Unit Synopsis
LAWS11060 Criminal law provides knowledge of the procedures of and general doctrines of criminal law with emphasis on offences against the person (including murder, manslaughter and assault) and against property (including stealing) as expressed in the Queensland Criminal Code. Selective treatment is given to various defences and to the elements of criminal procedure. This unit meets the LPAB requirements for criminal law and procedure.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Corequisite: LAWS11057 Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 2. Examination | 60% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 90.48% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 18.26% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE feedback
Some students commented they would like a powerpoint to read in combination with the podcast/audio lecture
Develop lecture videos (as an alternative to podcasts) and provide powerpoints to the students
Lecture videos and PowerPoints were developed for every module.
Source: SUTE feedback
Students appreciate real world practical examples and enjoy applying the law to problem scenarios, particularly as problem questions feature on exam papers
Ensure real world examples continue to be incorporated into lectures and workshops. Ensure problem questions continue to be a regular feature of workshop questions in preparation for the exam and IRAC is explicitly taught as part of the workshops.
Problem questions were incorporated into almost all workshops and were scaffolded in terms of their complexity as students progressed across the term. Problem questions reflected the reality of legal practice, in that scenarios included both offences and defences that would be relevant at trial and also practical considerations. Problem solving was also explicitly taught with examples of how to use the IRAC methodology provided in class.
Source: SUTE comments
Students would like further guidance on how to formulate persuasive written submissions for the bail application.
Increase the duration of the ALC workshop on persuasive writing and record a video on drafting conventions and tips for enhancing written submissions.
In Progress
Source: Feedback from students, SUTE data and
Students appreciated the examples provided in class of how to break down the issues in a criminal law question and respond using the IRAC methodology
Provide additional written examples of the IRAC methodology being used successfully and provide breakdowns and/or flowcharts of the issues that must be addressed for complex offences/defences.
In Progress
Source: Feedback from students, staff reflection
Students benefited from the ALC sessions on exam preparation and the exam writing practice sessions
Retain the integration of the ALC's exam preparation sessions and retain exam writing practice sessions to provide students with experience of handwriting answers under time pressure.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Analyse and explain the elements of the criminal offence or defence, and the onus and burden of proof
- Research and apply principles of criminal law in Queensland as expressed in legislation and case law to the analysis of criminal law problems
- Apply skills in communication, critical legal thinking and reasoning.
This unit satisfies the Priestley 11 requirements for Criminal Law as approved by the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| 2 - Examination | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | ||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |