Early Feedback Task (0%): This unit includes an Early Feedback Task that is designed to provide students with timely insights into their understanding and engagement with the unit content and support students to stay on track for successful completion of the unit.

The Early Feedback Task in this unit is an online quiz and will be tailored to check students' understanding of key content and concepts from Topics 1-2 of the unit. These concepts will be crucial for the successful completion of the Court Report Assignment (below).

The task will be available on Canvas from Week 2 and must be completed by 11.59pm Friday 14 March 2025 (Sydney, Australia time). Students will be provided with immediate automated feedback upon completion of the task.

Tutorial Participation (Criminal 10% and Civil 10%, total 20%) is designed to serve two pedagogical purposes. The first is to develop one of the most crucial skills for lawyers to develop; the ability to construct an argument based on the law and to present that argument orally. The second pedagogical purpose is to allow students the opportunity to be assessed in a number of different ways.  Students have different strengths: some prefer writing; others are better at presenting information orally.  This assessment provides students with an opportunity to use oral presentation skills.

At the outset of Part 1 Criminal and Part 2 Civil, students will be required to sign up to be ‘on call’ for one class and marks will be based on your designated ‘on call’ class only. We expect that 5-6 students will be ‘on call’ in each class. Students will be required to be ‘on call’ once in Criminal Procedure and once in Civil Procedure (twice in total). Students who are ‘on call’ are required to have prepared for class in the usual way including having prepared responses to the tutorial questions and problems, and are required to actively participate in group activities in class and present their reasoning to the class if called upon to do so.

We are aware that some students find it difficult to make oral presentations and speak in class. We would like to encourage all students to use the supportive environment of the classroom to practice their oral communication skills. Law demands an ability to communicate both in writing and orally – you must develop an ability to make vocal contributions in front of your peers.

Long Release Court Report Assignment (20%): This court report assignment, 1200 words maximum, is an essay and should follow essay conventions, which means it should have an introduction, a central argument that is supported by material from the prescribed case(s), the course materials, and independent research. You are required to include a bibliography. You are required to provide footnote references in accordance with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation. The assignment question and instructions will be available on Canvas.

The Court Report will be released on Canvas in Week 2. The deadline for submission is 9.00am on 14th April 2025 (Sydney, Australia time). The outcome of a successful Special Consideration application prior to the closing date (as specified in the Assessment Table) is an extension. Special consideration after that date may lead to an alternative assessment to be determined at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator.

Final Exam (60%): On campus invigilated examination that tests your understanding of the whole unit and covers civil and criminal procedure equally. The examination will be held during the examination period.  All substantive and critical material listed in the Required Readings and material identified by your lecturer in class is examinable. It is intended that the exam will test problem-solving skills, critical and analytical capacity and substantive knowledge. The outcome of a grant of special consideration application may include an alternative task, at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator.

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 exclude all non-substantive footnotes and any bibliography (if required), and exclude 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.