Objectives:

This course is designed to give students an opportunity to explore contemporary issues in Australian constitutional law. Issues will be examined both from a practical and theoretical dimension.

Content:

The contemporary topics examined in the course may change each year, to reflect constitutional law developments and the interest of participants. Illustrative examples of issues that could be covered at present include:

• the implied right to vote;
• recent implied freedom of political communication cases;
• Pape v Commissioner of Taxation, Williams v Commonwealth and the nature of executive power;
• section 96 grants;
• referrals of power and other cooperative schemes;
• Momcilovic v The Queen;
• section 109 inconsistency;
• same-sex marriage;
• the position of the territories;
• minority government;
• constitutional interpretation;
• proportionality;
• use of comparative and international law;
• procedural issues, including agreeing to facts;
• the role of interveners and amicus curiae; and
•  constitutional change.

By the end of this course students will have:

• an extended appreciation of the range of current issues currently influencing developments in Australian constitutional law;
• the capacity to integrate that appreciation so as to anticipating future developments;
• the ability to contribute to the scholarly discussion surrounding current developments in constitutional law;
• extended their knowledge of constitutional law principles and developed their ability to apply them in a variety of practical and theoretical contexts;
• critically analysed legal scholarship and other material discussing recent developments; and
• appreciated the interrelationships between recent developments and their influence on fundamental constitutional law and broader public law principles.

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the course homepage on the ANU Law website, prior to the commencement of the course.

The course will involve 4 days of intensive face to face discussion as well as extensive use of on-line materials and discussion.

LAWS8015 Fundamentals of Government and Commercial Law (non-lawyers)

Students must rely on the course outline which will be posted to the course homepage on the ANU Law website, prior to the commencement of the course.

Students will be asked to participate in on-line discussion and development of assessment tasks using the ANU’s wattle learning environment prior to the commencement of the face-to-face component of the course. More details will be available in the course outline.