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The Criminal Trial - LAWS3323
 Night Landscape

 
Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Faculty of Law
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Undergraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 4
 
 
EFTSL: 0.08333 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: LAWS1001 and LAWS1011 and Corequisite: LAWS2311; Prerequisite: JURD7101 and JURD7111 and Corequisite: JURD7211
 
 
Excluded: JURD7523
 
 
CSS Contribution Charge:Band 3 (more info)
 
   
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
  

Description

The Criminal Trial is a course that grounds the study of the criminal trial by contextualising the impact of the law of evidence and advocacy practice while building on students' basic knowledge of the doctrine, principles and rules relating to criminal litigation. It builds on and extends students' studies in Litigation 1 and 11, Criminal Law 1 and 11, Law, Lawyers and Society, Kingsford Legal Centre and The Criminal Appeal Project by providing a multidisciplinary framework that explicates the role of participants in the criminal trial process.

Outside classroom hours students must attend criminal trials in progress to observe the conduct of judges, jurors, accused, witnesses and lawyers in real cases. Classroom discussion focuses on commentaries in the course text that examine a variety of issues associated with the dynamics of criminal trials. These commentaries are from a multidisciplinary perspective, incorporating the observations of historians, psychologists, sociologists and linguists. Assessment is an essay that is a comparative analysis of the conduct and practices of participants in observed trials with what the law expects, requires or assumes exists in relation to those participants.


Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Main Topics

  • Decision-makers in the criminal trial: the judge; the jury
  • The Common Law trial and the theory of case
  • Building a case for trial: theory of case, storytelling and advocacy
  • The accused and … where did our criminal trial come from?
  • Witnesses and lawyers

Assessment

Court fieldwork (0%)
and
Criminal trial report (70%)
and either
Class preparation and participation (0 - 30%, maximisable against reflective note option)
or
Complete 1-3 reflective notes (10% each to a maximum total of 30%)

Course Texts

Prescribed
Course materials will be available from the UNSW Bookshop.

Recommended
Refer to Course Outline.

Resources

Refer to Course Outline.

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.