LAW3101: Administrative law 306

Examination with optional assignment (worth 40% in my year)

A lot of people find this subject boring but honestly I thought it was really interesting and fairly straightforward. The crux of the course involves challenging decisions of the executive and involves a lot of political tussling between the Courts and the Executive, which leads to some interesting policy issues. The course is structured a little bit back to front but ultimately you will learn about the main steps for seeking judicial or merits review of administrative decisions (e.g. decisions made by government bodies and specialist tribunals such as the Refugee Review Tribunal). It is more interesting than it sounds.

The exam involves a lot of statutory interpretation and will require you to read up on a short piece of legislation beforehand. Make sure you know it back to front before going into the exam. Unfortunately, because each exam is tailored to its particular legislation, it is difficult to do practice exams (as you won't have the legislation from those years).
Finally if you are interested in administrative law then I recommend taking part in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal moot which will give you practical insight into how merits review is conducted. It is also a very well run competition.

Changes each year.

Yes - but due to the nature of the subject it is difficult to do more than 1-2 past exams.

4 out of 5

Yes, with/without screen capture

Control of Government Action by Creyke and McMillan (prescribed)

3 hours of lectures per week + 1 hour tutorial every second week.

2013 sem 1

Option 1: Optional 2000 word essay (worth 40%) + end-of-semester exam (worth 60%)
Option 2: End-of-semester exam (worth 100%)

Best advice I got on this subject from my lecturer: don't freak out if at first you have no idea what's going on. It took me until about week 6 for everything to just click; only then did I start actually somewhat enjoying the subject.

Tutorials are optional and do not count towards your grade but I would advise that you attend them. This is a very legislative interpretation-intensive subject and takes some practice to get right.
It would help to do constitutional law before you tackle this subject but you won't be at a HUGE disadvantage if you don't.

Changes every year; I had Maria O'Sullivan who makes a sometimes very technical and boring subject seem... bearable. Also just a generally lovely person.
Have also heard good things about Colin Campbell.

Yes, at least one will always be available because the lecturers will go through it at the end of the semester.

Irrelevant, it's a compulsory subject anyway

Yes + video

Control of Government Action (the prescribed casebook); everything else, don't waste your money and get it from the library instead

3 hours of lectures per week; 1-hour OPTIONAL tutorial from week 6

2011 semester 2

For the love of god please give me a pass