• Offered by Law School
  • ANU College ANU College of Law
  • Course subject Laws
  • Academic career PGRD
  • Course convener
    • Peta Spender
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Co-taught Course
  • Offered in First Semester 2016
    See Future Offerings

This course examines how disputes are dealt with as they progress towards hearing by a court. It looks at techniques of dispute resolution with a focus upon litigation. The course is compulsory for both the LLB and the JD and its successful completion is required by the Supreme Court if a student seeks to be admitted as a barrister or solicitor.

This course not only explains how cases get to a court hearing and what the court expects the parties to do to prepare the matter for hearing, it also examines how disputation is processed en route and looks at the broader policy questions which underpin the design of the justice system.

This course is taught late in the LLB/JD degrees and it is taught with the expectation that you have a good understanding of earlier substantive law courses such as Tort and Contract. It is possible to undertake the Property and Corporations Law courses alongside this course but you should stay up to speed in those courses otherwise you will get lost in this course. This course is complementary with the Evidence course as the two areas of knowledge are dealt with together in practice. Often the procedures dealt with in this course will provide a gateway to aspects of your studies in Evidence. However Evidence and LDM are independent courses; the order in which you do them is unimportant.
 

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

• Define, explain, distinguish and apply dispute resolution strategies and concepts.
• Generate and refine persuasive and coherent arguments regarding disputes of procedural law.
• Reflect and theorise on the relationship between procedural and substantive justice.
• Critically assess the civil litigation system with reference to access to justice and social justice.
• Debate contentious points of procedural law with reference to doctrine, strategy and policy.

Learning Objectives
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the range of dispute resolution processes.
• Demonstrate specialised knowledge of the current issues in dispute resolution
• Demonstrate an expert understanding of the principles underpinning civil litigation
• Demonstrate an ability to assess and evaluate strategies to progress a case to court.

Indicative Assessment

Research essay, masterclass, tutorial presentation and participation.

The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.

Workload

Four to five teaching hours per week plus at least 6 hours of reading per week.

Requisite and Incompatibility

To enrol in this course you must be studying a program which includes the Juris Doctor, completed or be completing five LAWS courses at 1000 or 6100 level and have completed LAWS1203/LAWS6103 Torts and LAWS1204/LAWS6104 Contracts.

Prescribed Texts

S Colbran, P Spender, S Jackson, R Douglas (with M O’Brien), Civil Procedure: Commentary and Materials, (6th ed) LexisNexis, 2015.

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.  

If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.

Student Contribution Band:
3
Unit value:
6 units

If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.  Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.

Units EFTSL
6.00 0.12500
Domestic fee paying students
Year Fee
2016 $3252
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2016 $4638
Note: Please note that fee information is for current year only.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.

First Semester

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
4041 15 Feb 2016 26 Feb 2016 31 Mar 2016 27 May 2016 In Person N/A

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