Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 201049

Coordinator Michael Brogan Opens in new window

Description This subject provides students with the opportunity to critically reflect on the legal, statutory and ethical principles and standards that underpin the professional obligations of legal practitioners. Students will also analyse ethical issues that commonly occur in professional legal practice in contemporary multicultural Australia, particularly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It deals with the professional, legal and ethical responsibilities legal practitioners owe to the law, the courts, their clients and to fellow practitioners, as well as the state and society at large. Students will be able to explain and evaluate the law and practice of legal practitioners, by reference to key topics, such as: professionalism; legal ethics; the history, structure and regulation of the legal profession; and the interpersonal, psychological and cultural factors affecting lawyering. Guided by an ethical decision-making model, students will demonstrate their ability to use primary legal materials to answer legal ethical problems, and explore the relationship between personal and professional attitudes and values by reflecting on their own views and observations.

School Law

Discipline Legal Practice

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 4 10cp

Level Postgraduate Coursework Level 7 subject

Co-requisite(s) LAWS 7056 Fundamentals of Australian Law

Incompatible Subjects LAWS 2015 Professional Responsibility and Legal Ethics

Restrictions

Students must be enrolled in a postgraduate program.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Reflect on the legal, statutory and ethical principles and standards that underpin the professional obligations of legal practitioners;
2. Analyse ethical issues that commonly occur in professional legal practice in contemporary multicultural Australia, particularly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
3. Recommend appropriate strategies to avoid legal and ethical risks in professional legal practice
4. Propose arguments to support or counter propositions for reform in legal ethics
5. Develop their own ethical framework by exploring the relationship between personal and professional attitudes and values and by observing lawyers in practice.
   

Subject Content

• The legal profession: Issues, ethics and lawyering
• Professional communication (including cultural Understanding)
• Duty to The Law, Courts and Fellow practitioners
• Duty to clients (including Basic principles of trust accounting)
• Admission, professional misconduct and discipline
• Psychology and Ethical decision making