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 Health Law; Master of Labour Law and Relations 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.

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. First two days will be focused on the instructor's lectures while two remaining days on students' presentations.

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 and 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 and Law. There will also be a visit to a Chinese law firm.

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 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 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.

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 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 covers the domestic provisions of UK direct tax 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 UK tax system focusing on cross-border investment and expatriate employment issues and a detailed analysis of the most important legislative and treaty rules of the UK in the international direct 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 company and personal taxation applicable to inbound and outbound transactions in the UK. The unit includes a study of: 1. Overview of the UK 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 including the Australia UK Tax Treaty; 6. EU tax law as it affects the UK.

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.

This advanced unit examines the policy and practical issues that arise in Australia for the taxation of income derived through partnerships and trusts which are generally transparent for tax purposes, with a twofold focus: first for private business and investment; secondly for collective investment. The unit covers: problems and policies for taxing entities (partnerships and trusts contrasted with companies); classification of entities for tax purposes; taxation of partners and trust beneficiaries in a private business/high wealth context; taxation of collective investment vehicles mainly in the form of trusts and partnerships, including Attribution Managed Investment Trusts, Corporate Collective Investment Vehicles, Managed Investment Trusts, listed investment companies, public trading trusts, limited partnerships, venture capital, foreign hybrids, and investment manager regime.

The unit examines transfer pricing law and practice in Australia and globally. Transfer pricing continues to be rated by tax directors as the number one international tax issue they face. The release of the revised OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations in 2010 and the ongoing projects, the rewrite of the Australian transfer pricing legislation, 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.

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.

International finance is front page news: from litigation against mis-selling banks, to the fall-out of the sovereign debt crises (bail-in), the contentious role of activist hedge funds and the (over)reliance on rating agencies, there is no escape. Banks are perhaps still on the back foot, having to prove their value to the community by mains of delivering sustainable finance. This unit introduces and digs deep into the suite of international financial transactions, with a profoundly practical perspective, whilst also showcasing sustainable and development finance in practice.
Key pillars of the unit include lending, capital markets instruments, derivative markets and project finance. Within each pillar specific financial products are analysed, both from a legal and structuring perspective. We look at lending and negotiate a term sheet. We uncover the drivers and documentation of structured finance products such as securitisation and covered bonds. We will also look at the international regulatory reform of for instance the derivatives market and its impact on documentation. Insight is given into credit derivatives. Investor litigation is also a prominent feature of the unit. The lecturer shares his own transactional experience in development finance, from Asia to Africa and Latin America. Guest lecturers from top tier law firms and major banks explain transactions and risks, giving a broader perspective. Case studies and a negotiation session are also included, making this a both challenging and exciting unit. Bottom line: this unit will enhance your skills for application in legal practice. No prior experience in the financial markets is required. To assist students in getting up to speed, some materials will be shared on-line before classes commence.
The lecturer is Jan Job de Vries Robbé, who is Manager of Legal Affairs and Compliance at the Dutch Development Bank FMO and has extensive experience in international finance.

Globalisation is driving corporate tax systems closer together and often into conflict. For many tax practitioners, it is now not enough to know their own corporate tax system - they must grapple with and question the operation of other corporate tax systems. This unit seeks to develop an ability to understand and analyze any corporate tax system and assess its impact on corporate decision making. With a dedicated textbook (written by the presenter), it does this by comparing a number of influential and archetypal corporate tax systems (both common law and civil law) and assessing their behaviour in the context of a number of practical problems. For tax professionals, the unit develops an ability to ask direct and informed questions about a foreign corporate tax system and discuss that system at a high level with foreign tax professionals. Topics include: corporate entities and hybrids, groups, interface with accounting, service companies, debt vs. equity, dividend relief, cross-border issues, incorporation, takeovers, trading in loss companies, share buy-backs, liquidation, bonus issues, convertible notes, mergers and demergers. This unit considers and contrasts (to the extent relevant) the US tax reforms implemented at the start of 2018.

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 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 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.

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.

The unit will be taught by Justice Ashley Black (Supreme Court of New South Wales), Mr Imtiaz Ahmed (Barrister) and Mr Alexander Morris (King and Wood Mallesons). The unit will involve both a conceptual analysis of fiduciary duties and associated remedies and a focus on the treatment of conflicts of interest in key areas of commercial activity and professional practice including partnerships and joint ventures, directors' duties, legal and auditing practice and the financial services industry. Main topics include: The scope of fiduciary duties in Australian and UK law; Fiduciary duties and conflicts of interest in partnerships, joint ventures and other commercial relationships; Conflicts of interest affecting lawyers and auditors; Management of conflicts of interest in the financial services industry; and Remedies for breach of fiduciary duty.

This unit critically explores the complex cultural, social and popular intersections between media and crime in the broadest sense. Topics covered include news reporting of crime; media constructions of offenders and offences; moral panic and labeling; media and policing; 'reality' crime shows; surveillance and social control, crime, television and film, crime and social media.

Environmental degradation is often caused by various forms of market failure. At the same time, it is recognised that market-based instruments (MBIs) can function as legitimate and effective legal tools for environmental protection. MBIs are instruments or regulations that encourage behaviour through market signals, rather than through direct regulation alone, and are applied broadly at both the international and national level to improve environmental quality and resource conservation. Markets are not, however, a panacea for the environmental issues we face, and MBIs can undermine environmental objectives if those instruments are not well designed and implemented. This unit will study the role of markets and financial incentives in addressing environmental and natural resource issues, and analyse the conceptual foundation for their use. It will then survey a range of MBIs, including marketable permits, offset programs and load-based licensing, across a diverse range of environmental issue areas, including climate change, renewable energy, fisheries, water and biodiversity. The Unit will examine the key contributions MBIs can make to environmental regulation, as well as the relevant 'watchpoints' as these instruments develop in terms of environmental protection. Students will also examine how 'impact investors' are harnessing private capital in order to drive market-based solutions to environmental problems.

Advances in technology pose new challenges for international governance. In an increasingly inter-connected world, new technology raises legal issues relating to its use, distribution and control. This unit will focus on the response of the international community to technological progress across the different specialised regimes in international law. The unit will commence with an overview of the framework of international law and international courts and the challenges relating to the regulation of new technology. This unit will then consider the intersection of technology and key specialised regimes in international law, focusing on Trade, Environment, Law of the Sea, Health, Crime, Use of Armed Force and Intellectual Property Rights. The unit will be taught using case studies, allowing students to discuss and analyse specific examples of new technology and international regulation.

In this unit we examine laws that regulate work-family balance, looking at employer duties to provide 'family-friendly' working conditions and employee rights to have caring responsibilities accommodated in the workplace. We look at gender norms about work and care and how law reflects, reinforces and sometimes challenges these. The focus is on workplace laws - Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), anti-discrimination legislation (in respect of discrimination on the basis of sex and caring responsibilities), and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth). We will, however, also touch on a range of other laws that regulate work and care, including laws governing paid parental leave, social security, and tax laws (including child care subsidies and family assistance). Comparisons will be made with alternative legal regimes for work and care in other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Sweden.

