LAWS1052: Introducing Law and Justice

10% Court Report, 20% Class Participation, 30% Case Note, 10% Research Exam, 30% Final Exam

None

ILJ is a course that many students find difficult and frustrating, however it imparts some really important skills and I feel that it is is a good introduction to law and is well balanced in terms of legal history and content. It certainly is a lot of work in comparison to other first year courses (such as Micro 1) however, if you can keep on top of the readings and do the online activities, it's not too bad. Trimesters have definitely made things cramped and rushed, but you can still definitely learn the required information in the time given. All the material is posted online, so it is easy to work at your own pace. The research component is very useful and engaging, although many students seemed to ignore it. Overall the course was enjoyable, but there were certainly frustrations. However, I feel this is expected when you study something that you have never really studied before.
Dao and Prue were both great and engaging.

5

3.5

No

Prue Vines and Dao Coorey (Research Tutorial)

Various things floating around, some lecturers more generous than others in terms of notes provided.

4

Law and Justice in Australia by Prue Vines (and the Torts textbook, although you can hold off until LAWS1061 to buy it, I don't see why you wouldn't purchase them at the same time, especially if you want to do the Introductory Moot).

2019 T1

88

Court and Tribunal Report - 10%
Extended Case Note - 30%
Class Participation - 20%
Research Exam - 10%
Final Exam - 30%

N/A

I think firstly, the biggest plus to law at UNSW is that the lectures are very small. You only really have about 30 people in your lecture, which is similar to a high school class, and makes it easier to engage and ask questions more. Being my first law course at university, it was very interesting to say the least. This purely stems from the fact that it wasn't really actual law but rather just legal history from like the 1600's and onwards. It covers topics such as Settlement, Glorious Revolution, England, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights, etc. I am not really a history fan at all so for me I found this course to be quite boring the entire term and struggled to get through it. However, it did get interesting in the very last week where we learnt about intentional torts and torts. This topic covered in the last week is a nice introduction to the following course in Term 2 called 'Torts'.

Law courses rarely have a tutorial but as this is the first law subject you take, you have a weekly tutorial which is focused on legal research skills and methods. It covers things like how to cite cases, use legal data bases, assisting in interpretating statutes, research methods/strategies, etc. I honestly thought this class was a semi waste of time as the whole class basically did nothing and we barely got through the content each week and ended up having to do it for 'homework', despite minimum assistance on how to actually complete the tasks. There is a workbook that you have to fill in each week and your tutor will check it 2-3 times in the term to see if you have completed the work. Although, I probably didn't use the time as effectively as possible, it's actually really important to pay attention as you need all these skills for the rest of your law degree.
The exam was okay although I personally thought it was a lot of work to do in 2 hours. The final exam includes a statutory interpretation question, which you have to prep for like 2 weeks in advance, an intentional torts problem and a choice of one essay. I tried to split all sections into 40 minutes each however, some sections took longer than others which left me with only 30 minutes to try and get a decent essay in. The research exam was also alright, although I felt underprepared. Questions were pretty straightforward if you had a look at past papers but it generally covers coming up with research strategies, case citation and looking at statutes (extrinsic/intrinsic material). However, there are some really odd questions in there as well. I think for this one question I had to just come up with a title relating to Aboriginal Rights for 1 mark, which imo is pointless. However, main plus side of the law exams is that they are open book! Yet, it can sometimes get overwhelming because you just have so much paper everywhere!

4 hours of lectures per week, 1 hour tutorial (research component)

3/5

No, attendance is compulsory as a roll is taken

Lecturer: Justice Selwyn Selikowitz, Tutor: Mr Colin Fong

Notes given by your lecturer, notes on Moodle, past papers, etc

2/5

Laws and Justice in Australia: Foundations of the Legal System by Prue Vines - you really need the textbook as all weekly readings are derived from there

T1 2019

DN