Juris Doctor

Administrative law regulates the relationship between the state and its people, in other words, the relationship between the government and the governed. In particular, it regulates the powers and procedures of the executive branch of government and establishes the mechanisms for ensuring legality, transparency, accountability and integrity in executive decision-making. This subject completes the core curriculum’s examination of the legal framework of government in Australia. In doing so, it builds on and assumes the knowledge gained in all earlier compulsory subjects especially LAWS50024 Principles of Public Law and LAWS50028 Constitutional Law.

By providing students with a grounding in the key elements of Australian administrative law, this subject will assist students to think critically about how settler Australian governments exercise their constitutional powers. The study of administrative law will also enable advanced development of statutory interpretation skills in the particularly challenging context of administrative law.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The relationship between executive government and administrative law in the context of settler colonialism in Australia.

• Types of executive action, including the concept of discretion.

• The values and principles underpinning administrative law and administrative law institutions in Australia.

• Non-judicial means of holding the executive branch of government to account and promoting fairness and integrity in government, including:

  • The nature, role and function of Freedom of Information regimes in Australia;
  • The provision of reasons for administrative decisions;
  • Merits review; and
  • The impact of human rights protection on government powers and administrative law in Victoria.

• Judicial review of administrative decisions, including:

  • Avenues of judicial review of:

    • Commonwealth decisions: the Constitution; the ADJR Act; and the Judiciary Act; and
    • Victorian State decisions: O56, statutory ‘appeal’ provisions and the Administrative Law Act.

  • Standing to bring judicial review;

  • The concept of jurisdictional error and judicial review grounds;

  • Remedies and the consequences of unlawful decisions; and

  • Excluding/limiting judicial review.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject continues the analysis of the laws establishing and regulating the Australian state that began in LAWS50024 Principles of Public Law and that will continue in LAWS50032 Administrative Law. It is structured around the fundamental principles of Australian public law – constitutionalism, representative democracy, the separation of powers, federalism and individual rights – and uses them to examine more closely the institutions of Australian government – the courts, legislatures and the executive. (The examination of the executive branch and the principles of responsible government are taken further in Administrative Law).

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Introduction to Australian constitutions and to constitutional law;

• Representative Democracy:

  • Composition, powers and procedures of Australian Parliaments and their constituent chambers; and
  • Political rights and freedoms.

• Separation of powers:

  • Legislature and Executive; and
  • Judicial power.

• Australian Federalism:

  • Key features of the Australian federation;
  • Inconsistency of Commonwealth and State law;
  • The federal division of legislative power, including the scope of state legislative power and, in relation to federal legislative power, types of power, interpretation, characterisation, incidental power, selected heads of power for detailed study;
  • The federal division of executive power;
  • The federal division of judicial power including the concept of federal jurisdiction;
  • Governmental and inter-governmental immunities: statutory interpretation and constitutional principles; and
  • Economic union: finance, trade and free movement in the Australian federal system.

• Express rights and freedoms.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject studies:

• the content of contracts;
• the termination of contracts; and
• invalidating factors in contract formation.

The study of contract builds on the foundations laid in LAWS50026 Obligations. It covers express terms (and their interpretation) and implied terms. The study of termination includes termination for breach, for failure of condition, and by frustration, and touches on the proprietary consequences of contracts. The study of invalidating factors includes misinformation (mistake, misrepresentation, misleading conduct), abuse of power (duress, undue influence, third party impropriety, unconscionable dealing, and unconscionable conduct) and illegality.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is designed to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of companies and the legal principles that regulate the establishment, management and dissolution of companies in Australia. The subject is organised around 10 core concepts:

• Introduction to companies and the regulatory scheme;
• Incorporation and its effects;
• Managing companies;
• Duties and liabilities of directors and officers – framework of duties, duty to act in good faith and duty to act for a proper purpose;
• Duties and liabilities of directors and officers – duty of care;
• Duties and liabilities of directors and officers – loyalty;
• Shareholder actions;
• Corporate liability;
• Share capital; and
• Introduction to corporate insolvency.

Particular emphasis is placed in this subject on the management and control of companies. This necessarily involves an exploration of two key questions:

1. What are the legal responsibilities of those persons - directors and other officers - entrusted with the oversight and management of companies?
2. What can (in particular, minority or non-controlling) shareholders do to protect their interests in a company?

These questions are derived from the overwhelming concern of scholarship in the field of company law, which is to investigate the nature and ramifications of the relationships between those who manage or control companies, those who have supplied capital to companies and those who otherwise contract with companies.

View detailed information in the Handbook

There are many ways in which to construct the field of criminal law: it is related to public law in as much as it concerns the relation between the state and the citizen in democratic societies; it is related to the law of obligations (contracts and torts) but is concerned with public rather than private obligations; and it is related to legal theory in as much as it concerns the nature of the law that attributes responsibility. With this in mind, the field of criminal law is typically divided into substantive criminal law (the definition, prohibition and regulation of criminal activity by law) and criminal procedure (the processes, rules and principles of law governing the institutions of investigation, prosecution, trial and appeal within criminal jurisdictions). The central question is thus the question of attribution of responsibility.

The subject's approach is to emphasise the breadth of offences in the statute book and decision-making throughout the criminal justice system, including the role of courts in interpreting offence provisions, developing general doctrines and managing individual cases. These topics are developed through in-depth discussion of particular case studies (of specific offences, criminal justice policy debates, theoretical frameworks and/or contemporary or historical instances of criminal law). In doing so, the overall concern is to draw out the links and disjunctions within criminal law, between criminal law and other areas of law and between law and other fields of social regulation.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The formal structure of substantive criminal law, including the analysis of offences in terms of elements and the application of principles of statutory interpretation to offence provisions;
• The institutional arrangements of criminal procedure and their respective rationales, including the mechanisms for judicial and political control of the outcomes of those arrangements;
• Substantive offences – includes a selection of offences against the person and offences against property, as well as detailed studies of offences that have been the subject of critical debate or law reform efforts;
• Defences, including both defences that are generally applicable to offences and offence-specific exculpatory regimes; and
• Modes of criminal responsibility, including extensions of criminal responsibility, whether achieved through novel offence forms or general doctrines of criminal law.

In each instance, the subject addresses Australian criminal law, exploring the links and differences between the various domestic regimes and their place within comparative jurisdictions, whether local, foreign or international.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the theory and practice of civil dispute resolution and professional legal ethics. Students will develop a critical understanding of the operation of three key dispute resolution processes, namely, negotiation, mediation and litigation. Students will gain an appreciation of the role of lawyers in the resolution of legal disputes, in terms of the professional skills, ethical responsibilities and legal obligations involved, including an understanding of duties to the client, to fellow practitioners, and to the administration of justice. Through their experiences in a simulated civil dispute, and engagement with relevant doctrinal, socio-legal and jurisprudential literature, students will be required to reflect deeply on the processes and outcomes of civil disputes.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject fosters an advanced and critical understanding of equity and trusts, with a particular focus on the law of trusts. It builds on the foundational knowledge of equity and trusts acquired in the earlier compulsory subjects of Contract, Property and Obligations.

We begin by examining the nature and role of equity before turning to the trust as a distinctive legal institution and its functions in contemporary Australian society. Students will study the rules and principles governing the creation and validity of express trusts, including the law relating to charitable purpose trusts, and the ongoing debates about reform in this area.

We also consider the range of fiduciary relationships recognised in Australia, including the trustee-beneficiary relationship. We critically examine the duties owed by fiduciaries, including the fiduciary and non-fiduciary duties owed by trustees and we compare the law of fiduciary relationships in Australia to that of other Common Law jurisdictions. We also study resulting and constructive trusts, as well as a selection of equitable remedies.

Throughout, students will engage with contested questions of doctrine, policy, and principle, and will consider how equity and trusts intersects with the broader social, economic and political context, including that of settler colonialism. We address a wide range of issues that are presently unresolved and areas of ongoing contention.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Evidence and Proof offers a detailed exploration of how facts are analysed in legal settings, giving equal attention to the way that lawyers think about and communicate factual issues and the rules that regulate how courts resolve factual disputes. The subject provides a foundation for understanding both the rules that regulate the curial resolution of factual disagreements and the way that facts are approached in legal practice and in everyday life.

The core of the subject is the study of mental processes used to explore and resolve factual issues. Specific topics addressed are the development of a theory of the case and a description of inferences that can be used to reason from the evidence to the case. A number of methods for communicating factual analysis, including the use of software, may be studied, with an emphasis on both technical accuracy and the production of useful, readable analysis.

The subject will then explore the main rules that regulate (or purport to regulate) these mental processes (and related physical processes, such as the testimony of witnesses and the admission of documents and real evidence) when factual disputes are resolved by courts. The regulatory topics, comprising the central components of the law of evidence, include relevance, discretionary exclusion; the hearsay rule and its exceptions; the opinion rule and the regulation of expert evidence; and the credibility rule. The subject will also consider the rules that impact on the proof of criminal charges, including the rules on evidence of the defendant’s character and other misconduct; the admissibility of admissions; and the law of criminal investigations. The classes will emphasise the application of these rules to complex, realistic facts and the development of skills to describe the impact of legal regulation on factual arguments that would otherwise be available.

Throughout, the subject will explore the rationales for the rules and practices that surround legal fact-finding, as well as the alternative approaches available from comparative jurisdictions or proposed as law reforms. Students will be challenged to consider not only the limits of legal regulation, but also the limits of logical fact-finding, as a means of providing justice (and, in particular, avoiding miscarriages of justice) in a transparent, accountable, efficient and effective manner.

View detailed information in the Handbook

In this foundational subject, students will develop a critical understanding of the core elements of legal method and reasoning in Australia's common law legal system. Students in Legal Method and Reasoning will analyse the principal sources of law and the functions they perform in modern Australian society. The relationship between sources of law will be explored as will contemporary debates on common law method and the ways in which different sources of law have evolved.

Methodological issues will be considered in substantive contexts which give students an opportunity to develop an understanding of the social role of law. Throughout this intensively taught subject, students will have an opportunity to critically interrogate whether or not these sources of law, the institutions from which they are derived and the methodologies employed to develop binding rules and principles of law are in need of reform.

Students will be taught in interactive, discussion-oriented classes. Assessment tasks will be designed to give students detailed, formative feedback on the skills they have acquired in the subject.

Legal Method and Reasoning's emphasis is on the contemporary application of the rules and principles governing how the common law and statutory law operate. Given its foundational subject matter, this subject will prepare students for the compulsory subjects they undertake in their first full semester of studies.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Analysis of case law, with a focus on complex scenarios using common law reasoning;
• critical exploration of the concept and use of precedent;
• examination of the emergence of new principles;
• analysis of statutes, in practical, contemporary settings;
• critical exploration of statutory interpretation, with an emphasis on the use of interpretation legislation, the purposive approach and extrinsic materials;
• the relationship between statutes and case-law and between different statutes; and
• presumptions in statutory interpretation, including the principle of legality.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is a core element of the JD degree. It provides students in their final year with a capstone research experience, comprising several small-group research seminars at the beginning of semester and ongoing individualised research project supervision throughout the semester. The subject is offered in streams, with each stream devoted to a specialised area of legal inquiry. Students will have the opportunity to work closely with a member of the academic staff in pursuing a particular research interest, and to present their research orally before submitting the written essay for assessment.

Some Legal Research topics may have special eligibility requirements in addition to enrolment limits. Please review the Legal Research webpage for an up-to-date listing of topics and an overview of the application process.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Legal Theory examines the nature of law, its role in society, and its relationship to morality and politics.

The questions we investigate have productive historical and conceptual traditions but no settled answers, and students will be encouraged to critically evaluate their own and others’ theories and arguments. To this end, the subject will examine a range of approaches, and assist students to further develop skills in critical analysis, reasoning and argument. The subject enables students to develop and evaluate their thinking about a number of theoretical questions, drawing on a range of conceptual approaches to the study of law.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• jurisprudence;
• law, society and culture;
• authority, politics and rule of law; or
• law, morality and ethics.

These topics will be explored in the context of the plural traditions of legal theory, and by way of examples from debates about the character and role of law in society, both nationally and internationally.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject builds on and continues to develop skills introduced in the foundational subject Legal Method and Reasoning, including the close reading and critical analysis of cases and the interpretation and application of legislation. The substantive content of the subject considers the nature and foundations of the law of obligations through the study of four categories of private law obligation:

• Obligations arising from exchange transactions (contracts);
• The obligation not to mislead or deceive in trade or commerce (misleading conduct);
• The obligation not to cause harm through inconsistent conduct (estoppel); and
• The obligation to restore unjust gains (restitution for unjust enrichment).

Topics to be examined in detail will include:

• The nature of private law obligations and the relationship between obligations and property;
• The nature and foundations of contractual obligations;
• The formation of contracts (the requirements of agreement, consideration, intention to create legal relations, certainty and capacity);
• Formalities;
• The doctrine of privity (by whom and against whom contractual obligations are enforceable);
• The statutory wrong of misleading or deceptive conduct in trade or commerce;
• The principles of estoppel (the nature of equity, equitable and common law estoppels and the remedial effects of equitable estoppel); and
• The law of unjust enrichment (the nature of restitution for unjust enrichment, money claims, claims in respect of services and defences).

View detailed information in the Handbook

Principles of Public Law offers a foundation understanding of the fundamental principles of both domestic and international public law, in a manner that integrates the two as far as possible, to reflect their increasing interdependence in conditions of internationalisation and globalisation.

The subject will canvass the manner in which power is organised within a state; the framework of international law within which states operate; and the relations between people and states, from the standpoint of both domestic and international law. It will thus deal with institutions of government and their operation; principles and procedures for the protection of human rights; the sources of international and domestic law; and the relationship between them. The subject will seek to explain how the principles of public law came to take their current form; to encourage critical evaluation of them, from the standpoint of both theory and practice; and to identify evolutionary trends and forces for change.

The subject is primarily concerned with the development and application of the principles of public law in the context of Australia. Nevertheless, the curriculum will deliberately draw on experience elsewhere, particularly (although not exclusively) in other common law legal systems. The subject-matter will be illustrated throughout by reference to contemporary issues, both to aid understanding and to encourage students to develop an informed view on questions of current importance. It will provide a basis on which subsequent subjects may build, including the compulsory subjects Constitutional Law and Administrative Law and the optional but popular subject Public International Law.

