The aim of this course is to give students an appreciation of issues involved in administering legislative rules and to teach students ways of preventing these issues during the legislative drafting phase. The course specifically explores how technology can be used throughout the legislative lifecycle.

Students will be introduced to a methodology and technologies which emphasise the importance of precise and structured legal expression and offer many options to analyse and represent the structure of complex legal material.

Throughout the course, students will be required to learn and apply new technology to the problems at hand.

There are two parts to the course:

• Drafting - The drafting component of this course will give students an awareness of legislative drafting styles and common drafting structures, practice in discerning the meaning of legislation and an understanding of both the importance and ingredients of good drafting technique.
• Legislation and Technology -  This part of the course will demonstrate how an increasing number of government agencies are using technology to interpret, analyse, and administer complex law and policy. By the end of the course students will have created their own legislative rulebase.

The assessment for this course generally consists of:

• an analysis piece (or multiple pieces) requiring the student to interpret and analyse a piece of legislation and report on their findings
• the construction of a legislative rulebase using the technology taught in class
• a final report examining the interaction of legal drafting and technology.

Each week there will be a 3 hour class consisting of both a theoretical and hands-on component. Students are generally expected to devote approximately 10 hours overall per week to this course.

It is helpful for students to have some experience in Microsoft Word, basic computer literacy and an interest in learning new technology.

Completed or completing five LAWS courses at 1000 level.

Course materials will be made available on the course website.

A reading guide will be available on the course web page.

Students must have access to software installed on the ANU LAWG17 computer lab to complete compulsory assessment in this course.

This course is restricted to 20 students.