This unit of study provides a foundation core for the study of law. We aim to provide a practical overview of the Australian legal system, an introduction to the skills of legal reasoning and analysis which are necessary to complete your law degree, and an opportunity for critical engagement in debate about the role of law in our lives. The course will introduce students to issues such as: (i) legal institutions and the separation of powers; (ii) the development of judge made and statute law, with a particular focus on English and Australian legal history; (iii) other sources of law, including customary law, constitutional law, and international law (iv) the relationship between courts and parliament; (v) the role and function of courts, tribunals and other forms of dispute resolution; (vi) understanding and interrogating principles of judicial reasoning and statutory interpretation; (vii) how to read cases and interpret statutes; (viii) the relationship between law, government, and politics; (ix) the rule of law; (x) human rights in Australian law. The course focus may be subject to change.

This is a general introductory unit of study concerned with liability for civil wrongs. The unit seeks to examine and evaluate, through a critical and analytical study of primary and secondary materials, the function and scope of modern tort law and the rationale and utility of its governing principles. Particular topics on which the unit will focus include:
(a) The relationship between torts and other branches of the common law including contract and criminal law;
(b) The role of fault as the principal basis of liability in the modern law;
(c) Historical development of trespass and the action on the case and the contemporary relevance of this development;
(d) Trespass to the person (battery, assault, and false imprisonment);
(e) Trespass to land and private nuisance;
(f) The action on the case for intentional injury;
(g) Defences to trespass, including consent, intellectual disability, childhood, necessity and contributory negligence;
(h) Development and scope of the modern tort of negligence, including detailed consideration of duty of care and breach of duty and causation and remoteness of damage with particular reference to personal and psychiatric injury;
(i) Compensation for personal injuries, including special and alternative compensation schemes;
(j) Injuries to relational interests, including compensation to relatives of victims of fatal accidents;
(k) Defences to negligence.

Contract law provides the legal background for transactions involving the supply of goods and services and is, arguably the most significant means by which the ownership of property is transferred from one person to another. It vitally affects all members of the community and a thorough knowledge of contract law is essential to all practising lawyers. In the context of the law curriculum as a whole, Contracts provides background which is assumed knowledge in many other units. The aims of the course are composite in nature. The course examines the rules that regulate the creation, terms, performance, breach and discharge of a contract. Remedies and factors that may vitiate a contract such as misrepresentation are dealt with in Torts and Contracts II. The central aim of the course is to provide an understanding of the basic principles of contract law and how those principles are applied in practice to solve problems. Students will develop the skills of rules based reasoning and case law analysis. A second aim is to provide students an opportunity to critically evaluate and make normative judgments about the operation of the law. Successful completion of this unit of study is a prerequisite to the elective unit Advanced Contracts.

This unit of study aims to introduce students to civil and criminal procedure. It is concerned with the procedures relating to civil dispute resolution and criminal justice which are separate to the substantive hearing. The unit will consider the features of an adversarial system of justice and its impact on process. Recent reforms to the adversarial system of litigation will be explored. The civil dispute resolution part of the unit will cover alternative dispute resolution, the procedures for commencing a civil action, case management, gathering evidence and the rules of privilege. Criminal process will be explored by reference to crime and society, police powers, bail and sentencing. The course focuses on practical examples with consideration of ethics, and contextual and theoretical perspectives.

This unit of study is designed to introduce the general principles of criminal law in NSW, and to critically analyse these in their contemporary social and political context. In order to achieve these goals, the unit will consider a range of theoretical literature as well as critical commentary, and will focus on particular substantive legal topics in problem-centred contexts. Although the topic structure is necessarily selective, it is intended that students will gain a broad understanding of crime and justice issues, as well as of the applications of the criminal law. Students will encounter problem-based learning and will be encouraged to challenge a range of conventional wisdom concerning the operation of criminal justice. This unit of study is designed to assist students in developing: (1) A critical appreciation of certain key concepts which recur throughout the substantive criminal law. (2) A knowledge of the legal rules in certain specified areas of criminal law and their application. (3) A preliminary knowledge of how the criminal law operates in its broader societal context. (4) An understanding of how criminal liability is determined. The course has a critical focus and will draw on procedural, substantive, theoretical and empirical sources. The contradictions presented by the application of legal principle to complex social problems will be investigated.

The laws of tort and contract frequently overlap in practice and are increasingly regulated by statute. This unit aims to develop the integrated study of the law of obligations and remedies. It builds on the introduction to tort and contract law which students have acquired in Torts and Contracts. It will include the study of more advanced topics in both areas and the impact of related statutory liability and remedies. Topics:
(a) Concurrent, proportionate and vicarious liability;
(b) Tortious interference with goods;
(c) Liability for misrepresentation in tort, contract and under statute;
(d) Liability for economic loss in tort, including some comparative study;
(e) Detailed consideration of causation and remoteness of damage in contract;
(f) Damages for breach of contract;
(g) Unfair dealing in contracts and vitiating factors: mistake, misrepresentation, duress, undue influence, unconscionable conduct.

The compulsory unit of study is an introduction to the general problems, sources and techniques of public international law. The unit surveys the fundamental rules and principles public international law through an examination of the following topics (1) the nature, function and scope of public international law, (2) the sources of public international law, (3) the law of treaties including principles of treaty interpretation, (4) the relationship between public international law and municipal law, (5) the extent of civil and criminal state jurisdiction, (6) immunities from state jurisdiction including diplomatic privileges and immunities (7) state responsibility, including diplomatic protection, nationality of claims and exhaustion of local remedies, (8) regulation of the use of force in international relations, and (9) dispute settlement.

This unit is designed to introduce students to the principles and structures that underpin constitutional and administrative law in Australia. It is broader than either of these subjects because its focus is on generic issues of governance and accountability, focusing on questions of power: what power is exercised by whom, from what source, with what limits and how and by whom is the exercise of those powers to be scrutinised. The unit begins with an introduction to the Constitution, its history, and the structures established by it, together with consideration of how to change both State and Commonwealth Constitutions. The unit then moves to consider the three arms of government and related concepts such as representative and responsible government. The unit then moves to consider the various mechanisms by which the executive can be made acountable, including by the Parliament, judicial review, merits review and investigative tribunals.

Administrative Law is the study of the relationships of individuals and organisations with government. This unit examines the legal principles which apply to those relationships with the aim of developing an understanding of how government is held accountable. The unit builds on topics studied in Public Law, including the constitutional underpinnings of Administrative Law, the protection of human rights, judicial review and merits review, and open government. In the Administrative Law unit, the focus is on the grounds of judicial review and judicial remedies, the jurisdiction of the courts, and the public/private distinction. The unit encourages the development of critical perspectives on the grounds of judicial review, and their theoretical underpinnings, and on how the values of openness, rationality, fairness and participation are sought to be promoted through Administrative Law.

The main objective of the course is to impart an understanding of the fundamentals of federal constitutional law through the study of key judicial decisions on powers and prohibitions in the Commonwealth Constitution. In a one session course it is neither feasible nor desirable to study all aspects of federal constitutional law. The course is designed to provide a general conceptual framework for solving problems about federal constitutional law by a detailed treatment of selected topics.
The course also aims to:
- Provide analysis of the function of the High Court as the final arbiter of constitutionality.
- Develop an understanding of the techniques of judicial review as applied in Australia.
- Encourage discussion on the adequacy of the Constitution as Australia's basic instrument of government and on the scope for 'reform' by interpretation.

The topics covered in detail include: Trade and commerce, severance and reading down, inconsistency, external affairs, defence, corporations, freedom of interstate trade, general doctrines of characterisation and interpretation, grants, revenue powers, excise duties, intergovernmental immunities and constitutional rights.

The course includes some overseas material to provide points of comparison and contrast.

Property law and commercial law are two key sources of rights and obligations in modern western law. This subject provides an introduction to both areas of law, and shows the ways in which they are inter-related. The unit is designed to provide an opportunity to consider the role these areas of law play in Australian society, as well as giving a good grounding in legal principle.

Key topics covered will include: notions of "property"; an introduction to personal property (including ownership, possessory and security interests); an introduction to real property (including the doctrine of tenure and estates and rights to fixtures); an overview of the principles underpinning old system, Torrens and native title to land; the nature and classification of legal and equitable interests in land and personalty; the principles governing the creation and assignment of rights to property at common law and in equity (including by sale and by compulsion - such as by bankruptcy), and an introduction to the statutory and general law principles for resolving competing claims to property.

The Legal Profession critically examines notions of legal professionalism and the regulation of legal services markets, legal practice and practitioners. Part 1 of The Legal Profession examines the nature of legal professionalism, the structure of the legal profession and the contours that shape legal services markets. Part 2 explores the regulation of the profession including historical challenges and diverse theoretical views and models of regulation are examined. The current regulatory regime in New South Wales is analysed in detail focusing on recent changes and the impact of a National Legal Profession. Part 3 explores specific forms of legal practice, highlights the major cultural and economic forces that challenge the parameters of legal professionalism and regulation of the profession. Alternative ways of organising legal practice and the legal services market are canvassed focusing in particular, on the impacts of modern technology and globalisation. Part 4 evaluates the lawyer-client relationship and suggests strategies to facilitate equality and effective communication in the delivery of legal services. Furthermore, it examines lawyers' duties to clients the Court and third parties, and the ways in which the rules and principles of confidentiality and conflicts of interest shape the advice and representation lawyers provide for clients. This unit of study demands active participation by students and ongoing critical reflection of the issues raised throughout the semester. A series of case studies is used to engage students and encourage critical and reflective thinking.

This unit of study considers the legal structure of the corporation as an organisational form for both public and proprietary companies. It is designed as an introduction to both the general law of corporations and the Australian regulatory context. The focus of this unit is on the nature of the corporation and its governance structure. The unit covers issues such as the implications of the company as a separate legal entity, power to bind the company, duties of directors, and shareholders rights and remedies. Students will be required to evaluate critically existing corporate law and reform proposals, with particular reference to legislative policy and underpinning theory.

An appreciation of equitable principles and remedies is fundamental to understanding the legal system and the law of property, taxation and obligations. This unit of study explains the origins of the equitable jurisdiction and examines its role today. A substantial part of the unit is dedicated to study of the law of trusts, including remedial constructive trusts. Other topics include fiduciary obligations, breach of confidence, the doctrines of estoppel, undue influence and unconscionable dealing, and a study of the equitable remedies of the injunction, an account of profits and equitable compensation.

This unit of study aims to teach students the laws of evidence. The focus of this unit is on the operation of the laws of evidence in civil and criminal trials. The unit considers the laws of evidence contained in statute and the common law. Students will appreciate the significant law reform in this area. The unit considers the rules for adducing evidence, then the rules of admissibility (relevance, hearsay, opinion, tendency and coincidence, credibility, character, privilege and the discretions to exclude evidence). Finally, there will be consideration of issues relating to proof. This unit will focus on the uniform Evidence Acts 1995 and develop students' skills in the area of statutory interpretation. Further, the unit aims to introduce students to the contexts within which lawyers might encounter evidential issues in the course of a trial. Consideration is also given to the ethical problems that may arise in the conduct of a trial. Students are encouraged to think critically about the doctrines that govern the laws of evidence.

Land law (or the law of "real property") has always played an important role in the economic, social and political life of Australia. Australian real property law draws much of its principle from English real property law; but over the last 100 years in particular, Australian real property law has begun to develop its own unique character. This is particularly evident in two key aspects of modern Australian law: the Torrens system of land registration (which forms a large part of this unit of study) and the developing law of indigenous title to land (which is studied in Introduction to Property and Commercial Law, but which may surface occasionally in parts of this unit also).
This unit considers in particular the following topics: priorities between competing interests in land (building on material from the introductory unit, Introduction to Property and Commercial Law); the Torrens system of land registration; co-ownership of land (joint tenancies and tenancies in common); leases and licences; easements; covenants; mortgages.

Private international law (or conflict of laws) is the part of municipal law in every developed legal system which is concerned with legal issues which have a connection with a foreign legal system. In essence, private international law is concerned with the transnational dimension of private law as where, for example, proceedings are brought in New South Wales for a tort committed in Malaysia, or for breach of a contract to be performed in New York or against a defendant in the People's Republic of China.
This unit of study is a comprehensive general course which addresses the three persistent issues in private international law: jurisdiction; choice of law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. Particular topics include: (1) Scope of private international law (the concept of legal issues which have a connection with more than one legal system); (2) Personal jurisdiction (including the discretionary non-exercise of jurisdiction and anti-suit injunctions); (3) Substance and procedure (with particular reference to limitation of actions and damages); (4) Proof of foreign law; (5) Exclusionary doctrines (foreign revenue and penal laws, foreign governmental interests and foreign laws contrary to forum public policy); (6) Choice of law in contract; (7) Choice of law in tort; (8) Comparative choice of law in tort (with particular reference to the European Union, Canada and the United States of America); and (9) Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

The main purpose of this course is to build on the fundamental understandings achieved in Public Law and Federal Constitutional Law in order to provide a far broader and deeper understanding of the subject. This will be achieved by, first, examining in depth the fundamental aspects and tenets of constitutionalism in the Australian context and from a more jurisprudential perspective. Reliance will be placed on comparative jurisdictions, in particular the United States and the United Kingdom, the latter serving as an entre to relevant issues in European Union law. A detailed analysis will first be attempted of the following major concepts in the more precise context of Westminster-based systems: the rule of law, parliamentary sovereignty, the ambit of executive power and the precise status and principles of responsible government, judicial review and constitutional rights, separation of powers, constitutional conventions, the reserve powers of the Governor-General, the status of common law principles as fundamental constitutional guarantees. Thus, for example, the course will examine the evolving notion of parliamentary supremacy from Diceyan orthodoxy to the more recent debates involving leading constitutional scholars in the UK and Australia. (TRS Allan, Goldsworthy, Hart, Hood Phillips, Jowell, Wade, Winterton) In relation to separation of powers, the different constitutional consequences which result when the doctrine is entrenched in a written constitution (as in the US and Australia) on the one hand, and when it exists as a convention without being so entrenched, on the other, will be explored, again with reference to leading constitutional scholars in Australia, the UK and US. This will enhance an understanding of the definition, nature and limits of judicial, executive and legislative power and their inter-relationship, an issue which becomes particularly important at moments of constitutional uncertainty and stress, especially at the crossroads of their power. The functionalist/formalist debate will be examined to determine the most appropriate interpretive methodology with respect to the application of the constitutional limitations which may emanate from the separation of powers. In so doing, the principal decisions of the High Court of Australia and other relevant courts in other jurisdictions. There will be an opportunity to evaluate major Australian constitutional decisions in a detail not possible in the prerequisite and undergraduate courses. A principal underlying theme will be the extent to which the tenets of constitutionalism are being complied with in Australia and the extent to which they can be. The course will be enriched and made more presently relevant by the exploration of current developing themes in constitutional law. The precise topics may vary from year to year. Depending on the topic, this may involve the introduction of completely new themes or the integration of developments with topics already examined.

This unit provides an opportunity for students who are familiar with the basic institutions and processes of public international law to deepen their understanding by studying in greater detail than is possible in the introductory unit several areas of conceptual importance and contemporary relevance. It follows that a prerequisite is the unit, LAWS1023 Public International Law or LAWS5005 Public International Law, or an equivalent unit undertaken at another institution.
The topics covered by this unit are: (1) the international law of the sea; (2) international environmental law; (3) international refugee law; and (4) the law of international organisations and systems of monitoring and compliance in international law. These topics are specialised, substantive areas of law which are of particular importance to global governance of resources, particularly for a large, ecologically diverse and maritime State such as Australia, and are extremely topical on the national and international agendas.

This unit provides an in-depth introduction to the principles, core concepts, and key cases of Canadian Constitutional Law. It traces the structure and role of the Supreme Court of Canada and, prior to 1949, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and the development of constitutional reasoning from confederation in 1867 through the adoption of the Charter of Rights in 1982 to the present. Topics will include federalism, free expression and related rights, the right to fundamental justice when life, liberty, or security of the person are at risk, the lack of economic or property rights in the Constitution, language rights, and aboriginal rights. Students will also be introduced to, and encouraged to engage in, normative debates about constitutional values.

This unit will provide students with an overall picture of the modern Chinese legal system. It will develop a perception of its unique character by tracing its role through major social epochs and the role of law in a socialist market economy. It will examine the concept of law as a political function and the implementation of law, not so much through courts, as through administrative fiats and authority, making law essentially a function of politics and administration. The unit will illustrate these perceptions through the study of various legal regimes. Lecture topics may include: Chinese legal history; Chinese legal system; Criminal law and procedure; Constitutional law; civil law and procedure; legal profession; administrative law; contract law; property law; company law; intellectual property law; environmental Law; foreign joint ventures; arbitration and mediation; foreign trade law and taxation law.

This unit of study aims to introduce students to the theoretical issues associated with the definition and explanation of crime, criminality and crime control. Rationales for punishment are examined along with sentencing, and other possible responses to criminal behaviour are explored. The unit considers the impact of criminal justice policy and practice on particular groups which may include juveniles, women, Indigenous people, ethnic minorities and victims of crime. The regulation of particular types of offences such as hate crime are considered. Other topical issues are covered as they arise in contemporary criminological debate. Students are expected to take part in visits to a gaol and/or a juvenile detention centre.

This unit exposes students to the role and limits of law in addressing acute problems of socio-economic development and human rights in developing countries, through an interactive field school conducted over two weeks in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries. The themes to be explored are likely to include:
* The transition from armed conflict to peace in the aftermath of a Maoist insurgency and the end of the monarchy in Nepal (including issues of transitional criminal justice, the drafting of a new constitution, and building a new legal and political system in light of Nepalese legal traditions and foreign legal influences);
* The protection of socio-economic rights (including rights to food, water, housing, and livelihoods), minority rights (of 'tribals', and 'dalits' in the caste system), and the 'right to development' under constitutional and international law;
* The interaction between local disputes over natural resources, human displacement caused by development projects, environmental protection and climate change in the context of fragile Himalayan ecologies;
* The legal protection of refugees (Tibetan or Bhutanese) in camp or mass influx situations, in the context of the limited resources of a developing country and the causes of, and solutions to, human displacement; and
* The experience of women in development and human rights processes.
The issues will be drawn together by reflection upon the influence of, and resistance to, human rights and international law in developmental processes.

This unit of study aims to introduce students to the fundamentals of international commercial arbitration. The course covers the entire process of international arbitration: the significance of international commercial arbitration in international dispute resolution; the importance of a well drafted arbitration agreement; all procedural and conceptual aspects and legal issues arising during cross border arbitrations; arbitral awards and the enforcement of arbitral awards around the world through the New York Convention 1958, and the relevance and use of mediation (and its hybrids) in resolving commercial disputes. The unit will address the role and significance of specialised forms of international arbitrations and organisations involved in administering international arbitrations, including investor-State arbitrations under investment treaties and free trade agreements.

The objective of this unit is to provide students with an introduction to a number of areas of international and cross-border business law and business transactions and to provide students with a basis which will allow them to study some of those areas in more detail.

The course will begin with an overview of the scope of the law relating to international transactions. The core topics are international sale of goods, product liability and safety regulation, carriage of goods, international payments and financing of international sales, and methods of doing business in foreign markets, including international protection of intellectual property, dispute resolution in international business disputes, and the availability and use of available business structures and methods such as direct foreign investment. As part of the discussion of doing business in foreign markets and use of available business structures, students will look at the structure and drafting of international commercial agreements, and participate in a skills exercise.

This unit of study introduces students to the principles and practice of international human rights law - a species of international law and policy and a field of ever-expanding dimensions. It will introduce students to some key concepts, debates, documents and institutions in this field, while encouraging critical examination of these from a variety of angles. In summary, this unit considers the question: What happens when we regard a situation or predicament as one involving a breach of international human rights law? What possibilities and problems does this entail? Addressing these questions, we will look at: (a) particular fora where international human rights law is being produced (international tribunals, domestic courts, multilateral bodies - including United Nations organs - regional agencies, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and the media); (b) particular settings where international human rights law is being deployed (in Australia and elsewhere); and (c) particular identities/subjects that international human rights law aspires to shape, regulate or secure.

This unit of study will involve participation in one of three international moots. One moot will be the Jessup Moot. The other two moots will be selected by the Mooting Co-ordinator each year and may include competitions such as the Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, the Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law Moot, Tokyo Negotiation and Arbitration Moot and the European Law Students' Association WTO Moot. There will be a competitive selection process for enrolment in this course. For all moots students will work as a team preparing written memorials and oral argument on a set problem as required by each moot.

This seminar program is an introductory course in Islamic Law. It will focus on Shari'ah (the classical laws as derived from the religious sources), and will seek to explain its relationship to the contemporary laws of Muslim states and to the cultural practices of Muslim communities living in Australia and other predominantly non-Muslim states.
The course aims to provide a basic understanding of the sources of Islamic Law, their interpretation, and of the 'Schools of Law' which predominate in the Muslim World. The case studies, in particular, aim to engage students to assess critically past and present understandings in the contexts of modernity, post-modernity, 'human rights', and social change.

This unit aims to develop the general skills of comparative lawyers, to effectively and critically assess contemporary developments in the legal system of the largest economy in our region. The unit is taught intensively in Japan after an introductory class in Sydney. The first week in Kyoto provides an introduction to how law operates generally in Japanese society. After an overview of comparative law techniques, Japanese legal history and its contemporary legal system, classes explore civil and criminal justice, politics and constitutionalism, government and law, gender and law, lawyers and the courts in Japan as well as consumers and law. The first two days of the second week in Tokyo examines business law topics in socio-economic context in more detail, after an introduction to the Japanese economy and international trade policy. Topics include dispute resolution, investment and finance law, labour law and corporate governance. Students do not need to take the classes over 15-16 February but are encouraged to do so, and if there is sufficient demand an optional tour of the Supreme Court of Japan will be arranged for 17 February.

This unit introduces students to the legal systems of Southeast Asia, focusing on Indonesia and Malaysia. The course emphasises legal pluralism - that is, the operation of different bodies of law for particular groups in those countries, colonial, national, Islamic and customary law - and compares how countries in Southeast Asia have handled it. The Indonesia component of the course will be taught at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, which has one of Indonesia's finest law faculties. Students will learn the fundamentals of the Indonesian legal system. The component will be geared towards not only those who want to practice commercial law in Indonesia, but also those who are interested in other areas, including law reform, human rights, Islamic law, constitutional law, environmental law and criminal law. The Malaysian component will be taught at the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, which has one of the largest and most prestigious law faculties in Malaysia. Established in 1983, the faculty has sought to teach and provide expertise on harmonizing Shari'a with Civil and Common Law. Students will learn the fundamentals of the Malaysian legal system in the contexts of Malaysia's competing ethnicities, political and economic reform and the harmonization of laws. A particular focus will be on the dual banking system and the role of Islamic law in the development of trade, banking and finance.

Migration Refugees and Forced Migration is designed to introduce students to one of the most fast moving and engaging areas of public law. At one level, the unit is about government regulation of the entry of persons into Australia. As such, it is a branch of applied administrative law that concerns the very make-up of our society, affecting both who we live with and how we live our lives. Statistics show that more than one in four Australians were either born overseas or had an Australian-born parent. Dramatic skills shortages have seen unprecedented rises in the number of migrants brought to Australia on temporary and permanent visas. In spite of this, controversy persists over the nature of Australia's immigration program and the extent to which the government is doing enough to control both unlawful entry and the quality of the (lawful) migrants. Issues surrounding refugees and asylum seekers are a constant preoccupation. Covering both immigration law and domestic aspects of the law of forced migration the course is also a fine vehicle for exploring issues of human rights and the interaction between domestic and international law.
With Sydney receiving the lion's share of the migrants that come to Australia each year, migration law has become a growth area for both lawyers and for migration agents. By placing the current mechanisms for the controlling migration in their legal, social, historical and economic contexts, this unit provides an opportunity to explore the "big" issues raised by migration and to look at why the subject has assumed such a central role in the development of Australia's identity as a nation.
The unit of study is designed to foster the following skills:
a. Skills of statutory interpretation and problem-solving, through the study and use in practical situations of the Migration Act 1958 and its associated Regulations;
b. Skills of legal analysis and evaluation, gained through the examination and synthesis of relevant legislation; of court decisions and of rulings by the Migration Review Tribunal; the Refugee Review Tribunal; and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in its migration division; and
c. Oral and writing skills, through class participation, simulation exercises and the preparation of a major research paper.

