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Legal Ethics (LAWS50038)
Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 1
Email: law-aso@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 4475
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Winter Term
Email: law-aso@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 4475
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Overview
Availability | Semester 1 Winter Term |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
Legal Ethics takes special responsibility for the study of professionalism, ethics and public service. Students in Legal Ethics explore the particular role that lawyers play in society, the values of the legal profession, and how the lawyer's role as both an advocate for the client and officer of the court has implications for the daily practice of law and relationships with clients and other practitioners. Topics covered include conflicts of interest, a lawyer's duties of confidence and professional responsibilities in the making and maintaining of claims of client legal privilege. The modern practice of law can experience a tension between traditional understandings of professionalism and commercial imperatives. Particular attention will be given to developing knowledge, insights and strategies that will allow students to recognise and understand tensions between traditional understandings of professionalism and the modern practice of law and to consider how they might personally manage these tensions.
Intended learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this subject will:
- Know the general law and professional conduct standards that regulate lawyers, including the duty to the client, to the court, to other practitioners and to third parties;
- Understand how the role of lawyers, values of the profession and theories of justice underlie those duties, and have an extended understanding of recent developments in relation to ethics and professional responsibility and the implications for professional practice;
- Be able to apply a lawyer's duties to various complex fact scenarios;
- Be able to communicate aspects of a lawyer's professional obligations to a non-specialist audience (such as a client);
- Demonstrate the cognitive skills and ability to reflect critically on the practical difficulties and ethical tensions that a practising lawyer will sometimes experience in discharging professional obligations and an ability to explore various ways to respond to those difficulties or tensions with creativity and initiative while still maintaining a high level of personal autonomy and accountability; and
- Understand and be able to apply the principles relating to the holding of money on trust.
Generic skills
Students who successfully complete the subject will have further refined the following skills developed during the first and second years of the JD degree:
- Skills in identifying and resolving complex legal problems;
- Skills in considering a range of options in response to a legal problem, and in identifying those which are sound, principled, and best meet the needs of the client or other audience while recognising the potential impact on third parties;
- Skills in being open to new ideas and the perspectives of others;
- Skills in the critique of received wisdom;
- Skills in confronting unfamiliar problems and applying knowledge of legal ethics and professional practice principles to those problems with creativity and initiative; and
- Skills in comprehending complex concepts and expressing them lucidly to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Successful completion of all the below subjects:
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS50023 | Legal Method and Reasoning | Summer Term (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50024 | Principles of Public Law | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50025 | Torts |
Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville)
November (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
LAWS50026 | Obligations | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50027 | Dispute Resolution | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50028 | Constitutional Law | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50029 | Contracts | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50030 | Property | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50031 | Legal Theory |
Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville)
November (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
LAWS50032 | Administrative Law | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50033 | Trusts | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Assessment
Additional details
Semester 1 offering
- Written essay of 1,500 words (20%);
- Final supervised three hour examination during the examination period (80%).
Winter offering
- Class participation (10%);
- Final supervised three hour examination held one week after the teaching period (90%).
The due date of the above assessment will be available to students via the Assessment Schedule on the LMS Community.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Dates & times
- Semester 1
Principal coordinator Julian Sempill Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 144 hours Teaching period 26 February 2018 to 27 May 2018 Last self-enrol date 9 March 2018 Census date 31 March 2018 Last date to withdraw without fail 4 May 2018 Assessment period ends 22 June 2018 Semester 1 contact information
Email: law-aso@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 4475
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au - Winter Term
Principal coordinator Christine Parker Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 144 hours Teaching period 9 July 2018 to 20 July 2018 Last self-enrol date 11 July 2018 Census date 13 July 2018 Last date to withdraw without fail 21 July 2018 Assessment period ends 27 July 2018 Winter Term contact information
Email: law-aso@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 4475
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- GE Dal Pont, Lawyers’ Professional Responsibility (latest edition);
- Specialist printed materials will also be made available from the Melbourne Law School.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Juris Doctor - Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Additional information for this subject
If required, please contact law-admissions@unimelb.edu.au for subject coordinator approval.
Last updated: 3 November 2022