LAWS12064 - Legal Advocacy

General Information

Unit Synopsis

The unit Legal Advocacy is primarily concerned with the craft of lawyering and how to effectively present cases to a court. The unit covers topics such as the qualities of legal advocacy, legal ethics and courtroom etiquette, how to structure and prepare written submissions and oral arguments, examination of witnesses, and other fundamentals. This unit may interest students who wish to pursue careers in litigation, criminal prosecutions, or criminal defence work.

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

Pre-requisites: 30 credit point law units including LAWS13010.

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 3 - 2024

Term 3 - 2025 Profile
Online

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).

Assessment Overview

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. Practical and Written Assessment 40%
2. Practical and Written Assessment 60%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 24.32% response rate.

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: Unit coordinator reflection and student feedback
Feedback
The unit has a large number of assessment items, thus it is advisable to bring the number of assessment items into line with the assessment load in other LLB units.
Recommendation
The unit should have two assessments. This recommendation has been actioned.
Action Taken
This recommendation has been actioned.
Source: Unit coordinator reflection and student feedback
Feedback
The unit should be offered on an intensive basis
Recommendation
This will be reviewed and discussed with the head of course for the LLB
Action Taken
The unit was offered on an intensive basis in term 2 2023.
Source: Student feedback, unit coordinator reflection
Feedback
Student feedback was to keep the unit content exactly the same. The moot assessment should be maintained.
Recommendation
This will be reviewed
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
The guest lecture was very useful for students
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will review future opportunities for guest lectures and invite speakers where appropriate
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Present persuasive written submissions and oral arguments in a professional and ethical manner
  2. Research and critically analyse primary sources to formulate and support oral and written arguments for mock court hearings

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2
1 - Practical and Written Assessment • •
2 - Practical and Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2
1 - Communication • •
2 - Problem Solving • •
3 - Critical Thinking • •
4 - Information Literacy • •
5 - Team Work • •
8 - Ethical practice •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10