Handbook home
Encounters: Meeting of Laws in Australia (LAWS50070)
Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5Not available in 2019
Overview
Fees | Look up fees |
---|
Encounter scholarship - the study of contact and contest between Indigenous people and settler colonisers - is an important method and practice in humanities, used to interrogate the limits and possibilities of cross cultural engagements. This subject undertakes this task within the boundaries of law. Using a case study method, the subject centralises the histories and present expression of encounters between Indigenous and Anglo-Australian practices of jurisprudence: the care and conduct of law. We will frame different encounters by examining and analyzing how Australian settler colonial law has dispossessed Indigenous peoples from their land and law over time, in the process constructing for them raced identities, with ongoing, lived consequences. At the same time, we will consider how Indigenous peoples have interpreted and mobilised law – their own, as well as a demand for responsiveness from Anglo Australian domestic law, and international law – to contest those consequences and impacts. The focus in this subject will be predominantly on the encounter between Indigenous Australians and the Australian legal system and nation state over time, and the questions raised about contact, contest and processes of colonisation and resistance will be positioned as transnational phenomena, with comparative analysis where appropriate. The case studies are linked by their consideration of the subject’s overriding themes of Knowledge, Governance, Interests and Recognition. We will study up to three Encounters, which may include: Land Relationships and Title (including the histories of land rights before and after Mabo); Assimilation and Child Removal Policies; Genocide and Law; and The Protection and Prosecution of Knowledges. The course as a whole will argue that close consideration of the historical and present encounter between Indigenous and Anglo-Australian traditions of jurisprudence offers techniques for legal practitioners and scholars to act and reflect on their own responsibilities for legal knowledge and practice; as well as becoming open to the jurisprudential purview of others.
Intended learning outcomes
This subject will build upon the research skills already developed within the JD program. In addition, and specifically, on completion of this subject, students should:
Have developed an advanced, integrated understanding of a range of critical and theoretical analyses of the relationship between the settler colonial legal systems and Indigenous peoples, including:
- The historical, legal and political consequences of colonisation and the subsequent impact upon the lives and jurisprudence of indigenous peoples;
- Both the historical and contemporary cultural traditions, including the centrality of land, for Indigenous Australians;
- The major human rights claims of Indigenous Australians including claims to sovereignty both domestically and at international law, citizenship rights, property rights and recognition of customary law;
- The ways law may contribute to a resolution of outstanding issues between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples including through litigation, negotiation and agreement making;
- The ways in which the experiences of indigenous people in other common law countries are relevant to and may inform legal and political debate on issues relating to Indigenous Australians;
- The complexity of the ways in which colonisation is both transnationally experienced, by settler colonisers and indigenous peoples, yet also specifically practiced and survived within the boundaries of nation states, as designated by law.
Generic skills
On completion of the subject, students should have developed the following generic skills:
- Be able to draw on this understanding to:
- Self-direct an analytical research project, integrating learning from the breadth of encounter scholarship, methods and problematics;
- Interpret the historical context of law in order to analyse complex contemporary politico- legal problem;
- Describe and critically evaluate elements of the legal relationship between indigenous peoples and settler institutions;
- Investigate cross cultural encounters through the location and close reading of a range of primary and secondary source materials;
- Critically analyse at least two specific instances or examples of this relationship;
- Develop arguments as to the appropriate legal principles to apply in various circumstances that will advance the status of indigenous peoples;
- Present these specialist arguments, analyses and application of principles in the form of written arguments that are appropriately investigated, structured, developed, supported and referenced; and
- Present and defend an argument orally to demonstrate original and accountable thinking and scholarly practice.
- Additionally, you should aim to develop:
- Openness to new ideas and ethics associated with knowledge creation and usage;
- The capacity for critical and independent thought and reflection;
- The capacity to communicate, both orally and in writing, to specialist and non-specialist audiences;
- The capacity to plan and manage time; and
- Intercultural sensitivity and understanding.
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) |
12.5 |
LAWS50026 | Obligations | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50027 | Dispute Resolution | Not available in 2024 |
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 |
December (On Campus - Parkville)
July (On Campus - Parkville)
Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville)
Summer Term (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
LAWS50032 | Administrative Law | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
If a student has previously enrolled in the below subject, they will need the approval of the Subject Coordinator to enrol in this subject:
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS70236 | Indigenous Peoples, Land & Resource Law | Not available in 2024 |
12.5 |
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
- Research essay 7,000 words (90%). The overriding themes and approaches of this subject indicate an expectation that students' research essays will involve breadth and complexity in the design of their framing questions; demonstration of the acquisition of cross disciplinary methodological skills in locating and analysing a diversity of research materials; and cultural awareness in the articulation of their critical legal arguments. There is an expectation that research essays will be of a very high quality, opening up awareness for students of the possibility of future or further scholarly and legal engagements;
- Submission of research proposal, and work in progress presentation of that proposal in class (10%). Students will be expected to participate in a colloquia in order to present ideas and arguments outlined in a written research proposal; engage in informed and respectful critical debate with others about their work; and gain experience in oral defence of a short thesis.
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
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
Not available in 2019
Additional delivery details
This subject has an enrolment quota of 60 students. Your subject enrolment will not be confirmed until the selection process has been run. Selection is conducted on a random basis with outcomes communicated to students shortly after re-enrolment closes. Please refer to the Melbourne Law School website for more information on the JD Quota Elective selection process.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- 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 to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 3 November 2022