Unit Synopsis
This unit Land Law LAWS12066 meets the LPAB requirements for property law. It has a specific focus on the law of real property in Queensland. It covers the following themes: The concept of land; land registration systems with an emphasis on the Torrens system and the impact of e-technology pursuant to the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld); the principles for resolving priority disputes in Torrens title land under the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld) with a focus on legal vs equitable interests; future interests and the rule against perpetuities under the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld) and the general law; concurrent ownership; leases; mortgages; easements; freehold covenants and profit a prendres. The unit also includes a discussion of native title; possession, seisin & title and enforcement of security interests in personal property under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth). Students are expected to have completed Foundations of Property Law - LAWS12065 first as the unit content assumes knowledge from that unit.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: 24 credit points of law including 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 2 - 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. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Examination | 50% |
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 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 81.25% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 21.33% 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: Student Feedback
Research assessments - students of the impression that assessments are not research based (that is, only cover content already covered in lecture content).
Make clear in the Unit Outline and in the first week of lectures and tutorials that research skills are a fundamental component of Graduate Attributes that students are assessed on and that students are expected to be able to conduct (and will be assessed on) their ability to carry out independent research on a topic in Land Law.
Incorporated into Unit Outline and early tutorials.
Source: Student Feedback
Abbreviations were used in slides/podcasts.
Make clear that abbreviations are part of professional delivery in industry/government. Refer students back to the Study Guide where all common abbreviations to relevant legislation (used in podcasts) are clearly referred to.
Made clear in first tutorials and reiterated throughout semester via tutorials and the Moodle site.
Source: Student Feedback
Confusion regarding the need to use contract law and equity to understand Land Law
Make clear in week one that students will not be able to understand the nature of interests in land unless they understand (1) basic principles of contract law (2) basic principles of equity. Reiterate that completing the priestly 11 core is not about learning principles from previous subjects and then forgetting them. Rather, it is about building on each area/block of knowledge to develop a cromprehensive knowledge to be able to understand how all of the topics work together. Make clear that this basic development of knowledge/taxonomies of law applies to study in every Australian Law School.
Discussed multiple times throughout semester, including why the profession requires students to build their knowledge for each core unit to an entire whole typological recognition of key areas of law. The major assignment this semester was another example of the importance of understanding that all interests in land commence with a contract and enforced under contract law or equitable principles.
Source: SUTE Unit Data
A textbook referring to the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld) (not the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld)) should have been used.
No such textbook is available. Unit Coordinator spent considerable time instead updating the Study Guides and podcasts to ensure that the relevant legal principles were updated to take into account latest changes to ensure subject is relevant, up to date and meets accreditation standards. Unit Coordinator will review and update reference text should a legal publisher provide an updated text to take into account relevant changes to the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld). Students also need to develop skills to ensure that they also know how to update legislation and case law (taught in Year 1 units). Coordinator to reiterate the importance of this to ongoing skills and knowledge requirements of legal practice.
In Progress
Source: SUTE Unit Data
Land Law considered to be a challenging unit. Unit is set out well; informative materials providing explanation and context to what is in the study guide and the textbook. Clear and direct communications from UC in the subject, including repetition of concepts in tutorials and podcasts from UC made challenging subject interesting so that students wish to undertake further study of the topic.
Unit Coordinator to continue with current teaching methodology. Will also review how any available AI can be used more to assist students with their weekly study of topics, legislation and cases. Unit Coordinator to review whether any further synthesis of key ideas can be made for each topic to further improve communication. Unit Coordinator to also identify whether members of the legal profession in this practice area would be interested in doing a podcast for distribution to students on the 'day to day' of being a property lawyer/judge.
In Progress
Source: SUTE Unit Data
Exceptional feedback for mid-term assessment was exceptional. Included extensive video for the cohort (with content), as well as tailored feedback for each student.
Unit Coordinator to maintain feedback format for future grading.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Explain the conceptual characteristics of land under Australian land law.
- Examine the principles and concepts in native title, possession, seisin and title, and the rule against perpetuities.
- Analyse and apply the Torrens system of land registration and the impact of e-technology pursuant to the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld).
- Analyse and apply the rights in land relating to concurrent ownership, leases, mortgages, and security interests in personal property under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth)
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Examination | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 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 | |