The financial crisis of 2007-9 revealed serious failings in the regulation of financial institutions and markets. This prompted a fundamental reconsideration of the design of financial regulation, which governs a financial system that has become ever-more complex and interconnected, and which evolves at an ever-accelerating pace. This course presents a holistic overview of the key principles underpinning financial regulation. It draws on economic theory to explain the way in which the financial system functions, and then to analyse the goals of financial regulation. This analytic framework is then applied to a series of substantive topics in financial regulation, spanning the traditionally-separate fields of banking, markets, and consumer finance. The unit also considers the operation of the new tools of 'macro-prudential policy' and the international coordination of financial regulation in the global financial system. While the substantive topics are considered in terms of EU and US rules, the analytic tools developed are of more general application. Topics covered in this unit: The financial system; Goals and challenges of financial regulation; Consumer finance; Market regulation; Bank capital and liquidity regulation; Bank governance and resolution; Shadow banking and Macro-prudential and international coordination. Students who complete this unit successfully will have an overview of the economic principles underpinning financial regulation, to be able to understand and critically evaluate the principal substantive aspects of financial regulation in the US and EU, as well as their international coordination.
The lecturer is one of our 2018 international visiting faculty, Luca Enriques, who is the Allen and Overy Professor of Corporate Law, University of Oxford Faculty of Law.

This unit critically examines the development of the modern criminal law and process (broadly, since end eighteenth century). In terms of process, topics to be considered may include the development of the adversarial trial system, the decline of capital punishment, the formalization of rules of evidence and proof, the growth of the summary jurisdiction, and the appearance of 'hybrid' civil/criminal procedural forms. In terms of criminal law, topics may include non-fatal offences against the person, sexual offences, possession and 'endangerment' offences. The discussion of these topics is set in the context of legal scholarly discourse (criminal law theory) and the unit provides opportunity for reflection on the contemporary challenges of coordination and legitimation facing the criminal law. This unit adopts an explicitly critical socio-historical approach to the study of law. Discussion of relevant legal theoretical scholarship forms a core part of the subject matter of the unit.

The unit will begin with an evaluation of the business rationale for Mergers and Acquisitions (MA) and a discussion of the various types of transactions and related terminology. After a brief discussion of the evolution of the regulation of MA in the Western context, it will delve into various forms of MA in leading Asian jurisdictions, and the manner in which they are regulated. The unit will involve a strong comparative element that compares MA in Asia with that in other jurisdictions, as well as specific factors among various Asian jurisdictions. While it will engage an analysis of the legal systems in several Asian jurisdictions, greater emphasis will be placed on policy as well as practice. Transaction structures analyzed include business and asset sales and amalgamations, with a significant focus on the regulation of takeovers. While corporate and securities law issues form the thrust, incidental reference will be made to accounting, tax and competition law considerations. Finally, the transactional perspective will consider various structuring matters, planning aspects, transaction costs and impact on various stakeholders.
The is one of our 2018 international visiting faculty, Umakanth Varottil, who is Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore.

This unit has three aims. The first is to provide a sound analysis of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures and environmental planning laws in NSW and at the Commonwealth level. The second aim is to develop a critical understanding of EIA and environmental planning laws by examining their historical, ethical and political dimensions as well as relevant aspects of legal theory. The third and ultimate aim is to combine these doctrinal and theoretical forms of knowledge so we can suggest possible improvements to current laws and legal practices.

The unit grapples with the issues of global energy and water security at a time of climate change and considers how different jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union and Australia have developed very different law and policy responses to the issues. It investigates the inevitable links between energy and water security such as where governments choose to rely on hydroelectric power to generate renewable energy at a time of water scarcity, or where the extraction of energy resources might impact on water and food security. Australia is used as a case study to critically analyse how National Competition Principles and deregulatory tendencies may persuade governments to establish national markets to try to best allocate scarce resources. Australia's National Electricity Market and national water trading markets, as well as the corporatisation and privatisation of energy and water utilities, provide fascinating examples of this.

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 structural features 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 intended for participants who have not undertaken a recent and thorough undergraduate unit (or postgraduate equivalent) in Australian income tax. Participants are primarily 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.

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 unit 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 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.

Hate crime has emerged as a global problem in the last few decades. Yet the concept itself is controversial. This unit aims to trace the development of the socio-legal concept of hate crime, causal explanations for hate crime and the different ways in which it is regulated. The unit will examine some the major forms of hate crime, including racist, ethno-religious and homophobic violence, with a focus on contemporary debates, such as: is violence against women a form of hate crime; should paedophiles be a protected category; should hate crimes attract higher punishment than other crimes? The unit will critically assess the international geography of hate crime law, making comparisons between Australia, the UK and the US. The unit will seek to provoke debate about how we should define and combat the problem of hate crime.

This unit provides an introduction to Japanese law in global context, focusing on its interaction with civil justice, criminal justice, business, politics, consumers, gender, the legal professions and pop culture. It is taught intensively at Ritsumeikan University campuses in Kyoto and Tokyo (http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/japanese-law/kyoto-seminar/). Students are encouraged to take all classes taught in Kyoto (24 hours), but can also substitute up to 12 hours of classes taught in Tokyo (with more of a business law focus) subject to pre-approval by the Coordinator. Lecturers include academics from Ritsumeikan and other leading Japanese universities, as well as from Australia (especially from The University of Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and Western Australia), 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).

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.

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 of 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.

This Unit will provide a comparative and critical investigation of the conceptualisation and operation of criminal law and criminal justice both within Australia and internationally. It will compare and examine how and why different jurisdictions criminalise and punish certain behaviours. For instance, it will explore the categorisation and response to various forms of homicides, including unlawful assault causing death. These comparative investigations will enhance the ability to view law and criminal justice from wider, comparative, theoretical and sociological perspectives and inform criminal law reform in a global context.

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.

The aim of this unit is to provide students with a broad overview, on a comparative basis, of the key legal issues commonly faced when investing and doing business in Asia. This unit looks at the regulation of investment across chosen jurisdictions across Asia, including Japan, China and Southeast Asia (particularly Indonesia, but it may also look at jurisdictions such as Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and India) and compares them with each other and with the Australian regulatory system. It also looks at international treaties which increasingly impact on foreign trade and investment regulation in the region; aspects of corporate governance, contract and/or competition law; corporate social responsibility and anti-corruption law; dispute resolution (especially international commercial and investor-state arbitration); and key issues in modern comparative law which may assist students in their study of 'foreign' legal systems. The unit also involves case studies and occasional guest lecturers.

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 analyses the Personal Property Securities legislation, drawing attention to how it has changed the pre-existing law regulating the rights of secured creditors. The unit focuses on the concepts of security, attachment and perfection. It examines the nature of security interests regulated by the legislation, together with the registration, priority and enforcement regimes. In discussing the Australian position, the unit compares similar legislation in Canada and New Zealand.

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 is for law graduates 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 relating to overseas securities and corporate laws in cross-border transactions (focusing to a significant extent on US laws and practices). It concentrates on resolving the challenges non-Australian issues can pose to transactions even if Australian law applies to many aspects of the deal. 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 detailed discussion of the process of offering securities in the US and how it can affect non-US offerings in practice, and finally will conclude with an exploration of the regulation of takeovers under US law. Significant US M and A concepts and practices, including mergers, break-up fees, poison pills, and proxy fights will be discussed. The remainder of the unit will focus on deal regulation of selected other overseas jurisdictions in which there have been recent activity. We will also examine practical consequences of the regulatory requirements of these jurisdictions, particularly in so far as they relate to M and A, as well as certain subjects that have worldwide applicability. The unit will be taught by a series of seminars, and may include an occasional guest lecture/panel discussion. The purpose of the unit is to assist Australian and other non-US lawyers in: identifying potential cross-border issues; and being creative in solving the challenges that arise in international securities transactions.
The lecturer is the Dealpolitik Columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a former M and A partner at leading US law firm, Skadden, Arps, Meagher, and Flom LLP.

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. First two days will be focused on the instructor's lectures while two remaining days on students' presentations.

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 advanced unit covers the tax policy and detailed rules for companies and shareholders designed to ensure that corporate profits are not subject to double taxation 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; imputation; debt equity classification; special anti-avoidance rules dealing with taxation of companies and shareholders; bonus issues, rights issues, share buybacks and liquidations.

