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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.

You will also need the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, 2019). [Easily accessible in PDF format online].

Recommended resources

Legal dictionary, such as Finkelstein and Harmer, LexisNexis Concise Australian Legal Dictionary (LexisNexis, 6^th ed, 2020)

Stewart, Swain and Fairweather, Contract Law: Principles and Context (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2019)

Paterson et al, Principles of Contract Law (Lawbook Co, 6^th ed, 2020)

Robin Creyke et al, Laying Down the Law (LexisNexis, 12^th ed, 2023)

Bruce Bott and Ruth Talbot-Stokes, Nemes and Coss’ Effective Legal Research (LexisNexis Butterworths, 8^th ed, 2021)

In addition to the use of MyUni as outlined in ‘Learning and Teaching Modes’ below, MyUni will be used to post announcements, post additional lecture materials (including slides) 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.

The course will be taught over four full days.

The stages of the course are:

1. Introduction to Sources of Law (online, pre-class)
3. Statutory Interpretation (day 1)
2. Case Law and Case Analysis (day 2)
4. Contract Law (days 3-4)

See below for full outline of individual modules.

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.

Schedule

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

None.

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Length	Redeemable	Learning Outcome
Online Academic Honesty Quiz	Individual	Friday, 8th March	5%	10 multiple choice questions	No	1, 2, 3, 4
Case Analysis and Statutory Interpretation Exercise	Individual	5pm, Friday, Week 4 (22 March)	40%	2500 words	No	1, 2, 3, 4
Oral Presentation (in class)	Individual	Friday, 8th March (in class)	15%	5 minutes	No	1, 2, 3 ,4
Contract Law Assignment	Individual	5pm, Monday, Week 7 (22 April)	40%	2500 words	No	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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

1. Online Academic Honesty Quiz (5%)
Details: The quiz will be available electronically, and will comprise 10 multiple choice questions relating to Academic Honesty. Further instructions regarding the Quiz will be provided on MyUni.

2. Oral Presentation (15%)
Details: Topics will be distributed on the first day of teaching for the course (1 March). This exercise will build upon and assess the knowledge and skills acquired during Modules 1-7 (sources of law, case analysis and statutory interpretation - Parts I-III). It will provide an opportunity to practice the skills needed for the major case analysis and statutory interpretation exercise assignment.

3. Case Analysis and Statutory Interpretation Exercise (40%)
Release Date: The case analysis and statutory interpretation exercise will be available on Friday of Week 1.
Details: This assignment will give students an opportunity to more formally demonstrate their skills in statutory interpretation and case analysis. Papers must not exceed 2,500 words in length (see below for penalties applicable to word count). As with all written work in the Law School, papers must comply with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed) - this will be discussed in module 13 of the course.

4. Contract Law Assignment (40%)
Release Date: The contract law assignment will be available from on Friday of Week 3.
Details: This assignment will incorporate problem-based questions relating to contract law in Australia. It will provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply legal principles to a factual scenario. Papers must not exceed 2,500 words in length. As with all written work in the Law School, papers must comply with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed) - this will be discussed in module 13 of the course.

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 2000, an essay graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is 2001 words long, for a final grade of 58%, 10% if it is 2101 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 (4th edition).

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 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.