Disciplines and areas of study
Legal studies
Legal studies is an interdisciplinary field of enquiry that focuses on contextualising, exploring, and critiquing law, its nature, operation, and effects. By utilising the insights of various disciplines (including criminology, sociology and cultural studies), legal studies offers students an opportunity to study how law’s existence and operation involves the constant negotiation of complex and competing perspectives and demands. Legal studies equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to analyse law’s place and role within broader economic, social and political contexts, and enables contemporary questions relating to law, social justice, crime and criminal justice to be pursued in a distinctive and rigorous way The faculty offers legal studies in both the Bachelor of Legal studies and as a major with the Bachelor of Arts degree.
Legal Studies units, except those specifically offered only to students enrolled in the Bachelor of Legal Studies, are available to students enrolled in any faculty. The number of units that may be taken depends on the rules of the degree for which a student is enrolled.
Programs of study
Students who wish to satisfy the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements by taking a major in legal studies must take 130 credit points of legal studies: 30 credit points at first year level, 40 credit points at second year level and 60 credit points at third year level. Units that count towards a major in legal studies are listed below.
| Teaching period | Unit title | Unit code |
|---|---|---|
| First year units (15 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Law and Society | LST1LAS |
| TE-SEM-1 | Legal Practices2 | LST1LEP |
| TE-SEM-2 | Crime and Criminology | LST1CCR |
| Second or third year units (20 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Aborigines and Law in Australia | LST2ALA/LST3ALA |
| TE-SEM-1 | Civil War to Civil Rights in the USA | HIS2CWU/HIS3CWU |
| TE-SEM-1 | Crime, Law and Culture | LST2CLC/LST3CLC |
| TE-SEM-1 | Critical Social Policy1 | SOC2CSP/SOC3CSP |
| TE-SEM-1 | Deviance, Criminality and Social Control1 | SOC2DCS/SOC3DCS |
| TE-SEM-1 | Discrimination and the Law | LST2DAL/LST3DAL |
| TE-SEM-1 | The European Union | HIS2EUU/HIS3EUU |
| TE-SEM-1 | International Law and International Organisation | POL2ILO/POL3ILO |
| TE-SEM-1 | Introduction to American Politics | POL2IAP/POL3IAP |
| TE-SEM-1 | Introduction to Social Research Methods | SOC2MSR/SOC3MSR |
| TE-SEM-1 | Reconciliation | POL2REC/POL3REC |
| TE-SEM-2 | Australian Aboriginal History1 | HIS2AAH/HIS3AAH |
| TE-SEM-2 | Crime and Psychology | LST2CAP/LST3CAP |
| TE-SEM-2 | Law, Rights and Social Justice | LST2LSJ/LST3LSJ |
| TE-SEM-2 | Peace and Change | POL2PAC/POL3PAC |
| TE-SEM-2 | Punishment in Context | LST2PIC/LST3PIC |
| TE-SEM-2 | Social Policy, Welfare and the State | SOC2SWS/SOC3SWS |
| TE-SEM-2 | Social Theories of Deviance | SOC2STD/SOC3STD |
| TE-SEM-2 | Violence and the Cinema1 | CST2VAC/CST3VAC |
| Third year units (20 credit points) | ||
| Wk 02-07 | Legal Studies Workplace Practice2 | LST3LSW |
| TE-SEM-1 | Reading Course A | LST3RCA |
| TE-SEM-2 | Reading Course B | LST3RCB |
- Key: 1 Not available in 2008.
- 2 Only available to students enrolled in the Bachelor of Legal Studies.
Honours
This is a full-year program available to students who wish to have the opportunity to pursue their interests more deeply through fourth year units and a research thesis. To be eligible for honours students should normally have completed a three-year pass degree with achievement of at least a B average in undergraduate legal studies units.
The course comprises a research thesis and two fourth year honours units. Students complete a 12000-word research thesis. Research extends throughout the honours year and requires each student to produce a thesis on the chosen topic under supervision. Prospective candidates are strongly advised to identify a thesis topic and arrange for supervision prior to the end of their third year in the bachelor program.
The units will be selected with the advice and consent of the Legal Studies Honours Coordinator.
A full description of these units (including the unit name, unit code, credit points, campus/location, unit coordinator, class requirements, assessment, prerequisites, and readings) appears at the end of each discipline entry. A full description of LST units appears below. For the most recent descriptions of all units, please access the unit database at www.latrobe.edu.au/udb_public.