Private international law is the part of local or municipal private law which is concerned with questions which contain a foreign element i.e. a relevant connection between a fact or party and a foreign legal system. For example, private international law issues will require consideration if a question arises in New South Wales concerning the distribution of the property of a person who died domiciled in France or the validity of a mortgage of shares in a New York corporation or the recognition of the dissolution of a marriage by a Norwegian court.
In seeking to develop your understanding of the international dimension of private law and your appreciation of the fact that many legal questions which arise in everyday life are not confined within one legal system, this unit of study will address the following topics: (1) personal connecting factor (domicile, nationality, residence); (2) renvoi and the incidental question; (3) transactions involving immovable property (e.g. land, intellectual property rights) and movable property (e.g. ships, aircraft, artworks, shares, contractual rights); (4) devolution of property on death (succession); (5) marriage validity; and (6) dissolution and annulment of marriage, including the recognition of foreign dissolutions and annulments of marriage. In addition to these topics, an introductory survey will address the function, purpose and rationale of private international law, theories and methods (e.g. the territorial theory of law, the vested rights theory), historical development and the relationship between statutes and the common law rules of private international law.

This unit is designed to introduce the legal and institutional framework of environmental law and policy in China and encourage comparative and jurisprudential studies of Chinese environmental regulation. The unit is made up of 20 two hour classes on the basic elements of Chinese law and legislation, the international dimensions of environmental law and the principles of sustainable development. Models of environmental regulation and regulatory tools will be examined in the context of key areas including biodiversity and climate change. Students will participate in classes in both Chinese Laws and Legal Systems (LAWS5368 with Prof Bing Ling) and Environmental Law (LAWS5130 with Dr Andrew Edgar and Ms Susan Shearing). On completion of the unit, students will have an understanding of environmental regulation in China, including how law and policy is developed and implemented in China, the mechanisms of government accountability, the role of the courts and opportunities for public participation. This understanding will be grounded in an appreciation of the social, political and economic challenges in implementing and enforcing environmental laws in China.

This unit provides an in-depth introduction to the principles, core concepts, and key cases of United States Constitutional Law. It traces the structure and role of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the development of U.S. constitutional reasoning from the post-revolutionary period to the present. It considers debates about constitutional interpretation, and the significance of different approaches to key provisions of the Constitution. Topics may include all or any of: federalism and the commerce clause; eminent domain and "just compensation"; substantive due process; equal protection of the laws: race and gender discrimination; freedom of speech; freedom of religion; unenumerated rights; constitutional protection of citizenship and voting. As U.S. Constitutional law is not essentially doctrinal, students will also be introduced to, and encouraged to engage in, normative debates about constitutional values.

A vital function of public international is its struggle against violence, both in preventing it from occurring and mitigating its effects once it gets under way. This unit explores two key areas of international law devoted to regulating intense violence involving governments or non- State actors: (1) International Law on the Use of Armed Force, and (2) International Humanitarian Law (also known as the Law of Armed Conflict or the Laws of War). The first part of the course considers the prohibition on the use of force under customary law and the United Nations Charter; exceptions to that prohibition in cases of self-defence by States or collective security action by the UN Security Council; controversies over pre-emptive self-defence, humanitarian intervention and the "Responsibility to Protect"; peacekeeping and peace enforcement; the role of regional and international actors; and the use of force by and against non-State actors. The second part of the course considers the origins, purposes and sources of international humanitarian law; its scope of application; the different types and thresholds of conflict; the permissible means and methods of warfare (including restrictions on weapons); the status and treatment of combatants and non-combatants and others (such as spies, mercenaries, "unlawful combatants", "terrorists", journalists, and "private security contractors"); the protection of cultural property and the environment; the relationship between human rights law and humanitarian law; and the implementation, supervision and enforcement of humanitarian law (including the prosecution of war crimes and the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross).

This unit aims to introduce you to the diverse range of anti-terrorism laws and policies which have developed at the international, regional and domestic levels, and which proliferated after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Laws will be evaluated in the light of their profound and complex political, ideological and ethical implications for political order, legal systems, human rights, and international relations. In essence, the study of terrorism (and the law's response to it) is the study of the timeless philosophical question of when political violence is justified, against whom, and for what purposes - whether it is 'freedom fighters', or 'State terrorism', that is at issue.

The unit is designed as a detailed study of maritime law from what might be said to be a commercial law, as opposed to a public law, perspective. The nature of the business of shipping and related activities are examined by reference to fundamental commercial arrangements and relationships - the business of shipping, ownership and deployment of ships, chartering and use of ships, carriage of goods by sea and limitation of liability. The unit will provide a detailed introduction to these areas as a foundation for practice in Australia and overseas and as a basis for further academic research. The core topics of the unit will be the law of charterparties and the carriage of goods by sea. A constant theme of the unit will be the international character of the commercial relationships involved and the importance of private and international law considerations at all times. Whenever possible, relevant comparative law analysis will be discussed.

Comparative Income Tax examines the key structural features of the income tax (tax unit, income, capital gains, fringe benefits, deductions, tax rates, tax accounting, tax expenditures and presumptive taxes). The unit will consider both the policy options in the design of the income tax and the legal implementation of those options. The unit will be primarily issues based, drawing on both developed and developing country examples. The comparative framework for analysis provides an opportunity for identifying the available options for taxing income and assessing the appropriateness of those options or a combination of them. As part of this more general analysis, the unit will identify cultural, constitutional and administrative issues that shape the design of income tax laws. The unit will not consider corporate tax as this is the subject of Comparative Corporate Taxation nor international tax as this is the subject of Comparative International Taxation. Students should gain an understanding of the key design features of the income tax and differences taken by countries in income tax law design.

This unit provides an introduction to the design and operation of consumption type value-added taxes (known commonly as either VAT or GST). The unit will consider the major foundational principles of VAT and the different ways in which they can be given effect in different jurisdictions, taking examples from the VAT Directive of the European Union, the GST laws of New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and a range of African and other jurisdictions and/or model VATs. Participants familiar with Australian GST will gain an understanding of the policies underlying VAT/GST and of the options for VAT treatment that have been adopted in other jurisdictions. International participants will find that the generic and comparative discussion of VAT/GST principles will be readily transferable to the operation of VAT in their country of residence. Topics covered include: different methods for taxing consumption; the history, spread and prevalence of credit-invoice systems of VAT; different models of VAT/GST; the relationship between VAT and other tax bases; the use of multiple rates; registration, invoices, assessment and collection; notions of taxable person, taxable activity, taxable supplies, and the taxable amount; the treatment of government and charities; exemption with credit (zero-rating/GST-free) and exemption without credit (input taxation); the aim of fiscal neutrality and the importance of the input tax credit/deduction; international issues and the avoidance of double or non-taxation; hard-to-tax commodities (financial services, insurance, gambling, real property); and problems with VAT evasion.

This unit will explore a range of recent trends and issues in corporate governance including:- the link between corporate scandals and corporate law reform; the board and independent directors; principles-based versus rules-based regulation; shareholder empowerment and institutional investor activism; takeovers and the regulation of executive pay. The unit will examine these issues from a comparative law perspective, analysing fundamental differences in corporate governance structure and techniques in a range of jurisdictions, including the US, UK, Germany, China and Australia.

This unit will examine a selection of theoretical and policy issues broadly related to the social responsibilities of corporations, including: conceptions of the corporation; the responsibility of corporate entities under the criminal law; corporate participation in the political process; corporate governance and democratic principles and corporate responsibility in respect of international human rights violations.
The unit will adopt a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on material from jurisdictions including the U.S. and Canada, as well as on methodologies and insights from law and economics and other schools of thought.

This unit is for law graduates and students for the JD degree who have, or intend to have, a practice that exposes them to cross-border financings and acquisitions. The unit highlights the distinctive concepts and practices of overseas securities and corporate laws in cross-border transactions and focuses on resolving the challenges non-Australian issues can pose to transactions even if Australian law applies to many aspects of the deal.
The lecturer was for over 30 years a merger & acquisition and securities lawyer in the US (resident for several years in Australia) and a significant portion of the class will cover US laws and practices on cross-border deals. The US segment will begin with a brief examination the US Federal system in which corporate and securities law responsibility is allocated between the states and Federal government, proceed to a practical discussion of the process of offering securities in the US and how it can affect non-US offerings, and finally will conclude with an exploration of the regulation of takeovers under US law. Significant US M&A concepts and practices, including mergers, break-up fees, poison pills, and proxy fights will be discussed.
The remainder of the class will focus on deal regulation of other jurisdictions (including the UK, China and other European and Asian regulations) of international transactions. Practical consequences of the regulatory requirements of these jurisdictions will be discussed, particularly as they relate to M&A, as well as certain subjects that have worldwide applicability (such as due diligence to determine possible corruption, vendor due diligence and directors' duties).
The unit will by a series of lectures, guest lectures and panel discussions. For example, when we discuss due diligence, it is anticipated that a pair of US and Australian practising securities lawyers will join the class to engage in a mock negotiation on how to conduct due diligence to satisfy very different legal standards in the two jurisdictions.
The purpose of the unit is to assist Australian and other non-US lawyers in (a) identifying potential cross-border issues and (b) being creative in solving the challenges that arise in international securities transactions.

Western attitudes toward death have undergone a remarkable transformation in the last century. For many, death now takes place in the hospital or the hospice following the decision of a doctor to cease providing treatment. As the management of death has passed from the family to health care professionals, it now makes sense to regard the moment and circumstances of death as largely medical phenomena. Moreover, as 'autonomy' has taken a dominant place amongst ethical values, it also makes sense to describe and measure death in terms of its 'acceptability' both to the dying person and his or her survivors. In tandem with these changes, technological innovations have transformed the dead or dying body into a potential source of valuable (and recyclable) biological material. These developments have thrown up new and urgent challenges for legal understandings about the timing of, and criminal responsibility for causing, death both within and outside medical settings. These developments have also disturbed conventional understandings of the corpse as sacred. Topics to be covered may include: death in contemporary Australia, the legal definition of life and death, medical futility and the concept of 'lives not worth living', euthanasia (with and without request), physician-assisted suicide, refusing and withholding life-prolonging treatment in adults and children, the Shipman/Patel scandals, ownership of the corpse and body parts, dead donor organ transplantation, organ sale and theft, posthumous reproduction, 'mercy' killing outside medical settings and the jurisdiction of the Coroner. The unit will interrogate these and other contemporary challenges for the law relating to death and dying both within Australia and, where appropriate, other selected comparator jurisdictions (US, UK and Canada). These will be mapped against socio-historical understandings of the changing meaning of death, dying and serious disability in Western societies, and students will be encouraged to reflect on the broader legal implications of these developments.

This unit aims to provide an introduction to the legal and practical aspects of doing business in China. The unit will commence with an overview of the Chinese legal, political and economic system and will then move on to an examination of the system of commercial regulation in China, including contracts, land use, regulation of private and state-owned businesses and Chinese companies and securities laws. The unit will focus on Chinese contract law and the foreign investment regime and the related structuring and regulatory issues related to foreign participation in the Chinese market. Areas covered will discuss the principal issues relating to the establishment of a corporate or other presence in China and the related negotiation process, including taxation and foreign exchange controls. The unit will conclude with an examination of methods of resolution of disputes arising under contracts entered into in China. More specialized topics which may be covered include intellectual property, labour law and regulation of financial institutions.

This unit will provide an analysis of health law and policy within the European Union. Students will be provided with an overview of the EU and the relevance of EU law for health law. Topics to be covered in this unit include: access to health care across Member States, including the free movement of patients across borders and the issue of health tourism; protection of health privacy within the EU and the Data Protection Directive; the regulation of health care professionals within the EU; regulation of health research, including EU funding of health research, and the Clinical Trials Directive; public health within the EU, including communicable diseases and health promotion; and EU law and policy on patient safety and quality assurance. In addition, this unit will provide students with 3 case studies of EU health law and policy in the areas of assisted reproduction, stem cells and cloning, and death and dying.

The unit will provide perspectives on global energy security, international access to energy resources and the resolution of cross-jurisdictional energy access disputes. In addition, it will deal with more conventional aspects of Energy and Resources Law such as: land Law including Native Title; energy resources and approvals; dealings and registrations; environmental Protection Law; and financial aspects such as project finance, energy trading and taxation. The reform of the energy market in Australia and its implications for competition Law, third Party access and trade practices, as well as the interface between energy resources and global climate change, will be canvassed. The unit will be taught by a team of experts including members of Sydney Law School, such as Ms Penny Crossley, and members of the profession. Each year, on the evening before the commencement of class the annual 'Kevin McCann Global Energy and Resources Law Lecture' will be delivered, to which all students will be invited.

Claims brought under a bilateral investment treaty and at the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning Australian tobacco packaging laws have highlighted the constraints international trade and investment agreements impose on the power of sovereign nations to regulate in the interests of health. These and other recent claims have also spurred local and global policy debates about the impact of trade and investment agreements on health.
This unit will examine the constraints imposed by trade and investment agreements by reference to contemporary case studies such as plain tobacco packaging. The unit will explore the legal constraints imposed by trade and investment agreements as well as ongoing policy debates surrounding these agreements. The unit will draw upon theories and empirical evidence concerning the effects of such agreements on regulatory decision-making and health more generally. The unit will also examine these issues in light of specific challenges faced by developing countries.
In the context of the law of the WTO and international investment agreements, this unit will explore contemporary case studies on a range of issues such as product regulation (in the contexts of tobacco control, alcohol control and food safety) health worker migration and the implications of intellectual property protection for health. These case studies will also be examined in the context of international investment agreements.

The questions of whether and how the global economy and human rights interrelate and interact have excited much recent controversy on the streets, in the courts and legislatures, in corporate board rooms and in the corridors of the UN and the international trade and financial organizations. It is a controversy that will almost certainly intensify over the next few years. The debate is controversial because it is important, and it is important because it involves two great globalizing forces namely, the promotion of free market ideology through trade liberalization and the protection of human rights through the universalization of the norms that underpin human dignity. On the face of it the two projects do sit easily together. Are they, in fact, implacably opposed to each other? Where or how do they overlap and what are the consequences or opportunities presented thereby? What role can the law play in regulating their interaction whether it be domestic or international law, 'hard' or 'soft' law. And what or who are the real actors behind the economic and human rights power blocs on the global stage? This unit seeks both to frame these questions and to address them by reference to the most recent discussion, thinking and action in the area.

This unit explores the growing internationalisation of criminal justice through an examination of forms of transnational crime and international conflicts and the infrastructure that is being developed to regulate global insecurities and criminal harms. It will explore the development of various institutions in response to international crimes and their relation to international human rights and access to justice. It will consider the different paradigms of justice that inform diverse international developments, notably contrasts between retributive and restorative justice. The unit will explore tensions and conflicts between nation-state based criminal justice and international norms, processes and procedures for regulating crime. It will assess the extent to which a distinct international criminal justice order is being established, the nature of its jurisprudence and values and its implications.

This unit aims to provide students with an overview of the development of international environmental law throughout the twentieth century. Attention will primarily be devoted to the international law and policy responses to global and regional environmental and resource management issues. Basic principles will be discussed prior to taking a sectoral approach in looking at the application of international environmental law in specific issue areas. The unit includes material on implementation of international environmental law in the Asia Pacific region. Relevant Australian laws and initiatives will be referred to from time to time. The focus is on law and policy that has been applied to deal with environmental problems in an international and transboundary context.

Family law disputes quite frequently involve parties who are citizens of, or have a right of abode in, other countries. It is common also for parties to have assets located in other countries. These international family law cases give rise to numerous difficult issues and require specialist legal advice. In which jurisdiction should a client file and what urgency is there to secure the jurisdiction of choice? How will Australian courts deal with forum disputes? To what extent are foreign court orders enforceable in Australia and will Australian orders be enforced in an overseas' jurisdiction? What steps need to be taken to prevent, as far as possible, the movement of assets overseas or, indeed, children overseas? How does the Hague Convention on Child Abduction work and is it effective? What about international enforcement of child support? This unit of study will examine these and other questions with an emphasis on the law in practice.

The unit aimed at students who would like to pursue academic and/or other careers as human right advocates both in the domestic private and government sectors as well as in the international arena. This postgraduate unit builds on the students' knowledge of public international law and in particular international human rights law by focusing on and analysing the multifaceted and diverse jurisprudence developed by a range of organisations including the United Nation's Treaty Bodies, International Tribunals and Non-Governmental Organisations. Theoretically, international human rights are indivisible, inalienable and universal. However, human rights of some individuals and groups are routinely abused, downgraded, or watered down by States, corporations or other individuals. This unit of study primarily considers how human rights lawyers, advocates and scholars, in response to such abuses, formulate and present arguments before international and domestic for a and analysis the ever-expanding human rights law jurisprudence developed as a result of such advocacy and/or litigation. To this end, students will deepen their theoretical knowledge of the fundamental norms of international human rights law and its requisite machinery. As an ancillary learning objective, students also endeavour to integrate the above knowledge with the practicalities of human rights advocacy and its relationship to: democracy and the political arena; the exercise and dynamics of power; rights and citizenship; and citizen education and action. Students should gain detailed insights into: identification of issues and their prioritisation; contextual analysis; setting of goals, various advocacy strategies, publicity avenues as well as program evaluation/feedback and fundraising. The unit will focus on and critique a number of legal advocacy strategies and techniques in domestic and international fora. This unit of study will include scholarly readings, case studies, guest speakers, simulations and on-line discussion forums. Students will be expected to complete a paper in an area covered in the unit.

How to limit and regulate violence in times of war is one of the most pressing challenges for international law. This unit explores the origins and purposes of humanitarian law; its scope of application (spatial, temporal and personal); the different types and thresholds of armed conflict (including international and non-international conflicts); the permissible means and methods of warfare (including the principles of distinction and proportionality, and specific weapons such as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, cluster munitions, and landmines); the status and treatment of combatants and non-combatants and other categories (such as spies, mercenaries, "unlawful combatants" and "terrorists"); the protection of cultural property and the environment; the relationship between human rights law and humanitarian law; and the implementation, supervision and enforcement of humanitarian law (including the prosecution of war crimes, the role of Protecting Powers and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and national military law).

The unit is a comparative study of international customs law and administrations and is based on examining some of the practical difficulties associated with the implementation of new customs laws in various jurisdictions. The Kyoto convention, which sets out the minimum requirements of any new customs law, is examined in some detail focusing in particular on: customs control; customs declarations; administrative penalties; customs securities; transparency and customs rulings; risk management initiatives etc. The unit also examines the international customs harmonised tariff illustrating the structure, notes and in particular, the rules for interpretation of the tariff. The WTO customs valuation methodologies are also studied (from Article VII of the GATT) with particular emphasis given to the transaction value method of customs valuation. The treatment of management fees, royalties, commissions, production assist costs, research and development expenditure and other difficult areas are also reviewed. Article VI of the GATT, which makes provision for anti-dumping law, is also considered providing practical examples of how this law operates in various jurisdictions.

This unit is about the doctrine and application of Islamic law in contemporary commercial environments. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 introduces Islamic law and its sources, before moving to discuss Islamic contracts, remedies and dispute resolution. It concludes by providing a contemporary overview of legal systems and business environments across the Islamic world. Part II contextualises the discussion through a focus on Islamic banking and finance, with particular reference to Malaysia and South East Asia. Topics will include: Malaysia's dual banking system and regulation of Islamic banking; methods of Islamic home financing; corporate capital raising, Islamic capital markets, sukuks (asset-based bonds) and takaful (Islamic insurance). It will also examine the problems of secular courts enforcing Islamic contracts.

The aim of this unit is to provide students with a broad overview of the key legal issues commonly faced when investing and doing business in Asia. This unit covers areas of commercial law across Asia with primary emphasis on Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and possibly India, including case studies. It covers foreign investment regulation; laws related to foreign investment; contract and/or competition law; labour law; corporate governance; intellectual property; Islamic law and finance (where relevant); corruption; WTO and FTA compliance; dispute resolution; and key issues in modern comparative law which may assist students in their study of `foreign' legal systems.

This unit aims to introduce students to a wide variety of areas of Indonesian law, with a focus on topical issues. These include Indonesia's place within the civil law tradition, the judiciary, human rights, constitutional reform, Indonesia's legal pluralism and some aspects of commercial law, including intellectual property. By the end of the unit, students should have an understanding of: Indonesia's legal system and some of the reasons for its dysfunction, with a focus on the judicial system; Indonesia's legal pluralism, including some aspects of Islamic law - particularly family law; recent constitutional and institutional reform in Indonesia; aspects of doing business in Indonesia.

The oceans cover two-thirds of the world's surface, and are vital to international commerce, are a store of important living and non-living resources, and provide indispensable environmental services including stabilising the global climate system. This unit reviews the major areas of the law of the sea as it has developed over the centuries. The unit takes as its focus the 'constitution' of the oceans, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and also considers a range of other international conventions and agreements, and current state practice. Each of the major maritime zones is assessed, and there is also a detailed review of several sectoral issues, including the protection of the marine environment, fisheries, navigational rights and freedoms, and military uses of the oceans. Where appropriate, reference will be made throughout the unit to relevant Australian law and practice, and to other state practice in the Asia Pacific Region.

This unit provides a critical overview to law and justice reform in international development. It analyses the global reform experience over the past half-century. It interrogates the nature and justification(s) of reform 'theory', studies the empirical evidence of various approaches, and examines the conceptual/practical challenges of evaluating development endeavour, using case studies from the Asia/Pacific region. Students enrolling in this unit will develop an evidence-based understanding of the use of law and justice reform in broader development strategies.

Refugee Law provides students with a practical and theoretical understanding of the development and operation of international refugee law, and forced migration more broadly. Forced migration is not a new phenomenon. What has changed over the last century is the scale and frequency of the conflagrations causing the mass movement of peoples and the ease with which individuals have become able to move around the world in search of protection. Although Australia's experience of direct refugee flows has been limited, it has not escaped the phenomenon of mobile refugees. Non-citizens who come uninvited and thereafter seek protection as refugees are the source of inordinate public concern and debate. The controversy arises in part from a sense of loss of control of immigration, and also from the cost of the processes available to asylum seekers fighting to remain here. Having signed and ratified the key international treaties, Australia has assumed certain international legal obligations with respect to refugees. The most important is the obligation not to return or 'refoule' a refugee to a place where she or he faces persecution on one of five grounds. This unit is designed to give students a critical understanding of the international legal regime of refugee protection. It begins with an overview of the evolution of refugee law at the international level, considering the various conceptualizations of refugeehood that have characterized international agreements from the period of the League of Nations through to the present day. The unit then turns to issues such as the definition of the term 'refugee' under international (and regional) law, the express exclusion of certain persons from refugee status, the rights and obligations accorded to refugees, the broadening of international protection through principles of human rights and humanitarian law ('complementary protection'), and the impact of terrorism on asylum procedures and eligibility. It considers attempts by States to restrict access to asylum through mechanisms such as carrier sanctions, interdiction, transit processing centres, detention, and 'safe third countries' to which asylum seekers may be removed. Contemporary protection concerns, such as mass influx situations and temporary protection, flight from generalized violence and civil war, internal displacement, burden-sharing, and the question of 'economic migrants' and 'environmental refugees', are also addressed. These considerations necessarily require an understanding of the role of international organizations such UNHCR, the mechanisms in place for refugee status determination and appeals in Australia and abroad, and the jurisprudence that has developed internationally and in Australia relating to the qualification and rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other persons in need of protection.

