Criminal Law and Procedure (7025.5)

Required texts

Prescribed text:

David Brown et al, Criminal Laws: Materials and Commentary on Criminal Law and Process in New South Wales (Federation Press, 6^th ed, 2015).

Students also need to access copies of legislation (available online), including the following:

• Crimes Act 1900 (ACT)
• Criminal Code 2002 (ACT)
• Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)
• Criminal Code 1995 (Cth)

Recommended texts/readings:

John Anderson, Criminal Law Guidebook (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2016)¿

Thalia Anthony et al, Waller & Williams: Criminal Law Text and Cases (LexisNexus,12th ed, 2013)

Kenneth Arenson, Mirko Bagaric and Peter Gillies, Australian Criminal law in the Common Law Jurisdictions (Oxford University Press, 4th ed, 2016)

Mirko Bagaric, Ross on Crime (Thomson Reuters, 7th ed, 2016)

Simon Bronitt and Bernadette McSherry, Principles of Criminal Law (Thomson Reuters, 3rd ed, 2010)

Penny Crofts, Criminal Law Elements (LexisNexus, 5th ed, 2014)

Mark Findlay, Criminal Law: Problems in Context (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2006)

Mark Findlay, Stephen Odgers and Stanley Yeo, Australian Criminal Justice (Oxford University Press, 5th ed, 2014)

Jeremy Gans, Modern Criminal Law of Australia (Cambridge University Press, 1st ed, 2011)

Donna Spears, Julia Quilter and Clive Harfield, Criminal Law for Common Law States (Butterworths, 1st ed, 2011)

Donna Spears and Thomas Hickie, Butterworths Q&A: Criminal Law for Common Law States (Butterworths, 1st ed, 2009)

Note: Students will find it helpful to keep up to date on current affairs related to the criminal law – newspapers, Internet news sites, television etc. An awareness of relevant current events should prove beneficial both in terms of enhancing your learning in the unit and completing the assessment items.

Students may also wish to register to receive the following alert services to get an idea of developments in relation to the criminal justice system:

• Crimnet - CrimNet is an electronic criminal justice information network run by the Institute of Criminology at Sydney University. To join crimnet go to: http://www.law.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/crimnet

• JV Barry Library at the Australian Institute of Criminology. JV Barry Library current awareness alerts is an e-mail alert service showing a selection of new key reports, books, journal articles and websites on a range of criminology topics. To join, email front.desk@aic.gov.au or go to http://www.aic.gov.au/en/library/alerts.aspx  

Submission of assessment items

All assignments are required to be submitted by the due date. 

If for any reason you are unable to do an assignment by the due date you must submit, to the lecturer, a request for an extension in writing before the due date (unless impossible) setting out in detail the genuine and exceptional reason for requesting the extension.  If there is a medical or counselling reason for the extension request it must be accompanied by a medical or counselling certificate which clearly states:

• that you were unfit to complete the assignment;
• the date of the medical or counselling consultation; and
• the period for which you were/are/will be unfit to complete the assignment.

Word limits

Students are expected to write to the word limits set out for each assessment item. Students whose submissions exceed or fail to meet the word limit by more than 10% will be penalised at the rate of 1 mark (out of 100) for every 50 words over the word limit. The word counts are exclusive of footnotes and bibliography.

As with the penalty for late assignments below, this requirement will not be applied unfairly but is intended to promote equity and professionalism amongst participating students.

Students must apply academic integrity in their learning and research activities at UC. This includes submitting authentic and original work for assessments and properly acknowledging any sources used.

Academic integrity involves the ethical, honest and responsible use, creation and sharing of information. It is critical to the quality of higher education. Our academic integrity values are honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.

UC students have to complete the Academic Integrity Module annually to learn about academic integrity and to understand the consequences of academic integrity breaches (or academic misconduct).

UC uses various strategies and systems, including detection software, to identify potential breaches of academic integrity. Suspected breaches may be investigated, and action can be taken when misconduct is found to have occurred.

Information is provided in the Academic Integrity Policy, Academic Integrity Procedure, and University of Canberra (Student Conduct) Rules 2023. For further advice, visit Study Skills.

Learner engagement

None

Inclusion and engagement

None

Participation requirements

Note: The final mark is determined by the aggregate number of marks achieved in the semester in all assessment items. You must submit all assessment items and obtain an overall total score of at least 50% in order to pass this subject. It is not necessary that students pass each individual item of assessment but each piece of assessment  must be completed.

Required IT skills

None

In-unit costs

None

Work placement, internships or practicums

None
 

Additional information

• Where required, further details of items mentioned in this unit outline will be supplied via the Moodle site for this unit. Notices given in class or via Moodle will be deemed to be given to the whole class.

• Every effort will be made for lectures to be recorded, but this may not always be practicable.

• Your learning in this unit is supported by Moodle. Your use of Moodle can be monitored and reported to the unit convener.

• Where provided, students may communicate with other students via a Moodle resource set up for the unit for reasonable purposes related to enrolment in this unit only.

• Some of the issues covered in this course may be distressing for some people. All students are expected to deal with sensitive issues in a considerate and respectful manner. Please raise any general concerns you may have with the unit convener. Any student experiencing distress should consider seeking counselling or other support. For assistance see http://www.canberra.edu.au/health-counselling. For information on health and wellbeing at UC there is a free online program that you are welcome to make use of calling ‘the desk' see http://www.canberra.edu.au/health-counselling/the-desk

• Breaches of University policy including in relation to posting or sending offensive material will be reported for disciplinary action. See: Network Access and Use - Responsibilities and Obligations at https://guard.canberra.edu.au/policy/policy.php?pol_id=3195.

• Semester 1, 2018, On-campus, UC - Canberra, Bruce (177852)
• Semester 1, 2017, On-campus, UC - Canberra, Bruce (166792)
• Semester 1, 2016, On-campus, UC - Canberra, Bruce (153814)
• Semester 1, 2015, On-campus, UC - Canberra, Bruce (145986)