Finally, the subject will contribute to the development of the legal and generic skills of the students enrolled in it. It will build on the material covered in Legal Method and Research with respect to case analysis, statutory interpretation, legal problem solving and the communication of legal ideas in written and spoken form. It will take special responsibility for the development of skills in relation to the understanding and application of statutes, which in any event is integral to the subject matter of public law.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the principles of real property in Australian law and examines the role of property law in defining and regulating relationships between private individuals, between the Crown and the public, and between the Crown and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the concept of property in historical, social and political context, including the origins of property in the English common law and the role of property law in the colonisation of Australia;
• foundational common law concepts of property, including possession and title;
• the fragmentation of proprietary interests in land, including the doctrines of tenure and estates;
• an overview of the legislative regime governing adverse possession of property;
• the history of Australian property law including the acquisition of radical title, Crown powers to deal with land, and the introduction of the Torrens system;
• attempts to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights to land in Australian law, including an overview of the native title framework;
• the nature, acquisition, disposal, enforceability and registration of proprietary interests in land under the Torrens system of title by registration;
• the nature, creation, disposal and enforceability of equitable property interests;
• various categories of non-possessory interests in land, including security interests, easements, and profits á prèndre; and
• rules for deciding priority between valid but conflicting interests in real property.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject studies the nature, goals and structure of private law remedies, and is organised around the remedial goals of compensation, perfection, vindication, disgorgement, restitution and punishment. The subject explores how and why these different remedial goals are accorded differing priority and/or are given effect in different ways across different areas of private law, specifically torts, contract and equity, thereby deepening the student's understanding of remedies and also the nature of each of these substantive fields of private law.

Students will engage with both doctrine and theory, moving between detailed case analysis and broader debates about justice, deterrence and policy. By studying remedies in this integrated way, students will develop a deeper understanding of how private law operates as a system, and of the choices judges and legislators make in shaping that system.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Compensation (compensatory (including aggravated) damages for breach of contract, tort and in equity);
• Perfection (debt, specific performance and injunctions);
• Vindication (damages in substitution of rights and vindicatory damages);
• Disgorgement and accounting for profits;
• Restitution (the measure of restitution; rescission; unjust enrichment);
• Punishment in private law (exemplary damages); and
• Statutory remedies.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores a core area of private law: the law of torts. It builds upon skills introduced in the foundational subject, Legal Method and Reasoning, with respect to the interpretation and application of both cases and statutes. The majority of the subject will focus on the tort of negligence. While traditionally a domain of the common law, the law of torts (especially negligence) has increasingly received attention from the legislature in all Australian states and territories. This area of law therefore provides an exciting and challenging opportunity to investigate the interaction (and, at times, tensions) between judge-made law and legislation. In addressing this interaction, students will consider the functions and objectives of tort law.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Aims and development of tort law in comparison to alternative approaches and statutory schemes;
• Trespass to land;
• Nuisance;
• Trespass to the person: assault, battery, and false imprisonment;
• Negligence, in detail (legally recognisable harms; duty of care; breach of duty; causation);
• Defences to torts: voluntary assumption of risk; contributory negligence;
• The allocation of losses including vicarious liability; and
• The calculation of damages (compensation) for personal injury.

View detailed information in the Handbook

“The British settlers took our land. No treaties were signed with the tribes. Today we are refugees. Refugees in the country of our ancestors.”Larrakia Petition to the Queen, 1972

This subject is an experiential and ‘On-Country’ learning experience, delivered on site on a chosen First Nations Country, as well as in classes taught on Wurundjeri Country at MLS. Through on Country experience and engagement with a range of organisations and practitioners, students will consider key and emerging issues of access-to-justice that lawyers must critically engage with in their work, with particular attention to First Nations justice.

Students in this subject will consider community understandings and aspirations of justice in the settler-colony, key barriers and debates in relation to enhancing public access-to-justice, emerging justice models and the ethical duties and interpersonal conduct of lawyers responding to these dynamics. As a group, we will seek to understand how to navigate barriers to access to justice together, including by questioning what justice really means and who gets to define it.

The subject will engage students in comparative analysis and critique of access to justice issues in the chosen jurisdiction and Country and in MLS’ ‘home’ context on Wurundjeri Country in Victoria. A series of seminars at MLS will introduce key themes of the subject and prepare students for the on-country component.

Students will then travel to the chosen jurisdiction/Country for approximately 10 days for the place-based-learning component of the subject. While there students will visit and hear from a range of justice and human rights organisations, including community, government and civil society organisations, as well as visiting sites of significance.

Students will be encouraged to consider their own positionality in relation to and complicity in barriers to access-to-justice within legal institutions. Students will be able to develop place-based connections and will be encouraged to learn through a variety of modalities, including reflective writing, place-based-learning and discussion.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The historic and contemporary context of Aboriginal justice in the Northern Territory and in Victoria
• Community understandings of justice – e.g. economic and social justice frameworks, recognition of Aboriginal law and justice systems, land justice and Treaty.
• Access to Justice policy in Australia e.g. publicly funded legal aid, emerging models for legal service delivery to reduce access-to-justice gaps
• The role of Aboriginal corporations and community-controlled organisations contributing to self-determined initiatives in the subject site.
• Recent developments in justice policy in the Northern Territory e.g the Aboriginal Justice Agreement
• Ethical obligations of lawyers to improve access to justice e.g. culturally-responsive and client-centred lawyering
• Students own positionality, including the office of the lawyer and its complicity in barriers to access-to-justice

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject studies a select number of advanced topics in the field of constitutional law. It builds on the concepts and ideas introduced in Principles of Public Law and Constitutional Law. The focus of study will be the Australian constitutional system, but the subject will draw on insights from other jurisdictions. The subject thus also provides an introduction to the field of comparative constitutional law, which seeks to understand and evaluate the purposes and functions of constitutions using comparative analysis.

The aim of the subject is to interrogate a number of fundamental questions that arise in the field of constitutional law. Should a constitution have a bill of rights and, if so, which type? How should courts decide cases? What checks and balances should be imposed on the exercise of public power? Are constitutions effective at protecting human rights and democratic government? How easy should it be for future generations to amend a constitution? The subject will study these questions by drawing on relevant scholarly writings and judicial decisions.

The first part of the subject will investigate one of the bedrock principles of the Australian Constitution: judicial review. It will consider whether it is legitimate for courts to review primary legislation for compatibility with the Constitution. In doing so, it will investigate why this issue has a different degree of salience in the United States. This comparison will provide an opportunity to consider the potential benefits and methodological difficulties associated with the study of comparative constitutional law.

The second part of the subject will examine a range of structural features of the Australian Constitution. In particular, it will analyse the justifications for, and specific aspects of, federalism and the separation of powers. This analysis will be supplemented by consideration of these features in other countries such as Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The third part of the subject will examine a range of rights-related features of the Australian Constitution. In particular, it will consider some of the provisions not considered in detail in Principles of Public Law and Constitutional Law, such as trial by jury (s 80) and freedom of religion (s 116), and what challenges might arise if a bill of rights was to be included in the Constitution. This part will look at the lessons that can be taken from the experience of countries such as Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

View detailed information in the Handbook

There has been a massive increase in the volume of statute law in Australian jurisdictions over the past century, with the result that statutes now play an important role in most areas of law and in the resolution of most appellate court cases. Yet there is widespread disagreement about the approach that should be taken to interpreting statutes. For example, should that approach focus on the text of the statute, the intentions of the legislature or the statutory purpose? Where textual considerations conflict with the statutory purpose, which should prevail? It is their differing answers to these questions that distinguish the main theories of statutory interpretation: textualism, intentionalism and purposivism.

Even more fundamentally, many of the key concepts in statutory interpretation are not well understood. For example, the High Court of Australia tells us that the duty of the court is to give the words of the statute their “legal meaning”, but what is “legal meaning"? Similarly, what is statutory purpose, and how does it differ from legislative intent? For that matter, what is meant by “legislative intent”, and is there any such thing as an intention of the legislature as a whole?

This subject aims to explore these issues in depth, building on students’ understanding of statutory interpretation developed in previous subjects. This subject will have a theoretical focus, analysing fundamental concepts employed in, and theoretical debates about, statutory interpretation. It will use this theoretical focus to critically evaluate the approach taken by Australian courts, and to shed light on the way in which statutes operate in the contemporary Australian legal system.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores a core area of private law, being the law of torts. It aims to broaden and deepen students' knowledge and understanding of the law of torts in three ways. First, it looks at a range of topics that are not usually covered, at least not in any detail, in the first-year course. Second, the subject examines broader theoretical debates as to the nature and function of tort law, and how particular torts figure in these debates. Third, it examines case law related to these topics from other common law jurisdictions in addition to Australian materials.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• theoretical accounts of tort law;
• the structure of tort law;
• economic torts;
• defamation;
• breach of privacy and statutory duty;
• misfeasance in public office and malicious prosecution;
• trespass to goods and conversion, false imprisonment, deceit;
• vicarious liability and non-delegable duty;
• damages and other remedies for torts;
• alternative compensation systems;
• comparative perspectives on tort law; and
• contentious and emerging issues in the law of torts.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides the opportunity for students to explore in depth the theoretical and practical issues concerning trusts law. This subject builds upon JD compulsory subject LAWS50033 Equity and Trusts by providing students with the opportunity to deepen and intensify their comprehension and analysis by focusing in particular on two specific contexts: the domestic arena of private estate planning, and commercial transactions.

In the context of private estate planning, the subject will examine how private trusts are utilised to manage family wealth, including in the ‘offshore’ world. Among the issues to be explored are the theoretical and practical aspects of how trusts may be used to protect assets, the control of trustees’ discretions, the impeachment of the exercise of trustee powers, and the rights of objects of trusts.

In the commercial context, the subject will examine the extent to which trusts and related concepts underlie, constrain, or promote commercial devices. Among the issues to be explored are the theoretical and practical aspects of creditor trusts, unit trusts, constructive trusts, and equitable assignments.

By comparing commercial trusts with private trusts, we will also be asking whether there are any significant differences in the way in which the trust device is used, in particular in relation to the rights, powers, and duties of trustees and beneficiaries. Finally, we will consider some issues surrounding international aspects of the trusts. This may include trusts in the conflict of laws or trusts in civil law jurisdictions.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The enforcement and protection of legal rights and interests ultimately depends on legal proceedings in courts and tribunals. Many if not most legal proceedings revolve around issues of fact, and in an adversarial context this means the presentation of competing versions of contentious events and the attempt by each of the parties to persuade the tribunal of fact to accept a version of events which would entitle them to the remedy or outcome sought by their client.

The focus of this subject is on the development of the specialised skills and expert judgment needed for this crucial aspect of legal practice, which can broadly be described as trial advocacy (as distinct from appellate advocacy). Effective trial advocacy requires a broad, complex and diverse set of skills, ranging from the ability to develop and present a persuasive narrative (both in an address and by examining a witness) to the ability to force an opposing witness to make concessions that will advance the party's case.

Advocacy enables students to develop this set of skills in a supportive workshop environment. Topics covered will include the adversary process; the role of the trial advocate; the development of case theories, themes and labels; opening and closing addresses; and witness examination including examination-in-chief and cross-examination. Students will be required to plan and conduct a variety of advocacy exercises.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The subject examines the law as it affects non-human animals and their relations with humans in historical, social and ecological context. The subject covers a range of different ways in which private and public law impact on animals including as property to be owned, potential dangers to be controlled, companions to be shared, having rights and interest to be protected, as workers in a variety of fields and as resources that are used in industry, science and entertainment, as unwanted pests and as inhabitants of the wild, vulnerable to climate change, disaster and biodiversity loss.

The first part of the unit will investigate foundational questions about the legal status of animals in historical, theoretical and doctrinal perspective. Theoretical perspectives to be covered will include animal welfare, animal rights, eco-feminism, and wild law. Doctrinal perspectives will include property law, trespass, nuisance, negligence, family law, and criminal law. The second part will investigate ways in which legal policy concerning animals is evolving through case law, legislation, international law-making and advocacy on behalf of animal interests. Law reform topics will include whether and how the law should grant rights to animals, reforms to animal welfare regulation concerning and the use of animals for food, textiles, entertainment, hunting, and scientific testing, ways in which family law, criminal law, and tenancy law are changing to recognise companion animals as having unique and valuable relations with humans, and international efforts to protect domestic and wild species for environmental, biosecurity and animal welfare reasons.

Students will have the opportunity to traverse a wide range of substantive law areas and to critically examine whose interests and which social, ecological and economic values the law protects in different contexts and times and how this can change. The jurisdictional focus of the course is Australia, with some comparison with other jurisdictions and times, as well as international law.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The concept of climate justice recognises that the risks of climate change are not shared equally. The burden of extreme weather events and more frequent and severe natural disasters, as well as the burdens of mitigation, fall disproportionately on those who are already economically or socially vulnerable.

These impacts are both direct and indirect. Insurance and consumer law problems, tenancy and housing, employment problems and increased rates of family violence can all be caused or exacerbated by climate change. Health impacts can intersect with and compound legal problems. Understanding these issues and recognising the climate-related issues and impacts across all areas of legal practice will be essential for tomorrow’s lawyers.

The Climate Resilience Clinic provides students with the opportunity to work with communities to prepare them for and assist them in the aftermath of climatic events. They will develop the practical legal skills and theoretical understandings required to become lawyer who understands the breadth of law relevant to climate change, and capable of using the law for the benefit of communities that are affected by climate change.

Students will undertake 12 days of clinical work based at Melbourne Law School under the supervision of the clinic coordinator and partner organisations. Students will use and refine the legal knowledge and skills acquired during their degree to undertake work on real legal issues and provide meaningful assistance to real clients. In doing so, students will be exposed to the realities of ‘climate conscious’ legal practice and will reflect on the implications of this for the role of the law and their place in it.

