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Unit Synopsis
Advanced Statutory Interpretation and Drafting consolidates the skills of statutory interpretation which students have previously been taught and used throughout their studies. Students will now be challenged to write statutes, supporting extrinsic documents, and other legal documents at a professional level, utilising the skills of plain English and English grammar. Students will be required to understand, discuss and anticipate the formal techniques of statutory interpretation deployed by judges when interpreting statutes, in order to write statutes which will have the intended effect. Students will be expected to demonstrate mastery of general principles of statutory interpretation, but also specific techniques, including issues such as restrospectivity, the boundaries of statutory authority, and the impact of charters of rights. Students will use these skills to prepare an assessed package of legislative materials to amend the substantive law of their choice.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisite:- LAWS11061 & LAWS11062 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). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2019
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Term 1 - 2026 Profile
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.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Group Work | 15% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 35% |
| 3. Written Assessment | 50% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
No previous feedback available
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.
Source: Tutor reflection, comments from students in their reflective portfolios
Students benefitted from the peer review/collaboration process in the second half of the unit and this helped strengthen the 'drafting community'
Include a peer review/collaboration exercise in the first half of the term to further strengthen the 'drafting community'.
The peer review exercises were maintained. Students were encouraged to engage in peer review through MS Teams in relation to tasks in the first half of the portfolio.
Source: Tutor reflection, comments from students in their reflective portfolios
Even though the drafting portfolio should be completed weekly, some students were not completing it until shortly before the deadline in week 12, which impacted on the quality and the progression of their drafting skills
Explore whether the drafting portfolio could be submitted on a weekly/fortnightly basis or in two parts to ensure students complete their portfolios over the course of the term.
A review of the assessment took place. It was decided not to split the submission into two because the timing of this would coincide with the practical assessment task and this would increase stress for students.
Source: SUTE comments and informal feedback
Some students identify that they do not keep on top of the weekly tasks because they are not required to submit anything until the end. This also means that the peer review exercises are often rushed and completed (if at all) shortly before the deadline.
Explore with the Learning and Teaching team whether any teaching and learning assets (i.e. in Moodle) can be leveraged so that students submit a compilation of drafting tasks across the term while also requiring students to engage in peer review and collaborative learning on a regular basis.
In Progress
Source: Tutor reflection
Although one module is dedicated to learning the benefits and pitfalls of using generative AI, students should not rely on generative AI to build their portfolio or complete the practical assessment task as they need to first acquire a sufficient level of competency in drafting to be able to recognise any drafting issues produced by generative AI. The assessment design must therefore include components which cannot be completed through reliance on generative AI alone.
Incorporate an oral component into the assessment design.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the interpretation and meaning of statutes based on domestic and international law.
- Apply problem solving and critical thinking skills to resolve complex statutory interpretation and drafting issues.
- Research extrinsic materials and use them to solve statutory interpretation issues.
- Structure and plan legal documents to achieve desired outcomes.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Group Work | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Team Work | • | • | ||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Group Work | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||