Faculty of Law : Guide to courses 11. Planning your Bachelor of Laws (LLB) course

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11. Planning your Bachelor of Laws (LLB) course
    11.1. Changes to points
    11.2. LLB course objectives
    11.3. The four-year LLB degree

11. Planning your Bachelor of Laws (LLB) course

The Faculty of Law offers students a wide range of law subjects. Students who enrol in an LLB course must complete the compulsory subjects and a specified number of optional subjects. The subjects you choose depend on your own interests and on what you hope to do when you have completed your degree. If you want to become a legal practitioner, certain optional subjects must be chosen; otherwise you will not be eligible for admission to practise. The length of time it takes to complete a degree depends on the structure of the degree course.

The Melbourne LLB is innovative, forward looking and responsive to the changing needs of legal practice and scholarship. A feature of the law course at Melbourne is the seminar format of teaching in first-year subjects. Students are taught in small groups, which allows the maximum degree of student-teacher and student-student interaction. Significant perspectives on law (cross-cutting influences) are developed in a coordinated way throughout the curriculum. The cross-cutting influences particularly pertinent to the Melbourne LLB include: legal theory, ethics, comparative approaches to law, regulation, legal history, indigenous culture, law and policy, inter-cultural approaches, theoretical perspectives on law, cross jurisdictional law and practice, law reform and policy, and interdisciplinary influences on the law.

The Melboure LLB also has a range of optional subjects which has been designed to enable students to acquire knowledge in a range of different areas of law to deepen their understanding of particular areas of law. These optional subjects are grouped into the following broad areas: Asian Law; Corporate and Commercial Law; Criminal Law and Justice; Dispute Resolution; Family Law; Indigenous issues in the Law; Intellectual Property; Media and Information Technology Law; International and Comparative Law; Labour Law; Legal Theory; Taxation Law.

11.1. Changes to points

The University approved a change in the points structure for all degree courses to standardise workloads across faculties. The standard year has been 100 points divided into semester units of 12.5 points. The following table indicates the sequence and points value of the compulsory subjects from 2006.

There will be no retrospective changes to points already earned for completed subjects prior to 1998. Please consult the Manager, Undergraduate Studies, if you have any queries about the sequence you should follow in 2006.

11.2. LLB course objectives

This course has as its objectives that graduates:

• understand, and can identify, use, and evaluate rules, concepts, and principles of law, their derivation, and the various theories that attempt to systematise them;

• have acquired the techniques of legal reasoning and argument, in oral and written form;

• understand the institutions of the law, and their social, economic and political context;

• have learnt to find the law, to carry out independent research and analysis, and to think creatively about legal problems;

• have a continuing interest in law and obtain satisfaction from its study and practice;

• develop a critical interest in the reform of the law;

• can appreciate the responsibilities of lawyers to the courts, the legal profession, the community and individuals within it; and

• are committed to promote justice.

11.3. The four-year LLB degree

If you do not wish to do a combined degree, you can enrol in a four-year LLB course. You will need to study the same compulsory and optional law subjects as in a combined degree. In addition to these law subjects, you must complete a specified number of approved non-law subjects which are not offered or administered by the Faculty of Law.

If you already have other tertiary qualifications or have completed at least one year of full-time tertiary studies you may complete the degree in three years. You are required to complete the same law subjects as in the four-year degree but you are not required to complete any non-law subjects.

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