Disciplines and areas of study
Legal studies
Program Coordinator: Dr Sue Davies
Legal studies is an interdisciplinary field of enquiry that focuses on contextualising, exploring, and critiquing law, its nature, operation, and effects. The lagal studies program at La Trobe encompasses both general Legal Studies and Criminology. The insights, theories and methods of various disciplines (including sociology, politics, cultural studies and history) are employed within legal studies to explore how law’s existence and operation involves the constant negotiation of complex and completing perspectives and demands. Legal studies aims to equip 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 and the bachelor of Social Sciences degrees.
Legal studies subjects, 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 subjects that may be taken depends on the rules of the degree for which a student is enrolled.
Programs of study
Legal Studies Major
To complete a major in Legal Studies students must complete:
- a Legal Studies core subject at each year level of their degree.
- 30 credit points at first year level,
- 40 credit points at second-year level and
- at least 60 credit points at third year level of Legal Studies subjects from the list below.
| Teaching period | Subject title | Subject code |
|---|---|---|
| First year core subjects (15 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Law and Legal Consciousness | LST1LAS |
| Second year core subject (20 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Law, Justice and Power | LST2LJP |
| Third year core subject (20 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-2 | Law, Policy and Community | LST3LPC |
| Teaching period | Subject title | Subject code |
|---|---|---|
| First year subjects (15 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | Law and Legal Consciousness | LST1LAS |
| TE-SEM-1 | Legal Practices 2 | LST1LEP |
| TE-SEM-2 | Crime and Criminology | LST1CCR |
| Second or third year subjects (20 credit points) | ||
| TE-SEM-1 | American Politics | POL2IAP/POL3IAP |
| 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 | Deviance, Criminality and Social Control | SOC2DCS/SOC3DCS |
| TE-SEM-1 | The European Union | HIS2EUU/HIS3EUU |
| TE-SEM-1 | Human Rights: fundamental issues | PHI2HUR/PHI3HUR |
| TE-SEM-1 | Social Research Methods | SOC2MSR/SOC3MSR |
| TE-SEM-1 | Law, Justice and Power | LST2LJP |
| TE-SEM-1 | Peace and Change | POL2PAC/POL3PAC |
| TE-SEM-2 | Aboriginal Australia | ANT2ABA/ANT3ABA |
| TE-SEM-2 | Aborigines and the State | ANT2AAS/ANT3AAS |
| TE-SEM-2 | Australian Aboriginal History | HIS2AAH/HIS3AAH |
| TE-SEM-2 | Contesting Social Policy | SOC2CSP/SOC3CSP |
| TE-SEM-2 | Drugs, Law and Social Justice | LST2DLS/LST3DLS |
| TE-SEM-2 | International Law and International Organisation | POL2ILO/POL3ILO |
| TE-SEM-2 | Law, Rights and Social Justice | LST2LSJ/LST3LSJ |
| Third year subjects (20 credit points) | ||
| Wk 02-07 | Legal Studies Workplace Practice 2 | LST3LSW |
| TE-SEM-1 | Reading Course A | LST3RCA |
| TE-SEM-2 | Reading Course B | LST3RCB |
Key: 2 Only available to students enrolled in the Bachelor of Legal Studies.
| Teaching period | Subject title | Subject code |
|---|---|---|
| Second or third year subjects (20 credit points) | ||
| Discrimination and the Law | LST2DAL/LST3DAL | |
| Crime and Psychology | LST2CAP/LST3CAP | |
| Law, Policy and Community | LST3LPC | |
| Punishment in Context | LST2PIC/LST3PIC | |
| Social Policy, Welfare and the State | SOC2SWS/SOC3SWS | |
| Social Theories of Deviance | SOC2STD/SOC3STD | |
| Violence and the Cinema | CST2VAC/CST3VAC | |
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 subjects 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 subjects.
The course comprises a research thesis and two fourth year honours subjects. Students complete a 12,000-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.