This course introduces students to the sources of law which define general principles of criminal responsibility, and to a selection of substantive criminal offences and criminal defences as well as to criminal procedure. The substantive offences include assault, sexual assault, murder, manslaughter, and property offences, and the criminal defences include provocation and self-defence. Students will be exposed to common law sources as well as legislation and criminal codes where relevant. Key legal theories of the criminal law will also be introduced. The lecture program is supported by interactive seminars that enable students both to engage with the application of legal principles to set fact scenarios and to consider issues of policy and law reform related to the substantive and procedural law that they are studying.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Define and contrast key features of the NSW common law and the ACT criminal law (namely offences, defences, arguments in defence and general principles of criminal responsibility);
- Formulate and integrate substantive and procedural law arguments;
- Define, explain, distinguish and apply relevant legal principles to a set of facts (ie identifying legal issues in a factual scenario, accurately explaining and applying the relevant legal principles to those facts and using appropriate skills of legal reasoning and argumentation to generate a legally sustainable conclusion);
- Do so (see the point above) both orally and in written form;
- Demonstrate familiarity with relevant legislation, case law and other course readings;
- Demonstrate precision and conciseness in formulating precise statements of legal principle;
- Work collaboratively with team members and peer assess the performance of fellow team members;
- Contribute to the learning of others (through teamwork, regular attendance at tutorials and contribution to tutorial discussions);
- Demonstrate a capacity to discriminate between problematic and non-problematic legal issues embedded in a set of facts;
- Reflect critically on and synthesise the more important policy and law reform debates in the context of theoretical debates as raised by the modern criminal law;
- Research and apply knowledge derived from the course content and readings with autonomy, judgment and adaptability in order to develop a sustainable analysis or argument concerning particular topics, issues or debates relating to NSW criminal law.
Indicative Assessment
- Quiz (30) [LO 1,5,9,10]
- Coursework Assessment (70) [LO 1,2,3,4,5,6,9,10]
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Workload
- Classes offered in non-standard sessions will be taught on an intensive base with compulsory contact hours (approximately 26 hours of face to face teaching). The course will also require advanced preparation through assigned readings. In total, it is anticipated that the hours required for completion of this course (class preparation, teaching and completion of assessment) will not exceed 120 hours.
- Classes offered during semester periods are expected to have three contact hours per week.
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Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Students must rely on the approved Class Summary which will be posted to the Programs and Courses site approximately two weeks prior to the commencement of the course. Alternatively, this information will be published in the Program course list when known.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you 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). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 34
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found 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 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2022 | $4980 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2022 | $6660 |
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2630 | 21 Feb 2022 | 28 Feb 2022 | 31 Mar 2022 | 27 May 2022 | Online or In Person | View |