This unit is designed to study the policy, detailed rules and practical application of Australia's international tax treaties against the background of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. Upon successful completion of this unit a student should have an advanced understanding of the policies underlying the Australian tax treaty position in relation to the taxation of various kinds of income, as well as a detailed knowledge of the law applicable to interpretation of Australia's treaties. The unit includes a study of: principles of double tax treaties; interpretation of tax treaties; and selected articles of the OECD Model and Australian tax treaties.

This unit of study examines the sources of tension between the law and policy aspects of the international trade liberalisation regime, environmental protection and ecologically sustainable development. It examines the obligations imposed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) framework and the scope and operation of environmental exceptions that have been considered in recent trade environment disputes. It explores these developments from the perspective of parallel initiatives in international law aimed at promoting Ecologically Sustainable Development domestically and globally. The Agreements on Food Safety Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade are also covered to the extent that they impose limitations on nations' ability to specify the manner in which the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the rights and duties created by the Convention on Biodiversity are also discussed. The unit contrasts the WTO regime with that implemented by regional trade groups such as the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) and attempts some evaluation of their relative strengths in promoting ESD. It also reflects on the attempts to negotiate an agreement on investment liberalisation and the issues that raises for environmental protection initiatives. By the end of the unit participants should be able to critically assess the prospects for future harmonisation of global free trade regimes and ESD principles in the context of the Australian debate on these issues.

The objectives of this unit are: understand the history, structure and operation of US corporate law and corporate governance; to examine the common law, statutory provisions; and to explore the tension between state and federal law, including recent regulatory developments under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 and the Dodd-Frank Act 2010. Specific issues discussed in the course include the "race to the bottom" vs "race to the top" hypotheses; the US approach to veil-piercing; the governance role of shareholders under US law; directors' duties, including the duty of care and the duty of loyalty; the operation of the business judgment rule; derivative litigation; the law relating to closely held corporations; judicial review of tender offer defences.

This unit critically examines the criminal law, criminal justice institutions and penal practices in the context of legal scholarly debates. It provides the opportunity for reflection on the contemporary challenges of coordination and legitimation facing the criminal law. Topics to be considered may include criminal responsibility, capacity, gender and criminal law, corporate criminal liability, offence construction and trends in sentencing. In addition to these topics, the unit will attempt to respond to cutting edge developments in the criminal law as they arise. This unit of study is structured around a set of 'challenges' for the contemporary criminal law. Each 'challenge' forms the lens through which larger or longer-term theoretical and others issues are discussed. This unit does not adopt a topic- driven approach to criminal law; instead, it adopts an explicitly critical socio-historical approach to the study of law. Discussion of relevant academic commentary forms a core part of the subject matter of the course.

This unit builds on knowledge gained in the compulsory course Evidence (or Litigation). The unit has three aims. Firstly, it examines the rules of evidence covered in the compulsory Evidence course in greater depth. Secondly, this unit covers new topics such as (i) theories of evidence (ii) identification evidence, (iii) evidence of past sexual history (iv) interaction between human rights legislation and evidential rules. Thirdly, the unit engages in a comparative analysis with evidential rules in Australian and International jurisdictions.

This unit will be taught intensively over 4 days in Cambridge, UK, from 9 am to 5 pm each day. It will explore a number of contentious and advanced issues arising in the law of civil obligations and remedies. It will build on the fundamentals in the areas of contracts, tort and equity and place particular emphasis on the interaction of these three fields of the law. Particular topics depend on the expertise of the guest lecturers in these areas but will include :
- causation and scope of liability in assessing loss
-controlling liability by contract
-restitution in contract
- economic torts
-duties of good faith
- aspects of fiduciary duties and power and duties of trustees
- duties of confidence

This unit of study further pursues the goals of Australian Income Tax and is to be regarded as an extension of that unit. In particular, the unit analyses the special difficulties of levying tax on business activities, different types of entities and complex transactions, and the operation of the income tax in an international environment. The taxes covered extend beyond the income tax to include goods and services tax. This unit of study will cover the following topics: (a) business cost recovery mechanisms: trading stock and depreciation (b) the taxation of business entities and their owners: partnerships, trusts and companies; (c) taxation of international transactions; (d) goods and services tax; and (e) tax administration.

This unit of study examines the ways in which the law defines and regulates the relationship between humans and animals. It introduces students to the key issues, legal frameworks and regulatory regimes in this area whilst encouraging a critical examination of these sources. The unit begins with a discussion of the status of animals as property and the implications of this approach and then moves to providing an overview of the moral and ethical arguments supporting an animal protection position and the case for animal rights. The focus of the unit is on the regulatory frameworks that currently apply to interactions between humans and animals, both domesticated and wild. The following topics will be considered: legal issues relating to companion animals; torts and animals; animal welfare legislation and its enforcement; the regulation of the agricultural use of animals and role of model codes of practice; animal welfare standards and free trade; live export of animals; the regulation of the use of animals in science; and issues relating to wild animals, including hunting, pest animals, and endangered species. Although the focus of the unit is the law in Australia, wherever relevant the approach adopted in Australia will be compared and contrasted with that of other jurisdictions.

The objective of this unit is to enable students to examine and develop answers to the following questions: (i) What is discrimination and what harm does it cause? (ii) How has the law been used in Australia to address discrimination? (iii) What type of conduct does anti-discrimination law prohibit? Specifically, which traits are protected, in what contexts and with what exceptions? (iv) What remedies can be sought for unlawful discrimination and how are these enforced? (v) What are the limits and future directions of anti-discrimination law? The law as it operates will be examined, focussing on examples of particular grounds of discrimination (such as sex, race, disability, age, or family responsibilities), but considerable attention is also paid to regulatory alternatives to explore how the law could be developed.

This unit provides an introduction to the Australian federal income tax system (including capital gains tax and fringe benefits tax). It introduces both the operation of the tax laws and the underlying principles which those laws seek to implement, as well as the important issues in tax policy, thereby allowing students to make a critical examination of the Australian tax system. Topics covered include the concept of income, capital gains tax, income from property, compensation receipts, periodic receipts, income from services and fringe benefits tax, business income, allowable deductions and the capital/revenue distinction, private outgoings and dual purpose expenditure, basic tax accounting principles, and legislative responses to tax avoidance. The unit also introduces the key concepts used to evaluate tax policy, including welfare economics, thereby providing students with a basic understanding of why taxation is of such fundamental concern in modern democratic societies. This unit serves as an introduction to the Australian income tax system and is a prerequisite for Advanced Taxation Law.

This unit aims to provide students with:
* An overview of the legal regulation and supervision of banks and other Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs);
* An understanding of the legal basis of the relationship between banks, ADIs and their customers, and an overview of the more common rights and duties that adhere to the banker/customer relationship;
* An introduction to negotiable instruments (cheques and bills of exchange), letters of credit and performance bonds, and guarantees;
* An introduction to the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 and its impact on secured lending.

This course is aimed at giving specific dispute resolution skills to graduates who see themselves as practising actively in the business world, handling matters involving contract, finance and property. The workshops derive their substance from actual mediations and disputes. They involve some of the most frequently pleaded heads of law in commercial litigation, such as misleading and deceptive conduct, misrepresentation, and unconscionable conduct. For meaningful involvement in these workshops it will be necessary for students to become familiar, through the required readings, with the substantive law in these areas.
The starting point for this subject is the theory of ADR in its various forms. When these are understood in the early stages of the course, it is then seen as beneficial to re-create realistically the dynamics of commercial disputes, involving as they do a complex mixture of substantive law, adversarial parties, unclear facts and hidden agendas. This is an opportunity for graduates to become aware of and embark on acquiring some practical skills needed to handle these situations.
The teaching methodology is highly interactive and all class members are required to participate and contribute.

This unit of study examines competition law and policy in Australia. The central part of the course deals with Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). The framework for analysis will include a critical examination of the fundamental purposes of competition law policy. Some references will be made to the restrictive trade practices provisions of comparative jurisdictions.
Topics include: (a) common law antecedents of competition law and history of competition law legislation; (b) National Competition Policy and legislation; (c) application of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth); (d) elementary economic theory of monopoly and the goals of competition policy; (e) fundamental concepts of competition, market definition, market power and public benefit; (f) mergers and acquisitions; (g) horizontal arrangements including cartel conduct, primary boycotts, and arrangements which substantially lessen competition; (h) vertical arrangements including exclusive dealing and third line forcing; (i) misuse of substantial market power; (j) notifications and authorizations; and (k) overview of remedies and enforcement. Additional topics may include resale price maintenance or access to essential facilities.

This unit deals with the entry into, performance, and remedies for breach, of contracts for the sale of land. While conveyancing is sometimes regarded as a mere matter of form filling and rote-learned procedures, it is one of the oldest and most complex areas of law. Modern conveyancing involves the application an elaborate mixture of real property, equity, and contract law, and also involves the application of principles of interpretation to the construction of public and private instruments. Some consideration will be given to the implications of proposals for a system of electronic conveyancing.

This unit of study is designed to provide the theoretical foundations necessary for expertise in conveyancing practice. The first section deals with the formation of an enforceable contract for sale, including exchange of contract, identification of the subject-matter of the sale, and obligation of disclosure by vendors under common law and statute.

The second section deals with the law relating to the performance of the contract for sale itself, concentrating particularly upon the standard form of contract for the sale of land in use in New South Wales. Special attention is paid in this section to the law relating to deposits, requisitions and objections to title, defects, the consequences of misdescribing the property, and the legality of structures upon the land.

The third section deals with the remedies available to vendors and purchasers, including notices to complete, specific performance, relief against forfeiture, and a very brief treatment of general statutory remedies such as under the Trade Practices Act as they apply in relation to the contract for sale of land.

Explore the world of a mergers and acquisitions lawyer! This unit covers the major areas of public securities regulation - takeovers, schemes of arrangement, corporate fundraising, continuous disclosure and insider trading, from a technical, practical and tactical viewpoint. This course is run by leading M&A partners from Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Freehills, who use real-life war stories to illustrate legal principle, but also the practical and commercial application of them in our current market. The course has been designed with future corporate graduates and junior investment bankers in mind. It is a great addition to the resume and head start for any students interested in, or wishing to practise in, corporate law and mergers and acquisitions.

The unit covers the law that governs the transmission of property rights from one holder to other persons on the death of the holder. The unit begins with an overview of succession law in Australia; looking at testamentary freedom in its historical context; the development of powers of testation, and the reception of English law in NSW. The unit then considers the modern family relationships for succession; the boundaries of the law of succession (dealing with such matters as nominations, donationes mortis causa and contracts involving wills); the legal fact of death; intestate succession, the law of wills, family provision legislation and some aspects of the administration of deceased estates.

This unit of study introduces students to the principles of environmental law. The unit begins by examining environmental ethics, the principles of ecologically sustainable development, and the consequences of the Australian federal system for environmental regulation. Environmental laws in various contexts are then examined - including climate change, heritage, biodiversity, land-use and pollution.

The objective of this unit is to introduce the role of equity as a potential mechanism for allocating risk in commercial transactions. The unit introduces equitable doctrines, such as the doctrines of contribution, subrogation, marshalling and set-off, and explores how these doctrines assist in determining how parties in a commercial transaction should bear the financial risk. It also compares and contrasts the equitable principles with analogous common law rules and State legislative provisions (where relevant).

In this unit of study students are afforded the opportunity to work the equivalent of one day per week during the semester in a 'public interest' placement site. In addition, students attend fortnightly seminars which are designed to promote discussion and reflection on a range of issues that may arise during the course of the placement as well as seminar presentations on matters relevant to public interest externships. The unit has a public interest focus which is reflected in the selection of placement sites.
At the end of the unit students should have:
* acquired a better sense of the professional and personal responsibilities associated with the practice of law;
* developed an appreciation that the law is a people profession;
* observed and participated in a high level of problem solving flowing from real case files (where appropriate);
* been introduced to the basic inter-personal skills involved in the practice of law;
* interacted with legal professionals in a flexible learning environment;
* been introduced to aspects of the practice of law such as legal writing, advocacy and time management; and
* developed the character and habits of a reflective practitioner.

Family Law deals with the core provisions of the Family Law Act 1975 governing parenting of children and the property of married couples and persons in a de facto relationship. This course is essential for those interested in Family Law. It is a pre-requisite for Advanced Family Law.
Family Law will focus on the following topics: constitutional and jurisdictional issues; marriage, divorce and de facto relationships, the resolution of disputes relating to children under the Family Law Act 1975, property division under the Family Law Act; child support and maintenance.

The goal of this unit of study is to provide students with an opportunity to pursue independent research in an area of their choosing. The project must involve a new piece of research. Material which has been submitted for assessment in any other unit of study may not form part of the project. Before enrolling in this unit of study, the student must formulate in writing the topic of the research project and a statement of methodology. The topic of the research project and the methodology must be approved in writing by a member of the teaching staff who agrees to act as supervisor and to be responsible for assessment of the research project. This approval will not be given if the topic of the research project falls within the scope of another unit of study being offered in the same semester. Students must have a WAM of 70% or higher to be eligible to enrol in this unit.

The unit provides an introduction to the law regulating insolvent individuals and companies. It explores the objectives and key principles of insolvency law, the various forms of insolvent administration including bankruptcy, liquidation and voluntary administration and associated procedures together with the avoidance of transactions in insolvency. The unit also considers the impact of insolvency on employees, unsecured creditors and shareholders.

This course covers the legal framework within which instruments are interpreted. While mainly relating to statutory interpretation, the unit will also cover aspects of the law of interpretation of contracts and other instruments, such as treaties.

The primary objective in interpretation of instruments is to give meaning to the words of the instrument for the purpose of applying a legal standard. As observed by the former Chief Justice of the High Court, the question is not what the legislature or the parties subjectively intended, but the meaning of the words they used, which must be ascertained in construing the effect of the instrument (Gleeson CJ, Wilson v Anderson (2002) 213 CLR 401 at [8]). The course will focus on the primary elements of interpretive practice: text, context, and purpose, in a variety of contexts.
A variety of interpretive principles are used to ascertain the meaning of the words used in an instrument. The course will cover:
* Approaches to interpretation, with emphasis on the function of interpretation in private law and public law;
* Aspects of the interpretation of private instruments - contracts, testamentary dispositions, collective agreements.
* Principles of statutory interpretation, including:
* the conventions of grammatical interpretation of statutes, including the approach to the use of technical words, the need to read the instrument as a whole, and approaches to ambiguity and inconsistency of language,
* specific common law principles of interpretation.
* the use of extrinsic aids to interpretation,
* the role and function of interpretation acts.
* Aspects of interpretation of international of national and international instruments - Constitutions and treaties.

It is envisaged that at least part of the course content will be taught by eminent guest lecturers from within and outside the Faculty.

This unit covers copyright and designs law, both recognised branches of intellectual property law. Their existence is often justified on the presumption that they encourage the exercise of inventive, creative and entrepreneurial skill and labour. The protection these areas of law provides is said to enable commercial exploitation of the resulting works or designs. This unit focuses on the requirements for the copyright and design protection and investigates the bases upon which infringement action can be brought. Particular emphasis will be placed on the expanding scope of copyright and the implications of the internet, as well as provisions in the Copyright Act intended to address the apparent overlap between copyright and design protection. Although the unit of study will emphasise legal doctrine and be taught from the perspective of a relatively depoliticised formalism, it is also recognised that the deployment and the regulation of intellectual property inevitably have substantial cultural, technological and economic consequences, which in turn inform and shape the development of legal doctrine. So, for example, Gone With The Wind, as a literary work still under copyright, is both an asset with a monetary value and the focus of a civil rights activism which demands the right to imitate the work for social and political criticism and parody. There will, accordingly, be some attention paid in this unit to the cultural, technological and economic consequences of intellectual property laws, to the significance of access to the public domain and to the effects of international trade pressure in the area.

This unit will focus on legal rights concerning the marketing of products, specifically, trade mark law, and legal rights concerning invention, specifically, patent law. Most aspects of the law of registered trade marks, (including some references to passing-off and unfair competition) will be covered in the unit, as will the effect of these areas of law on new marketing practices on the Internet. Some specific topics which will be covered in depth are: the differences between registered trade marks, passing-off and unfair competition; character merchandising and the protection of the celebrity persona; the nature of signs and the special problem of shape trade marks; counterfeiting and parallel imports; the badge of origin, private property and cultural resource functions of registered trade marks. In patent law, there will be a particular focus on medical method patents, in light of their recent development and controversial nature. Although the unit of study will emphasise legal doctrine and be taught from the perspective of a relatively depoliticised formalism, it is also recognised that the deployment and the regulation of intellectual property inevitably have substantial cultural and economic consequences, which in turn inform and shape the development of legal doctrine. So, for example, pharmaceutical patents are both valuable assets to their owners, who accordingly demand extensive legal protection for those assets, and also the target of vigorous criticism in the developing world for the patents' potentially detrimental effect on public health in relation to, inter alia, HIV. There will, accordingly, be some attention paid in this unit to the cultural and economic consequences of intellectual property laws, to the significance of access to the public domain and to the effects of international trade pressure in the area.

This unit of study examines the legal regulation of work relationships in Australia in the 21st century. The course is designed to equip students with a broad understanding of the legal rules, principles and institutions which form Australia's system of workplace relations and to place that system in its global context.
The course concentrates primarily on the employment relationship (distinct from other types of commercial arrangements under which work is performed) and will examine the way in which that relationship is regulated by private contract law and statute.
The course offers both a theoretical and practical focus. Students are invited to reflect on the role of legal regulation of work relationships, and to critically assess the effectiveness of Australia's laws.
By completing this unit of study, student should acquire:
- A general understanding of the system of workplace relations in Australia, and the way that system has developed in recent years.
- Knowledge and understanding of the legal responsibilities of employers and employees at the workplace.
- A working knowledge of the framework and operation of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

The daily practice of journalism is affected by a range of common law principles and statutory provisions. This unit of study seeks to examine some of the most significant, practical constraints on the media. It examines in detail contempt of court, the principle of open justice and suppression orders. It considers contempt of parliament and other restrictions of the reporting of parliamentary proceedings. It also analyses the law relating to the disclosure of journalists' sources and the impact of freedom of information laws on the media. This unit of study seeks to provide not only a thorough doctrinal analysis of these areas of law but also seeks to locate them within their broader historical, international, comparative, political and policy contexts.

This unit of study analyses two areas of law which have a significant impact on the daily practice of journalism. Both of these areas of law relate to the personal interests of private plaintiffs and the legal recourse such plaintiffs may have against media outlets. The tort of defamation, which protects a plaintiff's reputation, is a well-established cause of action which notoriously has a "chilling" effect on what the media publishes. By contrast, direct legal protection of privacy against invasions by the media is a rapidly developing area of law in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the European Union. This unit of study provides a detailed examination of the principles of defamation law relating to liability, defences and remedies. It also examines how different common law legal systems are developing direct legal protection for individuals' privacy against intrusive media coverage. This unit of study provides a thorough doctrinal analysis of defamation, privacy and breach of confidence, as well as placing these areas of law in their broader historical, international, comparative, social and cultural contexts.

This unit of study provides an introduction to some of the legal issues that arise in modern health care. Issues to be covered in the course include: consent to medical treatment, professional liability and medical negligence, privacy and confidentiality, and end of life decision-making. By the end of the unit, students will have a grounding in legislation and caselaw regulating the provision of health care services, and will also be aware of some of the ethical issues that arise in medical contexts. Student participation in class discussion will be expected.

The course provides a general introduction to all aspects of Roman private law. It begins with an historical sketch of Roman institutions from the earliest times until the reign of Justinian (CE 527-565), together with an introduction to Roman legal history and the development of Roman legal concepts. It also deals with the reception of Roman jurisprudence into modern European legal systems and the common law. The Roman law of marriage and family, moveable and immoveable property, real and personal security, succession, and contractual, quasi-contractual and delictal obligations are then dealt with in depth. The Institutes of Justinian, in English, is the fundamental text for study and students are expected to read the Institutes in some detail. The Institutes constitute a map of the law and means of ordering the law. Roman law has always been, and still is, of great historical importance in the development of many areas of the common law. Roman law also provides a yardstick by which both the virtues and the shortcomings of the common law can be measured. Further, Roman law forms the jurisprudential background of most of the legal systems in force in continental Europe and those parts of the rest of the world that were colonised by continental European nations.

The process of creating effective security interests in personal property to secure performance of contractual obligations is a critical component of commercial dealings and financings. This unit examines how security may be taken over common forms of personal property through a detailed analysis of the new legislative regime established by the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth), which became operative in January 2012. Providing an overview of the historical and economic development of the law in this area, the unit explores the rationale for the comprehensive legislation as well as its underlying general principles. An international and comparative perspective is offered through references to the Canadian and New Zealand experience in introducing equivalent statutory frameworks, with part of the course materials drawn from these jurisdictions.

The Social Justice Program will arrange for students enrolled in the course to work with various organisations which have agreed to participate in the Program. To date, such bodies include the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS), the Public Interest Law Clearinghouse (PILCH), the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Environmental Defender's Office (EDO). Through such organisations students will be exposed to real world cases and participate in a structured seminar program dealing with social justice issues and aspects of public interest law.
Hands-on experience with cases, clients and/or policy and research projects will be obtained one day per week in a 'social justice' placement site. Students will attend weekly seminars designed to provide students with the basic knowledge and skills required to participate in a working clinical legal organisation, and cover legal issues specific to the placement sites. The seminars will encourage discussion and reflection on the range of issues that may arise during the course of the placement.
At the end of the unit students should have: (i) enhanced their ethical, social and professional understanding of the practice of law; (ii) improved their ability to recognise, define and analyse legal problems flowing from real case files, and to identify and create processes to solve them; (iii) observed and practised communication and inter-personal skills involved in the practice of law; (iv) been introduced to aspects of legal practice such as legal writing, research, client interaction and time management; (v) had the opportunity to work both independently and collaboratively, in a way that is informed by openness, curiosity and a desire to meet new challenges.

This unit of study is offered annually under the supervision of the Editor of the Sydney Law Review, who is a member of the full-time teaching staff. The unit is limited to approximately 18-24 students per year, who are selected on the basis of their academic results. Preference may be given to students in their final year in the selection of students for the unit. Each student will complete a range of tasks with respect to the Review, including editing and proofreading submissions and writing a law reform essay and a casenote for potential publication. (A limited number of casenotes are selected for publication each year, according to their merit.) Students selected for this unit must be prepared to serve for six months, so that duties may start before, and may continue after, the formal teaching and examination period.

This course aims to reintroduce an appreciation of legal history as both substantively important (with a particular focus on commercial law), and a necessary skill for students in a deeply historical, precedential system of courts and law. The course does not assume training in history; law has its own commitment to the topic. The course is structured around "Topics in Legal History", addressed in essays prepared by Judges (from the High Court, Federal and Supreme Court), Academics and Barristers specifically for this course. Some authors will present their essays to the class and, accordingly, the course will be taught at the Philip St Building. The essays focus on a topic of historical importance and of continuing significance today, with the general aim of adding to the general syllabus that which students 'ought to know' for practice or further study. The course will touch on the origins of common law; the traditional structure of courts and the writ; the development of trial and evidence; possession & ownership; real property (from 1066-Mabo); trespass, actions on the case, assumpsit, contract and tort; crime in the colony; colony to nation; 'precedent'; the 10 most important statutes; why equity?; and seek to introduce important thinkers in the law, from Glanville and Bracton to Sir Owen Dixon.

This unit will examine the role and responsibilities of corporate directors, focusing on the various legal rules used to regulate directors' duties and competencies, and considering the directors' corresponding protections. It will explore the function of these rules and the various mechanisms they deploy to regulate agency problems arising between the board and shareholders as a class; between the board/majority shareholders and minority shareholders; and between the board and other stakeholder groups, notably creditors and employees. The approach will be comparative (making reference to techniques used in the US, UK, continental Europe and Australia), with the goal being to provide a detailed and sophisticated understanding of the applicable legal rules and their practical effectiveness.

