• Offered by Law School
  • ANU College ANU College of Law
  • Course subject Laws
  • Areas of interest Law
  • Academic career UGRD
  • Course convener
    • AsPr Ron Levy
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Offered in Second Semester 2015
    See Future Offerings

This is an advanced constitutional law elective.  The content of this course will vary.  In recent years, the course has explored constitutional rights and the federal judicature in Chapter III of the constitution.

Learning Outcomes

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

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
1. Outline and summarise how constitutional law shapes democracy and democratic institutions in Australia and contrast it to systems in other countries;
2. Recognise and explain problems raised by the use of constitutional law to regulate democratic institutions, including partisan battles over the interpretation of legal rules, and the often elusive search for neutral decision-makers;
3. Evaluate how national or state political culture and unwritten constitutional norms play a role in shaping democracy and democratic institutions, and in turn how constitutional laws and institutions help shape political culture and norms;
4. Outline, summarise and/or synthesise advanced and coherent knowledge of the constitutional laws impacting on elections, voting, political finance, parliament, and political parties, and critique those laws in terms of democratic strengths and deficits;
5. Identify and analyse which aspects of constitutional law are most relevant to issues of political partisanship and political system fairness;
6. Question and research with some independence to produce a ‘Law Reform Paper’ on a sub-topic of constitutional law relevant to themes covered in the course;
7. Communicate law reform ideas to a variety of audiences.

Indicative Assessment

• Law Reform Paper (60 marks)
• Reading Responses (10 marks each x 3): Critical reflection on class readings, due 4pm the day before any three of seven seminars.
• Workshop on work-in-progress (10 marks, pass/fail): Informal discussion to aid students in Law Reform Paper development.”

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.

Requisite and Incompatibility

To enrol in this course you must be studying a program which includes the Bachelor of Laws or Juris Doctor and completed LAWS2202/LAWS6202 Commonwealth Constitutional Law.

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
2015 $2958
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2015 $4146
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.

Second Semester

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
3526 20 Jul 2015 07 Aug 2015 31 Aug 2015 30 Oct 2015 In Person N/A

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