Course

Advanced Administrative Law: Adapting to Regulatory Change - LAWS3282

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 4

Enrolment Requirements:

Pre-requisite: Admin Law LAWS1160/JURD7160 & Public Law LAWS1141/JURD7141 Pre-requisite: LAWS1160/JURD7160 & LAWS1140/JURD7140

Excluded: JURD7382

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

The course offers a broad range of topics, spanning state liability in tort and the impact of the Civil Liability Act, remedies for maladministration, judicial review, executive power, non-judicial approaches to resolving disputes and public functions which are performed by private entities. It also looks at areas in which the law can develop and challenges the orthodox interpretations of public law’s limits.


Recommended Prior Knowledge

The prerequisite for this Course is Administrative Law (LAWS1160 / JURD7160). Its topics and concerns align most closely with constitutional law, but there are also frequent intersections with other Law School Courses (particularly dealing with torts and private law remedies).

Course Objectives

This course aims to ensure that students build on their knowledge of the central principles of administrative law. Students completing the course will:
  • Increase their appreciation of the relationship between law and government decision making, including how the law forms a framework that enables and controls government activity;
  • Study new forms of regulation and government service delivery;
  • Debate the continued viability of distinctions between public and private law;
  • Participate in group discussions; and
  • Develop viable and interesting essay topics.

Main Topics

  • An evaluation of different iterations of regulation and their interaction with administrative law;
  • The centrality of “government” for public law, and the question of whether it remains an organising principle in light of the state's increasing use of private sector bodies for governmental purposes;
  • Judicial review of private sector bodies, tort liability of public bodies and the impact of the tort reform legislation;
  • The extent to which different jurisdictions allow for substantive enforcement of legitimate expectations; and
  • An analysis of recent cases which have featured judicial review of government policy.

Course Outcomes

Consistent with the course objectives above, the learning outcomes expected on the completion of this course include:
  • Core doctrinal understanding: familiarity with the central principles of Administrative Law, at common law and under statute, and with the mechanisms for achieving accountability.
  • Intellectual skills: including an ability to identify Administrative Law issues and to identify the appropriate approaches, and an ability to integrate theoretical approaches with real world dilemmas.
  • Professional skills: including ongoing professional reflective practice, oral skills (making persuasive presentations or contributing to collegial discussions and debates), research and written skills (writing a formal essay).

Assessment

Class Participation 10%
Structured Essay Plan & Presentation 10%
Research Essay 80%
 

Course Texts

Prescribed

There are no required texts for this course.

Recommended
  • Mark Aronson & Matthew Groves, Judicial Review of Administrative Action (5th ed, 2013);
  • Mark Aronson, Bruce Dyer & Matthew Groves, Judicial Review of Administrative Action (4th ed, 2009);
  • Carol Harlow & Richard Rawlings, Law and Administration (3rd ed, 2009);
  • Paul Craig, Administrative Law (7th ed, 2012);
  • Cora Hoexter, Administrative Law in South Africa (2nd ed, 2012);
  • Carol Harlow, State Liability: Tort Law and Beyond (2004);
  • Peter W. Hogg et al, Liability of the Crown (4th ed, 2011);
  • Carolyn Sappideen & Prue Vines (eds), Fleming's The Law of Torts (10th ed, 2011); and
  • Kit Barker et al, The Law of Torts in Australia (5th ed, 2011).
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