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.

In this unit, students will examine the ways in which criminal liability is established, analysing the ingredients of particular personal violence offences (assault, sexual assault, the homicides) and related defences (provocation and self-defence, 'insanity' and substantial impairment, automatism, infanticide, intoxication, necessity and duress) from historical, theoretical and practical context perspectives. In the process, students will gain an appreciation of how gender impacts the ways that the criminal law and justice system contend with accused persons and their victims. The Law's claims to equality and neutrality will be scrutinised, as will perceptions of discrimination based on gender.

This unit focuses on litigation as a tool for resolving environmental disputes. The unit examines different types of environmental litigation and issues that can arise in litigation processes. Candidates will develop an understanding of the characteristics of environmental litigation, the advantages and limitations of different types of proceedings, and the range of outcomes that are possible for environmental litigation. The topics include litigation strategies, procedure and evidence, defensive actions (ie SLAPP litigation), and the outcomes of litigation. Reference will be made to recent cases, such as in the field of climate change, to illustrate the topics.

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 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.

This unit examines government regulation of health care 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; human tissue legislation; discipline of health professionals with a focus on the National Law; 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.

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.

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.

This unit of study is on work health and safety law and practice. Its main focus is on the role of law in preventing disease, injury and death at work, principally by focusing on the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), the relevant case law, and the enforcement of the Act. The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 will be placed in its broader context, including the extent of injury and disease at work, the principles of work health and safety management, changing work arrangements, the history of work health and safety regulation and broader principles of regulatory theory. Regulatory provisions governing health and safety in the mining, transport and clothing, textile and footwear industries will also briefly be examined.

Efficient capital markets are essential for a modern western economy. But investment in those markets carries risk, with many historical examples of financial catastrophes for reasons ranging from fraud and deception, to the irrational exuberance of investors. Our community looks to laws and regulation for the protection of investors. This unit is about the system of investor protection. We study the legal and regulatory requirements for capital raising, particularly by issuing securities or units in a trust or other managed investment scheme. In Australia, investor protection is still based on the disclosure philosophy, the idea that the primary purpose of regulation is to make sure investors have the information to make their own decisions. However, we consider recent regulatory changes that have tended to break down that approach to regulation. Questions of liability for defective disclosure, and the due diligence defence, will be examined.
A special feature of this unit is the extensive experience in corporate fundraising that our team of lecturers will bring to the classroom, overseen by Dr Austin, a barrister and retired judge who is Challis Lecturer in Corporate Law.

Thousands of tax disputes arise each year in Australia. This unit aims to equip students with the skills to assist in resolving those disputes, both disputes which go before a court or tribunal and those which are resolved earlier. The unit covers information gathering processes open to the Commissioner of Taxation and taxpayers, the assessment and objection process, review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, tax 'appeals' directly to the Federal Court, appeals to the Federal Court, Full Court and High Court, state tax litigation in the NSW Supreme Court and NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, other non Part IVC proceedings (such as administrative and Constitutional challenges, tax debt recovery, promoter penalties, garnishee notices, hardship release and preference proceedings) and alternative dispute resolution. The general topics of legal professional privilege, the rules of evidence, preparing expert evidence and the difference between questions of law and questions of fact or mixed questions are explored as they relate to tax litigation. A guest lecture is usually given by a Federal Court Judge, an Administrative Appeals Tribunal member or both, and there is a skills lecture on written advocacy in tax disputes.

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.

This advanced unit examines the policy and practical issues that arise in Australia for the taxation of income derived through partnerships and trusts which are generally transparent for tax purposes, with a twofold focus: first for private business and investment; secondly for collective investment. The unit covers: problems and policies for taxing entities (partnerships and trusts contrasted with companies); classification of entities for tax purposes; taxation of partners and trust beneficiaries in a private business/high wealth context; taxation of collective investment vehicles mainly in the form of trusts and partnerships, including Attribution Managed Investment Trusts, Corporate Collective Investment Vehicles, Managed Investment Trusts, listed investment companies, public trading trusts, limited partnerships, venture capital, foreign hybrids, and investment manager regime.

How will Donald Trump's presidency affect international law and international relations? How do non-state actors like Islamic State challenge the existing international order? How do we respond to international health emergencies, such as the outbreaks of the Zika and Ebola viruses? These questions all raise issues of global governance, that is, how international affairs are governed on a global scale. They also raise questions about the roles and capacities of individual states within the global order. This unit explores how current systems of global governance operate, the place of states within those systems, and the significance of law to those systems. In doing so, the unit introduces students to a range of historical and contemporary approaches to understanding the role of law in international affairs, and gives students an opportunity to consider these in relation to current events of global import. The sorts of questions with which the unit is concerned may include the following: Are systems of global governance lawful? Are they democratic? What is the role of violence in the contemporary global order? How does/should international law seek to address pressing transnational issues, such as poverty, environmental degradation, global health threats and human rights abuses?

The unit will explore the workplace bargaining model under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) within the context of models of collective bargaining used in overseas jurisdictions and Australia's international obligations.
The unit will look at the history of collective bargaining in Australia before examining the legislative framework of agreement making, including the legal rules applicable to making and approving enterprise agreements.
The unit will examine the rules that pertain to the process of negotiating an agreement, including the circumstances when an employer can be required to engage in collective bargaining and the good faith requirements that apply during bargaining.
The unit will also consider the rules that regulate industrial conflict including protected industrial action, unprotected industrial action and dispute resolution, before considering the difficulties of engaging in collective negotiations outside of the formal legislative framework.

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.

The unit provides an introduction to the mainly statutory law regulating bankrupt individuals and insolvent companies to be found in the Bankruptcy Act 1966 and Corporations Act 2001. It explores the objectives and key principles of insolvency law, the pari passu principle, the various forms of insolvent administration including informal workouts, bankruptcy, liquidation, receivership, voluntary administration, schemes of arrangement and associated procedures together with the avoidance of transactions in insolvency. The unit also considers the impact of insolvency on existing contractual and proprietary rights from the perspective of employees, unsecured creditors, shareholders, trustees of trusts and third parties generally. The unit also considers cross border insolvency and the Cross Border Insolvency Act 2008. The impact of the PPSA on insolvency is also analysed. The unit involves a significant component of statutory interpretation.

Biological diversity is the variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes of which they are part, including diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Aside from whatever intrinsic value it may possess, biodiversity is crucial to support human life and welfare. Australia is fortunate to have some of the world's most complex and unique biodiversity unfortunately, also to have one of the highest rates of extinction and loss of biodiversity. Despite a sophisticated system of environmental governance and a relatively high degree of environmental awareness, biodiversity continues to decline rapidly in Australia.
This unit considers the international legal regime related to the protection of biodiversity; how international instruments are incorporated into (or otherwise affect) Australia's regime; and the operation of Australia's regime at both national and state levels (particularly in NSW) - and consideration of various threats to biodiversity, different protection options, and how biodiversity-related considerations affect and are affected by other Environmental Law fields.
National heritage is one of nine matters of national environmental significance protected under Australia¿s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This unit covers conservation of natural and cultural heritage, including intangible, underwater, movable and Australian Aboriginal heritage. International, national, state and local regimes for heritage conservation are examined and considered in the context of broader biodiversity-related environmental decision making.

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 tax treaties; interpretation of tax treaties; and selected articles of the OECD Model and Australian tax treaties.

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 responses to crime and crime prevention with reference to shifting notions of crime and responsibility for crime. It encourages a critical appreciation of the limitations of criminal justice system responses to crime and the necessity to develop a broader approach to crime prevention policy which responds to economic, social and cultural issues. The unit examines different ways of thinking about criminal justice, such as a means of order maintenance, dispute resolution, or risk management, and the shifting focus towards the prevention of future harms. Specific topics may include: restorative justice specialist courts, privatisation and contractualism, security, policing, and approaches to crime prevention and community safety.

