The University of New South Wales

go to UNSW home page

Handbook Home

PRINT THIS PAGE
Litigation 2 - LAWS2321
 Aerial view of UNSW

 
Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Faculty of Law
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Undergraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 6
 
 
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 4
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: LAWS2311; JURD7211
 
 
Excluded: JURD7221
 
 
CSS Contribution Charge:Band 3 (more info)
 
   
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
  

Description

Litigation 2 provides a contextual and critical overview of significant evidentiary principles and rules. It introduces students to the rules of evidence pursuant to the Evidence Act 1995 and related issues which typically apply in most court orientated litigation. Litigation 2 is not an advocacy skills course but a good grasp of rules of evidence and procedure is a pre-requisite to becoming an accomplished advocate.

Litigation 2 is a compulsory course that builds on and extends students' studies of Criminal and Civil Procedure in Litigation 1, Criminal Law 1 & 2 and Law, Lawyers and Society.


Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

  • To establish a basic knowledge of the doctrine, principles and rules relating to procedure and evidence law in both civil and criminal litigation in the trial stage. Students will be provided with structured opportunities to acquire a functioning and contextual knowledge of law and legal institutions and intellectual skills of analysis, synthesis, critical judgment, reflection and evaluation
  • To foster personal and professional values gained from an understanding and sensitivity to a variety of related ethical, social, economic, political and justice issues affecting the formal resolution of criminal and civil matters: eg defence and prosecutorial practices; the use of judicial resources; the role of juries; the accused’s position in court: to foster students’ critical analytical skills and enhance their understanding from a social justice orientation of trial related practice issues
  • To provide students with the opportunity to actively engage in the learning experience through classroom discussions and activities. This enhances their ability to critically evaluate trial processes from legal and social justice perspectives. It also enhances challenging their assumptions and beliefs

Main Topics

  • Adversarialism, the accused and the criminal trial;
  • Relevance and discretionary and mandatory exclusions;
  • Proof and judicial knowledge;
  • Obtaining testimony (prosecutorial fairness, unrepresented accused, testimonial competence and compellability);
  • Questioning witnesses in court (examination in chief, cross-examination, re-examination, unfavourable witnesses, credibility attacks on witnesses, special rules regarding sexual offences);
  • The hearsay rule and its exceptions;
  • Evidence of opinion and expert testimony;
  • The accused (the accused as a witness, his/her right to silence, character, tendency and coincidence evidence);
  • Unreliable evidence and warnings.

Assessment

Compulsory
Advanced Court Observation or Research Essay 30%
End of semester exam (Open book) 70%
Optional
Class participation (maximisable) 10%

Course Texts

Prescribed

  • Hunter J, Cameron C, & Henning Litigation II: Evidence and Criminal Process (7th ed) LexisNexis B’worths (2005)
  • Evidence Act (NSW or Cth), 1995 or an Evidence Act annotation. A copy of the legislation is also available at http://www.austlii.edu.au
  • Faculty of Law, UNSW, LAWS2321 Supplementary Materials (UNSW Bookshop)
Recommended
See the Course Outline available at the beginning of the relevant semester.

Resources

Refer to Course Outline provided by lecturer.

URL for this page:

© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.