Students’ practical work will be complemented by timetabled seminars (held on clinic days) on relevant doctrinal learning and theoretical perspectives. Clinic time will also be allocated to skills sessions as appropriate.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Climate and disaster justice – history, theory and evolution
• Direct and indirect legal issues arising following extreme weather events
• Legal preparedness and climate resilience – preventing legal issues
• Health harming impacts of climate change – interdisciplinary perspectives
• Skills: strategic advocacy, research and policy, community legal education
• Understanding the broader climate justice movement and engaging with non-legal community agencies

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

Globally, data is gaining prominence as the commercial asset of value. It is the use of data that provides a competitive advantage, it is through data that new commercial opportunities are identified and the misuse of data, or data breach, can threaten a company’s reputation and value. What rights exist in the data that is collected or created by an organisation? What responsibilities are owed to those from whom data is collected or to whom it relates? How does that change if data is altered so that it (no longer) relates to persons in identifiable form? How can the interests held in valuable commercial data be protected? How do other countries and cultures treat these issues?

In Commercial Data Law, students will be encouraged to reflect upon the rights that are held in data of different kinds and how those rights can be or might be protected under Australian law. We will consider the issues raised across the life cycle of data from creation through to destruction, including the issues of ownership, protection, security, licensing, infringement, access and destruction. Consideration of rights and responsibilities associated with privacy, property, contract, and intellectual property will be enlivened through hypothetical scenarios informed by the experiences of a lawyer in practice.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Ownership, intellectual property, copyright, trade secrets and database rights
• Data creation by employees cf. independent contractors
• Enhancements and derived data
• Data Sharing and Disclosure
• Contract, licensing and infringement
• Consumer Data and Personal Information
• Statutory and Common Law Privacy and Data Protection
• Access and Portability
• Security, Retention and Destruction
• International and Cross Border Transfer
• International standards, including EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will examine, from an advanced and specialist point of view, the rules, principles and practices of commercial law. An underlying theme will be the way in which the different academic categories of law blend and interact in the commercial world.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the legal building blocks of commercial law – for example sale of goods, loans, guarantees, hire;
• the commercial transfer of assets – for example sale of goods, assignment of contractual rights and novation;
• common commercial contract clauses and their significance; Standard and alternative financing techniques;
• issues of substance and form in commercial transactions, including the Personal Property Securities Act;
• practical aspects of executing commercial transactions; and
• how corporate insolvency influences the structure of commercial transactions.

This subject aims to equip students with an expert knowledge of the major areas of law within the field as well as integrating new practical skills, including those involved in planning a transaction, reviewing documents, assessing the interplay and implications of common law and statutory regimes.

Within the various topics, students will also consider a comparative law analysis.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Competition law concerns the preservation and promotion of competition in Australia. As a critical component of micro-economic policy, this field of law is underpinned by economic theory and is primarily (though not exclusively) driven by economic goals. This subject focuses on the regulation of anti-competitive practices under Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). In particular, it examines the regulation of mergers and acquisitions, the misuse of market power, and horizontal and vertical restraints.

This subject also addresses the policies and practices involved in enforcing competition law and considers contemporary global competition law and policy issues and some international and comparative perspectives. This subject not only ensures that students have an advanced understanding of the technical aspects of this legal specialty, it also enables them to critically analyse the law from both policy and practical perspectives and introduces them to an interdisciplinary approach in the study of law, through the introduction and application of economic concepts and theories in a legal context.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject critically explores the complex legal regulation governing sexual conduct in both criminal and civil law contexts.

We delve into important concepts such as consent, belief in consent in the criminal law and the concept of unwelcomeness in the civil law, analysing how these principles are interpreted and applied in contemporary legal practice. We take an interdisciplinary approach, integrating legal theory with practical application, allowing students to gain a robust understanding of both the theoretical underpinnings and real-world implications of these legal concepts.

Students will engage with recent legal developments, high-profile cases, and the evolving societal attitudes towards sexual misconduct, particularly in light of movements like #MeToo. The subject is designed to equip students with the analytical tools needed to navigate and influence this dynamic and socially significant area of law.

Please note - because our subject addresses sexual crimes, misconduct, harassment and other potentially inappropriate sexual conduct, some topics and material covered in classes and in the readings may be confronting or distressing.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Historical context of legal regulation of sexual conduct.
• Sexual crimes - consent and belief in consent – the traditional approach, the ‘communicative’ consent model, and the ‘affirmative’ consent model.
• Development of legal regulation of sexual harassment – the #MeToo movement.
• The current law concerning sexual harassment.
• The Lehrmann litigation and other high profile current controversies.
• Practical remedies and problems.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the specialised field of construction law. Whilst the focus is primarily upon the domestic Australian law, many of the key themes and legal principles are encountered internationally; thus, an understanding of construction law in its comparative context will also be engendered.

The subject develops and integrates legal knowledge from across many sub-disciplinary fields (e.g. contract law and torts law), augmenting this through study of specific case law and legislation, and relevant multidisciplinary knowledge, to build an understanding of the complex interactions that define construction law.

Topics addressed will range from the common law and statutory landscape applying to construction law, through project procurement strategies and the specific legal issues which typically occur on projects (including unforeseen site conditions, work scope variation, time delays and payment claims), to means by which disputes can be avoided, managed and resolved.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will introduce students to the principal rights and obligations created by the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and their equivalent in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act). The ACL is a generic law operating Australia wide, developed to protect the interests of consumers. It was introduced in 2010 in the form of Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Law 2010 although it has antecedents dating back to the State and Territory sale of goods acts and the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974.

The focus of the subject is on the current law. However, the policy and economic underpinning of the ACL are also considered, as are some of the current debates concerning consumer protection. The subject has a practical orientation, designed to assist students: as consumers - to know, understand and pursue their rights; and as lawyers to equip them to advise consumers and business suppliers of their rights and obligations and assist regulators to effectively carry out their responsibilities.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Consumer protection in Australia and introduction to the ACL
• Policy objectives of the ACL and the economics of consumer protection
• Misleading or deceptive conduct
• False or misleading representations
• Unconscionable conduct
• Unfair contract terms
• The consumer guarantees regime
• Consumer transactions
• Product safety
• Manufacturers’ liability
• Enforcement and remedies

View detailed information in the Handbook

Copyright protection is the law’s primary mechanism for incentivising for the generation of creative subject matters (such as works of literature, art, music and film), and for regulating the use of such subject matters by others. Design registration is the law’s primary mechanism for providing proprietary rights over the appearance of a mass-produced object. This subject explores in detail the law, policy, theory and practice of the copyright regime, of the design registration system, and of the relationship between the two.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The international framework for protection of creative subject matters and designs;
• The theories of intellectual property;
• The subject matters capable of protection by copyright;
• The requirements for copyright protection to arise;
• The exclusive rights granted by copyright;
• The infringement, and the defences to infringement, of copyright;
• The subject matter of, and requirements for, design registration;
• The scope of protection provided by design registration; and
• The regulation of dual protection under copyright and design registration.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject equips students with creative thinking skills essential for modern legal practice. While legal education traditionally focuses on analytical reasoning and precedent, the complexities of contemporary law increasingly demand innovation, adaptability, and lateral thinking. This subject provides students with practical tools—such as design thinking, visual mapping, improvisation, and storytelling—to approach legal problems in imaginative and human-centred ways.

Through interactive workshops, collaborative projects, and reflective practice, students will explore how creative thinking enhances legal problem-solving, advocacy, professional identity, and ethical decision-making. Students will analyse assumptions embedded in legal reasoning, develop persuasive visual and narrative-based legal arguments, and work collaboratively to generate innovative solutions to complex legal scenarios.

This subject supports the development of key graduate attributes including creativity, adaptability, collaboration, and reflective judgment.

By fostering confidence in creative and strategic thinking, this subject prepares students to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving legal profession—and to imagine what lawyering could become.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Introduction to Creative Thinking in Law
• Creativity and AI
• Problem-Solving through Creativity
• Mind Mapping for Legal Analysis
• Collaborative Creativity
• Storytelling and Persuasion
• Creativity and Well-being
• Visual Communication in Law
• Improvisation for Lawyers
• Applying Creativity to Legal Writing
• Innovation in Legal Practice
• Integration and Reflection

View detailed information in the Handbook

Criminal law takes place in institutions. This subject studies the various public institutions that make up the official landscape of contemporary criminal law. It moves from police and prosecution offices, via anticorruption agencies and Royal Commissions, to courts and their procedures of trial and appeal, and thence to correctional prisons and allied custodial environments such as offshore detention regimes. Throughout, the central theme is the laws of criminal procedure and the ecology of institutional forums and officials that compose contemporary law. As French CJ remarked in his 2016 speech “Criminal Law in the 21st Century”, “criminal law engages the legal system generally …. criminal lawyers cannot live in silos.”

The studies of criminal institutions provide an in-depth treatment of their complex problems, procedures and forms of knowledge. Our central concern is with what contemporary criminal law is doing, how it does so and why. In addressing this concern, the course moves from institutions of inquiry and investigation, to institutions of court and adjudication (committals, trials and appeal), and then institutions of sentencing, punishment and detention. Three questions provide orientation throughout:

1. How do institutions of criminal law interact with and are affected by the conduct of other legal and social institutions?
2. How are criminal procedures to be understood in relation with rule, law and administration?
3. How are the lives of criminal lawyers lived with legal institutions?

These questions are developed in comparative and transnational contexts through the study of specific topics, which may be drawn from the following:

• adversarial and non-adversarial styles of criminal law
• commissions of inquiry, royal commissions, and anti-corruption agencies
• a privilege against self-incrimination and the accusatorial character of criminal trial
• police investigation techniques, and the audio-visual recording of confessions
• committal proceedings and case management
• the lives of criminal lawyers: defence lawyers and prosecution offices
• criminal trials: order in court
• criminal trials: sexual assault
• the performance of the trial: the authority and responsibility of the judge
• miscarriages of justice: appeals, experts and wrongful convictions
• sentencing, appeals and aboriginal disadvantage
• youth detention and youth justice
• hyperlegality: prisons, prisoners and immigration detention
• institutions of criminal law reform: commissioning institutions, procedures and officials

In-class teaching focuses on argument, advocacy and theoretical discussion through the close reading of texts. Invited speakers from a sample of criminal institutions studied will supplement, where possible, the in-class discussion. Assessment is designed to enhance research skills in criminal law, as well as explore topics of student interest in depth.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will examine, from an advanced and specialist point of view, the rules applicable to the court determination of cross-border disputes in Australia, in particular the issues of civil jurisdiction (including both the existence and discretionary exercise of jurisdiction), applicable law (focusing on the areas of tort and contract) and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The subject will examine both transnational and intra-federal disputes. This subject aims at equipping students with an expert knowledge of the major topics within the field as well as integrating new skills in international and comparative analysis.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The purpose of this subject is to give students an advanced and integrated understanding of (1) the ways in which commercial deals are structured; (2) the ways in which core legal principles from a range of law subjects are relevant to commercial deals; and (3) the role that lawyers perform when advising on and executing commercial deals and the skills that they require for this purpose. The issues are considered within the context of a business acquisition in Australia. Students will critically analyse the ways in which a business acquisition is structured and the applicable legal issues that arise in areas such as contract, property, torts and company law. Drawing on the theories of scholar such as Ronald Gilson, students will consider the role of business lawyers as transaction cost engineers and the technical and professional challenges that they face in performing this role.

This subject is of particular interest to students seeking to practise commercial law.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will consider the complex challenges involved in regulating civil liberties in a democratic state. The subject will focus on the ways in which legal protection for civil liberties may enhance democracy.

The topics covered in this course include:

• A theoretical framework of democracy and civil liberties;

• How the law protects liberty and democracy; and

• How the law regulates fundamental freedoms and political rights such as:

  • citizen participation in elections;
  • freedom of expression in a democracy;
  • freedoms of assembly and protest;
  • freedom of association; and
  • equality and non-discrimination rights.

Case law from Australia and the United States concerning specific examples of the conflict between the protection of civil liberties and government policy will be examined. Case studies will include government leaks and the right of citizens to be informed about state activities, how government control of protest and dissent limits political participation, and the banning of political organisations in the name of state security. These case studies will consider the tensions between freedom and democracy, and the way law both protects and restricts civil liberties.

The subject will adopt an interdisciplinary and comparative approach by drawing upon literature in political philosophy, political science and historical studies. The subject canvasses competing conceptions of liberty, equality and democracy, aiming to critically analyse law’s regulation of civil liberties in a democratic context.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the economic analysis of the law as a set of tools for analysing the effect legal rules have on the way people behave. The subject explores the extent to which the principles of economics can be used to explain the workings of the legal system itself. Students will learn how to construct and critique basic economic models of the incentive/pressure associated with different legal rules and institutions.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the Coase theorem
• the choice between property and liability rules
• the allocative effects of alternative liability rules (e.g. strict liability versus negligence)
• the determination of remedies in civil claims (e.g. contract, tort)
• considerations behind criminal law and enforcement
• the economics of legal procedure
• public choice.

Particular attention is paid to applying economic analysis to contemporaneous legal and policy controversies in Australia and Asia-Pacific.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will be taught intensively in Shanghai and Hong Kong with the support of various host institutions and will examine, from an advanced and specialist perspective, economic and commercial law in Asia by reference to key transactions and key areas of substantive law, including:

• Trade and investment law;
• International commercial arbitration;
• Corporate law including business vehicles, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions;
• Property law;
• Finance and insolvency; and
• Economic and business law reform.

The subject aims to equip students with an expert knowledge of key areas of economic and commercial law governing transactions in Asia, including the role of lawyers and the practical skills that they require in order to perform their role effectively. Through learning about the law governing transactions in selected Asian jurisdictions, students will develop an ability to examine law from a comparative perspective and will gain an advanced, integrated understanding of the nature of commercial practice in the region. The teaching methodology will incorporate a transactions-based, skills-based approach and will be enhanced through guest lectures from commercial law practitioners in Asia and representatives of host institutions.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Employment Law is an increasingly diverse and complex field of legal regulation governing employment and industrial rights and obligations. In Australia, it comprises the common law of contract and several overlapping statutory schemes including principally the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), Commonwealth and State equal opportunity legislation, and work health and safety statutes. These different legal frameworks can only be fully understood and appreciated in their industrial, economic, social, political and public health contexts. Those contexts include international influences, dynamic federal-state relations, the tradition of Australian industrial relations with its values of industrial justice, strategic decision-making and advocacy of industrial associations, labour market trends, social movements of equality, and new forms of business and work organisation.

