New Ideas in Legal Scholarship

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

This subject has a quota of 15 students. Interested students should send a short email (1-2 paragraphs) to the Subject Coordinator outlining why they are interested in this subject.

Applications are assessed 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 information on how to apply for this subject, application due dates, etc.

Successful completion of all the below subjects:

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 designed for second and third year JD students who are interested in learning about new ideas and directions in academic legal scholarship. It will expose students to current debates and introduce them to the process of producing scholarly work at a professional level. Students will learn how to critically and constructively assess academic works in progress, and will develop their own views about particular debates, topics, and methods of inquiry in legal scholarship. Students who are interested in pursuing academic careers in law are especially encouraged to enrol but this is not a prerequisite: students with any career objective will benefit from the unique educational experience that this subject provides.

Students will be expected to demonstrate skills and knowledge acquired in a series of ‘response papers’ that comment on/critique the works in progress under examination. Response papers will form the basis of assessment for the subject.

Students will meet with the subject coordinator nine times over the course of the semester. There are two kinds of meetings students will be required to attend: those held concurrently with the regularly scheduled meeting of the Legal Theory Workshop (‘on’ weeks); and Student Workshop meetings held during weeks when there is no Legal Theory Workshop meeting scheduled (‘off’ weeks).

The Legal Theory Workshop is Melbourne Law School’s works-in-progress discussion forum for faculty and research higher degree students, which meets approximately twice a month. Each workshop meeting features an unpublished article-length paper from a guest author, circulated and read in advance by workshop participants. Workshop guests regularly include distinguished legal scholars from across Australia and overseas. Topics vary depending on the guest’s particular area 
of scholarly expertise and interest, but cover a wide range of issues in legal scholarship across all sub-disciplines. Past guest paper topics have included:

• International legal obligations and indigenous peoples;
• Moral disagreement and legal justification;
• Private law and social illusion; and
• Religion and legal reasoning.

During ‘on’ weeks, students will meet for one hour before the Legal Theory Workshop meeting to discuss student response papers and the workshop guest's paper. After that hour is over, students will attend the 2 hour workshop meeting.

In addition, during two ‘off’ weeks, students will meet for one hour with the subject coordinator to discuss topics related to legal scholarship and academia. This may include meeting to discuss supplementary or background materials depending on guest paper topics and student interests.

A student who has successfully completed this subject will have an advanced understanding of, and be able to critically analyse, and reflect on:

• Current debates in legal scholarship (including who holds what position in those debates);
• The challenges of defining research topics or questions, and ways to approach those challenges;
• Different methods and approaches to researching a topic or question;
• Formulating hypotheses and developing strong and persuasive lines of argument;
• The process of writing and revising in light of feedback and comments; and
• The process of giving oral and written feedback and comments on the academic work of colleagues.

1. Participation and attendance (hurdle requirement);
2. Response papers (100%): students will be required to prepare and submit 6 response papers of 1,200 - 1,500 words.

The due date of the above assessment will be available to students via the LMS.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of the subject students should have developed and demonstrated skills in the following areas:

• Reading: learning to identify key claims, arguments, and assumptions in scholarly work with precision;
• Oral communication: learning to speak with greater confidence and clarity in an academically rigorous environment, particularly on topics outside of one's expertise;
• Written communication: learning to write with greater analytical clarity and focus, and to express complicated ideas, to specialist and non-specialist legal audiences, more effectively and efficiently; and
• Analytical: learning to generate and evaluate complex ideas to form the basis of scholarly work, or to critique the scholarly work of others.