This unit of study is designed especially for candidates in the MLLR program. The unit examines the regulation of the individual employment relationship. The unit builds on the introduction to this topic in the foundation LAWS6071 Labour Law unit, by examining in closer detail the formation, construction and interpretation of employment contracts; duties of employers and employees in contract; termination of employment contracts (including as a consequence of the employer's insolvency); and rights and remedies on termination, including procedural requirements under federal unfair and unlawful dismissal laws. Students will examine decisions of courts and tribunals in detail.

This unit will explore the complexities involved in accommodating the coexistence of Indigenous and non-indigenous legal and social systems. This theme will be traced through a number of areas of law. Topics covered will include a selection of the following: an overview of Indigenous customary law and social systems; the impact of differing interpretations of history; constructions of Aboriginal identity; Indigenous people and the criminal justice system; differing concepts of land and property rights including an examination of the construction of Native Title; examination of imposed systems of governance such as the Intervention; the utility and impact of International Law, globalization and human rights law; comparative perspectives on self-determination; and Aboriginal people and the Australian Constitution.

This unit introduces the key concepts that underpin the Australian GST, the policies underlying the tax, and the way those policies are (or are not) reflected in the design of the GST law. The aim is to give participants a working knowledge of the operation of the GST law and an awareness of the practical problems encountered in practice, informed by an understanding of the way in which the law is intended to operate.
The unit will commence with an examination of the basic design features of value added taxes in general and of Australia's GST in particular. It will then examine the core elements of the GST law, including: the taxpayer (entities, enterprise, and the obligation to register for GST), the liability for tax on supplies made for consideration; the value of taxable supplies and the amount of GST payable on supplies; the entitlement to input tax credits and the range of subsequent adjustments that may be required; attributing GST and input tax credits to tax periods; adjustments for adjustment events; basic principles of GST-free and input taxed supplies (including an introduction to real property transactions and intermediation services, primarily focussing on financial supplies); basic cross-border issues, including the treatment of imports and exports.

This unit focuses on the conservation of natural and cultural heritage, including intangible heritage, underwater heritage, movable heritage and Australian Aboriginal heritage. International, national, state and local regimes for heritage conservation are examined and considered in the context of broader environmental decision making. An important theme of the unit is the relationship between human rights and heritage protection as an intrinsic part of the human rights framework. Through the use of case studies, the unit aims to bring together a range of interdisciplinary strands in archaeology, anthropology, cultural and natural history, art, architecture and urban planning, and to weave them into a framework for the legal protection of world, national, state and local heritage.

The objective of this unit of study is to assess the regulation of new technologies from a risk regulation and Environmental Law perspective. Key questions that are elaborated include: What is regulation, who are the regulators and who are the regulatees?; what is the ideal-type of regulatory environment?; how do regulators engage with risk?: the precautionary principle; how are ideas of the possibility of impending catastrophe likely to affect the balance between legitimacy and effectiveness? Ethical and human rights principles are also discussed. The technologies analysed include GMOs, chemicals and geoengineering. A comparative analysis of how these technologies are regulated in the European Union, the United States and Australia is included.

This unit of study will introduce the student to a basic understanding of the variability of law as a function of the variability of the social context in which it operates. By applying comparativist theory and empirical methodology from different perspectives, the unit will prepare the ground for an appreciation of the operation of society's law in the complex historical setting of different cultural systems, nation states, multicultural societies and on the international level.

The aim of the unit of study is to provide an understanding of the economic analysis of law and to clarify fundamental differences between legal argument and the analysis of public policy. The unit defines the role of government within the framework of welfare economics and examines the social and economic effects of legal regimes within that framework. Particular attention is given to the concept of a competitive market, to the available empirical evidence on market failure, and to the need for government intervention in response to market failure and its negative consequences for social justice. Topics covered include: theoretical concepts of social justice, social insurance; monopoly and environmental regulation; economics of property and contract law; labour law and bargaining power; tort rights and remedies; asymmetric information, adverse selection and moral hazard with applications to medical malpractice; agency, corporate governance and bankruptcy; family law; taxation; and the measurement of inequality.

This unit of study will introduce the fundamental notions of jurisprudence understood as a theory about the aims, functions and values of law and legal system. It will aim to provide students with the critical understanding of the central issues in philosophy of law understood as a general, abstract, normative reflection on law as such rather than an examination of a concrete legal system. Nevertheless, the purpose will be to provide students with the conceptual means allowing them to conduct a critical scrutiny of particular legal systems and legal rules with which they are familiar. The course will consider, in particular (1) the notions of legitimacy, validity and authority of law; (2) the idea of rights and the nature of the rights discourse; (3) the justifications and limits of liberty rights; (4) the concept of justice, as applied to law, (5) the sources and limits of our obligation to obey the law, etc.

The unit of study will introduce the student to the basic concepts of sociological theory and methodology and will show how these concepts can be applied to the observation of the functioning of law. On the basis of such a primary understanding of how societies organise themselves and their law it will become possible for the student to appreciate and evaluate critically the efforts of socio-legal research and the conceptions of some major contributors to the sociological theory of law. The first part of this unit will look at what sociological theory and research can offer today in the description of social life, the explanation of how societies are organised, why people do what they do. Elementary sociological concepts like norm, role, group, power, class, social structure and social system will be related to the operation of the law. Concepts like these provide the tools which make it possible to examine and study systematically and carefully the social organisation and structure of legal systems, the operation and the social environments in which and in relation to which they are operating.

This course will explore the nature and value of the rule of law through a critical examination of classical and contemporary writings in jurisprudence. Among the problems we will consider are: What features of a legal system contribute to bringing about the rule of law? What is 'legality'? What is the relationship between the rule of law and the rule of good law? Is it always a virtue, other things being equal, to apply valid legal rules? How far is the rule of law consistent with the indeterminacy of law or with discretionary decision-making? Is the rule of law an 'unqualified human good'? Why is it good? Should the rule of law ever be sacrificed for the sake of other goods? What does the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index measure? Is it defensible from a jurisprudential point of view, and useful in determining the nature and value of the rule of law? Readings will include historical sources from the ancient Greek and early modern periods, contemporary essays in legal, moral, and political theory, and other primary legal sources.

This unit of study examines the nature and justification of legal authority from a jurisprudential perspective. It is often thought that the law, in contrast to other systems of norms, makes a special claim of authority over us. In the course, we will aim to understand this complex normative relationship that citizens bear to the legal systems to which they are subject. Among the questions to be addressed are: what authority does the law have over us? Is there anything unique about it? What is the relationship between the legitimacy and authority of law? How is legal authority justified? Does sovereignty imply authority? What is the authority of precedent? What does obedience to the law require? Is obedience the only way to conform to or satisfy the requirements of the law? Readings will include classic and contemporary scholarly articles on these issues.

This unit of study explores the nature of legal argumentation from a philosophical perspective. With reference to various theories, it examines the process from which legal conclusions result. The main theme is the relationship between legal and other forms of decision-making. What, if anything, is distinctive about legal rationality? How, if at all, does legal reasoning differ from other forms of argumentation? Topics for discussion include the role of morality in legal decision-making, the politics of legal reasoning, rules and their application, the nature of legal principles, the practice of interpretation and the objectivity of legal decisions.

This unit asks whether obedience to legal norms is required by morality. It examines various arguments for a moral obligation to obey the law.

This unit will address the role that constitutionalism is expected to play in a democratic state, and will explore various constitutional theories. The main focus will be on theoretical attempts at reconciling commitments to constitutionalism with emphasis on democratic participation: is it paradoxical that a state governed by majority rules withdraws certain areas from collective decision-making? Various theories of constitutionalism, of constitutional interpretation, and of constitutional judicial review will be explored. The unit will also discuss the question of constitutional charters of rights, different models of judicial review, separation of powers, direct democracy and the functions of constitutions in transitions to democratic systems. The unit will follow a seminar format with the emphasis on class discussion of unit materials. Students will be expected to present a short description of the set of readings recommended by the lecturer.

The unit provides a theoretical analysis of constitutionalism and with it the relation of law and democracy. At the intersection of law and politics, the ambiguities with which the concept of constitutionalism is fraught attest to the tensions it contains: of law's imperative to order and to stabilise expectations in social life on the one hand, and the inherent dynamism and 'restlessness' of the political on the other. Is the idea of a constitutional dialogue, or the idea of the 'co-originality of law and democracy' ways to make sense of the tensions? What happens when constitutionalism is 'uploaded' to the transnational level, where increasingly the language of 'constitutional pluralism' is called on to accommodate it? And if the notion of 'constituent power' has always been a key part of our understanding of the meaning of the 'constitutional' and the stakes associated with it, what has that concept meant for the radical tradition of constitutional thinking, and what does it mean to invoke that concept today?

This unit examines the largely diffuse concepts of social control and the functions of law and proposes a more specific approach to legal theory which incorporates the latest findings of socio-legal research on the social effects of law. As a result of this discussion, a more specific concept of social control and an explanatory assessment of the social effects of law, including its political use, are presented with their theoretical implications for legal and political systems and applied, as examples, to historically and societally varied situations.

This unit examines the relationship between law and the origins and implementation of the events known as the Holocaust. Students will consider the lessons for law and legal theory arising from Hitler's rise to power, the legalization of the Nazi racial-biological worldview through eugenics and anti-Jewish legislation, the character of parallel anti-Jewish legal programs in Vichy France and elsewhere, the challenge to our conceptions of legal and moral responsibility that is presented by the idea of 'administrative massacre', and the question of how the Nazi legal era has been represented in mainstream jurisprudence. By studying the sequential moments of legal and institutional pathology that provided the context for the persecution of the Jews - loss of meaningful constitutionalism or constitutional values, loss of legal rights, loss of citizenship, loss of the standards of the rule of law, loss of the status of the legal subject as a bearer of dignity, amongst others - students will have the opportunity to think deeply about the significance of these pathologies for our understanding of what law is, what law should be, and what conditions are required for law to mediate power rather than merely provide a vehicle for its expression. The crucial role played by legal thinkers and legal actors in the Nazi project will be a key reference point, as will the question of how adequate our scholarly resources are to the task of illuminating the complex questions and connections that a study of law and the Holocaust presents.

Legal responsibility often depends upon ascribing fault or blame for conduct. This involves several important concepts. Firstly, the ascription of some mental element, whether it be mens rea in the case of crime, or the lesser notions of fault relied upon in civil liability. Secondly, that these intentional mental states caused the conduct for which defendants are blamed. These concepts are philosophically controversial, and current developments in the philosophy of mind assist in reflecting upon them. The unit will look at contemporary philosophical work on free will, consciousness, mind and causation and apply this work to present problems in regard to the concepts of legal responsibility.

The aim of the unit is to develop a critical perspective upon the accountability of government decision-makers. The unit examines theoretical frameworks for analysis of a range of issues concerning accountability, with reference to relevant principles of administrative law. Part 1 of the unit examines the concept of administrative discretion, alternative theories of the rule of law, human rights, ethics and managerialism. Part 2 of the unit is concerned with the accountability of the executive branch of government. It includes analysis of separation of powers and the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, merits review tribunals, investigative tribunals and tribunal procedure. Part 3 of the unit examines theories of participatory democracy, with reference to relevant legal principles drawn from procedural fairness, rules of standing and consultation requirements in rule making. Part 4 examines theories of open government, with reference to statutory duties to give reasons for decisions and freedom of information legislation. Part 5 examines the proper scope of administrative law by discussion of the issue of its extension to government business enterprises which are corporatised, privatised or contracted out.

This unit is intended for students who have completed the postgraduate unit LAWS6838 Competition Law or are able to demonstrate that they have an equivalent level of pre-existing knowledge.
The unit studies some more advanced topics in Competition Law under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
Topics include the concept of public benefit, remedies for contraventions of part IV (calculation of damages, penalties, injunctions and undertakings), competition litigation (lay and expert evidence), exceptions and defences (including joint venture exceptions, intellectual property exceptions and notifications and authorisations), cartel conduct (including elements of liability, denial of liability and key procedural and evidential issues), access regulation under Part IIIA (price setting and dispute resolution), regulation of access and anticompetitive conduct in telecommunications.

This unit will examine the role and responsibilities of corporate directors, focusing on the various legal rules used to regulate directors' duties and competencies, and considering the directors' corresponding protections. It will explore the function of these rules and the various mechanisms they deploy to regulate agency problems arising between the board and shareholders as a class; between the board/majority shareholders and minority shareholders; and between the board and other stakeholder groups, notably creditors and employees. The approach will be comparative (making reference to techniques used in the US, UK, continental Europe and Australia), with the goal being to provide a detailed and sophisticated understanding of the applicable legal rules and their practical effectiveness.

This unit of study is designed especially for candidates in the MLLR program. The unit examines the regulation of the individual employment relationship. The unit builds on the introduction to this topic in the foundation LAWS6071 Labour Law unit, by examining in closer detail the formation, construction and interpretation of employment contracts; duties of employers and employees in contract; termination of employment contracts (including as a consequence of the employer's insolvency); and rights and remedies on termination, including procedural requirements under federal unfair and unlawful dismissal laws. Students will examine decisions of courts and tribunals in detail.

This unit will explore a number of contentious issues arising in the law of civil obligations and remedies. It will revise and build on the fundamentals in the areas of torts, contracts and equity and place particular emphasis on the interaction of these three fields of the law. Particular topics and problems will involve issues of: causation and scope of liability; controlling liability by contract; tort duties to third parties to contracts; assessing loss; duties of good faith; fiduciary duties and conflicts. The unit will also include a number of guest lectures, to be announced.

The Advanced Trusts unit will offer theoretical perspectives on trusts and their use in commerce and finance, together with practical examples. It will address (i) trust theory (asset partitioning and contractarianism); (ii) a critical examination of some key uses to which trusts are put in commerce; (iii) an examination of business trusts and debt stock trusts, with reference to appropriate commercial and transactional documentation; (iv) the off-shore challenge of purpose trusts.

This unit aims to introduce you to the diverse range of anti-terrorism laws and policies which have developed at the international, regional and domestic levels, and which proliferated after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Laws will be evaluated in the light of their profound and complex political, ideological and ethical implications for political order, legal systems, human rights, and international relations. In essence, the study of terrorism (and the law's response to it) is the study of the timeless philosophical question of when political violence is justified, against whom, and for what purposes - whether it is 'freedom fighters', or 'State terrorism', that is at issue.

This unit will look at the way in which European commercial law has been shaped by European Union law. It sets out the history and development of the European Union and introduces its institutional structure. The unit then focuses on aspects of commercial law in the European Union and the relationship of EU law and national law. Topics covered include the Common Commercial Policy, a European Contract Law, the development of the Single Market and aspects of the European Union's external commercial relations. This unit will be run in a seminar style, examining primary and secondary EU law and aspects of national law in some Member States.

Australian International Taxation is a detailed study of the fundamental principles of Australia's international taxation regime as it applies to cross-border business and investment transactions. The unit focuses on corporate residence, source, non-resident withholding tax, relief from international double taxation, CFCs, transferor trusts, proposed new Foreign Accumulation Fund ("FAF") regime and repealed FIF rules, transfer pricing and thin capitalisation. The unit will examine both the issues of international tax rule design and policy, and the relevant provisions in the legislation, cases and rulings. The unit deals only with international tax rules in Australia's domestic law with double tax treaties covered in the companion unit Tax Treaties. Students should gain an understanding of the policies underlying Australia's rules for taxing international transactions, as well as a detailed knowledge of the foundation principles of law applicable to the taxation of inbound and outbound transactions.

The unit takes an interdisciplinary approach to the conservation of biodiversity. Key concepts in ecology are explained to provide a foundation for the legal framework. This framework is examined at international, national, and state levels, in terms of conventions and legislation, as well as policy and organisations. The legal framework is explored both by analysing the proper purpose, scope and effect of the laws, as well as how they work in practice. The latter is achieved by lectures and field exercises assisted by officers of government agencies, including State Forests, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources. An integral component of the unit is a field trip to areas of relevance to biodiversity conservation, focusing on northern New South Wales. Areas to be studied include habitats of threatened species and ecological communities and World Heritage areas listed under the relevant Commonwealth and State legislation. Field studies provide a unique opportunity to understand how principles of international and domestic law are implemented locally. The field trip component will be arranged in conjunction with the field trip for LAWS6055 Heritage Law (if offered). Students are encouraged to take both units of study; they are designed to complement each other closely.

Every breach of contract gives rise to a right to claim damages, but not every breach confers a right of termination. The first part of this unit analyses the concept of breach of contract - the concept of standard of duty and the law's requirements for proof of breach. The balance of the unit is concerned with the circumstances in which breach of contract does confer a right of termination. From a remedial perspective this means that the unit is primarily about self-help - enforcement of a right (termination) rather than a remedy (damages).The unit includes a detailed consideration of express provisions for termination ("termination clauses"), their drafting, exercise and consequences.

The object of this unit is to provide an overview of the income tax system of China and a detailed analysis of the most important legislative and treaty rules of China in the area of international income tax, especially in dealings with Australia. Upon successful completion of the unit, students will have an advanced understanding of the policies underlying the Chinese rules for taxing international transactions as well as a detailed knowledge of the principles of income tax law applicable to inbound and outbound transactions. This unit includes a study of: overview of the Chinese income tax system; taxation of inbound investment into China; taxation of outbound investment from China; transfer pricing issues, and China's tax treaties.

This unit will provide students with an overall picture of the modern Chinese legal system. It will develop a perception of its unique character by tracing its role through major social epochs and the role of law in a socialist market economy. It will examine the concept of law as a political function and the implementation of law, not so much through courts, as through administrative fiats and authority, making law essentially a function of politics and administration. The unit will illustrate these perceptions through the study of various legal regimes. Lecture topics may include: Chinese legal history; Chinese legal system; criminal law and procedure; constitutional law; civil law and procedure; legal profession; environmental law; contract law; property law; company law; intellectual property law; foreign joint ventures; arbitration and mediation; foreign trade law and taxation law. The coursework component of the unit is residential and is conducted on the campus of the East China University of Politics & Law in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Lectures will be given in English in Shanghai by professors from the East China University of Politics & Law. There will also be a visit to a Chinese law firm.

This unit will explore the complexities involved in accommodating the coexistence of Indigenous and non-indigenous legal and social systems. This theme will be traced through a number of areas of law. Topics covered will include a selection of the following: an overview of Indigenous customary law and social systems; the impact of differing interpretations of history; constructions of Aboriginal identity; Indigenous people and the criminal justice system; differing concepts of land and property rights including an examination of the construction of Native Title; examination of imposed systems of governance such as the Intervention; the utility and impact of International Law, globalization and human rights law; comparative perspectives on self-determination; and Aboriginal people and the Australian Constitution.

Topics to be covered include: The nature of equitable relief (including the history of equity), and the scope of equitable intervention in commercial dealings; the distinction between the exclusive, concurrent and auxiliary jurisdictions in equity; equitable set-off and the common injunction as a case study; The maxims of equity and their effect on the grant of equitable relief = "unclean hands", "delay", "the requirement to do equity", "substance not form", "waiver and election"; time conditions in equity; Equity and security enforcement - the equitable charge; charging clauses; caveats and caveatable interests; mortgages and mortgage enforcement; the equity of redemption and foreclosure; the rule in Harvey v McWatters and Inglis v CBA and "payment in"; tacking and the rule in Hopkinson v Rolt; the receiver in equity; equitable execution; ne exeat colonia and injunctions - insolvency remedies in relation to absconding debtors; equity and the "theft principle" in transnational fraud; Equity and confidence - Prince Jefri Bolkiah; legal practice and conflict of interest; restraining the departing employee from misuse of confidential information; Equity and trust litigation - the Beddoes order; trustee summons for directions; rights of indemnity and exoneration; removing the trustee and the role of the protector in discretionary trusts; Equity and property dealings - part performance in equity; sections 54A and 23C of the Conveyancing Act; the relief against forfeiture of a lease and an option - sections 129 and 133E Conveyancing Act; operating and finance leases; section 66G and other applications in relation to co-ownership; Litigating in equity; hearings before the Duty Judge, and the Expedition Judge - jurisdiction and discretion - the Commercial List - and the Commercial List summons; preparation of evidence and affidavits; Remedies in equity - injunctions (including mandatory injunctions); specific performance, declarations; Anton Piller relief; Banker's Trust v Shapira; Mareva relief (preservation orders); the undertaking as to damages; equitable remedies in administrative law and federal jurisdiction; cognate relief under other legislation; and Choice of law in equitable disputes.

The unit is designed as a detailed study of maritime law from what might be said to be a commercial law, as opposed to a public law, perspective. The nature of the business of shipping and related activities are examined by reference to fundamental commercial arrangements and relationships - the business of shipping, ownership and deployment of ships, chartering and use of ships, carriage of goods by sea and limitation of liability. The unit will provide a detailed introduction to these areas as a foundation for practice in Australia and overseas and as a basis for further academic research. The core topics of the unit will be the law of charterparties and the carriage of goods by sea. A constant theme of the unit will be the international character of the commercial relationships involved and the importance of private and international law considerations at all times. Whenever possible, relevant comparative law analysis will be discussed.

The goal of the unit is to provide a comparison of the corporate tax systems of a number of countries of economic and cultural significance to Australia. The goal has both practical and policy aspects. The unit will provide a basic introduction to the corporate tax systems of Australia's major trading partners which will assist students in assessing the likely outcomes of proposed corporate dealings both within the countries selected for comparison and between them. A comparative framework provides an opportunity for identifying the available options for taxing corporate income and assessing the appropriateness of those options or a combination thereof. This enables an assessment of the options selected by various countries, including incompatibility of options, and may identify areas of corporate taxation which may be the subject of appropriate reform. The unit will examine: theoretical framework and defining entities subject to corporation tax; taxation of corporate income where derived; taxation of corporate income where distributed; treatment of gains/losses on the disposal of shares; corporate formation, reorganisation and liquidation; and international taxation of corporate income.

Comparative Income Tax examines the key structural features of the income tax (tax unit, income, capital gains, fringe benefits, deductions, tax rates, tax accounting, tax expenditures and presumptive taxes). The unit will consider both the policy options in the design of the income tax and the legal implementation of those options. The unit will be primarily issues based, drawing on both developed and developing country examples. The comparative framework for analysis provides an opportunity for identifying the available options for taxing income and assessing the appropriateness of those options or a combination of them. As part of this more general analysis, the unit will identify cultural, constitutional and administrative issues that shape the design of income tax laws. The unit will not consider corporate tax as this is the subject of Comparative Corporate Taxation nor international tax as this is the subject of Comparative International Taxation. Students should gain an understanding of the key design features of the income tax and differences taken by countries in income tax law design.

Comparative International Taxation is a detailed study of the basic principles of international taxation (residence, source, relief from international double taxation, anti-deferral rules, withholding tax, transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, and tax treaties). The unit is taught from a global perspective with the emphasis being on comparative analysis (focusing particularly on Anglo, US and continental European approaches, and also developed and developing country approaches). The unit examines the core issues in developing international tax rules and identifies different approaches countries have taken in dealing with these issues. As part of this study, recent trends in international tax rule development will be identified (particularly in the context of globalisation) and critiqued. Students should gain an understanding of the different approaches that countries have taken in the development of their international tax rules.

The aim of the unit is to present a thematic and comparative study of central principles of the law of evidence and of their underlying theory. The main focus will be on evidence in criminal cases, and the comparators will be Australia, England and the USA. Major concerns of the unit are to identify the aims of the law of evidence, to analyse and evaluate the significance of constitutional and human rights in the development of the law of criminal evidence, and to discuss the respective roles of rules and discretion in decisions on the admissibility of evidence.

