Crime & Criminal Process/Public Law

Crime and the Criminal Process (1021)

Crime and the Criminal Process is the first of two parts in UNSW Law’s organisation of teaching criminal law, the second being Criminal Laws. This first subject focuses on the interaction between society and the criminal justice system. Initially, it emphasises themes of criminalisation and police powers, before honing in on more specific drugs and public order offences. The content is wide-ranging, so the best way to keep up is to try and stay on top of the readings. While the reading is relatively light (about 20 pages per class), there’s lots of sources in the textbook. The cases are especially important, so you can analogise with them in the problem question. Assessments consist of class participation, a court report and a final exam. For the report, research is important. The exam tests many skills, with a problem question testing police powers and offences, another requiring students to identify offence elements, and a normative essay question based on hypothetical legislation. The best way to do well is to untangle all details and characters and revise how criminal offences are structured. Overall, the course can stimulate interesting class discussions about law and society. One highlight involves the class discussing whether certain profanity is offensive, leading to extensive use of profanity in class. It’s definitely possible to stay organised and have fun.

Garrick Wong

Private Law (1150)

Private Law is divided into two components; Contract formation and property law. Unlike other first year subjects, this course has three textbooks; Contracts Casebook, Contract Textbook and the UNSW Custom Publication.When it comes to Principles of Private Law, the law lies in the cases. Lecturers will no doubt ask, “what was this case about?”. I have always found this as the perfect opportunity to earn class participation marks by describing and explaining the facts, issues and ratio of cases. I recommend compiling ‘case notes’ on the main issues of cases and its implications on contract or property law. Also, don’t ever be afraid of asking questions about hypothetical scenarios in class, no question is too silly! In fact, I found this to help solidify my understanding of the relevant principles.Secondly, I highly recommend reading the Contracts Textbook, as I find it clearly explains the relevant principles and contract law cases much easier than the Case Book. The Contracts textbook is commonly prescribed as ‘supplementary readings’, which is often overlooked by students as an added burden on top of compulsory readings.Nevertheless, I found it very valuable in extracting the relevant principles of cases and a summary of the relevant law. I recommend making a short summary of the contract law concepts by reading the Textbook, and then moving onto identifying the application of the concepts in the Case Book. If you’re really short on time, prioritise readings from the Contracts Textbook.

Noor Chirenian (Second Year Comm/Law)