This unit provides students with an introduction to the understanding of legal ideas, institutions and practices in their social and historical contexts. It will provide an historical overview of legal institutions and forms of law in Australia, the place of the idea of the rule of law in state-formation, liberalism, processes of civilisation and colonialism, law and the public/private distinction, changing conceptions of human rights, as well as outlining the central features of the various fields of law.

This unit provides an understanding of the central themes and issues in social scientific analyses of the operation of law in society. After briefly outlining the various ways in which social life is organised in terms of law, the unit will examine a range of key concerns in the development of legal ideas, institutions and processes today, including the increasing legal regulation of private life, law and science, human rights, the globalisation of law, terrorism, risk and security, law and social inequality and citizenship.

This unit of study explores the relationship between crime, law, medicine and science in society by specifically examining the history of criminal detection practices, death investigation systems and the coroner's office, the role of medicine and science in criminal justice and socio-legal management of the dead. Students will be introduced to developing areas in medico-legal and forensic criminology, and will explore specific issues and case studies such as human tissue and organ controversies.

This unit will provide students with an appreciation of issues facing Indigenous peoples in the struggle for social and legal justice, focussing on the idea of Indigenous justice in Australia in the context of other comparable nations, such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand. We will compare specific examples or models of law and policy recognising Indigenous social and legal justice in specific areas, such as child protection, criminal justice, and land rights, in Australia and overseas.

This unit examines criminological approaches that explore intersections between crime/criminal justice, media forms and cultural dynamics. Topics include delinquent gangs, youth, subcultures and the law, folk devils and moral panics, cultural criminology, graffiti, edgework, television and fictional crime, serial killers, dark tourism, new technologies and social protest, surveillance, high crime, crime without frontiers.

This unit will develop an understanding of social science research methods as they apply to quantitative and qualitative socio-legal studies. The unit will consider the epistemological, ontological and theoretical aspects of qualitative and quantitative research design and methodology and provide an overview of the main research methods applicable in both qualitative and quantitative socio-legal studies. Students will learn about the different stages involved in the development of both qualitative and quantitative socio-legal research projects.

The Honours program in Socio-Legal Studies consists of: 1. a thesis written under the supervision of one or more members of academic staff; 2. two seminars that meet weekly for two hours each during Semester 1. For more information, consult the Department of Sociology and Social Policy website or contact the Honours Coordinator.

refer to SLSS4011

refer to SLSS4011

refer to SLSS4011