MJIL - Research and Writing

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.

Enrolment requires the permission of the Subject Coordinator. Students must undertake, in writing to the Subject Coordinator, to make a substantial intellectual contribution to the Melbourne Journal of International Law (MJIL) during the semester that the student is enrolled in the subject.

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 Members of MJIL and are committed to a position involving a substantial intellectual contribution to MJIL during the enrolled semester. A substantial intellectual contribution will typically involve taking responsibility for the sub-editing of material accepted for publication, such editing to be typically done in respect of at least on lengthy article (in excess of 10,0000 words in length) or multiple shorter articles (each under 10,000 words in length). This contribution is assessed by a hurdle requirement. This subject permits students to provide evidence of what the student has learnt about the nature of international legal research from undertaking their tasks within MJIL. This evidence takes the form of the writing task specified below, requiring engagement with international legal scholarship.

On completion of this subject, students should:

• Be able to write in a style suitable for a generalist university international law journal publication;
• State an informed personal perspective or position relative to a discrete area 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, multidisciplinary 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;
• Appreciate the differences in international legal research in terms of approach and quality.
  

• The provision of a 1,000-word work-log to the Subject Coordinator specifying in outline the substantial intellectual contribution made to MJIL and detailing the work undertaken in performing these tasks. To complete the subject, the Subject Coordinator must accept the work log as satisfactory. In deciding whether the contribution is satisfactory, the Subject Coordinator may consult with the MJIL Editors (hurdle);
• Written work of 5,000 words. The work must be on a research question developed by the student in consultation with the subject coordinator and in a genre that makes it suitable for publication in the MJIL. A code 3 word limit will be regarded as recommended and no student will be disadvantaged by exceeding the limit. (100%)
  

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;
• Intercultural sensitivity and understanding.

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

• Analysis of the nature and quality of international legal research, including and 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;
  - 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;
  - 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.