This unit provides an introduction to the design and operation of consumption type value-added taxes (known commonly as either VAT or GST). The unit will consider the major foundational principles of VAT and the different ways in which they can be given effect in different jurisdictions, taking examples from the VAT Directive of the European Union, the GST laws of New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and a range of African and other jurisdictions and/or model VATs. Participants familiar with Australian GST will gain an understanding of the policies underlying VAT/GST and of the options for VAT treatment that have been adopted in other jurisdictions. International participants will find that the generic and comparative discussion of VAT/GST principles will be readily transferable to the operation of VAT in their country of residence. Topics covered include: different methods for taxing consumption; the history, spread and prevalence of credit-invoice systems of VAT; different models of VAT/GST; the relationship between VAT and other tax bases; the use of multiple rates; registration, invoices, assessment and collection; notions of taxable person, taxable activity, taxable supplies, and the taxable amount; the treatment of government and charities; exemption with credit (zero-rating/GST-free) and exemption without credit (input taxation); the aim of fiscal neutrality and the importance of the input tax credit/deduction; international issues and the avoidance of double or non-taxation; hard-to-tax commodities (financial services, insurance, gambling, real property); and problems with VAT evasion.

The content of this unit of study will be the following topics: Economic Theory of Competition Law; the Concepts of competition, market definition, market power, substantial lessening of competition and public benefit; Section 4D Exclusionary Provisions; Part IV: Cartels - Civil and Criminal Prohibitions; Section 45 Contracts, Arrangements and Understandings; Section 46 Misuse of Market Power; Section 47 Exclusive Dealing; Section 48 Resale Price Maintenance; Section 50 Mergers; Part IIIA Access to Services; Part VI Remedies and Enforcement; Part VII Authorisations and Notifications. The intended outcomes for students who successfully complete this unit are that they will have a firm grasp of the operation of the competition law provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

The unit will examine in detail the legal and regulatory requirements relevant to the financial services industry, and how the risk of breaching those requirements can be managed by compliance systems. It will focus not only on legal theory but also on the practical day to day business issues involved with compliance.
The unit is divided into two parts: (a) Core compliance issues: licensing of financial service providers; compliance systems; insider trading and Chinese walls; market conduct rules; shareholding restrictions; trade practices; anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and other measures to combat crime; retail customer obligations; marketing financial products; client money rules; privacy; fiduciary duties and conflicts of interest; confidentiality; phone taping; and investigating compliance breaches (including reporting obligations and HR issues); and (b) Specialist compliance issues relevant to: managed investments; deposit products, non cash payment facilities; credit facilities, stockbroking; derivatives; warrants; foreign exchange; futures broking; financial planning; margin lending; insurance and insurance broking; superannuation and retirement savings accounts.

This unit will address the role that constitutionalism is expected to play in a democratic state, and will explore various constitutional theories. The main focus will be on theoretical attempts at reconciling commitments to constitutionalism with emphasis on democratic participation: is it paradoxical that a state governed by majority rules withdraws certain areas from collective decision-making? Various theories of constitutionalism, of constitutional interpretation, and of constitutional judicial review will be explored. The unit will also discuss the question of constitutional charters of rights, different models of judicial review, separation of powers, direct democracy and the functions of constitutions in transitions to democratic systems. The unit will follow a seminar format with the emphasis on class discussion of unit materials. Students will be expected to present a short description of the set of readings recommended by the lecturer.

The unit provides a theoretical analysis of constitutionalism and with it the relation of law and democracy. At the intersection of law and politics, the ambiguities with which the concept of constitutionalism is fraught attest to the tensions it contains: of law's imperative to order and to stabilise expectations in social life on the one hand, and the inherent dynamism and 'restlessness' of the political on the other. Is the idea of a constitutional dialogue, or the idea of the 'co-originality of law and democracy' ways to make sense of the tensions? What happens when constitutionalism is 'uploaded' to the transnational level, where increasingly the language of 'constitutional pluralism' is called on to accommodate it? And if the notion of 'constituent power' has always been a key part of our understanding of the meaning of the 'constitutional' and the stakes associated with it, what has that concept meant for the radical tradition of constitutional thinking, and what does it mean to invoke that concept today?

This unit examines some recent developments granting special legal protection to consumers. The unit is concerned with aspects of the liability of suppliers of goods and services to consumers, sometimes called 'post-sale' consumer protection. An assessment will be made of the effectiveness of recent legislation in this field, and there will be considerable comparative analysis referring especially to relevant European Community directives, related developments in the Asia-Pacific (eg Japan), and some trends in the US. The topics to be covered are: Introduction (the 'consumer' concept and some policy factors leading to consumer protection developments); Outline of terms implied in contracts for the supply of goods and services to consumers; Judicial and legislative control of exclusion clauses; Unconscionable and unfair contracts (control under the general law and by statute); The liability of manufacturers for defective products under: the general law; statutory liability of manufacturers to consumers and strict products liability (under the Australian Consumer Law, with special reference to the similar EC directive on products liability); Product safety regulation (also with reference to the EC directive on general consumer product safety); Consumer access to redress (especially class actions).

This unit will examine the legal principles that provide the overarching framework within which contract negotiations take place. It will concentrate particularly on requirements of certainty and good faith and the issues that can arise in re-negotiating terms in long-term contractual relationships. It will also address some of the techniques of negotiations. Topics covered will include: standard form contracts and negotiated contracts; "agreements to agree" and the requirements of certainty; "long-term" contractual relationships and the use of hardship and intervener clauses; "good faith" negotiations and negotiation techniques. The unit will also involve a simulated contractual negotiation in which the class will be split into teams of 3 to 5 (depending upon class size) for a "team against team" negotiation.

This unit will look at the primary remedy for actions for breach of contract, namely damages. This remedy will be distinguished from contract debts, restitution, specific performance and injunctions. The compensation principle and the various elements of a damages claim will be examined. Classes will look at the different bases for assessment of contract damages, and the requirement of mitigation. The unit also provides an insight into the ways of bridging the gap between remoteness theory and evaluating potential claims for damages. The role of consequential loss, and the relationship between damages and contractual indemnities are also considered. The unit will be run in a seminar style, examining leading doctrinal cases for each principle.

This unit brings together the doctrinal, theoretical and practical issues raised by contract risk management, especially the control of liability for breach of contract and negligence. The unit will consider: categories of risk; drafting options; protection of third parties; statutory control of risk management devices, including the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth); contract drafting and management issues. The drafting options which are considered include the use of exclusion clauses, indemnity provisions and force majeure clauses. The operation of these types of clauses, and the relevant common law and statutory rules, will be considered in the context of various types of contracts, but with particular emphasis on contracts for the provision of services and sale of goods. One particular feature of the course is a consideration of the operation of the privity rule in the context of risk management. Thus, issues such as the protection of related bodies corporate and the liability of agents and sub-contractors are dealt with in some detail.

Copyright content is a significant part of national economies, which have been shifting from manufacture of physical items to high value intangibles; copyright law is an important aspect of the regulatory environment for a range of copyright-based industries. This unit covers advanced aspects of copyright law relevant to the copyright industries, including advanced aspects of the rules relating to subsistence; ownership, licensing and assignment; exclusive economic rights; remedies for infringement; exceptions and limitations. There will be a particular focus on management of rights in copyright-intensive industries, collective management of copyright, and statutory licenses.

The unit will involve a detailed study of the disclosure provisions and other requirements of chapter 6D of the Corporations Act, with particular focus on their application to the offer of company shares for issue or sale. However, some attention will also be given to listed managed investment schemes regulated under the Financial Services Reform Act. Attention will be paid to additional relevant legal requirements, including the ASX Listing Rules, for initial public offerings and other fundraisings. The unit is taught by lawyers with extensive experience in the field of corporate fundraising.

This unit will explore a range of recent trends and issues in corporate governance including:- the link between corporate scandals and corporate law reform; the board and independent directors; principles-based versus rules-based regulation; shareholder empowerment and institutional investor activism; takeovers and the regulation of executive pay. The unit will examine these issues from a comparative law perspective, analysing fundamental differences in corporate governance structure and techniques in a range of jurisdictions, including the US, UK, Germany, China and Australia.

This unit will examine a selection of theoretical and policy issues broadly related to the social responsibilities of corporations, including: conceptions of the corporation; the responsibility of corporate entities under the criminal law; corporate participation in the political process; corporate governance and democratic principles and corporate responsibility in respect of international human rights violations.
The unit will adopt a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on material from jurisdictions including the U.S. and Canada, as well as on methodologies and insights from law and economics and other schools of thought.

The unit consists of a detailed examination of the tax rules applied to companies and shareholders in a domestic setting in Australia. The goals of the unit are to develop an understanding of the policies, detailed rules and current practical problems involved in the taxation of companies and shareholders and to explore why different solutions are used for these entities when compared to partnerships and trusts. Upon successful completion of this unit, a student should have an advanced understanding of the policies underlying Australia's corporate tax system, as well as a detailed knowledge of the technical detail involved in the rules for the taxation of companies and their shareholders in Australia. Topics to be covered include: the policy and problems of taxing companies and shareholders; taxation of company distributions and dealings with interests in companies, including liquidations and share repurchases; imputation, including dividends passing through partnerships and trusts and intercorporate dividends; debt equity classification; shareholder rules; dividend and capital streaming and stripping; and value shifting.

This unit provides an examination of research methods in the context of criminology. The relationship between theory and methodology is explored. The production of knowledge about crime is critically assessed. Sources and forms of crime data are discussed and their significance is assessed. Research design, evaluation and analysis are also studied.

The Criminal Justice Internship provides an opportunity to experience the working environment of criminal justice agencies. Experience gained through placement with a relevant agency will be complemented by attendance at four intensive seminars. These seminars will provide opportunities to reflect on the role of the host agency, the policy context within which the host agency operates, the ethical challenges associated with the work of the agency and the specific skills and knowledge gained through the Internship. The Internship will be especially beneficial to those students with limited work experience or those pursuing or contemplating a career change.

In this unit, students will examine the ways in which criminal liability is established, and the central factors governing liability; analyse the general principles of criminal law, constituent elements of particular offences and the definition of a range of defences from historical, theoretical and practical context perspectives, with a special focus on male violence; and gain an appreciation of the tensions and perceived prejudices inherent in the criminal law and the criminal justice system.
The unit will cover the following: phenomenon of criminal law; violence; capacity; proof; attempts and accessorial liability; offences: sexual and non-sexual assault, murder and manslaughter; defences: provocation and self-defence, 'insanity' and substantial impairment, automatism, infanticide, intoxication, necessity and duress.

This unit aims to examine the processes of the criminal justice system through a consideration of its successive and main stages and of the roles of the principal participants in the system, particularly the police, suspects, accused persons, prosecutors, defence counsel, judges and experts. The focus of the unit will be the processes of criminal justice in New South Wales as well as the rest of Australia. The unit cover a range of topics, and these are likely to include: coronial proceedings; the interrogation of suspects and accused persons; search and seizure; the issue of arrest and custody; electronic surveillance; committal proceedings; the parties in a trial; the admissibility of confessions; the question of illegally and improperly obtained evidence; the jury; sentencing; and appeal proceedings.

This unit provides an introduction to key topics in public health law, and a foundation for further study in this field. It begins by exploring the use of law - both historically and conceptually - as a tool for protecting the public's health, for responding to health risks and implementing strategies designed to promote public health. It reviews the sources of public health law, considers the strategies that law can deploy to protect and promote health, as well as debates about the appropriate limits for law in the protection of public health in a liberal democracy.
The unit also provides a review of the law's role within several critical areas, including: acute public health threats (with a focus on SARS, pandemic influenza, and bioterrorism); sexual health and STIs; and tobacco control. Time permitting, the unit also provides illustrations of the legal environment of public health practice and policy-making through a case study on iatrogenic transmission of blood-borne viruses, and look-backs.
Key topics include: The definition and role of public health law; Case studies illustrating the sources of public health law; The legal framework for managing pandemic influenza and other acute public health threats; An introduction to tobacco control law; and Law's role in promoting sexual health.
Throughout the unit, students will be trained to identify legal issues and to explore their health significance, or impact on population health. Students will be encouraged and expected to critically evaluate the success of public health laws and their underlying strategies for protecting and promoting health. Students will also explore the tension between the public health interest, and competing public and private interests.
Students wishing to extend their knowledge of public health law can enrol in the companion unit, LAWS6848 Law and Healthy Lifestyles. These units comprise a core program in public health law.

This unit is for law graduates and students for the JD degree who have, or intend to have, a practice that exposes them to cross-border financings and acquisitions. The unit highlights the distinctive concepts and practices of overseas securities and corporate laws in cross-border transactions and focuses on resolving the challenges non-Australian issues can pose to transactions even if Australian law applies to many aspects of the deal.
The lecturer was for over 30 years a merger & acquisition and securities lawyer in the US (resident for several years in Australia) and a significant portion of the class will cover US laws and practices on cross-border deals. The US segment will begin with a brief examination the US Federal system in which corporate and securities law responsibility is allocated between the states and Federal government, proceed to a practical discussion of the process of offering securities in the US and how it can affect non-US offerings, and finally will conclude with an exploration of the regulation of takeovers under US law. Significant US M&A concepts and practices, including mergers, break-up fees, poison pills, and proxy fights will be discussed.
The remainder of the class will focus on deal regulation of other jurisdictions (including the UK, China and other European and Asian regulations) of international transactions. Practical consequences of the regulatory requirements of these jurisdictions will be discussed, particularly as they relate to M&A, as well as certain subjects that have worldwide applicability (such as due diligence to determine possible corruption, vendor due diligence and directors' duties).
The unit will by a series of lectures, guest lectures and panel discussions. For example, when we discuss due diligence, it is anticipated that a pair of US and Australian practising securities lawyers will join the class to engage in a mock negotiation on how to conduct due diligence to satisfy very different legal standards in the two jurisdictions.
The purpose of the unit is to assist Australian and other non-US lawyers in (a) identifying potential cross-border issues and (b) being creative in solving the challenges that arise in international securities transactions.

Western attitudes toward death have undergone a remarkable transformation in the last century. For many, death now takes place in the hospital or the hospice following the decision of a doctor to cease providing treatment. As the management of death has passed from the family to health care professionals, it now makes sense to regard the moment and circumstances of death as largely medical phenomena. Moreover, as 'autonomy' has taken a dominant place amongst ethical values, it also makes sense to describe and measure death in terms of its 'acceptability' both to the dying person and his or her survivors. In tandem with these changes, technological innovations have transformed the dead or dying body into a potential source of valuable (and recyclable) biological material. These developments have thrown up new and urgent challenges for legal understandings about the timing of, and criminal responsibility for causing, death both within and outside medical settings. These developments have also disturbed conventional understandings of the corpse as sacred. Topics to be covered may include: death in contemporary Australia, the legal definition of life and death, medical futility and the concept of 'lives not worth living', euthanasia (with and without request), physician-assisted suicide, refusing and withholding life-prolonging treatment in adults and children, the Shipman/Patel scandals, ownership of the corpse and body parts, dead donor organ transplantation, organ sale and theft, posthumous reproduction, 'mercy' killing outside medical settings and the jurisdiction of the Coroner. The unit will interrogate these and other contemporary challenges for the law relating to death and dying both within Australia and, where appropriate, other selected comparator jurisdictions (US, UK and Canada). These will be mapped against socio-historical understandings of the changing meaning of death, dying and serious disability in Western societies, and students will be encouraged to reflect on the broader legal implications of these developments.

This unit focuses on legal aspects of debt financing in an increasingly global market environment. Much of the unit deals with enforcement issues in the insolvency context, which can highlight the types of protection for which creditors should have bargained to safeguard their positions. The unit assumes a good general knowledge of Australian corporate law. The unit is taught by expert practitioners in the field of debt financing. Lecturers include Tony Berriman (Minter Ellison); Ray Mainsbridge, James Marshall, David Mason, Tony Ryan and Dennis Scott (Ashurst); David East (DLA Phillips Fox); David Friedlander and David Eliakim (King & Wood Mallesons); Diccon Loxton (Allens Arthur Robinson); Mitchell Mathas (Deacons) and Roger Dobson (Henry Davis York). There may be changes to lecturers in this unit.
Particular topics covered include: the nature and priority of charges; the lender/trustee/manager relationship; financial covenants; negative pledges; hybrids; guarantees and third party securities; issues involving secured creditors; set-off; aspects of enforcement by creditors; voluntary administration; subordinated debt; receivership.

This unit exposes students to the role and limits of law in addressing acute problems of socio-economic development and human rights in developing countries, through an interactive field school conducted over two weeks in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries. The themes to be explored are likely to include: The transition from armed conflict to peace in the aftermath of a Maoist insurgency and the end of the monarchy in Nepal (including issues of transitional criminal justice, the drafting of a new constitution, and building a new legal and political system in light of Nepalese legal traditions and foreign legal influences); The protection of socio-economic rights (including rights to food, water, housing, and livelihoods), minority rights (of 'tribals', and 'dalits' in the caste system), and the 'right to development' under constitutional and international law; The interaction between local disputes over natural resources, human displacement caused by development projects, environmental protection and climate change in the context of fragile Himalayan ecologies; The legal protection of refugees (Tibetan or Bhutanese) in camp or mass influx situations, in the context of the limited resources of a developing country and the causes of, and solutions to, human displacement; and The experience of women in development and human rights processes.
The issues will be drawn together by reflection upon the influence of, and resistance to, human rights and international law in developmental processes.

This unit looks at the ways in which the exercise of discretionary judgment arises for consideration in the course of the criminal justice process and the ways in which that judgment should be exercised at each step. It deals with each stage from the reporting or observation of crime, through investigation, arrest, charging, bail, plea, hearing, appeal, retrial and publicity. It describes how actors at each step (citizens, police, prosecutors and judges) confront decision making, the laws (legislation, common law) and rules (prosecution guidelines, memoranda and procedures) that apply and provides examples of the exercise of such discretions. It also looks at the place of public commentary (personal, the media and political) in the process. The unit explores nuances in the conduct of any criminal prosecution aside from the application of the letter of the law.

In this unit we examine the nature of discrimination in the workplace and the legal response to it in Australia. We start by considering the theoretical perspectives on equality that underpin our legislation and ideas about effective regulation. We then examine how anti-discrimination law is applied in respect of a number of different grounds of discrimination - such as sex, race, disability, and family responsibilities - reviewing recent cases and current issues. We will also discuss enforcement mechanisms and processes under anti-discrimination legislation and what, if any, effect the legislation has had on workplace processes and culture.

The unit is designed to give students a broad understanding of the theory, policy and practice of ADR. It will enable students to understand various alternative dispute resolution processes, their advantages and limitations; understand the application of ADR in particular areas of practice: understand key theoretical debates about mediation; be able to advise others about ADR processes; be better participants in ADR processes; be better able to evaluate the possible applications of various dispute resolution methods. The use of ADR in employment and health care disputes will be considered.

This unit aims to provide an introduction to the legal and practical aspects of doing business in China. The unit will commence with an overview of the Chinese legal, political and economic system and will then move on to an examination of the system of commercial regulation in China, including contracts, land use, regulation of private and state-owned businesses and Chinese companies and securities laws. The unit will focus on Chinese contract law and the foreign investment regime and the related structuring and regulatory issues related to foreign participation in the Chinese market. Areas covered will discuss the principal issues relating to the establishment of a corporate or other presence in China and the related negotiation process, including taxation and foreign exchange controls. The unit will conclude with an examination of methods of resolution of disputes arising under contracts entered into in China. More specialized topics which may be covered include intellectual property, labour law and regulation of financial institutions.

The unit examines common commercial, tax and regulatory issues that arise from doing business in emerging market economies. Topics to be examined include: the special challenges of investing in emerging market economies; organisational forms commonly used in emerging market economics; financing options; host state regulatory regimes and limits on the activities of foreign investors; dispute resolution systems, and sovereign risk issues; tax issues in developing countries; home state regulatory issues, including domestic anti-corruption measures, money laundering and human rights regimes. The unit has a special focus on issues associated with investing into and doing business with former Soviet Union countries, and the famous Yukos case will be considered.

The objective of the unit is to provide an understanding of the modern economics approach to the analysis of tax policy. The unit defines the role of taxation within the framework of welfare economics and examines the social and economic effects of reforms drawing on available empirical evidence. Particular attention is given to the evaluation of current policies and proposed reforms in terms of distributional outcomes and efficiency costs due to disincentive effects on labour supply, saving and investment. Topics covered include: taxation of labour income, consumption and capital income, family income taxation, alternative approaches to the taxation of emission, and the taxation of resource rents.

This unit of study is designed especially for students in the Master of Laws (LLM) and Master of Labour Law and Relations (MLLR) degree programs who have completed an LLB degree. It examines key aspects of employment law principles and practice and their application in employment litigation. The unit builds on the fundamental principles of contract, trade practices and equity examined in the course of the LLB degree, and addresses the pleading of causes of action and the choice of appropriate forums. Further, it will consider the differing evidentiary burdens in employment litigation and contemporary law concerning dispute resolution, settlements and deeds of release.

This unit adopts an inter-disciplinary and integrative approach to understanding the dynamics of one of the most pressing global environmental concerns ecologically sustainable energy use. Working loosely within the framework of the Climate Change Convention, the unit relies on the perspectives of scientists, lawyers and economists to develop an integrated approach to sustainable energy use. The unit identifies current patterns of energy use in Australia and examines Australia's response to the Climate Change Convention. It also analyses the strengths and weaknesses of various political, legal and economic mechanisms for influencing the choice of energy use. The initiatives of the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments, as well as local councils, to promote sustainable energy use and to combat global warming are scrutinised.

The unit examines traditions of criminological theorising, research and public intervention that focus on the socio-spatial context(s) and determinants of crime and its governance. It explores the principal sources of data collection, the methodologies and theoretical underpinnings concerned with the spatial and social ecological dispersion of crime and deviance and its techniques of management and control. It also explores the relationship of public safety and crime prevention to public policy/interventions in areas such as urban and regional planning, housing, local government and community services.

The aim of the unit is to introduce students to overarching themes in environmental law and policy as a foundation to their more detailed studies for the Environmental Law Program. This is an overview unit addressing a number of environmental issues at various levels of analysis; such as policy making, implementation of policy and dispute resolution. The concept of ecologically sustainable development and its implications for environmental law and policy is a continuing theme. The unit is designed to develop multi-dimensional thinking about environmental issues and the strategies needed to address them. The unit provides a broad background of the political and economic issues in so far as they are related to the legal issues involved.

This unit examines the legal and institutional structures for land-use regulation and the resolution of land-use conflicts. The focus is on environmental planning, development control and environmental impact assessment. The unit will examine the design of environmental planning systems, the various types of development assessment systems, the opportunities for public involvement in decision-making processes, and the role of courts and tribunals in resolving land-use disputes.

This unit will provide an analysis of health law and policy within the European Union. Students will be provided with an overview of the EU and the relevance of EU law for health law. Topics to be covered in this unit include: access to health care across Member States, including the free movement of patients across borders and the issue of health tourism; protection of health privacy within the EU and the Data Protection Directive; the regulation of health care professionals within the EU; regulation of health research, including EU funding of health research, and the Clinical Trials Directive; public health within the EU, including communicable diseases and health promotion; and EU law and policy on patient safety and quality assurance. In addition, this unit will provide students with 3 case studies of EU health law and policy in the areas of assisted reproduction, stem cells and cloning, and death and dying.

The expert evidence component of the unit will examine the role of expert witnesses, their reports and their testimony in civil and criminal cases. This will include an examination of the law governing the admissibility of expert evidence and the procedural means by which such evidence is adduced. Part of the unit will be devoted to current controversies surrounding the role of experts in particular civil and criminal cases.
The class actions component of the unit examines the substantive law, legal theories and procedural devices for the litigation and resolution of large scale, complex civil litigation. This encompasses representative actions, class actions and the use of other mechanisms for the aggregation and resolution of mass claims, including under bankruptcy law.
There will be a particular focus on Part IVA of the Federal Court Act (Cth) and representative action procedures available in Australia under the rules of court and statutory provisions in various areas (including discrimination, human rights, insurance law, privacy, corporations law and shareholder rights).
The unit will also cover comparative material on group litigation procedures and class actions under the laws of other countries, including England and Wales, Canada and the United States.

