166-215 Rights and the Law

For socio-legal studies students: Usually 25 points of first-year arts including 191-110 Law in Society. For Political Science students: usually 25 points of first-year politics.

This subject examines those entitlements in democratic Australia to which we attach special importance, and which we label rights. The subject asks students to explore the limited way in which rights have traditionally been protected by Australian law, and to consider how this has changed in the past fifty years, with the rising influence of international human rights law on Australian courts and parliaments, and with the broader reading of Australia's Constitution by the High Court. The subject engages with a number of current debates in Australia (including those concerning euthanasia, artificial reproductive technology, terrorism, asylum seekers and Indigenous rights), and will enable students to respond in detail to two key questions: What constitutes a right in contemporary Australia? How should rights best be protected? Students who complete this subject will have a detailed understanding of the extent to which Australian legal and political institutions have defined and protected rights over the last 100 years. They will have an informed understanding of what constitutes a right in modern Australia, and they will have a detailed appreciation of how rights are debated in Australia.

• participate in group work through group discussion;

• acquire time management and planning skills through managing and organising workloads for recommended reading, and essay and assignment completion;

• acquire oral presentation skills through tutorial discussion and class presentations;

• acquire written communication skills through essay preparation and writing;

• communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically: through essay writing and tutorial discussion.

An essay of 2000 words worth 50% (due mid-semester) and a 2-hour examination worth 50% (due at the end of semester).