This subject explores the field of employment law in detail, with a focus on the processes of law-making and intersections between different sources of rights and obligations. Dispute resolution and enforcement in the field of employment law poses particular challenges, across the different statutory frameworks, and these matters will also be examined.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the common law framing of contracts of employment and the contracting arrangements of independent contractors and the self-employed;
• various aspects of the common law contract of employment including express and implied duties of employers and employees;
• international labour conventions;
• the constitutional framework underlying the Fair Work Act;
• statutory standards under the Fair Work Act regarding unfair dismissal, minimum wage rates, hours of work and leave;
• the regulation of employment rights and working conditions by modern awards and enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act;
• the regulation of issues of discrimination, bullying and harassment under the Fair Work Act and discrimination and harassment under equal opportunity legislation; and
• the regulation of work health and safety.

This subject will also examine a number of thematic issues, chosen from topics such as the rights of non-standard workers, fair and equal treatment at work, safety at work, work-life intersections, trade unions and freedom of association, employment security, compliance and enforcement, and employment law responses to economic and organisational restructuring, such as those arising in the gig economy.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the domestic and international dimensions of environmental and climate change regulation. It develops and integrates legal knowledge from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields (e.g. administrative law and torts law; environmental science and geography), augmenting this through study of specific legislation, treaties and international instruments, and case law to build an understanding of the interactions that define environmental law.

The subject addresses the philosophical and Indigenous understandings of place, values and principles that underpin environmental decision-making, structures of environmental governance and modes of environmental regulation, and the intersections of domestic and international environmental law.

The domestic, international and comparative topics and case studies considered throughout the subject provide students with an understanding of recent developments and controversies in this dynamic area. The first week of teaching will cover general environmental law sources and principles, as well biodiversity and animals. The second week will focus on climate change.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject examines the development, operation and future of anti-discrimination laws in Australia. In the absence of constitutional protection for equality in Australia, this is the major method of protecting people with specific attributes from discrimination. The course examines the capacities and limitations of law in trying to change broad social behaviour patterns in wide ranging areas of activity such as work, education, and supply of goods, services and accommodation. The introduction to the subject includes consideration of the ideas of equality and discrimination, and theories about their causes and remedies. Over time, emphasis has moved from a focus on discrimination to the underlying aim of promoting equality. The subject examines the opportunities and difficulties of operating within a federal system, critically analyses the effectiveness of anti-discrimination law in reducing inequality in Australia, and where relevant contrasts Australian law with other approaches. Current issues and reforms will be considered.

The subject aims to develop expertise in the current legislative approaches and their development and a critical understanding of the historical and theoretical foundations of the law, and to evaluate its effect, including through international comparison. It considers how effective law has been in changing social practices and eliminating discrimination, and whether alternative approaches offer better prospects.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject offers students an opportunity to critically examine in detail a major legal family that is radically different from the common law. Class based discussion of the core features of the (European) civil law is built upon through independent and in-depth research exercises into selective aspects of this major family of law in the Western world today. This subject allows students to gain a deeper, and integrated, understanding of Australian law and, more generally, critically reflect upon the common law against a contemporary backdrop of globalisation. The growing importance of the legal order of the European Union will be a particular feature of examination as will be the current state of play as regards the scholarly debates concerning the various theories of convergence and divergence between legal systems. With respect to the latter, writings by outspoken scholar and critic Pierre Legrand will be scrutinised.

Principal topics include:

• Comparativism and the comparative method (with particular emphasis on the problem of transplantability);
• historical formation of the Romano-Germanic family of law (commencing with the fall of the Roman empire in the West in 476);
• codes and codification (including a study of the 19th century conditions favouring codification and their contemporary relevance together with close scrutiny of the core features of 'substantive' – as distinct from 'formal' – codes);
• selected case studies (with particular attention to core components of the law of obligations – i.e. tort and contract – as well as post-codification developments – e.g. social and consumer protection law);
• impact of the legal order of the European Union as a source of supra-national law (with special focus on the tensions between so-called deepening and widening in the European integration movement as well as the distinction between the ‘written’ and 'unwritten' laws of the Union); and
• theories of convergence and divergence (including their implication for the future study and development of Australian law).

View detailed information in the Handbook

The Executive Branch Research Lab fosters innovative, practice-led JD legal research into the largest and most elusive branch of the constitutional order: the executive. Against a background of tuition in core concepts and practices relevant to study of the contemporary executive branch – including the political philosophies of the ‘welfare state’ and ‘neoliberalism’, the centrality of contracting to contemporary governmental practice, and how to understand the ideal of the rule of law in relation to different executive branch activities – the Lab will support enrolled students to acquire the academic and practical skills needed to pursue research on and analysis of the contemporary executive branch ‘in action’.

Engaging closely with participating faculty, and working together on group projects, enrolled students will receive training to undertake such activities as supporting the work of under-resourced legal and social sector organisations through the production of targeted research outputs, making submissions to parliamentary and law reform inquiries, writing analyses on issues arising from current executive branch practices for public circulation, and participating in ongoing (year-to-year) research projects convened under the auspices of the Lab.

Indicative list of principal topics for the core academic component of the Research Lab:

• The Australian ‘administrative state’ over time
• The ‘welfare state’ in theory and action
• ‘Neoliberalism’ in theory and action
• Thinking about constitutionalism and the rule of law in relation to contemporary executive branch practices
• Research and writing workshops relevant to specific projects

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject aims to encourage a broad and sophisticated understanding of, and critical thinking about, contemporary Australian family law, by drawing on recent debate, research, and legal and policy developments in the area, focusing on parenting and financial disputes on relationship breakdown. A key goal is to consider legislation and case law in the context of empirical and other research literature from Australia and overseas to explore law in action. This is a particularly important goal given the importance of social sciences knowledge and professional skill in family law practice, research, policy and reform.

Family law is a rapidly changing area of law. Specific areas of emphasis throughout the subject will be influenced by contemporary developments. However, in broad terms here is an indicative list of the principal topics we will cover:

• Relationship recognition and flow-on impacts of this in family law;
• Post-separation parenting law and process;
• Family violence and family law: the relevance of family violence to both process and the substantive law (parenting and financial disputes);
• Child support;
• Property division on marriage and de facto relationship breakdown; and
• Spouse/partner maintenance.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The delivery of legal services is undergoing rapid and deep change. Technology, client expectations, service delivery models outside the conventional law firm approach and generational change have all transformed the legal profession. There is increasing recognition of the ways in which Australia’s legal systems have been built on a foundation that systematically erases Indigenous Law and perspectives. Future lawyers need to be able to understand and respond to these challenges and to develop new understanding, skills and approaches to their work.

This subject will examine current and future changes in the delivery of legal services and legal work and identify and develop key skills and approaches that graduates will require to succeed professionally and personally in their future working lives and to achieve justice for clients and communities. Students will critically examine the structural barriers to access to justice and legal empowerment that are created by both traditional legal service provision models and lawyers’ skillsets.

Students will engage with current literature on the future of legal work, the changing role of the lawyer, navigating complexity, building creativity, empathy and emotional intelligence, indigenous cultural competency and safety, intercultural understanding, unconscious bias and personal and professional wellbeing and resilience. Underpinning this approach is the recognition that students need to understand and articulate their own standpoint and develop their awareness and capacity to engage respectfully, effectively and safely with others.

This subject will have a substantial experiential learning focus. Students will develop a deeper appreciation of the need for and process of professional identity formation, the role of reflective practice, giving and receiving feedback and peer support in enhancing personal wellbeing and as part of a sustainable practice in the law.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of some of the current legal, regulatory and ethical issues that arise in relation to promoting and protecting human health at an individual and population level. The subject aims to give students a sense of the breadth of the field that is ‘health law’ and to introduce them to some of the different ethical approaches commonly applied in this area, including utilitarianism, human rights, ethics of care, principle-based ethics and Kantian ethics. The subject will address the initial question of what it means to be ‘healthy’ and the appropriate role for law and regulation in in securing ‘good health’ before examining selected health law issues using an ethical framework.

At the individual level, students will have an opportunity to examine a range of current health dilemmas that arise from pre-birth to end of life decisions. Recent developments in reproductive medicine raise important ethical and legal questions about the status of the embryo, the welfare of the child to be born and the role of the state in regulating reproductive choice. Controversial topics include abortion, access to assisted reproductive treatment, selective reproduction, surrogacy and donor conception. Throughout a human lifetime, a myriad of health care decisions arise for an individual. Some of these can be challenging, particularly when the individual has diminished capacity or mental health issues. The subject will outline the doctrine of informed consent before giving students an opportunity to explore decision-making in complex cases.

The subject also introduces students to the notion of population health and some of the types of measures that are taken outside of health care settings in order to ensure the society’s health. Attention will be given to domestic and international legal mechanisms for responding to a range of communicable diseases (for example, Ebola and Zika viruses) and non-communicable diseases, such as those related to lifestyle factors (for example, tobacco use). The subject will also examine the domestic and international legal mechanisms available for ensuring that a society has a functioning health care system. In this context, students will study the role that international and domestic human rights law, in particular the right to health, play in securing access to quality health care goods and services.

View detailed information in the Handbook

International human rights law is a rapidly developing specialty area of public international law, which presents legal advocates with a very particular set of theoretical and practical challenges. Among them are issues associated with the origins of rights; the purported ‘universality’ of human rights; the treatment of marginalised groups (like refugees, women, children, the elderly, indigenous peoples, sexual minorities, and people with disabilities); the challenges associated with enforcing human rights at the international, regional and domestic level; the justiciability of economic and social rights; the balancing of conflicting rights and the application of human rights law during periods of armed conflict. There is also the vexed question of how to hold private actors, especially multi-national corporations, accountable for violations of human rights.

The focus of this subject is on how international human rights law either responds to, or being developed to respond to, these challenges. It is principally concerned with the core international human rights treaties and the work of United Nations Charter institutions, particularly the Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures. The subject aims to equip students with the skills necessary to engage with the international human rights system, so that they are able make a contribution to addressing the challenges associated with the protection of international human rights in the years to come.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will be taught intensively through a combination of pre-travel preparatory classwork as well as travel to Aotearoa-New Zealand.

The subject aims to equip students with expert knowledge on current Indigenous legal issues in Aotearoa and Australia, including contemporary treaty Issues and the influence of Indigenous law in settler legal systems. Comparative perspectives on the ways in which Indigenous law is recognised, taught and practised will be emphasised. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the ways that settler law does and does not recognise Indigenous law and Indigenous law-making authority in these legally pluralistic countries. We will learn from Indigenous scholars and community leaders about strategies for asserting Indigenous law as part of self-governance, and the place of concepts of legal theory, legal traditions, sovereignty and territory in these debates.

The focus of the subject will be on the following key areas of substantive law, including:

• Tikanga Māori (Māori law) in Aotearoa-New Zealand’s legal system, and the law of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia.
• Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) and agreement making between Iwi, hapu and settler governments, and Australian treaty-making processes and agreement making with traditional owner communities.
• The theory and practice of Legal Pluralism in Aotearoa-New Zealand and Australia.
• Special topics and contributions such as: cultural and intellectual property, Iwi governance, self-governance and nation-building, the negotiation and enforcement of treaties and treaty settlements, the impact of international law on Indigenous rights and law, and Indigenous approaches to agreement-making in the criminal justice sector.

Indigenous students are strongly encouraged to apply for this subject, and the subject is open to all students that have an interest in Indigenous law. The subject aims to facilitate the building of a network of committed and talented advocates for Indigenous peoples and their interests.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This clinic will engage with current law and policy issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Students will work in partnership with an Indigenous organisation or campaign on a range of law and policy issues. Students will receive a research memo or brief from the partner organisation/s and will work to produce this major project over the course of the semester. Major projects may include: legislative submissions, amicus briefs, case notes, desktop research, speech writing, website materials, petitions, open-letters, op-eds and explainers, and law and policy analysis.

Students will undertake 12 days of clinical work at Melbourne Law School under the supervision of the clinic supervisor and subject coordinator. The clinical work will be complemented by a seminar series (held across the semester during the clinic day).

Indicative list of principal topics in the seminar series:

• Indigenous legal history;
• Media campaigns and messaging;
• Indigenous legal storytelling;
• Critical approaches to lawyering, police and prison abolition;
• Deaths in custody
• Cultural safety.

At the end of semester, students will present their completed work to their partner organisation. Students will also take part in debrief sessions, where they will evaluate their progress and reflect on the role and impact of law and practice on Aboriginal communities and organisations. Students will be required to maintain a reflective journal during semester to facilitate these discussions.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

An insolvency regime is a necessary part of the legal system in a capitalist economy. It is a means for dealing with businesses that fail, and individuals who cannot pay their debts. An insolvency regime is required to ensure that in those circumstances the remaining assets are equitably distributed amongst the creditors, the affairs of the insolvent business or individual are administered in a fair and orderly fashion, businesses and individuals are rehabilitated to the extent possible, and that any wrongdoing is investigated and punished.

Insolvency Law can help the wider economy by ensuring that resources and people are reallocated to more productive activities. To ensure equitable distribution of assets and to prevent abuses of the insolvency system to avoid paying legitimate creditors, liquidators and trustees in bankruptcy are given powers to pursue and enforce claims for assets and compensation and to undo past transactions. Insolvency Law will be particularly important in the 2020s due to the economic downturn in Australia and overseas caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.

Insolvencies often raise legal, practical and theoretical questions of considerable interest, which are by no means confined to a narrow concept of "insolvency" itself. Consequently, insolvency lawyers require knowledge of many other areas of public and private law, including equity and trusts, corporations law, contract, property and securities law and constitutional and administrative law.

This subject involves a practical and theoretical examination of the law of personal insolvency (i.e. bankruptcy), and corporate insolvency. In terms of the practical law, the subject will cover the process and outcomes of placing individuals and companies under the various forms of insolvency administration under the Bankruptcy Act 1966 and the Corporations Act 2001.

