prue Vines, Law and Justice in Australia (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2013).

Michelle Sanson and Thalia Anthony, Connecting with Law (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2014).

Elizabeth Ellis, Principles and Practice of Law (Thomson Reuters, 3rd ed, 2012).

Sue Milne and Kay Tucker, A Practical Guide to Legal Research (Thomson Reuters, 2nd ed, 2010).

Bruce Bott and Ruth Talbot-Stokes, Nemes and Coss’ Effective Legal Research (LexisNexis Butterworths, 6th ed, 2015).

In addition to the use of MyUni as outlined in ‘Learning and Teaching Modes’ below (4.1), MyUni will be used to post announcements, post additional lecture materials (including slides, and where available, audio recordings of lectures) and announce assignment tasks. It will also contain electronic copies of the Course Profile, Lecture and Seminar Guides, and Course Reader. Students are expected to check MyUni regularly to keep up to date with these materials and additional learning resources throughout the course.

4.1  Teaching & Learning Modes

This course will be taught through a combination of online and face-to-face teaching components.

(A) FIRST TEACHING COMPONENT (PART I)

Each face-to-face teaching day will run from 9am to 4pm, with breaks for morning tea and lunch. Modules 5 and 7, covered in this Part of the course, will also require students to complete a series of small online tutorials. These will be made available on MyUni.

(B) STATUTORY INTERPRETATION AND CASE ANALYSIS EXERCISE

This exercise will involve both a statutory interpretation and a case analysis exercise, and will build upon the knowledge and skills acquired during Modules 5 and 7 (Part I).  Students will be provided with the opportunity to apply the relevant legal principles to a factual scenario involving a statute, and to analyse a case and its key features using known techniques.

(C) SECOND TEACHING COMPONENT (PART II)

The course will reconvene and conclude with two further days of face-to-face teaching.  This component will cover Modules 9-14, which consider the Australian Contract Law in depth and equip students with the skills to answer problem-based and short answer questions pertaining to the law of contract, the kind of which will be assessed in the contract law assignment. Students will also be given the opportunity to review the material covered in the course and raise any questions or concerns.

(D) CONTRACT LAW ASSIGNMENT

The assignment will incorporate problem-based and short answer questions relating to the material covered in Part II of the course. It will provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply legal principles to a factual scenario and to generate answers to questions themed on the Australian law of contract.

For a 3-unit course, the workload requirement is approximately 156 hours. 

For Introduction to Australian Law, this will be structured as follows: 24 hours of face-to-face teaching scheduled over four intensive teaching days, 48 hours of guided online learning run via MyUni, and 84 hours of personal study, including the completion of all assessment tasks.

Course stage	Course component	Topic
Part I (Days 1-2)	Module 1	Legal Theory and the Concept of ‘Law’
Part I	Module 2	Australian Legal History
Part I	Module 3	Federation and the Australian Constitution
Part I	Module 4	Parliament and the Lawmaking Process
Part I	Module 5	Statutory Interpretation
Part I	Module 6	Courts and the Common Law
Part I	Module 7	The Doctrine of Precedent and Case Analysis
Part II (Days 3-4)	Module 8	Australian Law and Regulation of Business
Part II	Module 9	Formation of Contract
Part II	Module 10	Contractual Content and Interpretation
Part II	Module 11	Termination of Contract
Part II	Module 12	Remedies for Breach of Contract
Part II	Module 13	Australian Legal Research

None.

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Length	Redeemable	Learning Outcome
Online Quiz	Individual	Week 4	20%	20 multiple choice questions	No	1, 2, 3, 4
Case Analysis and Statutory Interpretation Exercise	Individual	Week 6	40%	1500 words	No	1, 2, 3 ,4
Contract Law Assignment	Individual	Week 9	40%	2500 words	No	1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Each piece of assessment is compulsory. None of the assessment is redeemable.

1. Online Quiz (20%)

Details: The quiz will be available electronically, and will comprise 20 multiple choice questions relating to the material covered
in Modules 1-4 of the Course.  Further instructions regarding the Quiz will be provided on MyUni.


2. Case Analysis and Statutory Interpretation Exercise (40%)

Details: Papers must not exceed 1500 words in length (see below for penalties applicable to word count). This exercise will build upon and assess the knowledge and skills acquired during Modules 5-7 (Part I). As with all written work in the Law School, papers must comply with The Australian Guide to Legal Citation, which is discussed in Module 14 (Part II).


3. Contract Law Assignment (40%)

Details: This exercise will incorporate problem-based questions relating to the material covered in Modules 9-14 (Part II). It will provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply legal principles to a factual scenario and to generate answers to questions themed on the Australian Contract Law.  Papers must not exceed 2500 words in length.  As with all written work in the Law School, papers must comply with The Australian Guide to Legal Citation, which is discussed in Module 14 (Part II).

1. Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.
2. All written assignments must be submitted via ‘Turnitin’ on MyUni.  Details for electronic submission through Turnitin will be provided with the assignment instructions. By submitting your assignment you are agreeing to the following: (a) I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement and reference to the work of others. I have read the Policy on Cheating in Examinations and Related Forms of Assessment. I have also read the University's Plagiarism Policy; (b) I give permission for my assessment work to be reproduced and submitted to other  academic staff for the purposes of assessment and to be copied,  submitted and retained in a form suitable for electronic checking of  plagiarism.
3. Late Submission: Where an assignment is submitted after the due date and without an extension, a penalty of 5% of the total mark possible will be deducted for every 24 hours or part thereof that it is late, including each day on a weekend. For example, an essay graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is one hour late (for a final grade of 58%), 10% if it is 25 hours late etc. This penalty may be increased where the assignment is to be completed in a period of less than a week.
4. Word length: Assignments which exceed the allocated length (word length) will be subject to a penalty of 5% of total marks possible per 100 words or part thereof (i.e. with a word limit of 3 000, an essay graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is 3001 words long, for a final grade of 58%, 10% if it is 3101 words long, etc). Words are calculated including all footnotes and headings within the text but excluding cover page information, separate bibliography or list of sources. Quotations and all referencing information are included in the word count.  If the word limit is seriously misstated, this may be regarded as academic dishonesty.
5. Extensions: Requests for extensions must be made via email to the course co-ordinator in reasonable time before the due date. 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.
6. When undertaking an assessment task, students are to be assessed according to whether they are law or non-law graduates respectively. Where the nature of the task involves the exercise of skills that law graduates can be expected to have practised or refined over a longer period or to a greater degree than their non-law counterparts, an assessor may legitimately expect a higher standard of performance from the law graduates in the course.
7. Style of written work: All written work in the Law school is required to comply with the approved Law School style guide, the Australian Guide to Legal Citation.

Courses for which a result of conceded pass has been obtained may not be presented towards the degree requirements for the Bachelor of Laws or the Honours Degree of Bachelor of Laws programs, or any postgraduate law program, nor to satisfy prerequisite requirements within any law course.

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 Policyand 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.

Students must not submit work for an assignment that has previously been submitted for this course or any other course without prior approval from the lecturer-in-charge.

Assignments will be returned to students within 3-4 weeks of the due date with written feedback.  Assignments will generally be returned from the Law School Front Office or electronically through MyUni.

Students will be encouraged to participate in the Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey, as an opportunity to provide feedback to the teaching staff in relation to the course.

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 Honesty

Academic dishonesty is a serious act of academic misconduct. All students must be familiar with the University’s Academic Honesty Policy.

Academic dishonesty is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the University. Academic dishonesty (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 honesty 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.