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 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 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 advanced unit examines the policy and practical issues that arise in the tax consolidation regime in Australia. The unit covers: policy and history of grouping and consolidation; entry into consolidation; effects of consolidation; exit from consolidation; losses, imputation and tax payments in consolidation; international rules in consolidation including MEC groups; restructures of consolidated groups and application of anti-avoidance rules to consolidate groups.

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.

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.
The lecturer is Adjunct Professor Kevin Lewis, who is Chief Compliance Officer of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Lawyers and HR/IR practitioners are increasingly required to deal with complaints of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination, and address suspected misconduct such as Code of Conduct breaches, fraud/theft, and safety and other breaches. In order to take, and if necessary defend, disciplinary and other action, a proper factual and legal foundation must be established, through a workplace investigation. We also specifically consider how concepts of 'procedural fairness' and 'natural justice' impact a workplace investigation. The unit explores the various stages of a workplace investigation, including: (1) establishing the scope of the investigation and particularizing the alleged complaint or misconduct; (2) conducting interviews and gathering other information; (3) managing participants, including stand down/suspension; (4) evaluating information and making findings applying the relevant standard of proof and legal test(s); and (5) implementing investigation findings.

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.

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.

Climate change impacts are already being felt around the world and governments are called upon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, engage in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and respond to the loss and damage caused by climate disasters. Climate disasters demand an integration of multilateral negotiations on emissions reduction and adaptation, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, Human Rights and human security. Via detailed examination of recent law and policy initiatives from developed and developing countries, this unit offers students a unique approach to human and non-human Climate Justice and its application to all stages of a disaster: prevention; response, recovery and rebuilding; and compensation and risk transfer. The role of insurance plays an important part in compensation and risk transfer. The unit of study comprehensively analyses the complexities of climate science, economics and their interfaces with the climate law-and policy-making processes, and also provides an in-depth analysis of multilateral climate change negotiations dating from the establishment of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The unit will be taught by Justice Ashley Black (Supreme Court of New South Wales), Mr Imtiaz Ahmed (Barrister) and Mr Alexander Morris (King and Wood Mallesons). The unit will involve both a conceptual analysis of fiduciary duties and associated remedies and a focus on the treatment of conflicts of interest in key areas of commercial activity and professional practice including partnerships and joint ventures, directors' duties, legal and auditing practice and the financial services industry. Main topics include: The scope of fiduciary duties in Australian and UK law; Fiduciary duties and conflicts of interest in partnerships, joint ventures and other commercial relationships; Conflicts of interest affecting lawyers and auditors; Management of conflicts of interest in the financial services industry; and Remedies for breach of fiduciary duty.

This unit critically explores the complex cultural, social and popular intersections between media and crime in the broadest sense. Topics covered include news reporting of crime; media constructions of offenders and offences; moral panic and labeling; media and policing; 'reality' crime shows; surveillance and social control, crime, television and film, crime and social media.

This unit builds on the foundational unit LAWS6991 Fundamentals of Contract Law. It provides students with a detailed treatment of aspects of contract construction; the nature and effect of particular types of contractual terms; equitable and common law remedies; statutory measures having an impact on contracts and contract law (eg statutory unconscionability; misleading or deceptive conduct). Content and learning in this unit is scaffolded onto that of LAWS6991 Fundamentals of Contract Law which is a pre-requisite for this unit.

This unit examines regulatory theory and practice within the context of the regulatory state. Growing privatization and corporatization has heightened demand for public regulation of private activities, but also for regulation of the state itself. At the same time, consumers, governments, and civil society place pressure on the private sector to address the social and environmental consequences of its actions through various forms of self-regulation. These trends have produced increasingly complex regulatory systems, and regulation is now a dominant aspect of the legal landscape, at both national and international levels. This unit acts as an introduction to key theories, concepts, and debates within the field of regulatory studies, as well as to the main tools and instruments of regulation. Focusing on social regulation, it uses practical examples to analyze the implementation and enforcement of regulatory regimes in various areas, including public health, workplace health and safety, and environmental protection. It explores corporate responses to regulation, as well as the roles, practices, and accountability of regulatory agencies, and of other actors involved in the administration, monitoring, and enforcement of regulation. The unit will be of interest to lawyers and other professionals engaged in regulatory compliance and enforcement, as well as to students with an interest in regulatory theory and practice more broadly. This unit will provide a gateway for further study in more specialized areas of regulation.

This unit will exam they key aspects of the application of taxes to real property transactions. The unit will commence with an introduction to the tax policy considerations relevant to the taxation of real property. The application of taxes to real property transactions will then be considered. In addition to focussing on the acquisition, development, sale, and leasing of real property, the unit will consider tax issues for the development of commercial, residential, hotel/serviced apartment complexes, and retirement villages. Practical case studies will be used to draw out the impact of income tax, GST, stamp duty (primarily NSW), and land tax on real property transactions.

Environmental degradation is often caused by various forms of market failure. At the same time, it is recognised that market-based instruments (MBIs) can function as legitimate and effective legal tools for environmental protection. MBIs are instruments or regulations that encourage behaviour through market signals, rather than through direct regulation alone, and are applied broadly at both the international and national level to improve environmental quality and resource conservation. Markets are not, however, a panacea for the environmental issues we face, and MBIs can undermine environmental objectives if those instruments are not well designed and implemented. This unit will study the role of markets and financial incentives in addressing environmental and natural resource issues, and analyse the conceptual foundation for their use. It will then survey a range of MBIs, including marketable permits, offset programs and load-based licensing, across a diverse range of environmental issue areas, including climate change, renewable energy, fisheries, water and biodiversity. The Unit will examine the key contributions MBIs can make to environmental regulation, as well as the relevant 'watchpoints' as these instruments develop in terms of environmental protection. Students will also examine how 'impact investors' are harnessing private capital in order to drive market-based solutions to environmental problems.

Advances in technology pose new challenges for international governance. In an increasingly inter-connected world, new technology raises legal issues relating to its use, distribution and control. This unit will focus on the response of the international community to technological progress across the different specialised regimes in international law. The unit will commence with an overview of the framework of international law and international courts and the challenges relating to the regulation of new technology. This unit will then consider the intersection of technology and key specialised regimes in international law, focusing on Trade, Environment, Law of the Sea, Health, Crime, Use of Armed Force and Intellectual Property Rights. The unit will be taught using case studies, allowing students to discuss and analyse specific examples of new technology and international regulation.

In this unit we examine laws that regulate work-family balance, looking at employer duties to provide 'family-friendly' working conditions and employee rights to have caring responsibilities accommodated in the workplace. We look at gender norms about work and care and how law reflects, reinforces and sometimes challenges these. The focus is on workplace laws - Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), anti-discrimination legislation (in respect of discrimination on the basis of sex and caring responsibilities), and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth). We will, however, also touch on a range of other laws that regulate work and care, including laws governing paid parental leave, social security, and tax laws (including child care subsidies and family assistance). Comparisons will be made with alternative legal regimes for work and care in other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Sweden.

