Melbourne University Law Review

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

Practical experience with periodical guidance from the Subject Coordinator.

Applicants are selected through a competitive application process. Please refer to the Melbourne Law JD website for further information.

144 hours

Only approved applicants can enrol into this subject. Please see above for a link to further information.

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

Successful completion of all the below subjects:

Students who have completed any of the below subjects are not permitted to take LAWS50058 Melbourne University Law Review:

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:

• The ability to attend classes and actively engage in the analysis of complex materials and debate;
• The ability to read, analyse and comprehend complex written legal materials and complex interdisciplinary materials;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate in writing a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate orally a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
• The ability to work independently and as a part of a group;
• 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 inhibit them from meeting these inherent academic requirements are encouraged to contact Student Equity and Disability Support.

This subject is available only to editors of Melbourne University Law Review (MULR), who, as editors, are committed to making a substantial intellectual contribution to MULR during the enrolled semester. The nature of the ‘substantial intellectual contribution’ required may vary depending on the nature of their work with MULR.

Making a ‘substantial intellectual contribution’ is an implicit hurdle requirement for the subject, which permits students to provide evidence of what they have learnt about the nature of legal research from undertaking their tasks within MULR. This evidence takes the form of the writing tasks specified below, requiring engagement with legal scholarship as well as critical reflection on work undertaken.

Students who successfully complete this subject will be able to do some of the following, depending on the nature of their chosen assessment task:

• Write in a style suitable for a generalist university law journal publication;
• State an informed personal perspective or position relative to a discrete area of legal research published in the journal;
• Describe and discuss the broad state of the research field relevant to the journal, and identify where their personal views and approaches are placed relative to that body of research;
• Perceive the diversity of what classifies as legal research, including its underlying philosophies and approaches; and
• Identify trends in legal research, including what drivers may influence those trends.

• A reflective work-log (1,000 words) submitted to the Subject Coordinator specifying in outline the substantial intellectual contribution made to MULR in the enrolled semester and reflecting on the broad state of the research field relevant to MULR and other subject objectives in light of the work undertaken. Code 2 applies to marking: work judged grossly in excess of any word limit will incur a marking penalty. The reflective work-log will be a formal hurdle requirement for this subject.
• An independent research paper of 5,000 words. The work must be on a research question (developed by the student in consultation with the subject coordinator and/or discipline expert) and in a genre that makes it suitable for publication in the MULR. Code 3 applies to marking: The word limit will be regarded as recommended rather than compulsory and no student will be disadvantaged by exceeding the limit. The paper will be worth 100% of the mark for this subject. *

* In place of the independent research paper, enrolled students may choose to complete a 5,000 word paper that critically analyses and reflects on editorial choices made and challenges faced in the process of editing the volume(s) with which they were involved. (Code 2 applies to marking: work judged grossly in excess of any word limit will incur a marking penalty).

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Upon completion of the subject, students will have developed some of the following skills, depending on the nature of the assessment task they have chosen to undertake:

• Analysis of the nature and quality of 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 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:
  • Conduct, use and synthesise legal research;
  • Convey a coherent appraisal of legal research;
  • Edit complex pieces which offer comprehensible analysis of legal research;
  • Write persuasively and engagingly about the complex tasks involved in managing a journal.