MULR - Editorship (Year Long)

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

Practical experience with ad hoc guidance from the subject coordinator.

144 hours.

Legal Method and Reasoning (or equivalent).

A student must be an Editor of the Melbourne University Law Review (MULR) during the enrolled semester.

A student can not have previously completed or currently be enrolled in the subjects MULR - Editorship or MULR - Research and Writing.

Students will not be permitted to enrol in more than 25 credit points of journal subjects in total. These include:

• Melbourne Journal of International Law;
• MJIL – Editorship (Year Long);
• MJIL – Research and Writing;
• MJIL – Editorship;
• MULR – Research and Writing;
• MULR – Editorship;
• MULR – Editorship (Year Long).

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills, and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to providing support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/.

This subject is available only to a student appointed Editor of the Melbourne University Law Review. It permits a student to provide evidence of what the student has learnt about the nature of legal research from undertaking the job of Editor. This evidence takes the form of two specified writing tasks: a short piece suitable for journal publication and a longer piece providing a report on the state of the research field, namely, legal research suitable for Australian university law review publication.

On completion of this subject, students should:

• Be able to write in a style suitable for a generalist university law journal publication;
• State an informed personal perspective or position relative to a body of legal research published in the journal;
• Identify, recognise and contrast attributes of different varieties of international legal research — such as critical legal studies, doctrinal, multi-disciplinary or empirical;
• Be able to describe and discuss the broad state of the research field relevant to the journal;
• Perceive the diversity of what classifies as legal research, including its underlying philosophies and approaches;
• Decide where their personal views and approaches are placed relative to that body of research;
• Be aware of trends in international legal research, including what drivers may influence those trends; and
• Appreciate differences in legal research in terms of approach and quality.
  

• A 2,000-word editorial for a particular part of the journal or a review of a research book, written in a form suitable for publication in the student editor's journal. The editorial or book review is not required to be actually published in the journal. Due end of semester. (30%);
• A 5,000-word essay on the state of the research field, being legal research suitable for Australian university law review publication, based upon the editorship experience. Due end of semester. (70%).

A student has discretion as to approach. The essay could take any one of a number of perspectives, including:

• What research methodologies/frameworks of analysis were being deployed in the field (and/or those which are not);
• What areas are currently topical in the research field (and/or those which are not);
• A survey of a major debate or controversy in the field;
• An analysis of the types of submissions being made to the journal;
• An analysis of what is being published/emphasised by comparable journals.

The above word limits are Code 3 and are regarded as recommended rather than compulsory. No student will be disadvantaged by exceeding the limit.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of the subject, students should have developed the following generic skills (and graduate attributes):

• Attitudes towards knowledge that include valuing truth, openness to new ideas and ethics associated with knowledge creation and usage;
• The capacity for close reading and analysis of a range of sources;
• The capacity for critical and independent thought and reflection;
• The ability to collect and evaluate information;
• The capacity to communicate, both orally and in writing;
• The capacity to plan and manage time; and
• Intercultural sensitivity and understanding.

In addition, on completion of the subject, students should have developed the following skills specific to the discipline of law:

- Analysis of the nature and quality of international legal research, including an ability to:

• Read legal research in a critical and informed manner;
• Critically engage with new ideas;
• Understand and apply ethics in academia;
• Situate a particular piece of legal research within a broader body of legal scholarship and within a particular style or approach; and
• Explain a personal view or position on legal research a a critical and informed user of that research;

- Legal writing skills, including an ability to:

• Use and synthesise legal research;
• Be able to convey a coherent appraisal of legal research; and
• Produce complex pieces which offer comprehensible analysis of legal research.

The 5,000 word essay in this subject is regarded as a substantial piece of legal writing for honours purposes.