While the subject concentrates on the law currently applicable in Australia, opportunities are provided to students to reflect on the international context. Foreign insolvency regimes may be considered by students in a research essay, both to illustrate the content and operation of the Australian insolvency system and to explain how a transnational insolvency is administered and regulated.

The examination of the practical aspects of the law will be integrated with the economic and social policy objectives of the applicable laws. This will involve critical reflection on the conflicting demands of different stakeholders in an insolvency. Thus, an examination of the national and international scholarship dealing with policy objectives in the context of the current domestic and international law of insolvency will be an important part of the subject. As well as discussing what the law is, students will be expected to research and consider proposed alternatives, and examine critically why the law is as it is and what it should be. International and local reform proposals will be examined to demonstrate different ways of achieving the social and economic objectives of an insolvency system.

Students will be expected to form and justify independent opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of current laws and proposed reforms, and to develop, where appropriate, other options.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Intellectual Property and Popular Culture (IPPC) is designed to offer an interdisciplinary cultural studies perspective on the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights with a focus on the relevance of an understanding of cultural production and semiotic consumption to legal doctrine. It discusses the application of intellectual property laws to aspects of popular culture such as movies, television, music, books, sports, fashion, and lifestyle.

Contemporary culture in industrialised nations is characterised by a vibrant kaleidoscope of images and spectacles that permeate the fabric of everyday life, influencing consumption choices and political views, and providing meaningful materials out of which people may shape their own identities. It is in a hybrid mode as consumer-citizens that individuals participate to express freedom, choice and identity. The conceptual framework of cultural studies can help one better understand why certain cultural artefacts are universally popular and their significant impact within the environment they inhabit, and more importantly, can provide insights into how the law may respond in the context of this cultural milieu. In particular, this subject will examine the cultural and semiotic significance of celebrities (e.g. Lady Gaga, Rihanna), fictional characters (e.g. Superman, Mickey Mouse) and iconic status symbols (e.g. Louis Vuitton, Rolex).

IPPC uses relevant insights from cultural studies in a pragmatic manner to evaluate how an understanding of the contemporary production, circulation and consumption of such cultural products like celebrities, fictional literary characters and status symbols could ultimately assist in a more nuanced development of copyright, trademark and personality rights laws.

A comparative approach will be adopted to examine cultural themes in cases that involve the enforcement of IP rights to protect the celebrity personality, well-known fictional characters/movies/books/songs and iconic brands primarily drawn from the US jurisdictions of New York and California. There will some references to the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia, but do note that this is not a course on Australian IP law.

This subject is designed for both students who have previously previously studied intellectual property (e.g., copyright, trademarks) and students who are exposed to intellectual property for the first time.

There is no prescribed textbook for this subject, although students are encouraged to have access to David Tan, The Commercial Appropriation of Fame: A Cultural Analysis of the Right of Publicity & Passing Off (2017).

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will examine the phenomenon of the internationalisation of capital markets in the last 20 years from a legal and regulatory perspective and its role in the Global Financial Crisis. An introductory section will look at the immediate causes of the Global Financial Crisis and the role played by international capital markets; the subject will then proceed to place regulatory developments in context by examining the history, trends and issues associated with internationalisation of the market and the regulatory techniques that have developed in response to them. Several different markets will be studied, regulated and unregulated, developed economies as well as developing or emerging markets, the Euromarket, the European Union, the United States, China, Brazil and others.

Part of the subject will be devoted to specific US regulatory responses to the internationalisation of capital markets: Foreign Private Issuer exemptions, Regulation S, Rule 144A, Mutual Recognition Systems, ADRs.

The last part of the subject will comprise a detailed examination of the consolidation of stock exchanges, the emergence of international standards, the work of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in developing principles of securities regulation and disclosure; and the role of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank, developments in markets such as China and Brazil and basic principles of Islamic finance. Coverage of all these topics will depend on the pace at which the subject progresses, the goal being to provide ample time for class discussion.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will examine, from an advanced and specialist point of view, a number of common commercial transactions entered into between private individuals located in different countries and between individuals and foreign governments. It will also cover important related issues such as corruption, foreign investment and dispute resolution. This course aims at equipping students with an expert knowledge of the major topics within the field as well as integrating new skills in international and comparative analysis.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• International trade in goods, including the contracts for sale, transport and financing of goods to and from Australia;
• Corruption in global business;
• Entry into a foreign market through the mechanisms of distributorship, agency, franchising, licensing, technology transfer and foreign direct investment; and
• International dispute resolution—negotiation, mediation, litigation and arbitration (both commercial and investment).

View detailed information in the Handbook

International investment law is one of the fastest growing fields of public international law. The field – today largely focused on the global network of bilateral treaties on investment protection – affects the ways in which states can regulate the operation of foreign investment. Over the last two decades, there has been exponential growth both in the formation of investment treaties and in the invocation of their unique systems of dispute settlement (against developed and developing states alike). This subject offers in-depth, targeted analysis of the various sources of investment law, their protections and the growing jurisprudence of investor-state arbitral tribunals.

The subject begins by tracing the historical, political and economic causes for the development of a plurality of international legal rules governing foreign investment across customary international law, bilateral and regional investment treaties. The subject takes a comparative approach to examining the unique elements of dispute resolution in this field (which confer standing on private foreign actors to bring international claims against states) in light of key institutional differences with other international adjudicatory forums (including the World Trade Organization and the International Court of Justice).

Substantively, students will explore key cases in detail to critically evaluate the impact of investment law (such as guarantees of compensation in the event of expropriation of foreign assets) across a range of normative values. In particular, the subject will examine a broad set of controversies surrounding the impact of investment treaty disciplines on regulatory autonomy, environmental and health regulation, development strategies and the human rights of citizens in host states.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores the dynamic interaction between Islamic law (Shari‘a) and contemporary social contexts in both Muslim-majority and minority societies. Moving beyond doctrinal or purely theological analysis, the course situates Islamic law within the lived realities of diverse communities—examining how Shari‘a is interpreted, negotiated, implemented, or contested across various legal, cultural, and political environments.

A central focus is the operation of Islamic law within plural legal systems, including those based on common law, civil law, and customary traditions, as well as its engagement with international legal norms. Students will examine case studies that highlight the complexity of these interactions and the varying responses of states and societies.
Through this subject, students will gain both regional and global perspectives on Islamic law and develop a critical and nuanced appreciation of how law, religion, and society intersect—especially in legally plural and culturally diverse settings.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• family law,
• gender rights,
• constitutional frameworks,
• criminal law,
• Islamic finance,
• halal certification, and
• the role of Islamic law in both democratic and authoritarian states.

These themes equip students to critically engage with diverse interpretations, contemporary debates, and reform movements within Islamic legal traditions, as they unfold across a range of political and cultural contexts.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is available only for Juris Doctor students. Melbourne Law Masters students should instead enrol in the equivalent subject LAWS90355.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This course provides you with an overview of the operation of Japanese law and practise in what is traditionally described as a so-called civil law system. The course also addresses questions of legal theory and comparative law, and will introduce you to practical ways of approaching comparative law through analysis of some of the sociological and economic theories and debates about the nature and role of law in Japan. Your participation provides an opportunity for you to read and think about approaches to, and limitations of, comparative study of Asian legal systems.

Law and practice are the foci of this course. You can expect to make extensive use of Japanese legislation and legal writing, as well as survey literature from sociology, history or politics. Based around a range of English-language resources, we use a range of teaching methods in this course, including lectures, seminars, class discussion, film, documentaries and the Internet.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject involves five students competing as a team in the prestigious Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which has been running for more than half a century. Each team represents both the applicant and the respondent by preparing written memorials and presenting oral pleadings in a simulated case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Participation involves intensive work from November to February and additional work before and after that period. The problem is generally released in September and memorials are due in January. The national oral round is typically held in Canberra in February and the international finals are held in Washington DC in April.

The Competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Teams prepare oral and written pleadings arguing both the applicant and respondent positions of the case.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject examines the relationship between law and automation.

“Automation” refers to the use of technology to perform tasks with reduced human intervention, often improving outcomes and efficiency while minimising manual labour. Although the terms “technology” and “automation” often evoke digital innovations, many historical advancements have profoundly influenced the legal system. Beginning with foundational questions about the interaction between technology, justice, and democracy, the subject explores how law has evolved to accommodate or regulate innovation and automation. It traces a path from Bronze Age codes governing tool use, through Classical Age machines that supported democratic participation, to the artefacts of the Printing and Industrial Revolutions, to the present Information Age.

By considering these developments in context, in this subject, students will better assess the significance of more recent technologies, such as the Internet, virtual reality, blockchain, and machine learning, within the broader framework of technological change.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores the concept and actuality of civil society as it relates to the legal systems of states in Northeast and Southeast Asia. It introduces and then critiques the notion of civil society in Western political thought and evaluates its applicability in contemporary Asian states. It then explores select Asian understandings and experiences in depth through case studies of government regulation of civil society organisations and the way that civil society actors influence or seek to influence government and public opinion, by advocating better or different law and policy delivery or changes (law and or policy reform) in areas such as: citizenship and electoral participation; labour conditions; the media; and the intersection of gender with these arenas of contestation. The role of legal professional organisations as advocates for law reform will also be given particular attention.

All subject materials will be in English and no knowledge of an Asian language is required, but of course students are encouraged to use non-English research materials as appropriate.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The importance of health to the functioning of societies has never been more apparent than it is today. Nor has the global nature of health. Today’s major risks to health are global in nature, including the rapid spread of pathogens across borders in our highly interconnected world, and the commercial practices of multinational corporations that market harmful products. These health risks cannot be combated without international cooperation including in:

• preventing / limiting the spread of pathogens
• regulating harmful commercial practices and
• conducting medical and public health research, and making the fruits of this research (including vaccines, therapeutics and other medical products and equipment) globally available.

Law – at all levels, from international to national and sub-national – has a fundamental role to play in global health. It can be among the most powerful tools for protecting and promoting health, but it can also fall well short of achieving its potential, or even actively contribute to harm, if poorly designed or implemented, of where it pursues other policy objectives in ways that conflict with those of health.

This subject is called ‘Law and global health’ rather than ‘Global health law’. This reflects the reality that, while there are a range of international instruments (including both legally binding and non-legally binding) that are specifically designed to protect and promote global health, global health can be equally influenced by international instruments across diverse areas such as human rights, climate change and environment, animal health, intellectual property, international trade, and international investment. While the subject will focus primarily on the instruments and organisations that are explicitly dedicated to health, it will examine the critical connections with other relevant areas of law, policy and practice.

The subject will cover both communicable diseases (including pandemics such as COVID-19, and the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance) and non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease).

Principal topics will include:

• An introduction to global health priorities, including infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases, climate change and antimicrobial resistance
• Global health narratives, concepts and approaches
• An introduction to the World Health Organization
• Global governance of infectious diseases, including the International Health Regulations (2005) and the proposed new treaty on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response
• Global governance of noncommunicable diseases, particularly the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
• Trade, investment, intellectual property and health

View detailed information in the Handbook

Our subject provides an interdisciplinary framework to discuss various aspects of the intersection between law, human behaviour and justice.

The first part of the subject will be dedicated to developing a basic familiarity with the relevant principles of psychology and law and discuss the ways in which they interrelate.

In the second part of the subject we will discuss different real life examples, involving judicial decision making, witness reliability, negotiations and more, in which the study of psychological concepts in the legal world plays out.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Justice;
• Legal Reasoning and Interpretation;
• Behavioural Law and Economics;
• Cognitive Heuristics and Biases;
• Nudges and Choice Architecture;
• Judicial Decision Making;
• The Psychology of Litigation;
• Negotiation;
• Human Motivation;
• Emotion and Mindfulness in a Legal Context; and
• Human Intelligence v Artificial Intelligence.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The settler legal system in Australia has been built upon dispossession and erasure of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as their land, laws and knowledges. Law continues to closely (over)regulate the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, while failing to properly protect Indigenous interests. This course will investigate the variety of ways in which settler law has operated to afford (and deny) rights and interests to Indigenous people, both as individuals and as polities.

In this subject we will engage together with questions of Indigeneity, voice, recognition of Indigenous legal systems, settler-colonialism, sovereignty and self-determination as they relate to Australian legal systems and institutions. On this basis, the course will build upon and also reconsider the hegemonic knowledges introduced across a range of compulsory units in the Juris Doctor – including Principles of Public Law, Constitutional Law, Property, Criminal Law and Administrative Law.

The subject brings together these bodies of law to engage with the emerging debates in Australian law and politics – such as who gets do define Aboriginality and how, how our Constitutional arrangements can best recognise and respond to Indigenous peoples, and how settler law and legal institutions may better account for the ongoing practice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal systems.

This subject will place emphasis on engaging directly with key leaders in Indigenous justice, and engage closely with Indigenous writings on how to respond to and challenge the injustices towards Indigenous peoples perpetuated by the settler-colonial state. We will also consider and seek to build the skills and knowledges, including self-knowledge, which lawyers require to work effectively alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their justice movements.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The aim of this subject is to provide students with an enhanced understanding of law and legal practice in an Asian jurisdiction through:

1. intensive seminars;
2. supervision of a research project on an Asian jurisdiction; and
3. legal experience in an approved role in an Asia-based workplace setting.

The intensive seminars will be led by an expert in the chosen Asian jurisdiction and will offer an advanced introduction to the legal system of the jurisdiction. Students must actively participate in the seminars and will be assessed by an hour long in-class test.

Students must also complete at least the equivalent of a 3-week unpaid work placement in the nominated Asian jurisdiction. Work placements must be hosted by an organisation approved by the subject coordinator. The work placement involves a minimum of 15 days' work. During work placement, students must carry out legally-oriented work that offers students a practice-based exposure to law and legal practice in the jurisdiction. The proposed work should build on the students’ studies to date in the Melbourne JD, involve written legal research work and be of an appropriately demanding standard to model professional practice.

