MJIL-Research and Writing

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

LAWS50023 Legal Method and Reasoning; LAWS50024 Principles of Public Law; LAWS50025 Torts; LAWS50026 Obligations; LAWS50027 Dispute Resolution; LAWS50028 Constitutional Law; LAWS50029 Contracts; LAWS50030 Property; LAWS50031 Legal Theory.

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

The Melbourne Law School welcomes applications from students with disabilities. It is University and Law School policy to take all reasonable steps to enable the participation of students with disabilities, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student’s participation in the School’s programs.

The inherent academic requirements for the study in the Melbourne Law School are:

1. The ability to attend classes and actively engage in the analysis of complex materials and debate;
2. The ability to read, analyse and comprehend complex written legal materials and complex interdisciplinary materials;
3. The ability to clearly and independently communicate in writing a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
4. The ability to clearly and independently communicate orally a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
5. The ability to work independently and as a part of a group;
6. The ability to present orally and in writing legal analysis to a professional standard.

Students must possess behavioural and social attributes that enable them to participate in a complex learning environment. Students are required to take responsibility for their own participation and learning. They also contribute to the learning of other students in collaborative learning environments, demonstrating interpersonal skills and an understanding of the needs of other students. Assessment may include the outcomes of tasks completed in collaboration with other students.

Students who feel their disability will prevent them from participating in tasks involving these inherent academic requirements are encouraged to contact the Disability Liaison Unit: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/.

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, 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 international legal research in terms of approach and quality.

• As a hurdle requirement, the provision of a work-log (1,000 words) to the Subject Coordinator specifying in outline the substantial intellectual contribution made to MJIL in the enrolled semester and detailing the work undertaken in performing these tasks. To complete the subject, the Coordinator must accept the work log as satisfactory. In deciding whether or not the contribution is satisfactory, the Subject Coordinator may consult with those who were appointed as the Editors of MJIL in the semester that the student was enrolled in the subject;
• 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 make it suitable for publication in the MJIL. (The word limit will be regarded as recommended rather than compulsory and 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 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.