LAW4129 Law and discrimination
Faculty of Law
LAW4129 Law and discrimination is a level 4, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Law, offered in 2022 in Semester 1 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2022
- Semester 1
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 2 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2022 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before LAW4129
Corequisites
Pass these before, or take them in the same semester.
After LAW4129
No unit lists LAW4129 as a prerequisite in the 2022 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Overview
This unit examines discrimination as a social and legal phenomenon, as one of the main areas in which Australia has sought to explicitly enshrine human rights protection. Discrimination law prohibits a range of direct and indirect conduct that perpetrates inequality on the basis of protected attributes, such as sex, race and disability. However, Australian discrimination law retains significant flaws and lags behind contemporary developments in comparable jurisdictions such as Canada, New Zealand, and the UK - especially regarding systemic, preventative measures.
This unit explores the key features and framework of discrimination law in Australia: its social context, underlying concepts and theories, federal and state/territory interactions, prohibitions of unlawful discrimination, protection of particular attributes, and use of exceptions and exemptions. Throughout, the focus will be on the following: to what extent is discrimination law an effective system in addressing, redressing, and preventing discrimination? Could it be improved and reformed, and if so how?
Offerings in 2022
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| First semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Research assignment40%
- Law reform assessmentAssignment60%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Acquire knowledge of the problem of unjustifiable discrimination and its Australian social context, and of anti-discrimination laws and their application and interpretation
- 2
Develop your research and writing skills through preparing a research paper
- 3
Develop an understanding of the philosophical and legal concepts of equality and discrimination and the problems of the development of this area in the common law context
- 4
Develop the ability to think critically about concepts of equality, discrimination, special treatment, and the capacity and limits of law as a mechanism of social change.
Workload and teaching
- Seminars36 hours
- Teaching approachActive learning
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
Learning resources
Required resources
See the Moodle unit page for prescribed and recommended resources. Prescribed texts are usually available for purchase through the University Bookstore and are sometimes available for short-term loan or as eBooks through the library.
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Mr Liam Elphick
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for LAW4129?
None, but you must take LAW3111 and LAW3112 before or alongside it.
When is LAW4129 offered?
In 2022, LAW4129 runs in Semester 1 at Clayton.
How much work is LAW4129?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does LAW4129 have an exam?
No. LAW4129 has 2 assessment tasks and no exam.