The financial crisis of 2007-9 revealed serious failings in the regulation of financial institutions and markets. This prompted a fundamental reconsideration of the design of financial regulation, which governs a financial system that has become ever-more complex and interconnected, and which evolves at an ever-accelerating pace. This course presents a holistic overview of the key principles underpinning financial regulation. It draws on economic theory to explain the way in which the financial system functions, and then to analyse the goals of financial regulation. This analytic framework is then applied to a series of substantive topics in financial regulation, spanning the traditionally-separate fields of banking, markets, and consumer finance. The unit also considers the operation of the new tools of 'macro-prudential policy' and the international coordination of financial regulation in the global financial system. While the substantive topics are considered in terms of EU and US rules, the analytic tools developed are of more general application. Topics covered in this unit: The financial system; Goals and challenges of financial regulation; Consumer finance; Market regulation; Bank capital and liquidity regulation; Bank governance and resolution; Shadow banking and Macro-prudential and international coordination. Students who complete this unit successfully will have an overview of the economic principles underpinning financial regulation, to be able to understand and critically evaluate the principal substantive aspects of financial regulation in the US and EU, as well as their international coordination.
The lecturer is one of our 2018 international visiting faculty, Luca Enriques, who is the Allen and Overy Professor of Corporate Law, University of Oxford Faculty of Law.

This unit critically examines the development of the modern criminal law and process (broadly, since end eighteenth century). In terms of process, topics to be considered may include the development of the adversarial trial system, the decline of capital punishment, the formalization of rules of evidence and proof, the growth of the summary jurisdiction, and the appearance of 'hybrid' civil/criminal procedural forms. In terms of criminal law, topics may include non-fatal offences against the person, sexual offences, possession and 'endangerment' offences. The discussion of these topics is set in the context of legal scholarly discourse (criminal law theory) and the unit provides opportunity for reflection on the contemporary challenges of coordination and legitimation facing the criminal law. This unit adopts an explicitly critical socio-historical approach to the study of law. Discussion of relevant legal theoretical scholarship forms a core part of the subject matter of the unit.

The unit will begin with an evaluation of the business rationale for Mergers and Acquisitions (MA) and a discussion of the various types of transactions and related terminology. After a brief discussion of the evolution of the regulation of MA in the Western context, it will delve into various forms of MA in leading Asian jurisdictions, and the manner in which they are regulated. The unit will involve a strong comparative element that compares MA in Asia with that in other jurisdictions, as well as specific factors among various Asian jurisdictions. While it will engage an analysis of the legal systems in several Asian jurisdictions, greater emphasis will be placed on policy as well as practice. Transaction structures analyzed include business and asset sales and amalgamations, with a significant focus on the regulation of takeovers. While corporate and securities law issues form the thrust, incidental reference will be made to accounting, tax and competition law considerations. Finally, the transactional perspective will consider various structuring matters, planning aspects, transaction costs and impact on various stakeholders.
The is one of our 2018 international visiting faculty, Umakanth Varottil, who is Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore.

This unit has three aims. The first is to provide a sound analysis of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures and environmental planning laws in NSW and at the Commonwealth level. The second aim is to develop a critical understanding of EIA and environmental planning laws by examining their historical, ethical and political dimensions as well as relevant aspects of legal theory. The third and ultimate aim is to combine these doctrinal and theoretical forms of knowledge so we can suggest possible improvements to current laws and legal practices.

The unit grapples with the issues of global energy and water security at a time of climate change and considers how different jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union and Australia have developed very different law and policy responses to the issues. It investigates the inevitable links between energy and water security such as where governments choose to rely on hydroelectric power to generate renewable energy at a time of water scarcity, or where the extraction of energy resources might impact on water and food security. Australia is used as a case study to critically analyse how National Competition Principles and deregulatory tendencies may persuade governments to establish national markets to try to best allocate scarce resources. Australia's National Electricity Market and national water trading markets, as well as the corporatisation and privatisation of energy and water utilities, provide fascinating examples of this.

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 unit and LAWS6319 Fundamentals of the Board and Directors' Duties) are generally 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. The unit focuses on the fundamental principles of law applying to public and proprietary companies. It starts with a brief history of the development of the corporate form and the evolution of Australian corporate law, before examining a range of core topics, such as the nature of corporate personality, the incorporation process, corporate constitution and governance rules, and shareholder rights and remedies. The unit will also include a brief introduction to directors duties, however, students who lack previous exposure to corporate law and wish to examine this topic in greater detail are advised also to enrol in the unit, LAWS6319 Fundamentals of the Board and Directors' Duties. It is recommended that students wishing to undertake further study in the area of shareholder rights enrol in LAWS6957 Shareholders Remedies.

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 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 structural features 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 intended for participants who have not undertaken a recent and thorough undergraduate unit (or postgraduate equivalent) in Australian income tax. Participants are primarily 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.

The unit will seek to analyse the central concepts of some of the main areas of civil law, including tort, contract and property from the perspective of a number of contemporary moral theories. The unit will examine the work of moral philosophers in the fields of distributive and corrective justice such as John Rawls, Jules Coleman and Ernest Weinrib. The unit will also consider theories associated with the economic analysis movement in legal philosophy, especially the theories of Richard Posner. The unit will apply moral theories on the one hand, and rational action theories such as the economic analysis view of law on the other, to better understand legal doctrine. In addition to property, contract and civil wrongs, the unit will look at constitutional structures and international law. While considering a wide variety of legal doctrines, the focus of the unit will always be on the way these doctrines are better understood from the perspective of theories of justice or versions of rational action theory.

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.

This unit provides an introduction to public health law. It begins by asking the question 'What is public health law?' It explores the historical concerns and conceptual focus of public health law, and how they have evolved over time. Next, the unit reviews a series of case studies that illustrate the sources of public health law, including the impact of international law on access to essential medicines in low-income countries, and the impact of constitutional rights on governments' capacity to protect public health. The case studies illustrate the wide variety of legal issues that arise in public health, as well as debates about the appropriate limits for law in protecting health in a liberal democracy, and the irreducibly political nature of public health law. The unit then considers three foundational topics in public health law. These are: Australia's legal framework for responding to public health emergencies (with a focus on pandemic influenza, and other contagious diseases with pandemic potential); law's role in regulating sexual health and transmission of STIs; and tobacco and nicotine control. 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 critically evaluate the impact of law on efforts to protect the public's health, with due regard to civil liberties and other competing public and private interests. A flexible assessment regime will allow students to focus on issues of interest within the unit.

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.

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.

Hate crime has emerged as a global problem in the last few decades. Yet the concept itself is controversial. This unit aims to trace the development of the socio-legal concept of hate crime, causal explanations for hate crime and the different ways in which it is regulated. The unit will examine some the major forms of hate crime, including racist, ethno-religious and homophobic violence, with a focus on contemporary debates, such as: is violence against women a form of hate crime; should paedophiles be a protected category; should hate crimes attract higher punishment than other crimes? The unit will critically assess the international geography of hate crime law, making comparisons between Australia, the UK and the US. The unit will seek to provoke debate about how we should define and combat the problem of hate crime.

This introductory unit is designed for students who have not previously undertaken any formal study of Intellectual Property. The unit will cover the fundamentals of law and theory in the main areas of contemporary intellectual Property: copyright, patents and trademarks.

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.

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.

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 of 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.

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.
The lecturer is a barrister at New Chambers, Sydney. He is a former Rhodes Scholar and holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University.

This advanced unit considers specialised topics in the area of tax treaties, largely reflecting the work of the OECD and United Nations on tax treaties currently and in the last decade, particularly the OECD/G20 project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). Topics covered include OECD and UN policy development processes, high value services and the digital economy, transfer pricing, harmful tax practices, treaty abuse, non-discrimination, entities and tax treaties (especially partnerships and collective investment vehicles), transparency and assistance in collection, dispute resolution, and the BEPS multilateral instrument. Upon completion of this unit, students will have a detailed understanding of the current driving forces and issues in the development of tax treaties and other international tax standards.

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.

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 analyses the Personal Property Securities legislation, drawing attention to how it has changed the pre-existing law regulating the rights of secured creditors. The unit focuses on the concepts of security, attachment and perfection. It examines the nature of security interests regulated by the legislation, together with the registration, priority and enforcement regimes. In discussing the Australian position, the unit compares similar legislation in Canada and New Zealand.