This unit examines the relevance of theory to the process of explaining crime as a social phenomenon. It will selectively analyse the history of criminological thought. Special attention will be given to the cross-disciplinary nature of efforts to understand crime, criminality and their causes. A significant section of the unit will deal with contemporary approaches to criminological explanation including the influence of feminism and postmodernism. Contemporary theorists such as Foucault, Garland and Braithwaite will also be considered. The unit will endeavour to make explicit the links between criminological theory and the development of public policy.

The objective of this unit is to explore punishment, sentencing and penalty in modern society, particularly through an understanding of the relationship between punishment and social structure and the significance of punishment within the social and political order. The unit will adopt an interdisciplinary approach which draws on history, law, literature, sociology and criminology. Topics which will be covered include new sentencing regimes (such as mandatory sentencing), women in prison, juvenile imprisonment, inequality and punishment, privatisation, immigration detention and various new forms of involuntary confinement, and the impact of law and order politics on punishment.

Forensic psychology is the application of psychological knowledge and theories to all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems. It is currently one of the fastest developing and most popular aspects of psychology. In this unit we will draw upon psychological evidence to explain and understand some of the people and processes involved in the legal system. Through a series of interactive seminars we will discuss topics such as lie detection, profiling, interviewing, jury deliberation, eyewitness memory, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and police officers.

This unit examines the largely diffuse concepts of social control and the functions of law and proposes a more specific approach to legal theory which incorporates the latest findings of socio-legal research on the social effects of law. As a result of this discussion, a more specific concept of social control and an explanatory assessment of the social effects of law, including its political use, are presented with their theoretical implications for legal and political systems and applied, as examples, to historically and societally varied situations.

Learn how contracts operate as risk management tools by examining the legal principles arising in the formation, construction and discharge of contracts. This unit will provide students with an understanding of remedies available for breach of contract and factors that may vitiate a contract. The unit prepares students for a range of units** across postgraduate programs in commercial law, corporate, securities and finance law and international business law where a basic understanding of contractual law principles is valuable. Unit content includes: contract as a risk management device; formation of contracts: agreement, consideration, intention to create legal relations, certainty, privity, formalities; construction principles: contractual parties, contractual terms (express and implied), classifying terms, principles of interpretation; estoppel; vitiating factors: misrepresentation, misleading and deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, mistake, duress; discharge: performance, breach, termination and frustration; remedies: key statutory and common law remedies.
** excluding the following advanced contract law units available to law graduates only: LAWS6809 Breach of Contract, LAWS6872 Contract Negotiation, LAWS6851 Construction Law, LAWS6915 Current Issues in Defamation Law, LAWS6954 Financial Risk Allocation in Equity, LAWS6903 Interpreting Commercial Contracts, LAWS6969 Principles of Patent Law, LAWS6919 Problems in Contract Formation and units as listed in the Faculty Handbook.

This unit is designed for those wishing to pursue postgraduate study involving aspects of corporate law, but who lack the required previous exposure to the subject. As our postgraduate units in corporate law (other than this one) are all specialised and taught at an advanced level, those wishing to enrol in such units but who have not studied corporate law in a Law School environment should undertake this unit. This unit will focus on the fundamental principles of law applying to public and proprietary companies. The unit will start with a brief history of the development of the corporate form and the evolution of Australian corporate law, before moving on to examine the nature of corporate personality, the incorporation process, corporate constitution, governance rules, duties of directors and remedies for shareholders.

This unit's objectives are to identify and analyse key legal concepts that impact on the operation of financial markets.
The content includes an introductory examination of how contractual and other relationships underlie financial transactions; how financial assets (including financial instruments) are created, traded and used as security; how corporate and trust structures are used by market participants as financing vehicles; and how financial transactions may be challenged in an insolvency.

This unit will provide a comprehensive introduction to, and review of, the modern law of trusts. It is designed for students who have not studied equity and/or trusts before. The unit will begin with an introduction to the equity jurisdiction, including fiduciary duties, and will proceed to consider the creation, constitution, validity and variation of both private and public trusts, the rights and duties of trustees, trustee and third-party liability for breaches of trust, and remedies. We will also study a range of specific issues involving commercial trusts, unit trusts, retention of title and Quistclose trusts, and constructive trusts.

This unit will examine the scope and limitations of existing regulation of genetic technologies with respect to humans; consider recent scientific and technological innovations in the area of human genetics and the role and effectiveness of law in managing these new developments and evaluate the role of law as a means to control both the development of new genetic technologies and the utilisation of existing technologies. This will include a specific focus on: individual decision-making versus responsibility for genetic risk, individual versus group rights, genetic privacy, genetic discrimination, reproductive autonomy, and ownership and control of genetic information and research developments. Specific issues covered will include: regulatory limits on the use of genetic screening including of adults, children and newborns; prenatal genetic testing and genetic testing of adults and children; the regulation of genetic registers; protecting genetic information privacy and the problem of familial information; measures to control genetic discrimination in employment and insurance; the regulation of genetic research; and the establishment of biobanks and the concept of genomic property.

The unit will provide perspectives on global energy security, international access to energy resources and the resolution of cross-jurisdictional energy access disputes. In addition, it will deal with more conventional aspects of Energy and Resources Law such as: land Law including Native Title; energy resources and approvals; dealings and registrations; environmental Protection Law; and financial aspects such as project finance, energy trading and taxation. The reform of the energy market in Australia and its implications for competition Law, third Party access and trade practices, as well as the interface between energy resources and global climate change, will be canvassed. The unit will be taught by a team of experts including members of Sydney Law School, such as Ms Penny Crossley, and members of the profession. Each year, on the evening before the commencement of class the annual 'Kevin McCann Global Energy and Resources Law Lecture' will be delivered, to which all students will be invited.

Today, domestic health and global health are recognized as intertwined and inseparable. The determinants of health (e.g. pathogens, air, water, goods, and lifestyle choices) are increasingly international in origin, expanding the need for health governance structures that transcend traditional and increasingly inadequate national approaches. In this intensive unit, students will gain an in-depth understanding of global health law through careful examination of the major contemporary problems in global health, the principal international legal instruments governing global health, the principal international organizations, and innovative solutions for global health governance in the 21st Century. Class sessions will consist of a combination of lecture, interactive discussion, and case simulation and/or role-play. The class will cover naturally occurring infectious diseases (e.g. extensively drug resistant tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS), past (e.g., SARS) and future (e.g., Influenza (A) H5N1) epidemics, bioterrorism events (e.g., anthrax or smallpox), and/or major chronic diseases caused by modern lifestyles (e.g., obesity or tobacco use).

The unit is a review of the world's minerals-development regimes and the contracts that international investors use to implement them. The unit begins by reviewing the fiscal arrangements that nations use to obtain exploration and development, including licenses, production sharing contracts, joint ventures, and service contracts. It then focuses on the contracts that international investors use to share risks and rewards, including confidentiality agreements, study and bidding agreements, operating agreements, farm out agreements, lifting agreements and gas sales contracts. Other issues that may be covered include joint development agreements, taxation issues, corruption and indemnification.

This unit introduces the key concepts that underpin the Australian GST, the policies underlying the tax, and the way those policies are (or are not) reflected in the design of the GST law. The aim is to give participants a working knowledge of the operation of the GST law and an awareness of the practical problems encountered in practice, informed by an understanding of the way in which the law is intended to operate.
The unit will commence with an examination of the basic design features of value added taxes in general and of Australia's GST in particular. It will then examine the core elements of the GST law, including: the taxpayer (entities, enterprise, and the obligation to register for GST), the liability for tax on supplies made for consideration; the value of taxable supplies and the amount of GST payable on supplies; the entitlement to input tax credits and the range of subsequent adjustments that may be required; attributing GST and input tax credits to tax periods; adjustments for adjustment events; basic principles of GST-free and input taxed supplies (including an introduction to real property transactions and intermediation services, primarily focussing on financial supplies); basic cross-border issues, including the treatment of imports and exports.

The object of this unit is to broaden participants' existing knowledge of the Australian Goods and Services Tax, gained from studying LAWS6214 Goods and Services Tax Principles A or from extensive experience in practice. The unit will examine the interpretation, operation, and administration of aspects of GST that are complex in theory and/or in practical application. A detailed analysis of the law will take into account the policy objectives of the law and will be illustrated by reference to a range of commercial transactions, focussing on problems encountered in practice.
The following aspects of Australian GST are covered: entity and enterprise issues (the treatment of partnerships, trusts, and non-profit bodies; the special rules relating to GST groups, GST branches, and approved joint ventures; supplies of going concerns); the decreasing adjustment model for the taxation of insurance (Division 78); financial supplies (defining the boundaries of the input taxation; reduced credit acquisitions; related issues); GST and real property (taxable, input taxed, and GST-free supplies of real property; input taxed sales of residential premises and the exception for new residential premises; the margin scheme; supplies in return for development rights; real property and going concerns; input taxed residential rent, taxable commercial accommodation, and the treatment of long term occupation of commercial residential premises).
Coverage in any year may vary to take account of current issues, amendments to the law, and any relevant government consultations. Other issues that may be covered include: incapacitated entities; pre-incorporation expenses and amalgamations; CTP insurance (Division 79) and settlement sharing arrangements (Division 80); current topical issues and/or recent case law.

This unit examines government regulation of health care, drugs, resource allocation, medical research and professional practice. With regard to each area of government decision-making, issues are analysed by reference to the interplay between social goals, human rights, legal rights and ethical considerations. Topics covered include the constitutional and statutory sources of government power with respect to health care: regulatory models and reform of public health legislation; therapeutic goods administration; health insurance; pharmaceutical benefits and the pharmacy industry; immunisiation, notifiable diseases and public health emergencies; human tissue legislation; discipline of health professionals; health care complaints tribunals; a right to health care; ethical theories in law and medicine; the ethics of human experimentation; and ethics committees.

This unit will provide a foundation for further study in health law by examining laws that govern the liability of health professionals across a range of fields (eg criminal law, torts, contract, discrimination law) and mechanisms for the oversight and disciplining of health professionals. The unit will explore the role of law as a means to regulate/set limits on the conduct of health professionals and examine debates about the proper role of law in regulating the provision of health care. It will also critically evaluate law reform initiatives with respect to legal liability, complaints mechanisms and disciplinary action against health professionals where relevant. Topics to be covered may include: Legal and non-legal methods of regulating the practices of health professionals; the limits imposed on health professionals by the criminal law; the principles of negligence and their application to the liability of health professionals; contractual and fiduciary duties of health professionals; liability of hospitals; discrimination in health care; procedures for complaints against health professionals; disciplinary proceedings and the statutory reporting obligations of health professionals.

Claims brought under a bilateral investment treaty and at the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning Australian tobacco packaging laws have highlighted the constraints international trade and investment agreements impose on the power of sovereign nations to regulate in the interests of health. These and other recent claims have also spurred local and global policy debates about the impact of trade and investment agreements on health.
This unit will examine the constraints imposed by trade and investment agreements by reference to contemporary case studies such as plain tobacco packaging. The unit will explore the legal constraints imposed by trade and investment agreements as well as ongoing policy debates surrounding these agreements. The unit will draw upon theories and empirical evidence concerning the effects of such agreements on regulatory decision-making and health more generally. The unit will also examine these issues in light of specific challenges faced by developing countries.
In the context of the law of the WTO and international investment agreements, this unit will explore contemporary case studies on a range of issues such as product regulation (in the contexts of tobacco control, alcohol control and food safety) health worker migration and the implications of intellectual property protection for health. These case studies will also be examined in the context of international investment agreements.

This unit focuses on the conservation of natural and cultural heritage, including intangible heritage, underwater heritage, movable heritage and Australian Aboriginal heritage. International, national, state and local regimes for heritage conservation are examined and considered in the context of broader environmental decision making. An important theme of the unit is the relationship between human rights and heritage protection as an intrinsic part of the human rights framework. Through the use of case studies, the unit aims to bring together a range of interdisciplinary strands in archaeology, anthropology, cultural and natural history, art, architecture and urban planning, and to weave them into a framework for the legal protection of world, national, state and local heritage.

The unit aims to provide students with an overview of the recent development of links between environmental law and human rights at both international and national levels. It will initially introduce the principles of international environmental law, and the relationship between the environment and human rights, with both ecocentric and anthropocentric approaches to be canvassed. The right to development, and especially the linkage between poverty, development and the environment, will be explored. Individual topics will include the relationships between human rights and pollution, land degradation, climate change, water security, implications of international trade, Indigenous peoples, biodiversity, genetic resources and access to nature. The human rights dimensions of environmental, cultural and social impact assessments will also be included. The unit will conclude with a discussion of the issue of access to environmental justice as an aspect of human rights, and the institutions relevant to achieving environmental justice.

The questions of whether and how the global economy and human rights interrelate and interact have excited much recent controversy on the streets, in the courts and legislatures, in corporate board rooms and in the corridors of the UN and the international trade and financial organizations. It is a controversy that will almost certainly intensify over the next few years. The debate is controversial because it is important, and it is important because it involves two great globalizing forces namely, the promotion of free market ideology through trade liberalization and the protection of human rights through the universalization of the norms that underpin human dignity. On the face of it the two projects do sit easily together. Are they, in fact, implacably opposed to each other? Where or how do they overlap and what are the consequences or opportunities presented thereby? What role can the law play in regulating their interaction whether it be domestic or international law, 'hard' or 'soft' law. And what or who are the real actors behind the economic and human rights power blocs on the global stage? This unit seeks both to frame these questions and to address them by reference to the most recent discussion, thinking and action in the area.

This is a survey unit designed to introduce students to one of the most fast moving and engaging areas of public law. Immigration law is all about government regulation of the entry of persons into Australia. As such, it is a branch of applied administrative law that concerns the very make-up of our society, affecting both who we live with and how we live our lives. Statistics show that nearly one in four Australians were either born overseas or had an overseas-born parent. In spite of this, controversy persists over whether Australia should have an immigration program and the extent to which the government is doing enough to control both unlawful entry and the quality of the (lawful) migrants. With Sydney receiving the lion's share of the migrants who come to Australia each year, migration law has become a growth area for both lawyers and migration agents. By placing the current mechanisms for controlling migration in their legal, social, historical and economic contexts, this unit provides an opportunity to explore the 'big' issues raised by immigration and to look at why the subject has assumed such a central role in the development of Australia's identity as a nation. The unit of study is designed to foster the following skills: skills of statutory interpretation and problem-solving, through the study and use in practical situations of the Migration Act 1958 and its associated Regulations; skills of legal analysis and evaluation, gained through the examination and synthesis of relevant legislation; of court decisions and of rulings by the Migration Review Tribunal; the Refugee Review Tribunal; and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in its migration division; and oral and written skills, through class participation, simulation exercises and the preparation of a major research paper.
The survey unit does not consider the area of refugee law, which is the subject of a separate postgraduate offering. It is designed as a foundational unit for students who have no background in migration law and who wish to move into the area. The unit complements the more specialised units of Refugee Law and Immigration and Labour Law.

The goal of this unit of study is to provide students with an opportunity to pursue advanced research in an area of their choosing, under the limited supervision of a Faculty member. The unit is only available in special circumstances, and with the approval of the relevant Program Coordinator. Please refer to the Sydney Law School website for details on eligibility criteria and application material.

The goal of this unit of study is to provide students with an opportunity to pursue advanced research in an area of their choosing, under the limited supervision of a Faculty member. The unit is only available in special circumstances, and with the approval of the relevant Program Coordinator. Please refer to the Sydney Law School website for details on eligibility criteria and application material.

Please refer to LAWS6182 Independent Research Project A.

This unit will focus on how the criminal law and its institutions are inextricably connected to the process of colonisation. The place of contemporary criminal justice in NSW and other States will be reviewed against the background of colonisation and introduced law. There will also be some comparison with other settler states including the US and Canada and New Zealand. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of understanding history in order to provide a context for viewing the current relationship between indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians involved in the criminal justice process (including police, lawyers and the judiciary). Students will analyse reasons for the over-representation of indigenous Australians in all stages of the criminal justice process. Specific areas for consideration include juvenile justice, policing and police discretion, alternative court process such as the circle sentencing, and issues around Aboriginal customary law and the extent to which it is, or should be taken into consideration.

This unit deals with the rights to information in the modern health care system. The unit will focus on consent to treatment and will include discussion of: capacity, the duty of health professionals to disclose the risks of treatment, refusal of treatment and emergency health care. The unit will also examine duties of confidentiality in health care, ownership of and access to medical records, and information rights in medical research.

This unit will examine the law, policy and practice of both personal and corporate insolvency, under the Bankruptcy Act 1966 and the Corporations Act 2001. Topics to be covered will include: The purposes of insolvency law, including debtor protection, access of creditors to the debtor's assets, investigation of the reasons for financial failure, The pari passu principle, and the position of secured creditors; collectivism, compulsion and maintenance of creditors' pre-insolvency rights; the nature of security and quasi-security interests; The processes of sequestration of individual estates, and the winding up of companies; other possible regimes in insolvency; the appointment of a receiver under a charge; the duties of the receiver and manager; section 420A of the Corporations Act; The operation of Part 5.3A of the Corporations Act and the appointment and powers of the administrator and the operation of the deed of company arrangement; Available property; the voidable transaction regime (including section 37A of the Conveyancing Act); Litigation funding and possible recoveries in insolvency; The liability of directors and other controllers in insolvency; The impact of the PPSA regime on insolvency; The duties of the liquidator, and the control of liquidators; Current reform proposals, and policy considerations; and The Cross-Border Insolvency Act 2008; the effect of the UNCITRAL model law; the operation of modified universality in transnational insolvency.

This unit explores the growing internationalisation of criminal justice through an examination of forms of transnational crime and international conflicts and the infrastructure that is being developed to regulate global insecurities and criminal harms. It will explore the development of various institutions in response to international crimes and their relation to international human rights and access to justice. It will consider the different paradigms of justice that inform diverse international developments, notably contrasts between retributive and restorative justice. The unit will explore tensions and conflicts between nation-state based criminal justice and international norms, processes and procedures for regulating crime. It will assess the extent to which a distinct international criminal justice order is being established, the nature of its jurisprudence and values and its implications.

The objective of this unit is to provide students with an introduction to a number of areas of international business law and to provide an opportunity to study some of those areas in more detail. The unit begins with an overview of the scope of the law relating to international transactions. The core topics are international sale of goods, carriage of goods, international payments and financing of international sales and methods of doing business in foreign markets, including through agents and distributors and international licensing transactions. Other topics may vary from year to year and may include an introduction to international tax, elementary customs law and international dispute settlement.

This unit introduces students to the preferred method of resolving international commercial disputes. It has two primary aims, being to outline key principles in the law of international commercial arbitration, and also to discuss a range of cutting-edge legal issues raised in international commercial arbitration, to nurture a sophisticated understanding of the historical development, and likely future path, of ICA systems in relation to other forms of dispute resolution in trans-border contexts. Related, secondary aims are to develop an ability to discuss or argue arbitration law issues with colleagues, and to gain familiarity with key reference materials, expertise in conducting independent research, and skills in effective legal writing in this field. The unit considers how international commercial arbitration relates to litigation and ADR, surveys some of the most important transnational and Australian "legislative" instruments, and introduces major trends. It goes on to consider in detail specific issues including the arbitration agreement; the constitution of the arbitral tribunal; applicable law issues, including consideration of the law governing the arbitration, the role of the seat, and the role of national courts; procedure in international arbitration; the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal; the role of arbitral institutions; the arbitral award and challenges to the award; and recognition and enforcement of the award.

There are fundamental principles of contract law governing international commerce. These principles constitute international contract law - an autonomous body of the law governing obligations, rather than national contract law on an international scale. This unit examines the resurgence of the concept of a new lex mercatoria as it is used in international commerce. Using the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts, now in its third edition, as a fundamental statement of the principles of international contract law, we examine the structures and principles of international contract law as they apply in international contract practice and how they differ from national contract laws.
Other statements of general contract or sales principles are considered and compared with the Unidroit Principles. These statements include the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the European Principles of Contract Law (PECL), the EC Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), the US Restatement of Law (Second) Contracts, the US Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Trans-Lex Principles of Transnational Law.
Unity and harmony of transnational contract law proceeds within an institutional framework. That institutional framework includes the rules of private international law. We also examine the legal institutions relevant to sources of private international law as applied to international commercial contracts. We consider the recognition internationally of a principle of party autonomy and the boundaries to the ability of parties to choose private systems of law to govern contractual relationships.

In the past twenty years international criminal justice has had a resurgence as a key way to address war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Since the early 1990s the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have prosecuted a number of high level perpetrators of international crimes. These courts paved the way for the multilateral treaty establishing the permanent International Criminal Court in 1998. More recently, hybrid or internationalised criminal courts like the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon have dealt with crimes of international concern. This unit will examine how these institutions use the rule of law to help stop the cycle of impunity for perpetrators of mass atrocities. Using cases before the international courts and tribunals, the course will examine both substantive and procedural international criminal law. The elements of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity (including crimes of sexual and gender violence) and terrorism, modes of liability and defences will be covered, as will international criminal procedures from the investigation through to the pre-trial, trial, sentencing and appeal stages. Students will gain an overall understanding of international criminal law, as well as exposure to some of the interesting issues confronting the international criminal courts and tribunals today.

This unit aims to provide students with an overview of the development of international environmental law throughout the twentieth century. Attention will primarily be devoted to the international law and policy responses to global and regional environmental and resource management issues. Basic principles will be discussed prior to taking a sectoral approach in looking at the application of international environmental law in specific issue areas. The unit includes material on implementation of international environmental law in the Asia Pacific region. Relevant Australian laws and initiatives will be referred to from time to time. The focus is on law and policy that has been applied to deal with environmental problems in an international and transboundary context.

Family law disputes quite frequently involve parties who are citizens of, or have a right of abode in, other countries. It is common also for parties to have assets located in other countries. These international family law cases give rise to numerous difficult issues and require specialist legal advice. In which jurisdiction should a client file and what urgency is there to secure the jurisdiction of choice? How will Australian courts deal with forum disputes? To what extent are foreign court orders enforceable in Australia and will Australian orders be enforced in an overseas' jurisdiction? What steps need to be taken to prevent, as far as possible, the movement of assets overseas or, indeed, children overseas? How does the Hague Convention on Child Abduction work and is it effective? What about international enforcement of child support? This unit of study will examine these and other questions with an emphasis on the law in practice.

International financial markets are front page news. From GFC litigation to the Euro sovereign debt crisis, hedge funds and rating agencies, there is no escape. This unit has a profoundly practical perspective. Key pillars of the unit are the capital markets, the loan market and the derivative markets. Within each pillar specific financial products are analysed, such as securitisation, covered bonds and hybrids in the capital markets. Specific derivative and various lending products are also assessed, both from a legal and structuring perspective. Investor litigation is also a prominent feature of the unit. Guest lecturers from the industry present to provide a broad perspective. Popular case studies and a negotiation session are included as well, making this a both challenging and exciting unit.

This unit introduces students to the principles and practice of international human rights law - a field of public international law and policy of ever-expanding dimensions. It will introduce students to some key concepts, debates, documents and institutions in this field, while encouraging critical examination of these from a variety of angles. In summary, this unit considers the question: what happens when we regard a situation or predicament as one involving a breach of international human rights law - what possibilities and problems does this entail? Addressing this question, students in this unit will examine: (a) forums where international human rights law is being produced (international tribunals, domestic courts, multilateral bodies - including United Nations organs - regional agencies, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and the media); (b) settings where international human rights law is being deployed (in Australia and elsewhere); and (c) particular identities/subjects that international human rights law aspires to shape, regulate or secure. By the end of this unit, students should be able to formulate written and oral arguments by reference to key international human rights law instruments and principles; give strategic advice as to available avenues of recourse in international human rights law; and advance an informed critique of particular dimensions of international human rights law scholarship and practice, by reference to contemporary literature in this field.

