Unit Outline

Strong legal reasoning skills are critical to student learning and performance while at law school and eventually to the quality of your legal practice. More broadly, many employers beyond the legal profession consider the ability to solve problems by identifying issues, developing arguments and expressing reasoning processes and decisions in a clear and cogent manner to be a highly desirable attribute. The unit is designed with one ultimate aim in mind: to equip students with the analytical legal reasoning skills and knowledge needed to perform well across the remainder of their legal studies. Having successfully completed this unit, you should feel confident in your ability to find, read, analyse and make strategic arguments with case law and legislation. You should also understand how technology is providing lawyers (including judges) with new ways to carry out legal analysis and make decisions pursuant to law and how these changes challenge traditional conceptions and approaches to law and legal rasoning. These changes raise new and fascinating legal and ethical challenges which are explained throughout this unit, with references to recent case studies. The Legal Reasoning unit reflects the diversity of the institutions and laws within Australia's legal system, adopting design principles and learning from Australia, England and America and the case studies used are drawn from a range of common law countries.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:


1	Analyse and make cogent arguments in writing with statute and common law
2	Provide written advice in response to legal problems
3	Comprehend and critically consider a range of legal reasoning techniques and the role of new technologies in legal decision making

Requisites


REQUISITE TYPE	REQUISITES
Anti-requisite (mutual excl)	LAW255

Alterations as a result of student feedback

In response to student feedback, this unit has been revised to allocate more time to foundational learning in the first half of the semester and to include additional examples and opportunities for practicing skills for the assessments and exam.

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Assessment Task 1: Quizzes	See the MyLO site for the due date	10 %	LO3
Assessment Task 2:	Assessment Task 2: Assignment	Week 8	50 %	LO1, LO2
Assessment Task 3:	Assessment Task 3: Exam - invigilated	Exam Period	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO3

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Assessment Task 1: Quizzes

Task Description:

This assessment item is designed to test students' comprehension of the materials presented in five of the 13 weeks of the semester.

Each quiz will be available on MyLO from 9am on Wednesday and must be completed by 4pm on Thursday of the week of the quiz.

Once you begin a quiz, you will only have 30 minutes to complete it.

You will have the opportunity to complete a practice quiz (not assessed) in week 2.

There will be quizzes in weeks 3, 4, 9, 10 and 12. See the MyLO site for more details.

Task Length:

Five quizzes throughout the semester. Each quiz will comprise five multiple-choice or multiple-select questions.

Due Date:

See the MyLO site for the due date

Weight:

10 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Comprehension of legal texts	LO3

Assessment Task 2: Assessment Task 2: Assignment

Task Description:

Students are required to identify the key elements of a case, explain how judges use authority, demonstrate an ability to locate and express ratio decidendi and provide advice in relation to a short hypothetical legal problem.

Task Length:

2,000 words including footnote references. No bibliography is required.

Due Date:

Week 8

Weight:

50 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Capacity to identify legal issues	LO1, LO2
2	Ability to explain legal Principles	LO1, LO2
3	Written communication of legal arguments	LO1, LO2
4	Response to feedback

Assessment Task 3: Assessment Task 3: Exam - invigilated

Task Description:

This Invigilated Examination will consist of two parts. The first part will examine a student’s ability to interpret statutes and provide legal advice. The second will assess a student’s deeper knowledge of the role of legal reasoning within society, with particular reference to technological developments in the field.

Task Length:

3 hours

Due Date:

Exam Period

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Capacity to read and interpret statutory provisions	LO1, LO2
2	Identification of legal issues	LO1
3	Written communication of legal arguments	LO1, LO2
4	Critical thinking and reflection on legal reasoning techniques, including new techniques brought about by changes in technology, and their role within legal systems	LO3

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Academic progress review

The results for this unit may be included in a review of your academic progress. For information about progress reviews and what they mean for all students, see Academic Progress Review in the Student Portal.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Academic integrity

Academic integrity is about acting responsibly, honestly, ethically, and collegially when using, producing, and communicating information with other students and staff members.

In written work, you must correctly reference the work of others to maintain academic integrity. To find out the referencing style for this unit, see the assessment information in the MyLO site, or contact your teaching staff. For more detail about Academic Integrity, see Important Guidelines & Support.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.