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.

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.

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 introductory unit provides an overview of commercial law, focusing on the broad but fundamental concept of commercial dealings. Areas for analysis include sources and function of commercial law; the legal basis of dealings in contract and property law; dealings by principals and agents; dealings in tangible goods through leasing and sale; dealings in intangibles such as receivables through assignment; sources and methods of financing dealings; protecting dealings through insurance; regulating dealings through statute and common law restraints; and discharging dealings through a range of common payment methods and instruments.

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 a comparative study of international import/export laws. It does not look in detail at Australian law. The material covered in the unit is based on the WTO multilateral agreements which the 159 WTO member countries have adopted and which bind them on the topics covered.
The unit commences with an introduction to the relevant WTO agreements underpinning international import and export laws affecting WTO members. It then provides an introduction to international import dispute mechanisms through the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding. The Kyoto Convention is then examined to determine the key elements of a modern customs statute.
The unit also examines: Free Trade Agreements; anti-dumping duty; discriminatory taxes/laws on imports; markings and intellectual property rights on imported goods; importers' remedies against customs decisions; customs valuation and tariffs; and, customs "post entry" audits.

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.

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. It begins with an examination of the concept of free trade, the international structures and organizations that have been created to foster the liberalization of international trade, and the scope of the law relating to international business transactions. The unit highlights the importance of ethics in international business and introduces students to the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 (US) and the Bribery Act 2010 (UK). It then focuses on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale Goods (CISG), followed by a consideration of International Commercial Terms (Incoterms 2000 and Incoterms 2010) and carriage of goods, especially carriage of goods by sea. The course then deals with the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP600), financing of exports 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, the World Trade Organization (WTO), including anti-dumping and countervailing duties law and international dispute settlement, especially international commercial arbitration.

This unit introduces students to the preferred method of resolving international commercial disputes. It aims primarily to: (a) outline key principles in the law of international commercial arbitration, and (b) 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 international commercial arbitration. In doing so the unit also briefly compares the burgeoning field of treaty-based investor-state arbitration (examined in more detail in LAWS6916 International Investment Law). This 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.

This unit aims to provide an introduction to the framework, concepts, sources and techniques of international environmental law, and to provide an overview of international law responses to current and emerging environmental challenges. The history and framework of international environmental law will be examined before exploring a range of topical international environmental law issues, including atmospheric protection and climate change, hazardous substances and wastes, biodiversity and GMOs, the protection of marine living resources, the protection of freshwater resources and issues concerning trade. The unit will also survey the influence of international environmental law on domestic environmental law through case studies. Overarching themes will include the interdependence of environmental issues, the effects of scientific uncertainty on international environmental regulation, implementation of international environmental obligations between states at difference levels of economic development and the need for effectiveness in implementation and enforcement.

This unit is a comprehensive introduction to the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to the context of economics and politics within which the law operates. It also offers some comparisons with regulation under bilateral and regional trade agreements. It can be taken as either a stand-alone introduction to WTO law or to acquire a solid basis for further study of WTO law. (Students may wish to continue on to take LAWS6249 World Trade Organization Law II which builds upon the knowledge gained in this unit and considers some additional topics of WTO law.) The introductory topic considers the functions of the WTO through the consideration of some basic economics of trade and of public choice. We review the history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the creation of the Agreement Establishing the WTO ending with a review of the institutions of the WTO and of the framework of rules applying under the GATT (and comparing with some bilateral and regional trade agreements). There follows a detailed study of the WTO dispute settlement system, under the WTO Understanding on Dispute Settlement, its concepts, procedures and enforcement. We study the framework of rules under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and compare it with the negative list approach used under some bilateral and regional trade agreements; and the rules of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), emphasizing patents, copyright and trademarks, and noting some TRIPS plus aspects of some bilateral and regional trade agreements. The unit analyses in more detail some of the fundamental rules of the GATT: rules on tariff bindings and customs duties, national treatment, non-tariff barriers, the MFN rule on non-discrimination and an introduction to the rules on subsidies. We conclude with a synopsis of WTO developments to the present day. This unit is assessed in two ways: an essay on the object and function of the WTO system and its dispute settlement system; and an exam requiring students to apply the basic rules of the GATT, GATS and TRIPS to fact situations.

This unit covers the domestic provisions of UK direct tax 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 UK tax system focusing on cross-border investment and expatriate employment issues and a detailed analysis of the most important legislative and treaty rules of the UK in the international direct 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 company and personal taxation applicable to inbound and outbound transactions in the UK. The unit includes a study of: 1. Overview of the UK 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 including the Australia UK Tax Treaty; 6. EU tax law as it affects the UK.

How will Donald Trump's presidency affect international law and international relations? How do non-state actors like Islamic State challenge the existing international order? How do we respond to international health emergencies, such as the outbreaks of the Zika and Ebola viruses? These questions all raise issues of global governance, that is, how international affairs are governed on a global scale. They also raise questions about the roles and capacities of individual states within the global order. This unit explores how current systems of global governance operate, the place of states within those systems, and the significance of law to those systems. In doing so, the unit introduces students to a range of historical and contemporary approaches to understanding the role of law in international affairs, and gives students an opportunity to consider these in relation to current events of global import. The sorts of questions with which the unit is concerned may include the following: Are systems of global governance lawful? Are they democratic? What is the role of violence in the contemporary global order? How does/should international law seek to address pressing transnational issues, such as poverty, environmental degradation, global health threats and human rights abuses?

The unit examines transfer pricing law and practice in Australia and globally. Transfer pricing continues to be rated by tax directors as the number one international tax issue they face. The release of the revised OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations in 2010 and the ongoing projects, the rewrite of the Australian transfer pricing legislation, 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.

International finance is front page news: from litigation against mis-selling banks, to the fall-out of the sovereign debt crises (bail-in), the contentious role of activist hedge funds and the (over)reliance on rating agencies, there is no escape. Banks are perhaps still on the back foot, having to prove their value to the community by mains of delivering sustainable finance. This unit introduces and digs deep into the suite of international financial transactions, with a profoundly practical perspective, whilst also showcasing sustainable and development finance in practice.
Key pillars of the unit include lending, capital markets instruments, derivative markets and project finance. Within each pillar specific financial products are analysed, both from a legal and structuring perspective. We look at lending and negotiate a term sheet. We uncover the drivers and documentation of structured finance products such as securitisation and covered bonds. We will also look at the international regulatory reform of for instance the derivatives market and its impact on documentation. Insight is given into credit derivatives. Investor litigation is also a prominent feature of the unit. The lecturer shares his own transactional experience in development finance, from Asia to Africa and Latin America. Guest lecturers from top tier law firms and major banks explain transactions and risks, giving a broader perspective. Case studies and a negotiation session are also included, making this a both challenging and exciting unit. Bottom line: this unit will enhance your skills for application in legal practice. No prior experience in the financial markets is required. To assist students in getting up to speed, some materials will be shared on-line before classes commence.
The lecturer is Jan Job de Vries Robbé, who is Manager of Legal Affairs and Compliance at the Dutch Development Bank FMO and has extensive experience in international finance.

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.

This unit of study consolidates and builds upon knowledge gained in LAWS6243 International Law I. The relationship between international law and domestic law is explored in depth, both in a comparative perspective and with reference to the impact of international law on Australian law and legal institutions. The unit also addresses specialist topics not covered, or only briefly covered, in LAWS6243 International Law I, which may include a more detailed examination of the limits of state jurisdiction, the role of the individual in international law, international human rights, and the right of states to respond to international wrongs. Other topics of current interest in public international law will also be examined, with students given an appreciation of the role and relevance of international law in major events in contemporary international affairs.

