Unit Synopsis
Unlike prior units which focus on law as it is - 'black-letter' law - this capstone unit considers more theoretical, analytical, doctrinal and philosophical aspects of the entire law enterprise - a specialised societal subsystem. This unit canvasses several philosophical doctrines including: natural law, legal positivism, sociological context of law and economic analyses of the law. These and related topics are explored in this unit to enable you to integrate legal knowledge into the broad inter-disciplinary mainstream and equip you with enhanced practical legal reasoning skills.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
48 credit points of LAW units 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
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. Critical Review | 20% |
| 2. Take Home Exam | 40% |
| 3. Research Assignment | 40% |
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 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 41.67% 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: Unit Coordinator
Ongoing improvement of Schedule, Study Guides and Assessments
Continuous improvement of newly introduced materials will embed improvements into the unit.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator
Revise Reference Materials
Reference materials are important, extensive and varied in a theory unit such as this one, and require careful ongoing attention.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator
Connect legal theory and legal practice
Continue to highlight the connections between theory and practice, to support student learning and engagement.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator
Ongoing improvement of Schedule, Study Guides and Assessments
Continuous improvement of newly introduced materials will embed improvements into the unit.
Ongoing
Source: Unit Coordinator
Revise Reference Materials
Reference materials are important, extensive and varied in a theory unit such as this one, and require careful ongoing attention.
Ongoing
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Investigate and critically reflect on legal theories in light of their developments over ancient and modern times, considering relevant contemporary political and legal implications.
- Analyse the main theories of law canvassed in the unit, their ongoing relevance to contemporary legal systems, and critique the theories by drawing on relevant primary and secondary sources as well as prescribed readings.
- Implement critical reasoning to elucidate and argue theoretical implications in the relevant rhetorical styles: deductive reasoning, descriptive and normative reasoning, ethical reasoning and legal reasoning.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Critical Review | • | • | |
| 2 - Take Home Exam | • | • | • |
| 3 - Research Assignment | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |