The course will involve a comparative study of Australian and US approaches to Race Law.

At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:

• identify similarities and differences between the Australian and US law on 'race'
• distinguish different socio-historical policies and understandings about 'race', and how they are drawn upon and used by the law
• identify, articulate and debate contemporary issues relating to 'race' by drawing upon the selected legal topics studied in the course as examples
• hypothesise any contextual factors which might contribute to the commonalities and divergences between the Australian and US race law
• analyse particular legal material discussed during the course to generate a written argument which compares how the two legal systems frame issues about race.

The course will require participation in seminar activites throughout the intensive teaching period.  The course will be primarily assessed by a 5,000-6,000 word comparative research essay due after the end of the course.  Further details of the final assessment will be provided on the course home page by the first week of the course.

This course is run in intensive format with approximately 9 hours of lectures/seminars per week during Weeks 1-5 inclusive of Semester 2.

Completed or completing five LAWS courses at 1000 level.
This course is capped at 20.

Please note that this course is a repeat of LAWS2248 taught in January-February of the same year at the University of Alabama and cannot be taken by students who have completed that course.

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

To derive maximum benefit from the course, it is suggested that students undertake it in the latter part of their studies, when they have achieved a reasonable degree of familiarity with law in general and with the particular subject area of the course in any given year.