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 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 tax treaties; interpretation of tax treaties; and selected articles of the OECD Model and Australian tax treaties.

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.

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 and transfer pricing. This advanced 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 focuses on the international tax rules in Australia's domestic law. Although the role of double tax treaties is introduced, double tax treaties are 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.

How to limit and regulate violence in times of war or armed conflict is one of the most pressing challenges for international law. This unit introduces you to the principles and practices of international humanitarian law ('IHL'), also known as the laws of war or the law of armed conflict, including treaty law and customary international humanitarian law. This unit explores: the origins, purposes, sources and critiques of IHL; its scope of application (spatial, temporal and personal); the different types and thresholds of conflict (including international, non-international and 'transnational' conflicts); the status and treatment of combatants and non-combatants and other categories (such as spies, 'unlawful combatants' and 'terrorists'); the permissible means and methods of warfare (including the principles of distinction and proportionality, and prohibitions and restrictions on certain weapons such as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons); the difference in rules governing international armed conflicts (IACs) and those governing non-international armed conflicts (NIACs); the relationship between international human rights law and IHL; and the relationship between the international terrorism suppression regime and IHL.

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.

Climate change impacts are already being felt around the world and governments are called upon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, engage in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and respond to the loss and damage caused by climate disasters. Climate disasters demand an integration of multilateral negotiations on emissions reduction and adaptation, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, Human Rights and human security. Via detailed examination of recent law and policy initiatives from developed and developing countries, this unit offers students a unique approach to human and non-human Climate Justice and its application to all stages of a disaster: prevention; response, recovery and rebuilding; and compensation and risk transfer. The role of insurance plays an important part in compensation and risk transfer. The unit of study comprehensively analyses the complexities of climate science, economics and their interfaces with the climate law-and policy-making processes, and also provides an in-depth analysis of multilateral climate change negotiations dating from the establishment of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Environmental degradation is often caused by various forms of market failure. At the same time, it is recognised that market-based instruments (MBIs) can function as legitimate and effective legal tools for environmental protection. MBIs are instruments or regulations that encourage behaviour through market signals, rather than through direct regulation alone, and are applied broadly at both the international and national level to improve environmental quality and resource conservation. Markets are not, however, a panacea for the environmental issues we face, and MBIs can undermine environmental objectives if those instruments are not well designed and implemented. This unit will study the role of markets and financial incentives in addressing environmental and natural resource issues, and analyse the conceptual foundation for their use. It will then survey a range of MBIs, including marketable permits, offset programs and load-based licensing, across a diverse range of environmental issue areas, including climate change, renewable energy, fisheries, water and biodiversity. The Unit will examine the key contributions MBIs can make to environmental regulation, as well as the relevant 'watchpoints' as these instruments develop in terms of environmental protection. Students will also examine how 'impact investors' are harnessing private capital in order to drive market-based solutions to environmental problems.

Advances in technology pose new challenges for international governance. In an increasingly inter-connected world, new technology raises legal issues relating to its use, distribution and control. This unit will focus on the response of the international community to technological progress across the different specialised regimes in international law. The unit will commence with an overview of the framework of international law and international courts and the challenges relating to the regulation of new technology. This unit will then consider the intersection of technology and key specialised regimes in international law, focusing on Trade, Environment, Law of the Sea, Health, Crime, Use of Armed Force and Intellectual Property Rights. The unit will be taught using case studies, allowing students to discuss and analyse specific examples of new technology and international regulation.

In this unit we examine laws that regulate work-family balance, looking at employer duties to provide 'family-friendly' working conditions and employee rights to have caring responsibilities accommodated in the workplace. We look at gender norms about work and care and how law reflects, reinforces and sometimes challenges these. The focus is on workplace laws - Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), anti-discrimination legislation (in respect of discrimination on the basis of sex and caring responsibilities), and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth). We will, however, also touch on a range of other laws that regulate work and care, including laws governing paid parental leave, social security, and tax laws (including child care subsidies and family assistance). Comparisons will be made with alternative legal regimes for work and care in other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Sweden.

The financial crisis of 2007-9 revealed serious failings in the regulation of financial institutions and markets. This prompted a fundamental reconsideration of the design of financial regulation, which governs a financial system that has become ever-more complex and interconnected, and which evolves at an ever-accelerating pace. This course presents a holistic overview of the key principles underpinning financial regulation. It draws on economic theory to explain the way in which the financial system functions, and then to analyse the goals of financial regulation. This analytic framework is then applied to a series of substantive topics in financial regulation, spanning the traditionally-separate fields of banking, markets, and consumer finance. The unit also considers the operation of the new tools of 'macro-prudential policy' and the international coordination of financial regulation in the global financial system. While the substantive topics are considered in terms of EU and US rules, the analytic tools developed are of more general application. Topics covered in this unit: The financial system; Goals and challenges of financial regulation; Consumer finance; Market regulation; Bank capital and liquidity regulation; Bank governance and resolution; Shadow banking and Macro-prudential and international coordination. Students who complete this unit successfully will have an overview of the economic principles underpinning financial regulation, to be able to understand and critically evaluate the principal substantive aspects of financial regulation in the US and EU, as well as their international coordination.
The lecturer is one of our 2018 international visiting faculty, Luca Enriques, who is the Allen and Overy Professor of Corporate Law, University of Oxford Faculty of Law.

This unit critically examines the development of the modern criminal law and process (broadly, since end eighteenth century). In terms of process, topics to be considered may include the development of the adversarial trial system, the decline of capital punishment, the formalization of rules of evidence and proof, the growth of the summary jurisdiction, and the appearance of 'hybrid' civil/criminal procedural forms. In terms of criminal law, topics may include non-fatal offences against the person, sexual offences, possession and 'endangerment' offences. The discussion of these topics is set in the context of legal scholarly discourse (criminal law theory) and the unit provides opportunity for reflection on the contemporary challenges of coordination and legitimation facing the criminal law. This unit adopts an explicitly critical socio-historical approach to the study of law. Discussion of relevant legal theoretical scholarship forms a core part of the subject matter of the unit.

The unit will begin with an evaluation of the business rationale for Mergers and Acquisitions (MA) and a discussion of the various types of transactions and related terminology. After a brief discussion of the evolution of the regulation of MA in the Western context, it will delve into various forms of MA in leading Asian jurisdictions, and the manner in which they are regulated. The unit will involve a strong comparative element that compares MA in Asia with that in other jurisdictions, as well as specific factors among various Asian jurisdictions. While it will engage an analysis of the legal systems in several Asian jurisdictions, greater emphasis will be placed on policy as well as practice. Transaction structures analyzed include business and asset sales and amalgamations, with a significant focus on the regulation of takeovers. While corporate and securities law issues form the thrust, incidental reference will be made to accounting, tax and competition law considerations. Finally, the transactional perspective will consider various structuring matters, planning aspects, transaction costs and impact on various stakeholders.
The is one of our 2018 international visiting faculty, Umakanth Varottil, who is Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore.

This unit has three aims. The first is to provide a sound analysis of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures and environmental planning laws in NSW and at the Commonwealth level. The second aim is to develop a critical understanding of EIA and environmental planning laws by examining their historical, ethical and political dimensions as well as relevant aspects of legal theory. The third and ultimate aim is to combine these doctrinal and theoretical forms of knowledge so we can suggest possible improvements to current laws and legal practices.

