Early Feedback Task (EFT) (0%): This unit includes an Early Feedback Task designed to provide students with insight into their understanding of unit content. It serves as a diagnostic tool to identify areas of strength and/or areas needing improvement, supporting students to stay on track for successful completion of the unit.

The Early Feedback Task for this unit is an online quiz consisting of 10 multiple-choice questions and will be tailored to reflect key concepts and test learning from Weeks 1-3. The task must be completed via the unit Canvas site no later than 11.59PM Friday 14 March 2025 (Sydney Australia time). Students will be provided with automated feedback at the close of the EFT period.

Structured Class participation (20%) 

Ongoing engagement with the subject; Participation in seminar discussions is essential for success in this unit. Students will be assigned a specific topic, listed in Canvas during Week 1 of the semester. For the seminar addressing that topic, students will lead, facilitate, and guide the discussion. To demonstrate successful participation, students must prepare an answer for the allocated topic question based upon the required reading as well as prepare one or two questions to prompt classmates. Further instructions and the marking criteria for participation are available in Canvas.

Legal practice task and reflection (30%)

Students will respond in writing (1500 words) to a legal practice scenario raising issues on access to justice with a particular focus on needs identified by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and critically reflect on the role of lawyers in addressing the effects of colonisation.  The scenario will be released on Friday 28 February 2025 at 09:00 (Sydney, Australia time) and will be due on Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 11:59PM (Sydney, Australia time).

Final examination (50%)

The final assessment is an open book, supervised in-person exam held in the formal examination period. The exam is of 2 hour duration plus 30 minutes reading time. The exam will be scenario based raising legal and ethical issues in practice. The first part of the exam will require students to demonstrate their problem-solving skills, identifying issues arising in the facts and applying the law (40%). The second part of the exam will give students the opportunity to reflect on ethical issues in practice (10%).

Word limit penalty: A piece of assessment which exceeds the prescribed word limit will attract a penalty of 10% of the total marks available for the piece of assessment for every 100 words, or part thereof. The total word count for essay and other written assessments will include all footnotes and exclude any bibliography (if required), and acknowledgements of permissible assistance from editors, automated writing tools or generative AI (where use is permitted). 

Use of editors or proof-readers: In completing unsupervised assessments, students may use editors, proof-readers, and automated writing tools (including translation software, grammar checkers, reference generators and artificial intelligence), provided that all use is acknowledged and consistent with University policies and procedures including Academic Integrity Policy. Acknowledgment must be made in writing on the front of the work submitted for assessment, or in an appropriate footnote or other reference, and state the name of the person or software.  

Special consideration: Successful grants of Special Consideration may involve alternative tasks, as appropriate. 

Assessment requirements to pass a unit of study: A student must make a genuine attempt at all assessment tasks set out in this Unit of Study in order to obtain a Pass mark and grade (or above); otherwise an Absent Fail grade will be recorded as the student’s result for this Unit of Study.