Key Aspects

Both 25% term assignments require students to review and/or critically appraise and apply legal, environmental concepts and policies.

The first 25% term assignment concerns the analysis of a Queensland Planning & Environment Court appeal case.

Problem Solving. The focus of many parts of the assignments is upon developing applied problem and policy solving skills. This requires students to read and analyse a fact scenario matrix or policy measure - hypothetical or actual - and identify legal, regulatory and broad planning or environmental policy issues and apply these to develop a reasoned outcome with respect to the issues presented.

Critical Thinking. Students are required to critically analyse and evaluate information, facts, law and policy in a problem solving context. The skills being emphasised involve the critical appraisal and reflection of legal, planning and environmental issues plus the application of case law, legislation and policy (theoretical or actual) against a factual matrix or stated assumptions.

Information Literacy. The two assignments test understanding and comprehension of critical legal, planning and environmental knowledge, legislation and policy measures discussed in the course in topics covered prior to submission of the assignments. Students need to develop understanding and familiarity with relevant terms, concepts and issues addressed. This information literacy is tested in an applied as well as descriptive manner.

Information Technology Competence. The two assignments test students' aptitude and capability to access web-based information and resources. Competence in producing academic written work with use of technology forms part of the assignment exercises.

Ethical/sustainability policy issues and practice. In formulating responses to questions in the two assignments, students will frequently be making judgments about societal ethics and planning or environmental sustainability policy matters.

Key Aspects

Both assignments require students to review, or critically appraise and apply legal, planning, and environmental concepts and policies.

Fundamental Information

The second 25% term assignment requires an audio-visual analysis of statutory approval processes.

The second assignment comprises a theoretical and practical assessment of planning and environmental law process, policy and implementation. You are required to provide an audio-visual presentation including evidence of sound understanding, effective communication, structured argument and critical thinking within a well presented format. It is not necessarily the case that all the criteria will be met at a particular standard, as there may be superior performance on one of the criteria and not so satisfactory performance on another. A mark will be calculated by reference to an overall assessment of the criteria. Standards required to the various grades of pass use the university grades and results procedures.

Assessment criteria

I assess students on their ability to demonstrate thinking and writing and presentation skills, to comprehend the material, to process the material and to provide a critical analysis and logical discussion of the law. Students are required to communicate clearly and logically and in a concise manner. I expect you to present in a professional manner.You must appropriately reference and attribute the work of others.

Fail

You will have shown evidence of the following:

• your expression is poor and difficult to understand

• the answer is poorly organised

• referencing is generally inadequate

• lack of familiarity with the legislation and its application

• failure to identify and address the issues in the question

• reasoning and application demonstrated is poor

Pass

You will have:

• made a conscientious attempt to address the topic and/or answer the question

• shown evidence of having done the required reading and of having understood the reading

• presented a reasonable argument to back up your conclusions

• demonstrated a reasonable level of presentation

• used referencing but this may need improvement

• issues that may need to be identified and addressed in more depth

Credit

You will have:

• addressed the topic and/or answered the question directly

• presented soundly based arguments and backed these up with reasons

• gone beyond description to analysis of key issues

• used the English language well

• shown evidence of reading widely

• demonstrated understanding of the reading

• used referencing that is satisfactory

Distinction

You will have:

• met the above criteria for a credit

• demonstrated the attainment of a high degree of understanding of the concepts of the course

• demonstrated deep insight into the application of knowledge and skills acquired to complex theoretical and practical situations

• used referencing correctly

• made reference to all appropriate legislation

High Distinction

You will have:

• met the above criteria for a distinction

• demonstrated the attainment of an outstanding level of achievement regarding the objectives of this course

• demonstrated an interesting and/or original approach/idea/argument

• demonstrated mastery of the relevant referencing system

• ensured your conclusions are backed by well-reasoned arguments demonstrating a detailed insight and analysis of issues

Environmental Law is an area of practice subject to substantial change due to new legislation and new policy implementation at an executive level. Your task is to research current environmental legislation and extrinsic materials to provide a response to a problem based question that will be provided to you in the form of a take-home examination. A take-home examination provides a 'middle ground' between assignment work and an invigilated examination – and is consistent with life ‘in practice’. In this assessment, you should aim to make use of recent legislation, cases and other materials, to make your work as up-to date as possible and to obtain the best possible mark. Materials on this assessment task will be available on the Moodle site for this course, to give you further support.

This assessment task must be completed in week 12. In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete the task after this date and there will be no opportunity to apply a late penalty of 5% per day and you will receive a mark of zero for this assessment task.

Please note the following details:

• Please consider the assignment writing material that I provide in Moodle.
• As a guideline, the length of the main body of your essay should be around 2000 words or so, excluding references - essays that are substantially longer than this (say over 2200 words) or shorter than this (say less than 1500 words) are unlikely to score as highly as those that make the best use of the 2000 word length (being on-target and making the best use of the word allocation is always better than being off-message). However, you should not worry about a few words either way (this is a guideline only, and I do not have a 'negative marking scheme' where marks are deducted if the word count is more than 10% over the guideline).
• Text should be word-processed, with appropriate layout and use of headings/sub-headings. Please provide consistent font and line spacing as part of a professionally presented paper.
• Diagrams and flowcharts may be used to illustrate specific aspects - a picture paints ten thousand words! (Please ensure that you correctly cite/reference all sources of diagrams used, unless they are original and composed by you, since this is an important aspect of academic integrity). Please avoid images with very large file sizes, as this will make your essay too large to upload/download (save any images as lower resolution, to decrease the file size).
• The list of references should form the last page or two, at the end of the assessment.
• Referencing should be consistent with the Australian Guide to Legal Resources.

I assess students on their ability to demonstrate thinking and writing skills, to comprehend the material, to process the material and to provide a critical analysis and logical discussion of the law. Students are required to communicate an answer clearly and logically and in a concise manner. I expect you to present your paper in a professional manner. Please paginate shall paper and used correct spelling and grammar. You must appropriately reference and attribute the work of others.

Fail

You will have shown evidence of the following:

• the written expression is poor and difficult to understand

• the answer is poorly organised

• referencing is generally inadequate

• lack of familiarity with the legislation and its application

• failure to identify and address the issues in the question

• reasoning and application demonstrated is poor

Pass

You will have:

• made a conscientious attempt to address the topic and/or answer the question

• shown evidence of having done the required reading and of having understood the reading

• presented a reasonable argument to back up your conclusions

• demonstrated a reasonable level of spelling and grammatical usage

• used referencing but this may need improvement

• issues that may need to be identified and addressed in more depth

Credit

You will have:

• addressed the topic and/or answered the question directly

• presented soundly based arguments and backed these up with reasons

• gone beyond description to analysis of key issues

• used the English language well

• shown evidence of reading widely

• demonstrated understanding of the reading

• used referencing that is satisfactory

Distinction

You will have:

• met the above criteria for a credit

• demonstrated the attainment of a high degree of understanding of the concepts of the course

• demonstrated deep insight into the application of knowledge and skills acquired to complex theoretical and practical situations

• used referencing correctly

• made reference to all appropriate legislation

High Distinction

You will have:

• met the above criteria for a distinction

• demonstrated the attainment of an outstanding level of achievement regarding the objectives of this course

• demonstrated an interesting and/or original approach/idea/argument

• demonstrated mastery of the relevant referencing system

• ensured your conclusions are backed by well-reasoned arguments demonstrating a detailed insight and analysis of issues

• ensured your references are made to the appropriate legislation for particular issues