The unit grapples with the issues of global energy and water security at a time of climate change and considers how different jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union and Australia have developed very different law and policy responses to the issues. It investigates the inevitable links between energy and water security such as where governments choose to rely on hydroelectric power to generate renewable energy at a time of water scarcity, or where the extraction of energy resources might impact on water and food security. Australia is used as a case study to critically analyse how National Competition Principles and deregulatory tendencies may persuade governments to establish national markets to try to best allocate scarce resources. Australia's National Electricity Market and national water trading markets, as well as the corporatisation and privatisation of energy and water utilities, provide fascinating examples of this.

The unit will seek to analyse the central concepts of some of the main areas of civil law, including tort, contract and property from the perspective of a number of contemporary moral theories. The unit will examine the work of moral philosophers in the fields of distributive and corrective justice such as John Rawls, Jules Coleman and Ernest Weinrib. The unit will also consider theories associated with the economic analysis movement in legal philosophy, especially the theories of Richard Posner. The unit will apply moral theories on the one hand, and rational action theories such as the economic analysis view of law on the other, to better understand legal doctrine. In addition to property, contract and civil wrongs, the unit will look at constitutional structures and international law. While considering a wide variety of legal doctrines, the focus of the unit will always be on the way these doctrines are better understood from the perspective of theories of justice or versions of rational action theory.

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 unit 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 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.

Hate crime has emerged as a global problem in the last few decades. Yet the concept itself is controversial. This unit aims to trace the development of the socio-legal concept of hate crime, causal explanations for hate crime and the different ways in which it is regulated. The unit will examine some the major forms of hate crime, including racist, ethno-religious and homophobic violence, with a focus on contemporary debates, such as: is violence against women a form of hate crime; should paedophiles be a protected category; should hate crimes attract higher punishment than other crimes? The unit will critically assess the international geography of hate crime law, making comparisons between Australia, the UK and the US. The unit will seek to provoke debate about how we should define and combat the problem of hate crime.

This unit provides an introduction to Japanese law in global context, focusing on its interaction with civil justice, criminal justice, business, politics, consumers, gender, the legal professions and pop culture. It is taught intensively at Ritsumeikan University campuses in Kyoto and Tokyo (http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/japanese-law/kyoto-seminar/). Students are encouraged to take all classes taught in Kyoto (24 hours), but can also substitute up to 12 hours of classes taught in Tokyo (with more of a business law focus) subject to pre-approval by the Coordinator. Lecturers include academics from Ritsumeikan and other leading Japanese universities, as well as from Australia (especially from The University of Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and Western Australia), 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 will provide a comparative and critical investigation of the conceptualisation and operation of criminal law and criminal justice both within Australia and internationally. It will compare and examine how and why different jurisdictions criminalise and punish certain behaviours. For instance, it will explore the categorisation and response to various forms of homicides, including unlawful assault causing death. These comparative investigations will enhance the ability to view law and criminal justice from wider, comparative, theoretical and sociological perspectives and inform criminal law reform in a global context.

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 standards of protection contained within investment treaties (such as the fair and equitable treatment standard, and the prohibition on expropriation without compensation), recent arbitral awards, and considers controversial issues surrounding investor-state arbitration. It examines the procedural framework for investment treaty arbitration under the auspices of the International Centre for 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. It also examines recent developments including the negotiation of mega-regional trade and investment agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the negotiations towards the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

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 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 and interactive discussion, culminating in a global health law simulation. The class will cover naturally occurring infectious diseases (e.g. extensively drug resistant tuberculosis, malaria, Zika virus, and HIV/AIDS), past (e.g., SARS, influenza A H1N1 and Ebola) and future (e.g., Influenza pandemics), bioterrorism events (e.g., anthrax or smallpox), and/or major chronic diseases caused by modern lifestyles (e.g., obesity or tobacco use).

The aim of this unit is to provide students with a broad overview, on a comparative basis, of the key legal issues commonly faced when investing and doing business in Asia. This unit looks at the regulation of investment across chosen jurisdictions across Asia, including Japan, China and Southeast Asia (particularly Indonesia, but it may also look at jurisdictions such as Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and India) and compares them with each other and with the Australian regulatory system. It also looks at international treaties which increasingly impact on foreign trade and investment regulation in the region; aspects of corporate governance, contract and/or competition law; corporate social responsibility and anti-corruption law; dispute resolution (especially international commercial and investor-state arbitration); and key issues in modern comparative law which may assist students in their study of 'foreign' legal systems. The unit also involves case studies and occasional guest lecturers.

This advanced unit considers specialised topics in the area of tax treaties, largely reflecting the work of the OECD and United Nations on tax treaties currently and in the last decade, particularly the OECD/G20 project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). Topics covered include OECD and UN policy development processes, high value services and the digital economy, transfer pricing, harmful tax practices, treaty abuse, non-discrimination, entities and tax treaties (especially partnerships and collective investment vehicles), transparency and assistance in collection, dispute resolution, and the BEPS multilateral instrument. Upon completion of this unit, students will have a detailed understanding of the current driving forces and issues in the development of tax treaties and other international tax standards.

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.

Principles of Oil and Gas Law explores the distinctive legal issues presented by oil and gas exploration and production and examines the legal and regulatory responses of oil producing states. This unit also explains the international legal principles that apply within the sector and sets the Australian experience against a broad comparative background. For the first time in 2016, this course will be offered in the home of the North Sea oil and gas industry, Stavanger, Norway. This unit will draw on the expertise of international experts in oil and gas law, as well as take advantage of our location with excursions to the Petroleum Museum, oil companies and government. On completion of the unit, participants should be able: to explain the specific legal problems posed by the physical characteristics of oil and gas; to identify different approaches to the resolution of those problems, their strengths and weaknesses; to identify and analyse the special issues presented by offshore oil and gas resources on the one hand, and onshore resources on the other; to 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; to 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; to outline the legal approach to any special environmental and occupational safety problems posed by oil and gas operations; and to consider how legal regimes for oil and gas exploration and production may be evaluated in terms of political and legal risk.

This unit is for law graduates 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 relating to overseas securities and corporate laws in cross-border transactions (focusing to a significant extent on US laws and practices). It concentrates on resolving the challenges non-Australian issues can pose to transactions even if Australian law applies to many aspects of the deal. 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 detailed discussion of the process of offering securities in the US and how it can affect non-US offerings in practice, and finally will conclude with an exploration of the regulation of takeovers under US law. Significant US M and A concepts and practices, including mergers, break-up fees, poison pills, and proxy fights will be discussed. The remainder of the unit will focus on deal regulation of selected other overseas jurisdictions in which there have been recent activity. We will also examine practical consequences of the regulatory requirements of these jurisdictions, particularly in so far as they relate to M and A, as well as certain subjects that have worldwide applicability. The unit will be taught by a series of seminars, and may include an occasional guest lecture/panel discussion. The purpose of the unit is to assist Australian and other non-US lawyers in: identifying potential cross-border issues; and being creative in solving the challenges that arise in international securities transactions.
The lecturer is the Dealpolitik Columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a former M and A partner at leading US law firm, Skadden, Arps, Meagher, and Flom LLP.

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. First two days will be focused on the instructor's lectures while two remaining days on students' presentations.

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.

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.

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.

The unit will seek to analyse the central concepts of some of the main areas of civil law, including tort, contract and property from the perspective of a number of contemporary moral theories. The unit will examine the work of moral philosophers in the fields of distributive and corrective justice such as John Rawls, Jules Coleman and Ernest Weinrib. The unit will also consider theories associated with the economic analysis movement in legal philosophy, especially the theories of Richard Posner. The unit will apply moral theories on the one hand, and rational action theories such as the economic analysis view of law on the other, to better understand legal doctrine. In addition to property, contract and civil wrongs, the unit will look at constitutional structures and international law. While considering a wide variety of legal doctrines, the focus of the unit will always be on the way these doctrines are better understood from the perspective of theories of justice or versions of rational action theory.

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 School 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 School 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.