Overview
LAWS13009 Corporations Law examines the various business structures available under Australian law, with a particular focus on companies. Topics include partnerships, corporate personality; the incorporation process; the corporate constitution; company contracts; administration of companies and management of the business of companies; duties and liabilities of directors and officers; share capital and membership; members’ remedies; company credit and security arrangements; and winding up of companies. This unit meets the LPAB requirements for company law.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisite: 48 credit point of law
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2022
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student feedback and emails.
Students have been unaware of the availability of past exams when preparing for the final exam.
The unit coordinator should ensure that students are aware of how to find past exams in order to prepare for the final exam.
Feedback from Student feedback.
Students have difficulty identifying from the textbook the key topics each week.
The unit coordinator should use tutorial time to clarify what topics are important in each module, and to emphasise the importance of studying the textbook.
- Advise on different forms of business organisation in Australia
- Research business structures in foreign jurisdictions and compare them to Australian business structures
- Understand and explain the rules and ethics of internal governance of companies, directors' duties and members' rights, and apply these principles to problem scenarios
- Advise on the civil and criminal responsibility of a company for the actions of individuals purporting to act on its behalf
- Understand and explain the different forms of financing for companies and the regulation of securities markets
- Advise on various forms of external administration of companies.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Group Discussion - 10% | ||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||
| 3 - Take Home Exam - 60% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Group Discussion - 10% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Take Home Exam - 60% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
Australian Corporate Law
7th edition (2020)
Authors: Anil Hargovan, Michael Adams, Catherine Brown
LexisNexis
Chatswood Chatswood , NSW , Australia
ISBN: 9780409350739
Binding: Paperback
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Camera and microphone for attending Zoom tutorials
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th ed
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
p.robinson1@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Corporations and Other Business Organisations
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The Nature of the Company and its Promoters
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Internal Governance and Management Structures
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Company Liabilities
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Revision
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Directors' Role and Fiduciary Duties
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Directors' Duty of Care and Insolvent Trading
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Revision
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Members and their Remedies
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Corporate Reporting, Record Keeping and Auditing
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Corporate Financing
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
External Administration: Schemes, Receivership, Restructure and Administration
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
External Administration: Liquidation
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Securities Trading and Takeovers
Chapter
Prescribed readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Group Discussion
This assessment is a team project using a Group Discussion Forum as the medium by which students collaborate on each other's research tasks. It will involve research of both foreign and Australian business structures and some comparative analysis. You will be commencing your own discussion thread and also contributing your research to discussion threads started by other students. (A full description of the assessment task will be provided on the Moodle site).
The Group Discussion Forum will only be open up to the due date and time, at which time it will be disabled. Since this assessment task involves interacting with other students and discussing your research, no extensions of time are possible since the forum will be closed after the due date. In fact, to genuinely participate in a Discussion Forum, you should start contributing well before the due date.
Week 5 Thursday (15 Dec 2022) 11:45 pm AEST
Vacation Week Friday (30 Dec 2022)
Your contributions will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:
- demonstrated accuracy of content, based on proper referencing
- interesting comparison of foreign and Australian law
- intelligent consideration of the practical ramifications of laws
- thoughtfulness and insight of comments and arguments
- Research business structures in foreign jurisdictions and compare them to Australian business structures
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
2 Written Assessment
This assignment involves:
- preparing for an interview
- conducting an interview with a real life (pretend) client
- planning an advice suitable to the client's circumstances
- reporting to your supervising partner
Details of what is required for the assessment will be provided on the Moodle site at the start of term.
Week 8 Thursday (12 Jan 2023) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 10 Friday (27 Jan 2023)
The assignment will involve a range of tasks and the requirements for each task will differ. More guidance will be provided on the Moodle site at the start of term.
The following criteria are indicative:
-
Knowledge of law, especially core concepts
-
Where research is required, effectiveness of research in acquiring such knowledge
-
Correctness of referencing
-
Analysis and critical thinking, including application of law to facts and/or projecting possible fact scenarios arising from the law
-
Logical and coherent presentation of facts, arguments and/or analysis with appropriate logical structure
-
Effective use of cases and/or hypothetical fact scenarios to illustrate legal reasoning
-
Attention to the requirements of the question, including addressing the questions as specified and avoiding irrelevant diversions or regurgitation of law without any connection with the question or the analysis.
- Advise on different forms of business organisation in Australia
- Understand and explain the rules and ethics of internal governance of companies, directors' duties and members' rights, and apply these principles to problem scenarios
- Advise on the civil and criminal responsibility of a company for the actions of individuals purporting to act on its behalf
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Take Home Exam
The take-home examination will be set to take place in or around the standard examination week at the end of term. You will be advised of the exact date and time once the timetable for all law exams is published, which will be towards the end of the teaching weeks. The paper will be available during a specific time period of 4 hours duration and must be submitted (online via Moodle as an MS Word document) before the end of that time period. Like normal examinations, no extensions of time are allowed for a take-home examination.
Bachelor of Accounting students will need to be invigilated for this examination, which will require that they have an operational camera and microphone.
Please be sure to note the following:
- Submissions after the deadline has passed will not be accepted.
- Failure to submit by the deadline will result in a mark of zero for this assessment as the paper will not be marked.
- Extensions of time are not available for this take-home paper.
- Exam conditions apply to all take-home papers.
The examination will be designed to assess your learning of the unit as a whole. You will be given a little more information about the format of the examination on the Moodle site during the term.
Marks for the exam will not be released until certification of grades by the university.
The following criteria will be relevant to the take-home examination:
-
Knowledge of law, especially core concepts
-
Where research is required, effectiveness of research in acquiring such knowledge
-
Correctness of referencing to the standard required by the assessment (This will be specified in the guidance for the exam)
-
Analysis and critical thinking, including application of law to facts and/or projecting possible fact scenarios arising from the law
-
Logical and coherent presentation of arguments/analysis with appropriate structure
-
Effective use of cases and/or hypothetical fact scenarios to illustrate legal reasoning
-
Attention to the requirements of the question, including addressing the questions as specified and avoiding irrelevant diversions or regurgitation of law without any connection with the question or the analysis.
- Understand and explain the rules and ethics of internal governance of companies, directors' duties and members' rights, and apply these principles to problem scenarios
- Advise on the civil and criminal responsibility of a company for the actions of individuals purporting to act on its behalf
- Understand and explain the different forms of financing for companies and the regulation of securities markets
- Advise on various forms of external administration of companies.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Ethical practice
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
