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Legal Histories (LAWS50095)
Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5Not available in 2024
Overview
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Legal Histories has two main aims. The first is to explore the empirical study of law’s past, in order to think broadly and critically about law’s meaning and development. We will interrogate questions of intent and method in a series of targeted workshops with scholars about their work, drawn from the disciplines of both law and history. The second interrelated aim is to encourage students to engage with legal history as a significant strand of legal thought and practice. Interwoven with the empirical workshops, the main body of seminars will introduce students to the concept of historiography- the ideas, theories and practice of writing history, but positioned within legal frameworks, dominated by legal questions and using legal sources. This will involve exploring the shifts in thinking about legal history itself; both as a genre of history writing, but importantly as a practice of legal scholarship, and often with very specific outcomes in litigation and reform processes. In this way, the seminar topics will include consideration of a range of approaches: from classical common law methods and constitutional interpretation to the critical legal histories emergent from indigenous and feminist perspectives.
The subject will explore how legal history is a serious question of method for practices of civil justice and legal change, not just an abstract question for academia. It will do this by looking at cases where ideas of historiography are crucial, and which may include, for example, Brown v Board of Education and the Sears cases in the US; Mabo and native title litigation in Australia; war crimes trials in International criminal law.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has completed this subject should have an advanced, and integrated, knowledge of the complexity of legal histories. In addition a student will have obtained a nuanced understanding of how history operates as a critical aspect of legal practice and knowledge. This includes an ability to critically analyse and evaluate:
Additionally, a student should be able to communicate their advanced interdisciplinary analysis in a reflective and culturally responsive manner that is open to be read and interpreted by legal and non legal audiences alike.
- The intent, form and methods of writing legal history;
- The historical context of law, with the ability to distinguish between temporal, cultural and political approaches to how such contexts are presented or deployed;
- Forms of litigation and contest in which law has explored or interpreted the past, and the nuanced outcomes of those contests;
- The operative effects, and differentiated uses, of national, transnational, and comparative histories in legal argument;
- The complexity of how ‘the past’ is conceptualised in both history and law, through what forms, and how (or if) those concepts are able to be transposed; and
- How different accounts or justifications of law’s past can be determinative of present legal questions.
Generic skills
On completion of the subject, students will have critically analysed at least one specific instance or example of the complexity of the relation of history to legal form or expression. They will therefore have developed and be able to demonstrate the following integrated cognitive, technical and creative skills:
- Initiate and self direct an analytical piece of writing, using judgment in the application of cross disciplinary theory and method;
- Generate and evaluate complex ideas at both an abstract and applied level;
- Justify and expound to legal and non legal audiences, in oral and written form, how historical principles or method are relevant to legal thinking and practice; and
- Present analyses and application of principles in the form of written arguments that are appropriately investigated, structured, developed, supported and referenced.
Last updated: 30 January 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
All of
| Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAWS50023 | Legal Method and Reasoning | Summer Term (Dual-Delivery - 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 |
Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville)
November (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
| LAWS50032 | Administrative Law | 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: 30 January 2024
Assessment
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Essay: Students will be required to select, and then read closely, materials relating to a discrete writer, method, or empirical topic discussed in the course. They will then be required to write an essay which critically analyses and evaluates this reading, demonstrating an integrated understanding of how the subject materials contribute to legal history as discipline and practice
| 50% | |
Students will be required to sit an exam, which will involve evaluation of students' conceptual understanding of legal history as body of knowledge, and/or its operative effect in legal scholarship. The exam will be open book, and will be held in class
| 50% |
Additional details
The due date of the above assessment will be available to students via the Assessment Schedule on the LMS Community.
Last updated: 30 January 2024
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
Not available in 2024
Time commitment details
144 hours
Additional delivery details
This subject has a quota.
Last updated: 30 January 2024
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: 30 January 2024