Current Issues in Law PG (11466.1)

This unit examines selected issues in law and justice. It is offered as an elective unit and may be associated with an overseas study tour in either Summer or Winter term. The unit's content will thus vary from semester to semester depending on the interests and availability of staff. The approved offering for each term will be advertised to students in advance of its availability.

This unit may be co-taught with an undergraduate version of the unit.

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Synthesise and explain the working of relevant laws in the selected field, the policies behind the laws and their place in the system of justice;
2. Determine the implications of legal issues in the selected field, including where relevant international obligations in that field; and
3. Critically analyse and solve complex problems in the selected field and to explore particular topics in the selected field in depth.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - work collaboratively as part of a team, negotiate, and resolve conflict
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
2. UC graduates are global citizens - think globally about issues in their profession
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - apply their knowledge to working with Indigenous Australians in socially just ways

Skills development

Refugee Law: A legal and social analysis

Unit Description:

This unit explores the legal, ethical and political framework of Refugee Law. This course introduces students to a consideration of  the legal, social and political context of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol and its application in Australia and elsewhere.

Topics under consideration will include the history of international protection; Australia’s response to Vietnamese refugees in the 1970’s; the place of UNHCR and protection mandates; principles of protection such as refoulement, asylum, temporary protection, burden sharing; grounds of claiming refugee status (race, religion, nationality, particular social group, including an analysis of gender and sexuality); literary depictions of the experience of refugeehood (specifically looking at Thi Bui’s graphic novel The Best we Could Do (Abrams, 2018) and excerpts from Berhouz Boochani’s, No friend but the Mountains (Picador, 2018); and the possibilities and potential of the future of refugee law.

 

Prerequisites

11431 Foundations of Law and Justice G or equivalent.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

7869 Current Legal Issues PG

Assumed knowledge

None.