LAW1111: Foundations of Law

- Closed-book Multiple Choice Test [assesses first four topics] (20%).
- Written Assignment/Court Report (30%).
- Library Research Quiz (5%).
- Take-home Exam (45%).

I found this unit to be relatively enjoyable (at times), but more importantly, a good introduction to studying law. You learn essential skills and information (especially legal research skills) for your other law units, and of course for future legal practice.

The first assessment you complete is the multiple choice test which you complete on your laptop, in class. If you study up on it and went to/took notes in lectures, you should be fine. The written assignment/court report is actually pretty fun, but make sure you know what you're doing is what's required; i.e. carefully read the instructions/FAQs/etc. The library research quiz is fairly/very easy - it's open-book, you have a week to complete it and can get into it and close it as many times as you want. The exam was probably the hardest assessment task for this unit. You have four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday) to complete it at home and it's open-book - however, the word limits can be a massive pain. It's also important that you plan out your answer(s) and if everything's doesn't 'click' immediately upon reading the paper, don't stress; read it again, annotate it, think about it, look at relationships, etc. It can take some time for you to fully understand how to go about completing the exam.

I thought Ross Hyams (my lecturer) was great; he's very knowledgeable and conducts his lectures in a tutorial-like format, so they're quite interactive.
Some topics within the unit can be quite dry (e.g. legal writing conventions), however since the unit is compulsory, you've just got to push through.

Ross Hyams (chief-examiner).

Yes.

3.75 out of 5

Only chief examiners' lectures recorded (w/ screen capture).

Realistically, you can get by without any of the prescribed textbooks; however I would recommend buying at least the custom Foundations of Law textbook if you want to do well on the multiple-choice test, and because it has some information that is 'assumed knowledge' in your other law units.

2x 2 hour lectures per week.

2017, Semester 1.

TBA.

Exam: 50% - not a hurdle task
Court Report 30%
Class Test on theory 20%
Research Task 10%

So obviously this is an introductory subject and is compulsory for all students doing the LLB at Monash. I am going to separate this review into four main parts to provide some pointers to avoid making the same mistakes I did: lecturers, workload, effort required and assessments. Since all law students will be doing this subject, I thought some pointers would be helpful!

Lecturers:
So not much to say here but to give credit to my lecturer, Jessie Taylor. She is a refugee lawyer and is compassionate; also very knowledgable and passionate about the law. Really pick her if you can. Extremely tough marker though.

I have also heard good stuff about the Chief Examiner, Ross.

Workload:
There is a lot of reading for this unit, for a first year subject I recond. It ranges from one chapter to excerpts from multiple chapters of the textbook (anywhere between 20 - 60 pages per week) but the slides provided by the lecturers (which are the same for all Streams) are comprehensive and may work as a substitute.
Also, I spent most of my time making chapter notes but if you want to reduce your workload make them succinct!

Jessie Taylor

A lot. But none of them have sample answers so they might as well be useless.

4/5

Yes, only Chief Examiner's lectures recorded

You must buy the prescribed compilation/custom-made textbook written by Ross. It is essential and you can't get away without it.

Also, Faculty Notes are amazing and you also definitely need it - they're $15.

2 x 1.5 hour "lecture-seminars"

Sem 1, 2015

71 D