This is the foundation course for non-law students enrolling in the LLM Masters Program in government and commercial law. Students completing this course will have acquired sufficient knowledge and skills to enable them to enrol in the other more specialist courses in government and commercial law.
The course provides an introduction to the main features of the Australian legal system and is taught in three modules: constitutional law, administrative law and commercial law.
Special emphasis is also placed on developing students' capacity to apply basic legal principles in problem solving settings. In this context, the course integrates an understanding of legal principles and legal methods and includes an introduction to legal writing (including style, referencing etc), and legal problem solving (drawing on case discussions and research). It also covers the basic features of the common law system, the nature and role of precedent and legislation and interpretive rules.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
A student who has successfully completed this course should be able to:
- demonstrate a broad understanding of the Australian legal system
- understand the central concepts in constitutional, administrative and commercial law including:
- the federal division of powers, the role of the High Court, the nature and limitations upon Commonwealth legislative powers, grounds for constitutional invalidity, the structure of the executive and the nature of judicial power,
- a brief history of administrative law system, accountability in an administrative state, the framework for administrative law review of government decision-making, methods of administrative review and the role of subordinate legislation
- the main forms of business entities and an introduction to contract law including formation of contract, contractual terms and termination and breach of contract
- demonstrate understanding of the role of law and modes of legal thinking
- understand the central elements of legal reasoning
- be competent to access and use legal material.
Other Information
Students who have an Australian LLB or JD are prohibited from taking this course.Indicative Assessment
Students must rely on the approved Means of Assessment for this course which will be available on the Wattle course site approximately 4 weeks prior to the commencement of the course.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
36 hours of class time (intensive mode over 6 days) plus private study and reading time.2014 Summer intensive dates: 7-8 & 28 February & 1, 21-22 March
2014 Winter intensive dates: 11-12 July & 1-2 & 22-23 August
Click here for current LLM Masters Program timetable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
There are no prescribed texts as such but it is highly recommended that students obtain the following:Constitutional Law Module: Sarah Joseph and Melissa Castan, Federal Constitutional Law: A Contemporary View, 3rd edition, Thomson Reuters, 2009.
Commercial Law Module: Peter Radan and John Gooley, Principles of Australian Contract Law, 2nd edition, LexisNexis 2010.
Administrative Law Module: Peter Cane and Leighton McDonald, Principles of Administrative Law: Legal regulation of governance, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Preliminary Reading
Cook, Creyke, Geddes and Hamer, Laying Down the Law, 8th edition, LexisNexis, 2012The Course Outline for this course which will be available on the Wattle course site approximately 4 weeks prior to the commencement of the course.
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 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2015 | $2958 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2015 | $4146 |
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.