The unit aimed at students who would like to pursue academic and/or other careers as human right advocates both in the domestic private and government sectors as well as in the international arena. This postgraduate unit builds on the students' knowledge of public international law and in particular international human rights law by focusing on and analysing the multifaceted and diverse jurisprudence developed by a range of organisations including the United Nation's Treaty Bodies, International Tribunals and Non-Governmental Organisations. Theoretically, international human rights are indivisible, inalienable and universal. However, human rights of some individuals and groups are routinely abused, downgraded, or watered down by States, corporations or other individuals. This unit of study primarily considers how human rights lawyers, advocates and scholars, in response to such abuses, formulate and present arguments before international and domestic for a and analysis the ever-expanding human rights law jurisprudence developed as a result of such advocacy and/or litigation. To this end, students will deepen their theoretical knowledge of the fundamental norms of international human rights law and its requisite machinery. As an ancillary learning objective, students also endeavour to integrate the above knowledge with the practicalities of human rights advocacy and its relationship to: democracy and the political arena; the exercise and dynamics of power; rights and citizenship; and citizen education and action. Students should gain detailed insights into: identification of issues and their prioritisation; contextual analysis; setting of goals, various advocacy strategies, publicity avenues as well as program evaluation/feedback and fundraising. The unit will focus on and critique a number of legal advocacy strategies and techniques in domestic and international fora. This unit of study will include scholarly readings, case studies, guest speakers, simulations and on-line discussion forums. Students will be expected to complete a paper in an area covered in the unit.

How to limit and regulate violence in times of war is one of the most pressing challenges for international law. This unit explores the origins and purposes of humanitarian law; its scope of application (spatial, temporal and personal); the different types and thresholds of armed conflict (including international and non-international conflicts); the permissible means and methods of warfare (including the principles of distinction and proportionality, and specific weapons such as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, cluster munitions, and landmines); the status and treatment of combatants and non-combatants and other categories (such as spies, mercenaries, "unlawful combatants" and "terrorists"); the protection of cultural property and the environment; the relationship between human rights law and humanitarian law; and the implementation, supervision and enforcement of humanitarian law (including the prosecution of war crimes, the role of Protecting Powers and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and national military law).

The unit is a comparative study of international customs law and administrations and is based on examining some of the practical difficulties associated with the implementation of new customs laws in various jurisdictions. The Kyoto convention, which sets out the minimum requirements of any new customs law, is examined in some detail focusing in particular on: customs control; customs declarations; administrative penalties; customs securities; transparency and customs rulings; risk management initiatives etc. The unit also examines the international customs harmonised tariff illustrating the structure, notes and in particular, the rules for interpretation of the tariff. The WTO customs valuation methodologies are also studied (from Article VII of the GATT) with particular emphasis given to the transaction value method of customs valuation. The treatment of management fees, royalties, commissions, production assist costs, research and development expenditure and other difficult areas are also reviewed. Article VI of the GATT, which makes provision for anti-dumping law, is also considered providing practical examples of how this law operates in various jurisdictions.

In contrast to traditional courses on international insolvency law, this unit will begin by discussing the issue of insolvency proceedings for states. The establishment of procedures for dealing with the insolvency of states is a fairly recent development, which can be traced to moves initiated by the International Monetary Fund during the Argentina crisis in 2001. Since then, a number of methods have been proposed for dealing with the insolvency of states in a more regulated and calculable manner than that in which the Paris and London Club has dealt with these issues over the last 50 years or so. Against this background, this unit will describe the evolution, and discuss the concept, of insolvency proceedings for states. The second part of the unit will deal with the principles of traditional international insolvency law, that is, the principles governing the situation where an insolvent company has assets in more than one jurisdiction. These principles will be exemplified by various cases from different regions of the world. This part of the unit will also consider recent developments aiming to establish regions in which particular transnational insolvency rules are applicable, the main example being the European Insolvency Regulation.

This unit introduces students to the international regulation of foreign investment. It examines core principles of international investment law, regional and bilateral investment treaties, the settlement of investment disputes, and the international economic and political context in which the law has developed. The unit considers the origins and evolution of international investment law through to the recent formation of the current international legal framework for foreign investment through bilateral and regional investment treaties. It examines the substantive principles contained within investment treaties and recent arbitral awards, and considers controversial issues surrounding investor-state arbitration. It examines the procedural framework for investment arbitration under the auspices of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the UNCITRAL Rules. This unit also considers the increased focus on investor responsibility in relation to environmental protection, human rights, development issues, and labour standards. As such, it examines the collapse of the negotiations for the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, corporate social and environmental responsibility, calls for an international regulatory framework to govern the conduct of multinational corporations, and new proposals for an International Agreement on Investment for Sustainable Development.

The objectives of this unit are to understand and gain a sound knowledge of the legal principles and rules governing the resort to armed force by States; be able to analyse a complex factual situation, recognise the issues arising, and determine the international legal rights and responsibilities of the parties involved; and gain awareness and understanding of current issues relating to the use of force and United Nations practice in matters affecting international peace and security. The course looks at the legal principles and rules governing the resort to force by States; operation of the relevant provisions of the United Nations Charter dealing with the use of force, self-defence and collective security; relevant state practice in interpreting the UN Charter; the legal issues arising from the use of force against terrorism; the "Bush Doctrine" of pre-emptive self-defence and its legality under international law; legality of the use of force to assist rebels; the role of the United Nations in peace-building, peace-making, peace-keeping, and peace enforcement; and the legal issues arising from humanitarian intervention and the emerging principle of the responsibility to protect. This unit does not cover the law regulating the conduct of armed conflict (jus in bello), which is the subject of the separate unit LAWS6218 International Humanitarian Law.

This unit provides an introduction to public international law. Its purpose is to ensure that students have a thorough understanding of the core principles and problems of, and contemporary issues in, international law. The unit covers the following topics: nature and scope of public international law, sources of public international law, international legal personality, the law of treaties, how title to territory is acquired, state jurisdiction in international law, immunity from jurisdiction, state responsibility for international wrongs, dispute settlement, and the legality of the use of force.

This unit of study consolidates and builds upon knowledge gained in International Law I. Whereas International Law I considers the general problems of public international law, and its foundational principles, International Law II examines how international law is created, implemented and enforced by national legal systems and through international organisations. Initial attention is given to understanding different ways in which law's transboundary impacts can be understood by considering international, transnational, global and comparative perspectives on law-making. The relationship between international law and domestic law is explored in depth, both in a comparative perspective and with particular reference to the impact of international law on Australian law and legal institutions. The unit also considers the ways in which international organisations are established and function to develop and implement international norms, and assesses contemporary concerns relating to the development of global administrative law and anxieties surrounding the potential fragmentation of international law.

The goal of this unit of study is to provide Master of International Law students with an opportunity to pursue advanced research in an area of their choosing, under the limited supervision of a Faculty member. The unit is only available in special circumstances, and with the approval of the Program Coordinator. Please refer to the Sydney Law School website for details on eligibility criteria and application material.

Please refer to LAWS6184 International Law Research Project A.

Anti-corruption efforts have continued to grow rapidly in recent years prompted both by international developments, such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, and by popular demand, domestically, for integrity in government. The spectrum of methods for dealing with the problem of corruption in the government sector now includes international cooperation, law enforcement, administrative instruments, system design, behavioural change and professional ethics. This unit is an introduction to the array of domestic and international approaches currently applied to address the complex nature of corruption. It is intended to have a practical focus, providing students with an opportunity to consider issues that can inform public policy choices about anti-corruption against the theoretical and historical background to current initiatives. Relevant themes to be considered include the effect of political pragmatism and ideology, difficulties of policy evaluation and outcome measurement and the implementation challenges posed by context. Specific cases will be used to demonstrate the reasons for controlling corruption, the types of corruption usually targeted by prevention measures and common methods of corruption control in law and practice.

This unit introduces the basic elements of Australia's income tax (including fringe benefits tax and capital gains tax), with an emphasis on their impact on businesses, whether conducted directly or via a partnership, trust or company.
The unit covers the following topics: the main elements of the tax system; assessability of business revenue; treatment of business expenses; timing rules for revenue and expense recognition; trading forms (companies, partnerships, trusts), capital raising and costs of servicing invested capital; cross-border issues; anti-avoidance rules.
The unit is aimed at participants who have not undertaken a recent and thorough undergraduate unit (or postgraduate equivalent) in Australian income tax. Participants are expected to be primarily drawn from two groups: (a) foreign students who have studied their own domestic tax system and now wish to acquire a detailed knowledge of the operation of the Australian tax system; and (b) Australian graduates in law, commerce, accounting, or other disciplines, who have not previously studied income tax. This unit is suitable as both an entry-level precursor to the more specialised units offered in the Tax Program and as a unit for practitioners and others who do not seek to be tax specialists but want to improve their general understanding of the tax ramifications of commercial operations.

This unit covers the legal system of the People's Republic of China. It will address Chinese legal history and tradition and the development of modern Chinese law, and will look at the Chinese court system and dispute resolution, constitutional law and the judicial system, the civil and criminal systems and other specific areas such as land law, labour law and intellectual property. Practical aspects of the implementation of a legal system in China and attitudes towards the rule of law will also be considered. The assessment will address Chinese law or a comparative analysis of Chinese law and the legal systems of one or more other countries.

This unit is designed for postgraduate students who do not have a legal background and who are enrolling in the Health Law Program. The unit will provide students with an introduction to law and legal skills with an emphasis on issues of particular relevance to the field of health law. The unit commences with an overview of the development of the common law and provides an examination of the development of case law and its relationship with legislation. The unit will also examine the rules and principles for interpreting statutes and consider the structure of courts and tribunals in Australia. In addition to addressing these foundational elements of the legal system, the unit will consider specific fields of law that have special relevance health law. These may include constitutional law, tort law, criminal law and administrative law. A major component of the unit comprises workshops that deal with the analysis of cases, the interpretation of legislation, essay writing skills and approaches to legal problem solving. The unit is taught once a year and is a substitute for LAWS6252.

This unit is about the doctrine and application of Islamic law in contemporary commercial environments. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 introduces Islamic law and its sources, before moving to discuss Islamic contracts, remedies and dispute resolution. It concludes by providing a contemporary overview of legal systems and business environments across the Islamic world. Part II contextualises the discussion through a focus on Islamic banking and finance, with particular reference to Malaysia and South East Asia. Topics will include: Malaysia's dual banking system and regulation of Islamic banking; methods of Islamic home financing; corporate capital raising, Islamic capital markets, sukuks (asset-based bonds) and takaful (Islamic insurance). It will also examine the problems of secular courts enforcing Islamic contracts.

This unit provides an introduction to Japanese law in global context, focusing on its interaction with civil justice, criminal justice, business, politics, gender, and the legal professions. It is taught intensively in Kyoto at Ritsumeikan University Law School (Kyoto Seminar: www.kyoto-seminar.jp). Lecturers include academics from Ritsumeikan and other leading Japanese universities, as well as from Australia (especially from The University of Sydney, Bond and Adelaide), with guest lectures by prominent practitioners and a field study to a local bar association and/or the courts. Students will also interact with participants from Japanese, Australian and other universities or institutions taking this unit, supported by the Australian Network for Japanese Law (sydney.edu.au/law/anjel).

This unit provides a specialised and thematic account of judicial review as one means for making the executive branch of government accountable. It aims to develop an understanding of trends reflected in principles relating to justiciability, standing to seek review, excess of power and abuse of power, and procedural fairness. A critical evaluation of the policy choices which account for development of common law principles is encouraged. The procedures and remedial powers available under statutes which reform the procedure for gaining judicial review are examined, with judicial and administrative procedure compared. A consistent theme is the development of a critical appreciation of the proper relationship between the judicial and executive branches of government.

The purpose of this unit is to introduce students to the principles of labour law. It is designed specifically for MLLR students who do not have a law degree or for any students with a law degree who have not recently undertaken an undergraduate labour law course. The goal of the unit is to equip students with the fundamental principles of labour law that they will need to undertake more advanced labour law units within the MLLR and LLM Degrees. It provides an introduction to the contract of employment and the relevant principles governing the employment relationship, including termination of employment. It then introduces students to the workplace relations framework including collective bargaining and industrial conflict; the modern role of awards and statutory regulation of wages and conditions.

The aim of this unit is to provide students with a broad overview of the key legal issues commonly faced when investing and doing business in Asia. This unit covers areas of commercial law across Asia with primary emphasis on Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and possibly India, including case studies. It covers foreign investment regulation; laws related to foreign investment; contract and/or competition law; labour law; corporate governance; intellectual property; Islamic law and finance (where relevant); corruption; WTO and FTA compliance; dispute resolution; and key issues in modern comparative law which may assist students in their study of `foreign' legal systems.

The purpose of the unit is to engage with fundamental problems of legal philosophy, not through philosophical but through literary texts, from Shakespeare to Brecht, from Melville to Camus. The unit will also deal with the role of the narrative and problems of interpretation in law and literature.

This unit aims to introduce students to a wide variety of areas of Indonesian law, with a focus on topical issues. These include Indonesia's place within the civil law tradition, the judiciary, human rights, constitutional reform, Indonesia's legal pluralism and some aspects of commercial law, including intellectual property. By the end of the unit, students should have an understanding of: Indonesia's legal system and some of the reasons for its dysfunction, with a focus on the judicial system; Indonesia's legal pluralism, including some aspects of Islamic law - particularly family law; recent constitutional and institutional reform in Indonesia; aspects of doing business in Indonesia.

This unit examines the relationship between law and the origins and implementation of the events known as the Holocaust. Students will consider the lessons for law and legal theory arising from Hitler's rise to power, the legalization of the Nazi racial-biological worldview through eugenics and anti-Jewish legislation, the character of parallel anti-Jewish legal programs in Vichy France and elsewhere, the challenge to our conceptions of legal and moral responsibility that is presented by the idea of 'administrative massacre', and the question of how the Nazi legal era has been represented in mainstream jurisprudence. By studying the sequential moments of legal and institutional pathology that provided the context for the persecution of the Jews - loss of meaningful constitutionalism or constitutional values, loss of legal rights, loss of citizenship, loss of the standards of the rule of law, loss of the status of the legal subject as a bearer of dignity, amongst others - students will have the opportunity to think deeply about the significance of these pathologies for our understanding of what law is, what law should be, and what conditions are required for law to mediate power rather than merely provide a vehicle for its expression. The crucial role played by legal thinkers and legal actors in the Nazi project will be a key reference point, as will the question of how adequate our scholarly resources are to the task of illuminating the complex questions and connections that a study of law and the Holocaust presents.

Asset protection is concerned with the preservation and transmission of property of individuals, families or corporations. It has the broad purpose of minimising legal, business and political risks, by safeguarding assets from seizure, loss and diminution in value. It is concerned with the protection of assets from potential creditors, government expropriation, excessive taxation and catastrophic loss. It is a vital component of tax advice, wealth management and financial planning.
This unit examines the legal aspects of asset protection, from both Australian and international perspectives. It provides a sound understanding of the legal techniques and principles of asset protection. The complex interaction between company law, the law of trusts and property, tax and estate planning laws, bankruptcy and insolvency laws is analysed. The unit focuses on the laws of a select number of offshore jurisdictions, as well as international trust law. It examines the legal impediments and ethics of asset protection. Anti-money laundering rules and the civil and criminal liabilities of trustees and professional advisers are also covered.

This unit will examine the principal legal issues concerning organizations composed of states. These include the legal status and powers of organizations, membership and participation, norm-creation, dispute settlement, enforcement of decisions, peace and security activities, and finally the organizations' privileges and immunities as well as their legal status and powers under national law.
At the same time, the unit will also address such real world problems as the creation of international criminal courts, the "succession" of Russia to the USSR's seat on the UN Security Council, the response to the break-up of Yugoslavia, targeted sanctions and the possibility of judicial review of acts of the UN Security Council, the success of WTO dispute settlement, NATO action against Serbia in 1999, the military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11, etc.
Primary consideration will be given to the development of the United Nations. Other universal as well as regional organizations will also be dealt with. This unit aims at helping students to understand the common legal problems faced by international institutions.

Tax Administration is a study of the theoretical and practical issues that arise in the administration of the Australian tax system, concentrating primarily on the income tax. The unit of study is structured around the key design features of any system of tax administration, namely ascertainment of liability (particularly self assessment), dispute resolution, and collection and recovery of tax. Particular emphasis will be given to the reforms implemented as a result of the Government's Review of Self Assessment. Wherever relevant, the interaction of administration issues with the substantive provisions of the tax law will be considered. Students should gain an understanding of the foundational rules underlying the administration of the income tax laws and a detailed knowledge of the application of those laws to a variety of common dealings between taxpayers and the tax administration.

The oceans cover two-thirds of the world's surface, and are vital to international commerce, are a store of important living and non-living resources, and provide indispensable environmental services including stabilising the global climate system. This unit reviews the major areas of the law of the sea as it has developed over the centuries. The unit takes as its focus the 'constitution' of the oceans, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and also considers a range of other international conventions and agreements, and current state practice. Each of the major maritime zones is assessed, and there is also a detailed review of several sectoral issues, including the protection of the marine environment, fisheries, navigational rights and freedoms, and military uses of the oceans. Where appropriate, reference will be made throughout the unit to relevant Australian law and practice, and to other state practice in the Asia Pacific Region.

This unit provides a critical overview to law and justice reform in international development. It analyses the global reform experience over the past half-century. It interrogates the nature and justification(s) of reform 'theory', studies the empirical evidence of various approaches, and examines the conceptual/practical challenges of evaluating development endeavour, using case studies from the Asia/Pacific region. Students enrolling in this unit will develop an evidence-based understanding of the use of law and justice reform in broader development strategies.

This unit introduces students to the legal systems of Southeast Asia, focusing on Indonesia and Malaysia. The unit surveys a very wide range of topical legal issues from the region - from human rights and development, environmental law, to the practice of commercial law, including Islamic banking. The unit emphasises legal pluralism - that is, the operation of different bodies of law for particular groups in those countries, colonial, national, Islamic and customary law - and compares how countries in Southeast Asia have handled it.

This is a compulsory unit for all postgraduate students who do not hold a law degree or equivalent from a common law jurisdiction entering the: Master of Administrative Law and Policy; Master of Business Law; Master of Environmental Law; Master of Environmental Science and Law; Master of Global Law; Master of Health Law; Master of International Business and Law; Master of Labour Law and Relations; Master of Law & International Development as well as Graduate Diplomas offered in these programs. The unit has been designed to equip students with the necessary legal skills and legal knowledge to competently apply themselves in their chosen area of law. Instruction will cover the legislative process; the judiciary and specialist tribunals; precedent; court hierarchies; legal reasoning; constitutional law; administrative law; contracts; and torts. Some elements of the unit will be tailored in accordance with the requirements of the particular specialist programs.

The primary goal of this unit is to develop skills in undertaking a significant piece of legal research at levels of sophistication suitable for examination (in case of thesis students), and/or publication. At the conclusion of the unit it is anticipated that members of the class will be able to conceptualise the issues to be researched; will be able to locate relevant legal and other materials (using both hard copy and electronic bibliographic aids); will be able to place and sustain an argument (a 'thesis'); and will be able to assess both the quality of that work and to judge the merits of other approaches to planning such research. It is expected that students will become familiar with using comparative materials (both within the federation and international), and will gain a working familiarity with relevant research techniques of other disciplines in the social sciences. The unit aims to encourage debate about the respective merits of different approaches, ethical issues, and the hallmarks of 'quality' research.

The unit will cover the following topics: higher degree research - students, supervisors and the faculty; refining your thesis - lessons from the strategy; developing/locating your thesis - lessons from the strategy; comparative law techniques; using international law materials; using historical materials/methods; conceptualising and researching the law in action; narratives, interviews, case-studies and other 'selective' forms of analysis; quantitative research methods - common pitfalls; quantitative research methods - forms of presentation and analysis; current problems in research & presentation; current problems II; and overview and review.

This unit provides students who are nearing the end of the process of writing their thesis with the support and resources to assist them to complete in a timely manner. It provides opportunities for participants to refine and improve their writing by exposing central ideas from their theses to constructive criticism by colleagues; to develop the skills of presentation of scholarly work in an academic setting; to provide access to a group of people who are all engaged in completing theses and who can provide informed support. The unit can be tailored to the needs of individual students.

Legal responsibility often depends upon ascribing fault or blame for conduct. This involves several important concepts. Firstly, the ascription of some mental element, whether it be mens rea in the case of crime, or the lesser notions of fault relied upon in civil liability. Secondly, that these intentional mental states caused the conduct for which defendants are blamed. These concepts are philosophically controversial, and current developments in the philosophy of mind assist in reflecting upon them. The unit will look at contemporary philosophical work on free will, consciousness, mind and causation and apply this work to present problems in regard to the concepts of legal responsibility.

This unit is a conspectus of contemporary law and legal problems in selected countries of the Pacific, including Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. These legal systems will be dealt with in the light of the history, demography, economy, political structures and cultures of the various jurisdictions. The unit will include some input from a number of Australian lawyers who have practised in these countries and who can illuminate written descriptions of the law by insights gained from their own direct experiences.

This unit will teach you the fundamental skills and theory of mediation. The skills component of the unit is extensive and is the reason for the limited enrolment. The unit is designed to enable interested students to progress to accreditation as mediators (additional external study with coaching and assessment will be required) and the content of the unit is designed to meet the content requirements of the National Mediator Accreditation System. In particular the content of the subject is designed to explore the competency areas required for accreditation and the knowledge, skills and ethical understanding competency framework set out in the National Mediator Accreditation Standards. However, mediation is not simply a procedural template that can be learned and applied to every dispute with benefit. It raises interesting and complex issues of theory and ethics, which will be integrated with the skills components of the unit. Issues of culture, power, mediator neutrality and ethical dilemmas for the mediator will be considered.

This unit deals with the law relating to mental health issues in Australia including human rights principles. Background material on the nature and incidence of mental illness, psychiatric and medical issues, as well criminological and public policy literature will be considered where relevant. The unit covers substantive issues from civil treatment, welfare law, and criminal law. Topics covered will include: the social context of mental illness and the current and historical approaches to treatment of the mentally ill; contemporary State, Territorial and Federal involvement in mental health policy and legislation; the present framework of NSW mental health law and related welfare law including the Mental Health Act, Guardianship Act, Protected Estates Act and Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act; the process of scheduling persons with a mental illness; review mechanisms including the roles of the medical superintendent, magistrates, the mental health review tribunal and the Supreme Court; longer term detention of the mentally ill; community treatment and community counselling orders; protected estates and guardianship orders; electroconvulsive therapy; consent to surgery and special medical treatment; the defence of not guilty on the grounds of mental illness, the review of forensic patients and the exercise of the executive discretion; the issue of unfitness to be tried; the involuntary treatment of prisoners in the correctional system; and proposals and options for reform.

The unit is concerned with the role of microfinance in achieving financial inclusion for the world's poor. The unit critically analyses the legal and policy issues relevant to efforts to alleviate poverty through the provision of formal financial services, in the form of microfinance, to the poor. Microfinance will be examined from the perspectives of Governments, international financial organisations, financial institutions, borrowers and country case studies. We will debate and assess appropriate policy responses to the fundamental legal issues that exist in this context.

The objective of this unit of study is to assess the regulation of new technologies from a risk regulation and Environmental Law perspective. Key questions that are elaborated include: What is regulation, who are the regulators and who are the regulatees?; what is the ideal-type of regulatory environment?; how do regulators engage with risk?: the precautionary principle; how are ideas of the possibility of impending catastrophe likely to affect the balance between legitimacy and effectiveness? Ethical and human rights principles are also discussed. The technologies analysed include GMOs, chemicals and geoengineering. A comparative analysis of how these technologies are regulated in the European Union, the United States and Australia is included.

This unit analyses the proposed Personal Property Securities legislation, drawing attention to how it will change the existing law regulating the rights of the secured creditors. The unit focuses on the concepts of attachment, perfection and security. It examines the nature of security interests regulated by the legislation, together with the registration, priority and enforcement regimes. Consideration is also given to the conflict of law rules contained in the legislation. In discussing the Australian position, the unit will compare similar legislation in Canada and New Zealand.