Students will also be required to complete a research paper on a topic approved by the subject coordinator that engages actively with topical debates about law in Asia. This will be due after the work placement and seminar is complete and should be based on the work placement. Examples of areas that might be covered include Asian trade and investment flows and their significance for Australia businesses; managing risk in Asian investment; dispute resolution in Asia; human rights; public legal institutions, including the legal profession; the role of NGOs; and law reform.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject gives students a practice-focused opportunity to explore how the law influences the environmental and related social issues associated with infrastructure projects, from finance to operation.

Students will encounter and analyse these issues across multiple areas of law, including contract law, environmental law, property law, and administrative law. Students will gain familiarity with the roles and perspectives of the diverse multidisciplinary actors with whom lawyers work when developing (or challenging) a major project, including community groups, consultants, scientists, and regulators. Topics will be taught using real-life central case studies to explore relevant issues, and students will interact with real-life stakeholders in infrastructure projects, partnering with selected stakeholders to provide meaningful legal analysis that assists them in their work.

Students will develop their communication skills, particularly oral communication and using plain English approaches to explain complex laws to non-legal stakeholders; gain expertise in reading and interpreting legislation; reading technical documents like environmental impact statements; and teamwork.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• sustainable finance,
• land use planning,
• impact assessment,
• environmental licensing, and
• judicial review of project approvals.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

In Law Apps students will design, build and release a live legal expert system that can provide legal advice to non-lawyers. Legal expert systems (law apps) are applications that replicate the thought processes and actions of a lawyer in connection with a specific legal question. Law apps are a new and growing part of the legal landscape. Lawyers in Australia and overseas are using them to provide fast, accurate and cost effective answers to common legal problems.

The subject involves a series of distinct but related topics and tasks:

• The current role and future role of law apps;
• The identification of appropriate legal problems in the not-for-profit sector that can be answered by law apps;
• The design of sequences of appropriate questions and answers which culminate in the provision of correct legal advice for the problems;
• The authoring of a law app using the Neota Logic platform; and
• The release of the law app in a live web and or tablet/mobile based environment.

The semester will commence with an introductory survey of the role of legal analysis and advice programs and the use of artificial intelligence in legal advice in Australia and overseas. Students will be required to research, imagine and predict the future use of such technology in and beyond the legal profession. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of law apps design and basic mastery of Neota Logic’s authoring tools. The Neota Logic platform does not require coding knowledge or application. It has been used in Australia and overseas as a platform of choice for lawyers building law apps. Throughout the semester students will have access to advice from Neota Logic's experts.

As the semester progresses the subject will explore other ways that technology is being incorporated into legal practice. Guest speakers from the profession and experts in digital technology will present in seminars. There is a light reading load in this subject as students will be required to spend time outside the seminars working in their groups on the design, authoring and release of their live Law App. The semester will culminate with a Law Apps Bake Off - groups will present their Law Apps to an invited panel of experts and the winning group will receive a prize.

At the commencement of the semester students will be provided with a choice of pre-identified not-for-profit organisations that are interested in being involved in the Law Apps subject. Students will be required to list which organisation they would like to work with in order of preference.

Students will be placed in a small group of three or four students and will work in that group throughout the semester. In collaboration with the not-for-profit organization, groups will identify suitable common legal problems that can be answered through a series of structured questions. This will involve visiting the organisations and meeting with key staff so that students understand the relevant needs and concerns of clients and the wider non-lawyer public. This group-focused process will enable students to build on and develop their skills in legal analysis, creativity, problem solving and innovation. The teacher will meet regularly with students individually and with groups to check on progress and to work with the group on any issues that may arise within the group. Part of the assessment for the subject is a group mark. This mark will be awarded equally across all students in the group unless an individual’s contribution falls substantially below the contribution of other students in the group, in which case that individual's mark will be reduced.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will examine, from an advanced and specialist point of view, the main principles of the law of international commercial arbitration. Arbitration has emerged as the major method of dispute resolution in many countries of the world for international commercial transactions and this course explores its essential features from the standpoint of an Australian lawyer being asked to advise at both the drafting and ‘live’ dispute stages.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the nature and advantages/disadvantages of international commercial arbitration;
• applicable law;
• the regime for international commercial arbitration in Australia;
• the arbitration agreement and stay of court proceedings;
• the conduct of arbitration and challenges of arbitrators; and
• setting aside and recognition and enforcement of awards.

View detailed information in the Handbook

In this subject you will practice the specialist skills involved in drafting law reform submissions and proposed legislative amendments that aim to change law for the better.

If you could change one law, what would it be?

Imagine, genuinely imagine, that for one day you were given the powers of Parliament to create or amend laws. What would be the first thing you did? What problem would you want to solve? Where do you see the greatest injustice? There are so many answers to these questions, but some examples include the destruction of cultural heritage, indefinite immigration detention, Ministerial approvals for developments impacting the environment, tax subsidies for real estate investments, rent caps, the age of criminal responsibility, and universal basic income. Most of the time lawyers tend to focus on problems, but in this subject we take the opportunity to create solutions. Given the chance, what one piece of legislation would you change, and why? Would your solution remove, amend or create something entirely new? And how might your change be interpreted?

This subject explores how and why we undertake the work of law reform. Law reform is not simply change, but change for the better. This makes law reform highly controversial, because not everyone agrees on what is ‘better’. While Courts and Parliament both effect change, they do so differently. In a context of ever-increasing legislative activity, this subject focuses primarily on legislative reform. In legal practice, lawyers play many different roles in legislative reform, including key roles in law reform commissions, parliamentary counsel and as instructing solicitors. This subject addresses those roles.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Law reform – what is law reform, how does it work, and what does it mean to change law for the ‘better’?
• Lawyers – In legal practice, what different roles do lawyers play in making this change, such as in law reform commissions and parliamentary counsel?
• Problems – How to identify, research and articulate legal problems that can be best addressed by legislation?
• Solutions – How to draft legislation to solve legal problems?
• Words – When creating legislative solutions, how to choose the ‘right’ words? Can we ever really figure out the right words?
• Interpretation – What if the words we choose are interpreted by courts or the legal profession in unexpected ways?

View detailed information in the Handbook

Most legal thinking needs to be communicated in a written form. For legal advice to be useful and effective for clients, it needs to be able to be readily understood by people without a background in the law. It also needs to address the issues which are important to the recipient of the advice. The practice of law also involves the use of technical legal documents such as contracts. For these legal documents to be effective and to achieve the aims of the parties to whom they relate, they should be prepared by someone with expert legal drafting skills.

The focus of this subject is on the development of the specialised skills needed for legal drafting. This crucial aspect of legal practice requires a broad set of skills including the ability to explain complex ideas using clear and simple language, the ability to understand the relative importance of various legal issues, attention to detail and structure, and an ability to properly appreciate the purpose and audience of the document.

Legal Drafting enables students to develop this set of skills in an interactive and practical manner, enabling them to apply relevant legal principles and develop an appreciation for relevant commercial and strategic considerations. Topics covered will include understanding the types of drafting styles, drafting legal advice, persuasive legal drafting, drafting technical legal documents (such as contracts) and legal drafting in a government context. Students will be required to prepare a variety of types of written legal work which would be typically required in a legal workplace.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The aim of this subject is to provide students with the opportunity to gain practical legal skills and undertake a public interest or community-focused legal workplace experience that complements and deepens their coursework learning in the Melbourne JD.

Internships can be hosted by any public interest organisation that will facilitate the student undertaking legally-oriented work, including government departments, regulatory and statutory bodies, courts and tribunals, legal assistance sector organisations such as legal aid or community legal centres, and non-government or not-for-profit organisations. Host organisations can be locally based, interstate or international and can be in person or remote/virtual (with approval).The proposed internship must be approved by the Subject Coordinators.

The internship experience should build on a students’ studies to date in the Melbourne JD and be of an appropriately demanding standard to model professional legal work or practice.

Students must complete at least 15 days of unpaid practical legal experience at the host organisation.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject aims to provide practical experience for students in corporate law listed company takeovers and associated governance. It examines the key building blocks of Australia’s takeovers law and associated listed company corporate governance principles and how they should inform a company’s preparedness for a takeover or activist approach.

Under the supervision from partners at King & Wood Mallesons, students will be introduced to a listed company and – following a structured course to learn the building blocks of takeover laws and shareholder activism – students will provide focused advice to the company on the interplay of legal, regulatory and commercial considerations in being ready for, and responding to, an unsolicited takeover approach or activist proposal.

Students will participate in timetabled classes and work at KWM, sitting in the corporate/M&A team, equivalent to 12 days. Students will work collaboratively under the close supervision of KWM partners. The client with whom the students will work will be identified on a rotating basis. Students will receive ongoing feedback on their progress, discuss their perceptions of the role of law in practice, and reflect on the role of corporate law and the place of stakeholders in practice.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject examines the core legal constraints imposed on the media in their publishing activities. The first part of the subject requires students to analyse and evaluate broad principles relating to freedom of speech and public interest and their application to the media. It also examines the greater role that the legal protection of human rights, especially in the international context, has played in the development of media law. The second part of the subject explores the constraints that are imposed on the media in their reporting of court proceedings, including contempt of court and the issuing of suppression orders by the courts. The third part of the subject comprises a comparative, in-depth examination of the law of defamation across Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. It also draws on case studies from other jurisdictions, such as Canada and South Africa. The final part of the subject looks at privacy and the media. It considers the current state of privacy protection in Australia, and requires students to undertake a critical, comparative analysis of the position in Australia and recent developments in the United Kingdom and the United States.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Mediation has developed over the past twenty years from the legal fringes to become the process which resolves more legal disputes than any other. The aim of this course, building on concepts studied in the JD compulsory subject LAWS90140 Disputes and Ethics (formerly LAWS50027 Dispute Resolution), is to develop an understanding of what takes place within the private confines of mediation to make the process effective, and how the different participants interact.

Students will learn both the practice of mediation, through extensive involvement in simulations, and develop a sophisticated understanding of current mediation law and theory.

The subject will examine when and how mediations take place, the roles of all persons involved, the legal frameworks supporting and promoting mediation, and the interaction of mediation with other dispute resolution mechanisms. It will provide an overview of mediation in specific legal contexts, such as commercial litigation and family law, and look in detail at a number of statutory mediation schemes such as the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011 (Vic.). It will examine mediation as a career within the broader legal landscape and the evolution of the Australian Mediator and Dispute Resolution Accreditation Standards.

Teaching will be through a combination of lectures on specific topics, interactive exercises and mediation simulations, and contributions by visiting speakers with specific expertise.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is available only to students who are Members of Melbourne Journal of International Law (MJIL) and are committed to a position involving a substantial intellectual contribution to MJIL during the enrolled semester. The nature of the 'substantial intellectual contribution' required of students will vary depending on the nature of their work with MJIL. It will typically involve, at a minimum, taking responsibility for the sub-editing of material accepted for publication, such editing to be typically done in respect of at least one lengthy article (in excess of 10,000 words in length) or multiple shorter articles (each under 10,000 words in length). The contribution of students holding Editorial positions may be in the form of strategic editorial control and decision making.

Making a 'substantial intellectual contribution' is a hurdle requirement for the subject, which permits students to provide evidence of what the student has learnt about the nature of international legal research from undertaking their tasks within MJIL. This evidence takes the form of the writing tasks specified below, requiring engagement with international legal scholarship as well as critical reflection on work undertaken.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is available only to editors of Melbourne University Law Review (MULR), who, as editors, are committed to making a substantial intellectual contribution to MULR during the enrolled semester. The nature of the ‘substantial intellectual contribution’ required may vary depending on the nature of their work with MULR.

Making a ‘substantial intellectual contribution’ is an implicit hurdle requirement for the subject, which permits students to provide evidence of what they have learnt about the nature of legal research from undertaking their tasks within MULR. This evidence takes the form of the writing tasks specified below, requiring engagement with legal scholarship as well as critical reflection on work undertaken.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

Australian corporate law has become highly specialised. In particular the regulation of capital markets, securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), takeovers and schemes of arrangement has become increasingly detailed and intricate. Market participants need to have an understanding not only of the black letter law relevant to corporate transactions, but also of the policies and theories underlying that law, and guidance from regulators including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Securities Exchange and the Takeovers Panel. Ultimately, to be successful in M&A and securities transactions, companies and their advisers need a thorough understanding of tactics and strategy and how they fit within the law, policies and procedures.

This subject covers the major areas of public company M&A law, practice and strategy including takeovers, schemes of arrangement, capital raisings, ASX listing rules, insider trading and Takeovers Panel disputes. This course includes lectures from leading M&A practitioners, and analyses recent transactions to illustrate the legal principles and tactical strategy covered in the subject. Our subject is designed to provide students wishing to pursue a career in corporate/ M&A legal practice or in investment banking/financial markets with relevant specialist knowledge.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The principles of takeovers law and capital raising/securities offerings in Australia and their application to public company transactions;
• Comparative analysis of takeover regulation in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States;
• Negotiated acquisitions and disposals and the interplay between fiduciary duties, Takeovers Panel policy and exclusivity and deal protection measures;
• Friendly and hostile takeovers and the impact of Takeovers Panel and ASIC policy on takeover strategy;
• Schemes of arrangement and the role of the courts and ASIC in such schemes;
• Takeover/M&A strategy including bidder and target defence tactics (including responding to shareholder and rival bidder actions) and the advantages and disadvantages of different acquisition techniques;
• Demergers;
• The Corporations Act and ASX listing rules disclosure regime and its application to corporate fundraising and public company transactions;
• Liability for defective disclosure and practical procedures employed to limit or avoid liability;
• Continuous disclosure obligations, including the role of the Australian Securities Exchange in regulating listed entities and directors' liability;
• Prohibitions on conduct in relation to capital markets (including insider trading and market manipulation); and
• Strengths and weaknesses of our laws and regulatory system, and proposals for reform.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The Melbourne Law School (MLS) Tax Clinic is an experiential subject delivered through a registered Community Legal Centre at Melbourne Law School and forms part of the Commonwealth supported National Tax Clinic Program. Under close supervision from the Clinic Principal and volunteer practitioners, students provide free and confidential assistance to individuals and small businesses that cannot readily access paid advice and who meet the clinic’s eligibility criteria.

