730-434 Legal Internship

Legal Method and Reasoning; Principles of Public Law; Torts; Legal Theory. It is a prerequisite for enrolment in this subject that students be offered a place in an approved internship of a minimum of six weeks full-time. Approval for a particular internship, which may be in Australia or overseas but which must involve substantive legal work, is required in writing from the subject coordinator.

The Melbourne Law School recognises that many of its students take the opportunity to engage in significant and exciting law-related work during their time at the Law School.

Legal Internship allows students to gain credit for research arising our of their work in an approved internship of at least six weeks of full-time work in an approved organisation. Students gain credit for a substantial research essay involving critical legal research and analysis on a topic developed by the student during or after their approved internship.

Examples of approved internship organisations include international organisations, government departments, non-government organisations, and law reform bodies. The internship must involve substantive legal work. The student must organise, prior to obtaining approval from the Coordinator and formal enrolment in the subject, an academic staff member from the Law School to act as supervisor for the writing of the substantial research paper which forms the basis of assessment in the subject. Students may choose to combine Legal Internship with Advanced Legal Research, with approval of the coordinators of both subjects and their supervisor.

Note: The essay in this subject is regarded as a substantial piece of legal writing for honours purposes.

Students will be required to complete a brief report on the Internship experience and a 5000-word research essay 100% (due on the first day of the examination period in which the internship is undertaken).