MJIL-Editorship

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

Legal Method and Reasoning; Principles of Public Law; Torts; Obligations; Dispute Resolution; Constitutional Law; Contracts; Property (or Property A); Legal Theory.

A student must be an Editor of the Melbourne Journal of International Law (MJIL) during the enrolled semester.

A student can not have previously completed or be concurrently enrolled in the subject MULR – Research and Writing, 730-432 MJIL (Year Long), or 730-448 Melbourne Journal of International Law.

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

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 students who are appointed as an Editor of MJIL during the enrolled semester. The subject permits students to provide evidence of what the student has learnt about the nature of international legal research from undertaking their tasks as an Editor of MJIL. This evidence takes the form of one of the writing tasks specified below, requiring engagement with international legal scholarship.

On completion of this subject, students should:

• Be able to write in a style suitable for an international law journal publication;
• State an informed personal perspective or position relative to a body of international 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 international 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.

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 international legal scholarship and within a particular style or approach; and
  - Develop and express a personal position on legal 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 international legal research.

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