Clinical work typically involves client consultations on campus or via Zoom with eligible clients. Students may provide education and assistance with:

• Using myGov and Australian Taxation Office (ATO) online tools
• Tax advice on income and deductions, goods and services tax (GST), pay as you go (PAYG) instalments, residency, capital gains tax (CGT), and small business obligations
• Managing tax debts including payment plans, requests for remission of penalties and interest, and hardship applications
• Disputing an ATO decision including preparing and lodging an objection
• Legal representation and advice, where appropriate
• Lodgments and amendments

For students, the clinic offers a rare and transformative educational experience. They take on responsibilities akin to junior legal practitioners by interviewing clients, researching complex tax issues, drafting formal advice, managing files, and negotiating with the ATO. Guided by an experienced academic from professional practice and pro bono practitioners, they receive targeted feedback and mentorship, while gaining insight into the social and economic barriers faced by clients and developing a strong sense of professional responsibility and community engagement.

The subject develops practical skills in client centred communication, teamwork, file management, and professional judgment in a supervised practice setting. Places are limited and entry is by application. Successful applicants must complete orientation and agree to confidentiality and compliance requirements.

Community Outreach

In additional to typical clinical work, students may participate in outreach to priority cohorts, vulnerable community groups, and regional communities, building cultural awareness and a grounded understanding of how tax law operates for real clients.

In 2025, the MLS Tax Clinic assisted the following community groups by way of community outreach

• Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) workers in Labertouche and Echuca
• Incarcerated persons at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre
• Year 10 Secondary School Students

Orientation Program

Orientation is mandatory and must be completed by all students participating in the program. Typically, it is held during the first two weeks of each semester] Completing orientation first ensures students provide safe, ethical and competent assistance from day one by setting a shared baseline in tax administration and clinic processes, embedding privacy and confidentiality practices, and building confidence for client work.

The orientation program is reviewed and updated each year. Historically, orientation has covered topics such as; client interviewing techniques, tax administration and process, handling sensitive information, file preparation and management, tax basics 101, ATO facilitated training seminars, building client rapport and strategies for how to manage difficult situations.

Note: Clinic operations and outreach locations may vary by semester and community outreach opportunities not be guaranteed.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Homicide is one of the most prominent crimes in the legal calendar, and it has provided a recurrent reference point for literature, cinema, television, photography, true crime documentaries, the arts and the humanities more generally. It uses examples from a variety of legal and non-legal source materials, including creative non-fiction, podcasts, literature, film, and trial transcripts. The subject examines in depth the ways in which criminal law and public culture makes sense of law, crime and killing.

The overall themes of the subject are threefold: encounters between legal and cultural representations of homicide trials; the nature of the difficulties that homicide presents for criminal law and public culture; narratives of community and responsibility constructed by and represented in legal responses to homicide and its aftermath. In short, the subject develops an understanding of the jurisprudence of murder trials and the criminalisation of homicide.

Indicative list of principal topics such as:

• The scene of the crime: public narratives of law and homicide
• Public trials and murder: comparative cultures
• Murder trials and legal argument: making a murderer
• Trial by media: publicity, proof and procedure
• Criminal responsibility and the common law tradition: writing and representing homicide
• Selected categories of unlawful homicide: e.g. constructive murder, child homicide, infanticide, workplace manslaughter
• The judicial jurisprudence of joint criminal enterprises
• The case of forensics: mental impairment, defences and sentencing
• Gendered and queer subjects of homicide law
• Missing or murdered indigenous women
• A case study: deaths in custody and a murder trial

View detailed information in the Handbook

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an innovative new system for providing disability supports in Australia. It will eventually provide funding to approximately 500,000 Australians with permanent and significant disability for supports they need to achieve their goals.

Students in the NDIS and Disability Benefits Clinic will assist people with disabilities, their families and carers to navigate this system and access the supports they are entitled to.

Clinic activities may include: providing advice and legal assistance to individual clients one-on-one or in small groups; conducting legal education sessions for groups of clients; and assisting professional advocates and lawyers at partner organisations with individual and systemic NDIS advocacy work. Examples of matters that may be dealt with by the Clinic include: accessing the NDIS, obtaining adequate supports from the NDIS, challenging decisions made under the NDIS Act and legal issues relating to the disability support pension.

Students will be engaged in all aspects of the Clinic’s operation and will work under the guidance and supervision of our partner organisations to provide information and resolve issues presented by clients.

Students will undertake approximately 12 days of clinical work based at Melbourne Law School. Clinical work will be done predominantly on the timetabled Clinic day. However, some work outside these times may be required depending on the matters and clients.

The Clinic will commence with an intensive orientation, usually held in the week before the start of semester, so students should ensure that they are available to attend.

Much of the substantive subject content will then be covered in the first few weeks of semester, preparing students to commence and focus on Clinic activities, with . further lectures and guest speakers in later weeks as appropriate. Clinic days will also include opportunity for group discussion of the week’s topic/s, practical skills-building exercises, reflection on the law and legal practice as well as legal supervision of clinical work.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Negotiation is an essential skill-set for lawyers and the legal profession. Due to negotiations by lawyers, many civil and criminal law cases are settled before the parties even enter the courtroom. Lawyers negotiate on behalf of their client with other lawyers as well as third party non-lawyers. Lawyers must also negotiate internally with their own client as well as other parties to reach consensus. Negotiations also occur in various forms, from traditional settings such as conference rooms and courtrooms, to non-traditional settings such as e-mail and social media communication. Thus, the ability for lawyers to develop and utilise a negotiator's toolbox to negotiate within and among a broad array of environments are essential elements of the legal profession.

The aim of this subject is to acquaint students with the theory and practice of legal negotiations as they relate to the strategic legal process. This class will be highly interactive. Students will have the opportunity to read and discuss a variety of written materials, engage in a variety of negotiation simulations (involving role-playing scenarios, case hypotheticals, and experimental games), as well as become intricately involved in other negotiation-related scenarios and situations.

Classes will generally be comprised of:

(1) concepts/strategies (theory) presented;
(2) simulation and role-playing scenarios applying such concepts/strategies (practice); and
(3) a de-briefing of the two components (theory and practice). For the negotiation simulations to be as valuable and realistic as possible, preparation and active participation is expected by those negotiating and playing specified roles - for each participant's individual benefit as well as for the benefit of all class participants as a collaborative group.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is designed for second and third year JD students who are interested in academic legal scholarship. It will expose students to current areas of research and introduce them to the process of producing scholarly work at a professional level. Students will learn how to critically and constructively assess scholarly works-in-progress, and will develop their own views about particular debates, topics, and methods of inquiry.

Students will be expected to demonstrate skills and knowledge acquired in a series of ‘response papers’ that comment on/critique the works in progress under examination. Response papers will form the basis of assessment for the subject.

Students will meet with the subject coordinator seven times over the course of the semester. There are two kinds of meetings that students will be required to attend: those held concurrently with the regularly scheduled meeting of the Legal Theory Workshop (workshop weeks); and student-only meetings held during weeks when there is no Legal Theory Workshop meeting scheduled (seminar weeks).

The Legal Theory Workshop is Melbourne Law School’s works-in-progress discussion forum for faculty and research higher degree students, which meets regularly throughout the academic year. Each meeting features an unpublished article-length paper from a guest author, circulated and read in advance by workshop participants. Workshop guests regularly include distinguished legal scholars from across Australia and overseas. Topics vary depending on the guest’s particular area of scholarly expertise and research interests and cover a wide range of issues in legal scholarship across all sub-disciplines. Past topics have included:

• International legal obligations and indigenous peoples;
• Moral disagreement and legal justification;
• Private law and social illusion; and
• Religion and legal reasoning.

During workshop weeks, students will meet for one hour before the Legal Theory Workshop meeting to discuss student response papers and the workshop guest's paper. After that hour is over, students will attend the two hour workshop meeting.

In addition, during two seminar weeks, students will meet for one hour with the subject coordinator to discuss topics related to legal scholarship and academia. This will include one introductory meeting, plus an additional meeting to discuss a topic selected based on students’ interests.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is an experiential subject and will require an application before enrolment is approved. Students in this subject may be required to travel.

This subject investigates the way in which new technological innovation is affecting almost every aspect of the law. It will provide students with an advanced understanding of the impact of new technologies on the business and practice of law. Topics will include:

• Innovation and disruption to existing business models and the legal profession (both in terms of the delivery of legal solutions and the law firm operations);
• The impact and regulation of blockchain, smart contracts, and artificial intelligence in legal practice; and
• The burgeoning growth of the tech industry and its relationship with traditional legal business models, and social enterprise.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Patents are the law’s primary mechanism for providing incentive for the generation of inventions, and for regulating the use of inventions by others. Trade secrets are confidential details about commercial products and services, protection for which is available through either an action for breach of contract or an action in equity to restrain a breach of confidence. This subject explores in detail the law, policy and practice of the patent regime, of the trade secrets protection mechanisms, and of the relationship between the two.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The international framework for protection of patentable inventions and trade secrets;
• The subject matters capable of protection by a patent;
• The requirements for the grant of a valid patent;
• The exclusive rights granted by a patent;
• The infringement, and the defences to infringement, of a patent;
• The subject matter of, and requirements for, trade secrets protection;
• The scope of protection provided to trade secrets; and
• The relationship between patent protection and trade secrets protection.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject builds on students’ understanding of tort law and its alternatives, and in so doing exposes them to the practice of law on behalf of plaintiffs severely injured - perhaps in the workplace or in motor vehicle accidents. The doctrinal focus of the subject will be on personal injury compensation schemes. Students will ply and develop their statutory interpretation skills in learning how personal injury compensation regimes have been implemented – both through complaint and resolution before the courts. With a solid grounding in compensation schemes, students will progress to discuss how to use these areas of law for clients severely injured in accidents.

Students will be exposed to theoretical, practical and experiential appraisals of client centred lawyering, the acquisition and presentation of expert evidence, and the process and resolution of compensation claims. In this sense, the subject presents modules that enable students to learning the law and to learning about the practice of the law.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Philosophical Foundations of Law is an interdisciplinary subject, run by Law School academics and prominent members of the judiciary. The aim of this subject is twofold – first, to develop in students a high-level understanding of how legal rules embody, and reflect, important philosophical notions which are themselves examinable; and, second, to develop in students a sophisticated approach to thinking about legal questions which employs philosophical rigour.

The subject will be structured around a series of seminars run by guests who are experts in the area on which they are speaking. Guests will include academics, legal practitioners, and members of the judiciary. Some seminars will involve two presenters, one an academic and the other a judge/practitioner. These combinations are designed to demonstrate the close relationship, and conceptual overlap, between the disciplines of law and philosophy. Subject coordinators will ensure thematic continuity throughout the subject by drawing out common threads which emerge from individual presentations and class discussions.

Indicative list of principal topics, such as:

• the ethics of humanitarian action: the laws of war and aid;
• the role of moral concepts in the regulation of commercial activity;
• the attribution of criminal responsibility, and the relevance of intention, motive, voluntariness and consequences;
• the purpose and justification of criminal punishment, and the meaning and relevance of remorse;
• law and political philosophy - Mabo and Love/Thoms as case studies
• constitutional facts and their relationship to constitutional values;
• the rule of law and statutory interpretation;
• individual autonomy and the duty of others to take reasonable care; and
• how far do human rights notions account for our conception of justice?

Throughout the course of the subject, students will be encouraged to:

• Identify, and engage with, philosophical concepts (such as autonomy, causation and good conscience) which underpin areas of substantive law;
• identify, and engage with, the frameworks of ethical and political theory within which substantive law has developed;
• identify, and engage with, the ethical and political choices which inform the development and application of substantive law; and
• develop habits of analytical rigour, logical analysis and linguistic precision, in both exposition and argument.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides practical experience in which students support lawyers in public interest organisations in the delivery of legal services to the community. Students will undertake 12 days of clinical placement with a partner organisation in the community or government sector. On placement, and under supervision, students will utilise the legal knowledge and skills acquired during their degree to undertake work on legal issues with real clients, and in doing so, will be exposed to the realities of legal practice. The placement will be through regular, scheduled attendances throughout semester.

Prior to commencing with their host organisation, students will participate in two days of intensive orientation to prepare for their placement, including learning new legal practice skills and about specific areas of law where relevant. This will be complemented by seminars during the placement period. In these seminars, students will reflect on their ongoing clinical experience and consider how it might translate into litigation. This combination of practical placement and academic support will allow students to consider and reflect on the broader contexts in which legal issues arise, the lawyer's role and relationship with the delivery of justice and contemporary developments in professional practice.

A central component of the subject is that students critically reflect on their practical experience of public interest lawyering. The reflection serves several purposes. First, it gives students the opportunity to consider how the issues and ideas raised in the context of public interest lawyering are reflected in their practical experience in this area of law. On an individual level, it also provides students with the opportunity to reflect on their own use of legal skills, knowledge and approach to practice and consequently build on these skills, knowledge and competencies.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is an introduction to public international law. It offers an overview of the core doctrines, sources, and concepts of international law, and discusses the role of international institutions such as the United Nations in the development and application of international law. The subject will build on the understanding of international law acquired in Principles of Public Law and enable students to engage deeply with international law in the context of contemporary global events. Students will be encouraged to evaluate the position and relevance of international law in international politics and society by addressing past and current developments through case studies.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• The nature of international law;
• The sources of international law;
• The law of treaties;
• International dispute settlement, including through the International Court of Justice;
• The subjects of international law;
• Responsibility for breaches of international obligations;
• International law on the use of force, and
• The future of international law.

Each offering of this subject will a selection of subject-specific areas of international law such as international human rights law; international environmental law and climate change; the law of the sea, as well as hot topics and current issues in international law.

View detailed information in the Handbook

For centuries, lawyers have survived in Western democracies as an independent profession because they maintain certain codes of conduct and profess to uphold the rule of law and to serve the public interest in the administration of justice. In this subject, students will be asked to question who that public is in Australia; and draw conclusions about whether racism is institutionalised and endemic to the profession and/or the rule of law and the administration of justice. By interrogating the legal profession and its role, students will be invited to reflect upon the role law and lawyers should play within Australian social, political, and legal discourses about ‘race’ and/or the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and minority ethnic groups.

