Family Law (Property) is designed to prepare students (including current practitioners) for running property cases involving trusts at a best-practice level. There will be an assumed level of knowledge and the course will build on either LLB Family Law, JD Family Law or LLM Foundations of Family Law. Many property disputes in family law for parties with moderate to substantial wealth or a family business will involve trusts. Increasingly, self managed superannuation funds are being used by couples. These are also based on a trust deed. Thus the focus of this course is on an area of considerable complexity but which is increasingly part of the ‘bread and butter’ of family law property disputes and which can have significant financial consequences for the parties if not properly addressed.
Family Law jurisprudence empowers judges to ‘ignore’ many of the usual rules regarding the ‘corporate veil’ and trust organisation to re-allocate wealth. However, the usual rules may still apply when considering the consequences of that reallocation (such as re-settling a trust or possible capital gains liability). The High Court in two leading decisions of Ascot Investments v Harper and Spry v Kennon have created a range of categories and complexities within this area of law. Spry is the author of the renowned text Equitable Remedies.
This course is intended to engage deeply with the role of trusts and will build an understanding of how they operate and the potential areas of risk for practitioners. It is not intended to cover the general principles regarding property and superannuation within family law nor analyse the ‘four steps’ approach usually taken in resolving property disputes.
The topics covered at this level will build on the undergraduate / JD / Foundations courses as it will introduce new material at a significantly more advanced and in-depth level.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Demonstrate mastery of theoretical knowledge regarding the characterisation of trust related assets available for distribution in a family law property dispute.
- Demonstrate mastery of the theoretical framework within which trusts, and assets within trusts, are structured in particular family law contexts such as binding financial agreements and self managed superannuation funds.
- Understand accounting principles sufficiently to review financial statements and recognise unusual allocation of assets, liabilities and expenses.
- Understand and creatively use the tools available to identify, locate and either challenge or protect from challenge, assets within a trust structure.
- Use initiative and creativity to draft terms for a binding financial agreement or court orders that will address the challenges identified in the case law and legislation.
- Synthesise theoretical knowledge and analytical and forensic skills to gather and analyse evidence to enable the student to effectively advise the client how to deal with trust assets and the evidence about them.
- Design a comprehensive strategy to obtain evidence necessary to prove the existence and connection of trust assets to the marriage.
- Demonstrate mastery of the theoretical knowledge and practical application by drafting written submissions for use in a court proceeding in support of the strategy.
- Reflect critically on the implications for the knowledge and practical application in relation to trust assets for other areas of property relevant to a property dispute in family law.
- Plan and execute a substantial research based project — whether by court application, written submission or advice to a client.
Indicative Assessment
- These assessment options are interchangeable. For each course offering assessment options will be chosen totaling 100%, with at least 50% comprised of research based assessment. (100) [LO 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
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Workload
10-12 hours per week during the semester online via Wattle.
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Materials will be provided online and will include the materials identified within the topic areas above.
Preliminary Reading
A Course Outline will be available prior to the commencement of the course.
Assumed Knowledge
It is expected that a student will have completed either an undergraduate or JD course in Family Law, or LAWS8581 Foundations of Family Law. This course is only open to students who have completed a law degree (LLB or JD).
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 |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $4410 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $5880 |
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.