The main objective of this unit is to provide a critical understanding of the fundamental principles of legal theory and philosophy of law. The unit will discuss, in particular, the concept of law, the notions of obligation, authority, and legitimacy of law; the main theories of legal interpretation; the special role of the concept of "rights" in legal theory, and the principles determining the moral limits of legal coercion.

This unit looks at the role of plain English in legal writing, with particular emphasis on contract drafting, property documents, statutes, and advice-writing. It examines the reasons for the 'traditional' style of legal writing, the research into the advantages and disadvantages of plain English, and the techniques for writing law in plain English. Particular topics include the assumptions behind using plain English in law, the problems with terms of art and judicially-defined words and phrases, the causes of ambiguities in legal documents, and aspects of document design.

This unit traces the development of civil policing in Australia. Policy is viewed both within and beyond the state. Certain unique features of contemporary police practice are highlighted and critical consideration is given to the community framework within which the police now operate. Current issues in policy are discussed and debated in a context of justice and the inextricable connection with policing. The principle themes of the unit are: concepts of policing; the history and contemporary philosophy of policing and current issues in the institutions and processes of policing in Australia. The topics around which the seminars are constructed juxtapose crucial features of police work such as discretion, accountability, culture and authority against contemporary challenges such as malpractice, professionalism, community policing and police powers.

The aim of this unit is to examine the policy and legislative approaches to pollution control and the wide range of management tools employed to prevent harm and promote ecologically sustainable development. The unit will cover topics such as environmental management; economic instruments; criminal liability; corporate and director's liability; due diligence; waste management; hazardous substances; contaminated land and marine pollution.

The unit offers an introduction to the basic legal concepts relating to oil and gas exploration and production and an understanding of the characteristics of the key legal devices through which this activity is organised across the world. It will survey how both states and companies develop the legal tools to respond to key issues and policy concerns. It is designed both for lawyers who wish to begin to develop a specialised competence in the field of oil and gas law, and for non-lawyers active in or in connection with the industry, who need an appreciation of the legal context in which its activities are carried on. On completion of the unit, participants should be able to: explain the specific legal problems posed by the physical characteristics of oil and gas; identify different approaches to the resolution of those problems, their strengths and weaknesses; analyse the specific issues presented by offshore oil and gas resources; compare the approaches of different states to the exploitation of their oil and gas resources, and the different legal vehicles used to support and control the involvement of private capital is involved in this task; identify the problems that may arise at each stage of the exploration, production and disposition of oil and gas, and to analyse their legal solutions; describe the methods by which the state obtains a financial return from oil and gas operations; outline the legal approach to any special environmental and occupational safety problems posed by oil and gas operations; and consider how legal regimes for oil and gas exploration and production may be evaluated in terms of political and legal risk.

Patents are intended to encourage and reward innovation and they provide a powerful commercial monopoly that many businesses have successfully leveraged. Australian courts have built up a significant body of case law relating to patent disputes. This unit of study will provide students with an overview of patent law and its place in commerce today. It will include an overview of the origins of patent law, the patent application process, the legal criteria for obtaining a valid patent, the principles that govern patent infringement and remedies and the law relating to commercialisation of patents.

Issues surrounding contract formation are the most litigated contract law matters. This unit, after some introductory classes on contract formation, will concentrate on some of the more problematic aspects of contract formation. Topics covered will include letters of intent, letters of comfort, conditional contract, tender, electronic contracts, good faith in contract negotiation, the battle of the forms and pre-contractual liability.

The aim of the unit is to provide an understanding of the role of government policy within the analytical framework of welfare economics. Questions of central interest include: What are the conditions that justify government intervention? How can policies be designed to support basic principles of social justice? What kinds of reforms promote economic efficiency? Applications will range from taxation and social security to environmental regulation and protection, and will cover the following specific topics: The structure of the Australian tax-benefit system; Uncertainty and social insurance; Unemployment, health and retirement income insurance; Externalities, environmental taxes and tradeable permits; Monopoly and environmental regulation; Utility pricing and access problems; Cost benefit analysis, intergenerational equity and growth. The unit will provide an overview of the main empirical methodologies used in evaluating policy reforms in these areas. Students may select to specialise in one or more of the policy areas.

Refugee Law provides students with a practical and theoretical understanding of the development and operation of international refugee law, and forced migration more broadly. Forced migration is not a new phenomenon. What has changed over the last century is the scale and frequency of the conflagrations causing the mass movement of peoples and the ease with which individuals have become able to move around the world in search of protection. Although Australia's experience of direct refugee flows has been limited, it has not escaped the phenomenon of mobile refugees. Non-citizens who come uninvited and thereafter seek protection as refugees are the source of inordinate public concern and debate. The controversy arises in part from a sense of loss of control of immigration, and also from the cost of the processes available to asylum seekers fighting to remain here. Having signed and ratified the key international treaties, Australia has assumed certain international legal obligations with respect to refugees. The most important is the obligation not to return or 'refoule' a refugee to a place where she or he faces persecution on one of five grounds. This unit is designed to give students a critical understanding of the international legal regime of refugee protection. It begins with an overview of the evolution of refugee law at the international level, considering the various conceptualizations of refugeehood that have characterized international agreements from the period of the League of Nations through to the present day. The unit then turns to issues such as the definition of the term 'refugee' under international (and regional) law, the express exclusion of certain persons from refugee status, the rights and obligations accorded to refugees, the broadening of international protection through principles of human rights and humanitarian law ('complementary protection'), and the impact of terrorism on asylum procedures and eligibility. It considers attempts by States to restrict access to asylum through mechanisms such as carrier sanctions, interdiction, transit processing centres, detention, and 'safe third countries' to which asylum seekers may be removed. Contemporary protection concerns, such as mass influx situations and temporary protection, flight from generalized violence and civil war, internal displacement, burden-sharing, and the question of 'economic migrants' and 'environmental refugees', are also addressed. These considerations necessarily require an understanding of the role of international organizations such UNHCR, the mechanisms in place for refugee status determination and appeals in Australia and abroad, and the jurisprudence that has developed internationally and in Australia relating to the qualification and rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other persons in need of protection.

This unit will examine the law governing trade unions and employer organisations in Australian industrial relations. Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) awards no longer have parties and individual employees can be bargaining agents - what role does the legislation contemplate for industrial associations? With assistance from senior practitioners as guest speakers, this unit will examine the history of trade union law, why and how employer and employee organisations are registered, what powers they have and the rules by which they must operate.

This unit examines regulatory theory and practice. It is divided into 4 sections: Introduction - what regulation is and why it is created; Regulation - how we regulate, that is, what instruments and techniques are used to regulate economic and social activity in Australia; Regulators - what they should do, what they actually do and how they are held accountable; and International Dimension - how global activity is regulated. Students will explore a number of current key regulatory debates such as current debates about over-regulation, principles-based regulation, enforcement policy and the role of international regulation after the Global Financial Crisis. The objectives of this unit of study are to provide students with an understanding of: regulatory theories; different regulatory instruments and techniques, such as disclosure regulation and licensing, and their merits; complexities of regulatory practice, and the challenges of ensuring regulatory accountability; the challenges of regulation in an increasingly global world.

This unit aims to introduce students to key concepts at the heart of capital market regulation focusing on practices that threaten the integrity of global securities markets. The unit focuses on recent developments (including high profile prosecutions for market abuse) in Australia and the United States while selecting other jurisdictions (most notably China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Europe and Hong Kong) that are relevant to the different subjects considered. The topics addressed will include: market manipulation, insider trading, non-disclosure and fraud-on-the-market, penalties, regulation of hedge funds and developments in emerging markets.

This unit considers legal issues relating to reproduction. Topics to be covered in the unit include: wrongful birth, prenatal injury, wrongful life, abortion, the rights of the foetus, reproductive technology (including legal regulation, eligibility for treatment, access to information, research using embryos, surrogacy), sterilisation and intellectual disability. The unit will aim to situate the legal issues within their broader social context, with reading materials interdisciplinary and comparative in nature. Student participation in class discussion will be expected.

This unit examines the structure and regulation of markets for financial products, with particular emphasis on corporate securities, following the introduction of the Financial Services Reform Act. The study is primarily a legal analysis, but also explores some financial theory relevant to legal response to market operation. Particular topics covered include: structures, institutions and participants in Australian financial products markets and current developments in such markets; co-regulation of financial products markets, including the role and powers of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Stock Exchange; the licensing of financial services professionals; the conduct of securities business, including the legal structure of stock exchange transactions and the incidents of the broker-client relationship; abusive trading on financial products markets, including market manipulation and insider trading.

The unit objectives are: Examine the common problems experienced by members of various types of company; Understand strategies for preventing or remedying those problems without recourse to litigation; Understand the litigious remedies available to combat those problems; and Explore likely trends for future development of the law. The unit examines shareholders' remedies, exploring both litigious and non-litigious remedies. Litigious remedies include: class actions and recent developments in derivative litigation, as well as oppression, winding up, alteration of the constitution, dilution of equity stakes and compulsory acquisition of minority shareholdings. Non-litigious remedies include: the role of advance planning, drafting issues in relation to shareholders' agreements and constitutional provisions, and the scope for activism by institutional and retail shareholders in listed public companies.

This unit will involve detailed study of the requirements of chapters 6A, 6B and 6C of the Corporations Act with respect to the acquisition of company shares and takeovers. It will also examine selected aspects of the law concerning corporate reconstruction where a change of control is involved (including schemes of arrangement, selective reductions of capital and other forms of compulsory acquisition of minority holdings). The unit is taught by lawyers with extensive experience in takeovers and reconstructions.

This unit examines the pervasive phenomenon of tax avoidance, and the design (and effectiveness) of common judicial and legislative responses to it. The unit starts by deconstructing typical examples of avoidance to elicit the common design features of avoidance practices. We will also examine the inter-relationship between the process of statutory interpretation and the opportunities for avoidance. A particular focus of the unit will be on the scope and operation of Australia's general anti-avoidance rule (Part IVA), but the unit will also consider the various judicial anti-avoidance doctrines and some of the specific anti-avoidance rules found in Australia's tax legislation. The unit will also consider the kinds of approaches to tax avoidance and the anti-avoidance regimes employed in other countries. Finally, the unit will examine some of the procedural regimes used to curb the offering of tax avoidance products to taxpayers.

The unit will examine the procedural and evidentiary aspects of the process of contesting assessments and collection procedures under Commonwealth taxation laws, as well as other proceedings involving the Commissioner of Taxation. Topics covered include information collection, challenging appeals, evidence, challenging Commissioner's discretions, and recovery of unpaid tax.

This unit is designed to study the policy, detailed rules and practical application of Australia's international tax treaties against the background of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. Upon successful completion of this unit a student should have an advanced understanding of the policies underlying the Australian tax treaty position in relation to the taxation of various kinds of income, as well as a detailed knowledge of the law applicable to interpretation of Australia's treaties. The unit includes a study of: principles of double tax treaties; interpretation of tax treaties; and selected articles of the OECD Model and Australian tax treaties.

This unit of study considers a number of specialised topics in the area of tax treaties, largely reflecting the work of the OECD on tax treaties currently and in the last decade. Topics covered include: OECD policy development processes, the new Article 7; business restructures, high value services, expatriates, superannuation and pensions, entities (companies, partnerships, trusts and collective investment vehicles), triangular cases, conflicts of qualification, non-discrimination, dispute resolution and international administrative cooperation.

This unit, along with LAWS6841 Taxation of Business and Investment Income B, is designed to provide an advanced study of the tax treatment of various important business transactions. It provides a detailed examination of the income tax and capital gains treatment of selected complex commercial transactions and their impact on the tax base. The goal of the unit is to develop an understanding of the policies, detailed rules and current practical problems involved in this area of taxation, through the analysis of a number of specific problems discussed in each seminar. Because of continual change to the taxation system, recent legislative amendments and judicial decisions will be examined in detail where applicable. The unit will cover the following topics: core income and expense rules and operational concepts underlying the income tax system; treatment of realised business income and the differentiation of capital gains; treatment of business expenses and the differentiation of expenses recoverable under depreciation, CGT or not at all; issues in the treatment of trading stock; issues in the tax treatment of the costs (and revenues) associated with business equipment and intangibles. This unit can be taken alone or in conjunction with LAWS6841 Taxation of Business and Investment Income B.

This unit, along with LAWS6840 Tax of Business and Investment Income A, is designed to provide an advanced study of the income and capital gains tax treatment of various complex commercial transactions. The goal of this unit is to develop an understanding of the policies, detailed rules and current practical problems involved in this area of taxation, through the analysis of a number of specific problems that will be discussed in the seminars. Because of continual change to the taxation system, recent legislative amendments and judicial decisions will be examined in detail where applicable.
This unit will cover the following topics: issues in business financing, including asset leasing; tax issues related to the use and development of land and buildings; the treatment of 'black hole' expenses; tax accounting for income, expenses and profits; and specific and general anti-avoidance rules. This unit can be taken alone or in conjunction with LAWS6840 Tax of Business and Investment Income A.

The unit will analyse the current law on the tax treatment of the principal forms of raising corporate finance from sources both in Australia and offshore, in Australian and foreign currencies, and of hedging the various exposures that a taxpayer may have from of its fund-raising and investments. The unit will consider the taxpayer's position both within and outside the TOFA regime. Common forms of innovative financial instruments will be examined, including debt, equity and hybrid instruments, forward and futures contracts, derivative instruments, and various asset-based forms of corporate financing. Selected non-resident withholding tax issues will be examined.

The object of this unit is to examine the policy and practical issues that arise in the consolidation regime in Australia. The unit covers: policy and history of grouping and consolidation; entry into consolidation; effects of consolidation; exit from consolidation; losses and bad debts in consolidation; and international rules in consolidation including MEC groups.

This unit of study examines the tax treatment of a range of current financial instruments, from the perspective of both the investor and issuer. The focus of the unit is on retail products currently offered in the domestic market to households and superannuation funds, and includes an introduction to the taxation issues from financial engineering. The instruments will change each year but will include a variety of: debt-based products such as loan products with offset accounts and re-draw facilities, index-linked bonds, margin loans, capital protected borrowings and reverse mortgages; equity-based assets such as deferred purchase agreements and instalment warrants; market-based investments such as contracts for difference and exchange-traded futures; and insurance products such as purchased annuities and various forms of life assurance.

The unit will focus on the tax issues arising on the takeover or re-organisation of a corporation. Unique and complex tax issues arise for the corporation, its existing shareholders and, in the case of a takeover, its acquirer. These issues will influence the method of effecting the transaction, the method of financing it and indirectly the price paid. For takeovers, the unit will examine the impact of a takeover on the various tax attributes located in the target company, the computation of its income in the year of change, the recovery of its losses and the limits on losses available to shareholders because of the anti-duplication rules. We also consider how the tax system might influence the method of financing the takeover. The unit will also examine the impact for shareholders and the corporation of undertaking the merger of two or more corporations. The unit will also examine the impact for shareholders, intermediaries and the corporation of the de-merger of a corporation from a group of corporations. For reconstructions, the unit will examine the impact for shareholders and the corporation of selected transactions: conversion into corporate form, change of corporate form and the re-capitalisation of a corporation.

The objective of this unit is to examine the policy and practical issues that arise in Australia by virtue of the rules for the taxation of income derived through unincorporated entities. The focus is on partnerships, corporate limited partnerships, trusts, unit trusts, deceased estates, corporate unit trusts and public trading trusts. The goals of the unit are to develop a detailed understanding of the policies, technical rules and practical problems involved in the taxation of these arrangements. Upon successful completion of this unit, students should have an advanced understanding of the technical rules underlying the taxation of partnerships and trusts in a variety of forms and in a variety of commercial situations. The unit covers: problems of taxing entities; problems of taxing entities, partnerships and trusts contrasted with companies; classification of entities for tax purposes; taxation of partners; taxation of trusts other than unit trusts and their beneficiaries; taxation of unit trusts and their beneficiaries; taxation of limited partnerships.

In response to Government demand for greater revenues and administrative effectiveness, tax administrators have adopted a business-like approach to the way they manage and lead their administrations. Within an environment of increasing complexity, the need to improve the level of voluntary compliance and to detect and deter taxpayer non compliance whilst reducing administrative overhead and the cost to business when complying with the tax laws has required new thinking by tax administrators as to how to deliver the outcomes sought by their key stakeholders. This unit explores the changing nature of tax administration as it responds to these demands. Topics covered include: the use of revenue authorities; strategies and models used to improve voluntary compliance; administrative policy and legislative developments; the application of the self assessment concept; the managing of risks to compliance; the measuring of revenue assessment and collection performance; process re-engineering; and the developing of new capabilities and the managing of change.

As the High Court has continually emphasised, Australian legal practitioners are required to have a proper appreciation of the issues involved in the exercise of the judicial power of the Commonwealth by the federal and state courts in which they practice. Those issues can significantly affect the course and outcome of proceedings. This unit will provide practitioners and those interested in the area with a thorough understanding of the principles involved and the practical issues and difficulties which arise. Particular topics covered will include the nature of judicial power, the doctrine of separation of powers and associated constitutional implications, the scope of the original jurisdiction of the High Court, the conferral of federal jurisdiction on federal courts, the investment of state courts with federal jurisdiction, particular issues associated with the operation of the Judiciary Act, rights to appeal to the High Court and the exercise by territory courts of federal jurisdiction. Students will also learn how to identify the appropriate body of procedural and substantive law that is applied in the Federal Court and other courts exercising federal jurisdiction.

This unit seeks to facilitate critical reflection on prominent responses of theorists to a single question: what is law? Among the notions to which their answers refer (and on which the unit focuses) are the following: power, norms, rules, principles, convention, morality, adjudication and interpretation.

This unit of study examines the sources of tension between the law and policy aspects of the international trade liberalisation regime, environmental protection and ecologically sustainable development. It examines the obligations imposed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) framework and the scope and operation of environmental exceptions that have been considered in recent trade environment disputes. It explores these developments from the perspective of parallel initiatives in international law aimed at promoting Ecologically Sustainable Development domestically and globally. The Agreements on Food Safety Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade are also covered to the extent that they impose limitations on nations' ability to specify the manner in which the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the rights and duties created by the Convention on Biodiversity are also discussed. The unit contrasts the WTO regime with that implemented by regional trade groups such as the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) and attempts some evaluation of their relative strengths in promoting ESD. It also reflects on the attempts to negotiate an agreement on investment liberalisation and the issues that raises for environmental protection initiatives. By the end of the unit participants should be able to critically assess the prospects for future harmonisation of global free trade regimes and ESD principles in the context of the Australian debate on these issues.

The unit examines transfer pricing law and practice in Australia in the area of international taxation. Transfer pricing continues to be rated by tax directors as the number one international tax issue they face. The release of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations in 1995 and the ongoing updates, the rewrite of the US Regulations over the period 1988-1994, and the substantial transfer pricing rulings program of the Australian Taxation Office, have together significantly increased the international and Australian materials available on the law and practice in transfer pricing. Students will gain an understanding of the policy, and detailed application of transfer pricing rules within Australia and an understanding of the international framework.

This unit covers the domestic provisions of UK income tax and CGT law dealing with international transactions, as well as UK treaties and the impact of EU law on the UK tax system. The UK remains one of Australia's major trading partners. UK taxation thus has significant effects for inbound and outbound investment between Australia and the UK. This unit will be of interest to tax professionals who have dealings with the UK. The objective of the unit is to provide an overview of the income tax system of the UK and a detailed analysis of the most important legislative and treaty rules of the UK in the international income tax area, especially in dealings with Australia. Upon successful completion of the unit, participants will have an advanced understanding of the policies of the UK rules for taxing international transactions as well as a detailed knowledge of the principles of income tax law applicable to inbound and outbound transactions in the UK. The unit includes a study of: 1. Overview of the UK income tax system; 2. Taxation of inbound investment in the UK; 3. Taxation of outbound investment in the UK; 4. Transfer pricing in the UK; 5. UK tax treaties; 6. Australia UK Tax Treaty.

The objectives of this unit are: understand the history, structure and operation of US corporate law and corporate governance; to examine the common law, statutory provisions; and to explore the tension between state and federal law, including recent regulatory developments under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 and the Dodd-Frank Act 2010. Specific issues discussed in the course include the "race to the bottom" vs "race to the top" hypotheses; the US approach to veil-piercing; the governance role of shareholders under US law; directors' duties, including the duty of care and the duty of loyalty; the operation of the business judgment rule; derivative litigation; the law relating to closely held corporations; judicial review of tender offer defences.

The object of this unit is to provide an overview of the income tax system of the US with a focus on the most important legislative and treaty rules of the US in the international income tax area, especially in dealings with Australia. The unit will examine both the policies behind the US taxation of international transactions as well as the rules and principles of income tax law applicable to inbound and outbound transactions in the US.

This unit of study situates the management of Australia's water resources within an International Law context including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, International Water Law principles and an internationally recognised human right to water. The unit examines the ecologically sustainable management of water resources in the context of climate change, with Australia being the driest inhabited continent. According to the Garnaut Climate Change Review, climate change could halve the productive capacity of the Murray Darling Basin, which produces one third of Australia's food supply, by 2050. In May 2012, the Murray Darling Basin Authority released the controversial Draft Basin Plan which proposes to allocate more water for the environment. At the same time, the Council of Australian Governments is pursuing a decade long process of water reform to establish a national water trading market by 2014. Consequently, the unit examines water resource management from the interdisciplinary perspectives of law, science and within the context of broader economic reform and the National Competition Policy framework. The corporatisation of water utilities and competition in the water service market is also discussed. Key legislation covered are the Water Act 2007 (Cth) and the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW).

This advanced unit examines what may be best described as the collective aspects of labour law. The unit covers unregistered agreements, the use of the federal labour power, other heads of constitutional power including the corporations power, enterprise bargaining under federal and New South Wales law, Australian Workplace Agreements and the laws concerning industrial disputes which include common law torts, industrial statutory provisions and Trade Practices Act remedies.

Lawyers and HR/IR practitioners are increasingly required to deal with complaints of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination, and address suspected misconduct such as fraud/theft, violence, and safety and other breaches.
In order to take disciplinary and other action, a proper factual foundation must be established, through a workplace investigation.
This unit of study provides a framework for conducting effective and fair workplace investigations. It provides an overview of the legal risks that arise from poorly conducted investigations and draws relevant principles from current case law, including unfair dismissal decisions and breach of contract cases examining the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence.
We consider how concepts of 'procedural fairness' and 'natural justice' impact each stage of a workplace investigation, including: Establishing the scope of the investigation and particularizing the alleged complaint or misconduct; Preparing an Investigation Plan; Conducting interviews and gathering information; Managing participants, including stand down/suspension; and Evaluating information and making findings, applying the relevant standard of proof.

The aims of this unit are to gain an understanding of the: fundamental principles of WTO law, including `favoured nation', tariff bindings and customs duties, subsidies and non-tariff barriers to trade; dispute resolution system and the findings of the panels and Appellate Body; evolving jurisprudence of the WTO on Article XX and environmental and health measures, labour law and human rights. The unit will include study of the: WTO Agreement and the Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Agreements. Agreements on Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Related Investment Measures, Anti-Dumping and TRIPS; special and differential treatment for developing country Members; role of WTO within the international legal system and implementation of national law; and enforcement of WTO decisions.

The unit aims to provide a broad overview of the functioning of the juvenile justice system and its relationship to juvenile offending. There is a specific emphasis on NSW in terms of understanding the operation of a particular system, however reference is frequently made to the wider Australian and international context. The unit analyses the historical development of a separate system of juvenile justice and the system of ideas about juvenile delinquency as distinct entities separable from broader notions of criminality and criminal justice. The unit also analyses the contemporary nature of juvenile crime and specific issues in relation to policing, community-based corrections and detention centres. Social relations which mediate between the juvenile justice system and young people will be investigated through a focus on gender, race and class. The broader political determinants surrounding the operation of the juvenile justice system and moral panics in relation to juvenile offending will also be examined. The unit aims to develop a critical understanding of the link between theory and juvenile justice policy, and to develop an appreciation of the multi-disciplinary nature of criminological explanation.