Students will be invited to discuss methodologies, theories and critical scholarship that give lawyers the tools to interrogate their legal education, legal culture, profession and ethics and to foster independent thinking about the relationship between the law, race and racism. These tools will also be employed to challenge and unpack biases. Guest speakers will also enable students to consider experience as a source of knowledge and authority.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Acknowledging the unceded sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the role that settler law has played in the colonisation and occupation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.
• Recognising, understanding, distinguishing and unpacking key concepts: race, indigeneity, ethnicity and White privilege.
• Critical Methodologies and responses to race and the law.
• Reflecting on the impact of race and racism in legal professional training in Australian law schools.
• Defining the legal profession, its function, and its ethics in the context of race and racism.
• Anti-racism in the context of the legal profession

View detailed information in the Handbook

In this subject, we provide students with opportunity to think deeply about the manner in which Australian law operates in relation to racialised communities in Australia, including producing categories of race and differentially distributing power and resources to shape the life chances of people and communities. We will consider popular understandings of race and racism in Australia today, and how these operate as sites of change and contestation. We will consider the role of law in racial justice movements.

As a reading group community, we will engage with a range of writing from people concerned with racialisation across disciplines, to consider how communities have experienced law as both as an instrument producing racist outcomes, and a tool for potential liberation. We will learn from leading thinking on decolonisation, intersectionality, abolition, anti-racism and contingent collaboration. We will use these resources as tools to interrogate legal texts, including influential Australian judgements and legislation, and also to imagine futures in relation to racial justice.

This subject will be taught as a reading-group with focus on facilitated group discussion and close-reading of assigned texts. All students are encouraged to consider this subject; for some it intends to expose formerly unseen aspects of the operation of law, and for others it intends to give new language and tools to familiar experiences of law.

Indicative list of principal topics:

A history of race

• Law and Australian settler-colonialism
• Race and the Australian Constitution
• Citizenship, borders and migration

Race and regulation today

• Race and property
• Carceralism and abolition
• Race, anti-discrimination and ‘special measures’
• Regulation of social movements in Australia

Resistance

• Remedies and reparations
• The politics of refusal
• Speculative writing and alternative judgement
• Solidarity and contingent-collaboration

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores the development and operation of the international legal regime for the protection of refugees and its implementation into Australian law. It provides an overview of the international legal and institutional framework for refugee protection, compares the international and regional treaty definitions of a refugee, and explores the operation of refugee law and policy in Australia.

The subject begins with an introduction to conceptualising the phenomenon of forced migration and an overview of the history and institutional framework for refugee protection, including the role of the UNHCR. The subject focuses on the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol, exploring the key controversies that arise in the interpretation of the definition of a refugee within this instrument and critically reflecting on the extent of international protection afforded to refugees. This provides a framework for considering the implementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol into Australian law.

In this subject, we also explore how states share, shift and (attempt to) evade responsibility for refugees; critical approaches to refugee law, including decolonial and feminist perspectives; the status of Palestinian refugees under international law; and possible future directions for refugee protection, including how to respond to the growing issue of climate displacement and mobility.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The subject takes a theoretical, doctrinal, critical and practical approach to the law as it affects gender, sexuality and sexual orientation and identity. It will explore how the law creates and responds to issues and experiences of diverse communities, and the role of lawyers to achieve legal reform for those communities. Divided into two parts, in the first part of the subject, students will learn about the law, legal issues, and theoretical perspectives on current legal issues in the field of law and gender, law and sexualities, and law and intersectionalities. The topics will traverse ideas of rights and freedoms, laws of crime and property, and places of work and home. In the second part of the subject, supported by guest speakers, students will learn about law reform, legal change, and the role, experience and capacity of legal activism. From year to year topics may include global movements for marriage equality, the push for trans rights in Australia and abroad, the movement to develop LGBT hate crime laws in the US, gender-based violence in the Australian city, region and home, and decriminalisation movements in a development context. Students will translate their learning of the law and legal theories from the first part of the subject into ideas and strategies to change the law in the second part of the subject.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Sports law has become established as a specialised area of legal interest. Sport generates substantial economic activity and in prominent ways is woven through the social fabric.

This subject is based on the premise that scholars, lawyers and those responsible for the governance of sport must be equipped with the means to understand and evaluate the law which regulates the important and vibrant activity that is sport.

As both a traditional pursuit and an industry of the modern age, sport intersects with law in many different ways, some of which challenge established legal rules and notions of thinking about law. This subject concentrates attention on the circumstances productive of such challenges and explores the reasons for special or unique treatment of sport by the law.

High levels of public engagement with sport can sometimes serve to position sport as an agent of legal change and as an effective means of transmitting legal knowledge and values. Legal practitioners and scholars need to be alert to these processes even if they do not claim a specialised involvement in sports law. Sports law also provides an important connection

between scholarship and legal practice because sport is an activity that presents law in applied and instructive settings.

Study of this different and challenging field will enable legal practitioners and scholars:

• To obtain advanced knowledge of an area of the law having special application to a significant economic and social activity;
• to understand the reasons and justifications for the different legal treatment of sport and to critically evaluate the worth of such justifications; and
• to develop practical understanding and professional skills from exposure to the ways in which law may be applied to a field of activity or an industry.

Indicative list of principal topics include:

• The legal structure and governance of the sporting movement, especially international organisations;
• common forms of player employment contracts and team member agreements in use in Australia;
• the legal status and significance of the rules of play;
• criminal and civil liability for sports injuries including participant to participant responsibility and vicarious liability of employer clubs;
• anti-doping with particular reference to the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport, the World Anti-Doping Code, the structure and functions of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, the National Anti-Doping Scheme and illicit drugs policies;
• anti-match-fixing laws with particular reference to sporting integrity units;
• selected legal topics in sports broadcasting and sports marketing including athlete personality rights, the legal status of major sports events and the control of unauthorised broadcasts;
• the lawfulness of labour market rules (e.g. transfer rules, drafts and salary caps) under pro-competition laws including the common law doctrine of restraint of trade and the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) Part IV.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will provide students with the legal skills to advise start-up companies on the legal issues those companies are likely to face in their early years of operation. The subject will cover the substantive law relevant to the particular circumstances of a start-up, including intellectual property, privacy, structuring options, start-up funding, regulatory restrictions applying to LegalTech start-ups, the Australian Consumer Law, employment law and the tax incentives available for start-up companies in Australia. It will also cover some of the legal and ethical issues involved in advising start-ups, such as the issues associated with advisers taking equity in their clients and using generative AI to provide that advice.

The subject will provide students with the opportunity to develop the specialist practical skills used in advising start-up companies.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The Stateless Legal Clinic (SLC) offers students the opportunity to develop their practical legal skills while making a real difference to the lives of stateless adults and children living in the Australian community. There are an estimated 10-15 million stateless people in the world; approximately one third are children. Without nationality, stateless people face barriers in accessing basic rights, and in Australia, the threat of immigration detention.

In this clinic, students will support lawyers working with stateless clients to provide direct assistance to stateless children and adults, in a range of matters. Complementary seminars will include theoretical and practical components relevant to clinic work and statelessness law; offering students a solid theoretical understanding of statelessness at the global and national level, as well as practical skills-based training focused on working directly with stateless clients.

Students will undertake 12 days of clinical work based at Melbourne Law School under the supervision of the Clinic Coordinator and partner organisations. During the Clinic and under supervision, students will utilise the legal knowledge and skills acquired during their degree to undertake work on legal issues with real clients, and in doing so, will be exposed to the realities of legal practice. The Clinical work will be conducted through regular, scheduled attendances throughout semester.

Students’ practical work will be complemented by 12 two hour seminars during semester, which will focus on both practical skill development and theoretical understandings of statelessness law.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the meaning of nationality in international law
• the core international treaties relevant to statelessness
• the right to nationality and deprivation of nationality
• childhood statelessness
• the intersection between refugeehood and statelessness
• statelessness determination frameworks
• the nexus between statelessness, minorities, discrimination and development
• the prevention of statelessness
• effective legal communication (including client interviews, working with interpreters and legal writing)
• resilience, professional well-being and managing complex client situations.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

For lawyers, being able to effectively communicate the law to non-lawyers is an important skill and central to all types of legal practice. Governments have an obligation to ensure that people understand the laws that affect them; judges and courts must communicate the reasons for their decisions; law firms produce updates for clients on changes to the law and community legal centres seek to empower their clients to uphold their rights and protect their interests. For the community, legal literacy is an essential component of ensuring access to justice for all. In the 21^st century, Community Legal Education (CLE) might involve audio and visual resources, digital and graphic communications and social media, as well as face-to-face events and presentations. In Street Law, students will learn about the theory and practice of CLE and its role in supporting access to justice. Students will then work with community organisations and the subject coordinator to identify, design, develop and present one or more CLE presentations or resources. Students will work in small groups and will be responsible for managing all aspects of the CLE project, including liaising with partner organisations to confirm the brief, researching the law, developing an engaging and effective resource and presenting this to the target audience.

Specific topics to be covered will change from year to year depending on community needs and student interest.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

Sustainability Business Clinic provides a practical, clinical experience in which students are supervised in the provision of legal support to new and innovating enterprises. Clients will be identified as warranting assistance because they will contribute to community or environmental wellbeing but do not have the current capacity to pay for specialised legal assistance.

Students will undertake 12 days of clinical work based at Melbourne Law School under the guidance and mentorship of the subject coordinator and lawyers with broad expertise in the relevant laws (including: climate and energy law; local government, environment and planning law; tort law; property law; employment and workplace health and safety law, and general corporate, transactional and business law). Students will use and refine the legal knowledge and skills acquired during their degree to undertake work on real legal issues and provide meaningful assistance to real clients, and in doing so, will be exposed to the realities of legal practice.

Within the 12 days of clinical work students will participate in timetabled classes, in which areas of potential reform of the law to improve the prospect of emerging sustainable solutions to social and environmental problems will be discussed. Students will also take part in debrief sessions where students will evaluate their progress, discuss their perceptions of the law in practice, and reflect on the role of the law and their place in it.

During timetabled classes, time will be also allocated to discuss and analyse the law relevant to client problems, with some direction on skills and legal practice as appropriate. Skills and doctrinal learning will also be undertaken during clinical work time.

Important information about enrolling

This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.

More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].

View detailed information in the Handbook

Taxation is at the heart of public finance in Australia, as in other nation states with market economies. It is the most significant source of revenue to finance government. Taxation affects all individuals and businesses because it is used to deliver distributive justice and to influence the allocation of resources in the economy.

In this subject we will:

• examine Australia’s tax system and the principles of public finance, with a focus on the income tax law, Australia’s most important tax;
• explore contemporary tax reform debates in the context of public finance principles;
• develop legal and analytical skills in the interpretation and application of the income tax law to widely relevant transactions of individuals and businesses; and
• study tax law as a social process and identifies the connection of tax law with other areas of law and other disciplines, especially economics and social sciences.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is about the legal protection of trade marks and elements of branding and reputation. It addresses three overlapping themes. The first involves a detailed treatment of Australian law – in particular the operation of the registered trade marks regime under the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) as well as the protection of trade marks and other commercial insignia under the common law tort of passing off and under the misleading and deceptive conduct provisions of trade practices legislation. The second involves the interrogation of the growing body of academic literature that seeks to answer important theoretical and practical questions about trade mark protection from a range of historical, economic, critical and cultural perspectives.

Students will critically evaluate issues such as the scope of trade mark protection, the types of insignia that protection should cover and what uses should be permitted by third parties in commercial and artistic settings. Students will also consider the international trend towards expanded trade mark protection and how trade mark law has responded or should respond to new technologies and associated marketing practices. The third aspect compares the legal regimes in other jurisdictions – in particular, the United States, the European Union, the UK and New Zealand.

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Treaties are negotiated agreements between nations and peoples. In this subject we address treaty-making as a practice of comparative law and agreement-making between Indigenous nations and settler institutions. We will interrogate the comparative law, policy, theory and history of agreement-making in settler states. The subject aims to equip students with a sound understanding of the historical and contemporary challenges that attend the Indigenous-settler legal relationship, and an understanding of what is required if Indigenous-settler agreements are to be legitimate and robust.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• the history and experience of treaty and agreement-making in Australia; with comparisons drawn to other settler colonial jurisdiction, especially New Zealand, Canada and the United States;
• the movement in Victoria towards the conclusion of a treaty between the Crown in right of Victoria and Victorian Aboriginal peoples;
• the design of Indigenous representative institutions;
• Historic treaties and applicable law in New Zealand, Canada and the United States;
• Indigenous-settler agreement-making in property law (for example Indigenous Land Use Agreements, and the design and operation of Native Title Registered Bodies Corporate);
• Indigenous-settler agreement-making in social policy and service delivery sectors, natural resource management, and in environmental law and policy;
• the relevance and impact of international law on agreements, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169 on Tribal and Indigenous Peoples.

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The regulation of international trade is both a driver and a result of economic globalisation. Under the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO), governments agree to liberalise trade, refrain from discriminating between like products from foreign countries, harmonise certain regulatory frameworks, and resolve trade disputes. These laws impact significantly on social and environmental policies.

This subject is designed to provide students with an applied understanding of the law of the World Trade Organization as it operates in real-world social and political context. While developing a sophisticated understanding of the historical and theoretical fundamentals of WTO law and dispute settlement, students also continually reflect upon the relationship between WTO rules and other values, such as environmental protection and human rights.

Topics include an historical introduction to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization, an analysis of core WTO principles in goods and services and a consideration of the non-economic exceptions to WTO obligations. This requires an in-depth engagement with WTO legal agreements and Appellate Body case-law. Based on this knowledge of substantive WTO Law, students examine the WTO dispute settlement system, including its relationship with other parts of the international legal system. A range of more specialised subjects in trade law may in any given year include the regulation of product standards (ie to harmonise labelling and other requirements), the use of sanitary and phytosanitary measures (ie rules on food safety and pests in contexts such as the use of genetically modified organisms), trade policy instruments used by governments to protect domestic industries, subsidies and 'trade remedies'. Major challenges and reform efforts in international trade law, including the stalled Doha round of negotiations, may also be considered.

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