Legal Studies

This course introduces the foundations of international human rights law. It covers ongoing debates and key substantive issues, as well as the institutional framework for the protection of human rights, while critically examining international human rights instruments. The course equips students with conceptual, practical and analytical tools necessary for effective human rights research to prepare for advanced study in the field through more specialized topics, including but not limited to international criminal law, transitional justice, and international refugee law.

This course examines the interplay between criminology and public policy. As well as providing an overview of factors shaping policy in Australia and other countries, it reviews challenges associated with making criminological, sociological, and philosophical theory relevant in practical contexts. It explores the implications, challenges and opportunities for policy change and considers the systems and processes that determine what is considered deserving of state intervention as either public policy or criminalization. Emphasis is placed on critically exploring contemporary public policy concerns such as those related to climate change, abolition, immigration, social security and policing.

This course examines the legal structure of the federal state in Switzerland, covering topics such as the structure of the Confederation, the powers of the cantons, federalism, and political rights.

This course provides key legal skills necessary to enable compliant, effective and sustainable public procurement contracting. The course engages with different policy objectives for the public procurement life cycle including contracting specifications, evaluation criteria, conflicts of interest and dispute settlement. This course includes two negotiating exercises addressing procurement contracts and procurement agreements to provide students with the skills to communicate and understand the legal parameters as well as the different trade-offs involved.

Main topics include general features of environmental law in the UK; controlling space; controlling climate change; controlling enterprise; and the future of environmental law.

This course introduces some of the central issues and concepts involved in a critical consideration of punishment and penal systems. The course explores the main theoretical perspectives and applies these to some contemporary problems in the field. Topics include the aim of punishment and societal structure; the political economy of punishment; punishment and discipline; punishment and culture; probation, electronic monitoring, and risk; restorative justice; prison; the death penalty and life imprisonment ; and fines and intersectionality.
 

The course explores the needs and rights of children and young people involved in offending behavior and in the youth justice system, and how we should respond to those children and young people who cause harm to others. The course unpicks the politicization of youth crime and the demonization of young people, reflects on the recent development and explores the current Positive Youth Justice approach. The course considers the research evidence that attempts to explain why children and young people become involved in offending behavior, ranging from anti-social behavior to grave crimes. Understanding current priorities within the youth justice system, such as the over-representation of specific groups of children or their involvement in "county lines" offences, is an integral part of the course; the course also considers international perspectives on youth crime to see how youth justice systems operate elsewhere in the world. 

This course sits at the forefront of cultural criminology and legal humanities, offering students a deep exploration of the relationship between culture and criminal justice. It engages students in critical discussions on how culture shapes, and is shaped by, law covering topics such as art theft, cultural looting, AI and technology, performance in trials, and the role of technology in legal processes. The first half of the class examines criminal justice through the lens of art and culture, exploring literature, theatre, and art that engage with justice themes, and developing analytical skills through performance analysis and creative writing. The second half reverses the perspective, analyzing art through a criminal justice lens by considering issues such as censorship, policing culture, and the legal frameworks that regulate art and cultural expression. The class fosters cross-disciplinary thinking and equips students with new methods of critical analysis for criminology, law, and justice studies.