In this topic, students will develop an appreciation of law as a social institution, the structure of the Australian legal system including Indigenous legal systems, as well as how the law works in practice and the relationship between law and social change. Students will be introduced to the main legal institutions and sources of law that operate in Australia, including political institutions, the judiciary and courts, the legal profession, and legal actors who enforce the law.
The topic will also consider the social functions of the law, and in particular will look at the debate between whether law maintains social order or is an instruction of social control.
This topic aims to:
Timetable details for 2021 are no longer published.