LAWS8214 GLOBAL COMMON LAW SYSTEMS
Term 1, 2025
Final Assignment
Research Essay
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Weighting
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40% of total marks for LAWS8214 Global Common Law Systems.
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Due date
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Friday, 9 May 2025 at 11:59pm AEST
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Submission platform
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This assessment should be submitted via a Turnitin Assignment activity located on the Moodle course page for this course. General information about Turnitin is available here. This application contains functionality including similarity reports to assist with assessing academic integrity.
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Assignment format
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Your assessment should be typed, double spaced and 12 pt font (Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri).
The preferred paragraph formatting for the body of your document should be 1.5 or double spacing (footnotes can be single spaced).
The assignment must contain text only- no images of text are permitted.
Use a footnote referencing system (no intext referencing).
Please include page numbers and leave margins to allow for comments.
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File upload document format
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You must only submit your answer as an MS Word document (.doc or .docx). UNSW provides free access to MS Word to all students. See
UNSW IT here. Do NOT submit your answer as an Apple Pages file
(Turnitin cannot read Pages files). Do NOT submit your answer as a PDF unless there is a good reason why you cannot submit a MS Word document.
Please attach a Faculty cover sheet, which will not be included in the word count and can be accessed on the course Moodle page.
You are allowed ONE submission only. It is your responsibility to upload the correct document. Markers will assess the document that is submitted.
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Submission
confirmation
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We strongly advise you to double check that you have submitted the correct document / final version of your paper. You can do this by checking the submission extract in the digital receipt pop-up you receive
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INSTRUCTIONS
This assessment will test basic knowledge and skills acquired during the course, while at the same time providing enough flexibility for you to pursue a topic that may work for your interests or prospective specialisation.
a) RESEARCH ESSAY TOPICS
Choose ONE of the following topics:
1. Equity, as a distinct branch of common law systems, developed the doctrine of fiduciary duties, filling a gap in the common law in order to protect vulnerable parties from exploitation. Examine how ONE NON- COMMON LAW system compares with Australia in dealing with the problem of vulnerability of parties in close commercial relationships.
2. The rights of AustraIia’s First Nations peopIe have been greatIy advanced by AustraIia’s growing obligations under international law in recent decades. To what extent is this claim valid? How does Australia compare to other countries with significant populations of Indigenous citizens in this regard? Choose ONE other country (of common law or civil law origins) to make the comparison.
3. The Australian High Court case of Vanderstock v Victoria [2023] HCA 30; (2024) 98 ALJR 208 demonstrates the difficulty for governments in balancing climate change mitigation initiatives with the need to maintain adequate levels of taxation revenue. Is this less of a problem in non-common law systems? Show by comparison to the legal position governing fuel excises and electric vehicles in ANY ONE NON-COMMON LAW ASIAN JURISDICTION.
Students need to use the comparison to build a persuasive, supported argument about the legal topic on which they chose to focus. It is insufficient to simply describe the law of different jurisdictions and/or how things work in different jurisdictions – papers should not be structured as follows: “The law in Kwangya is …, whereas the law in MIXXTOPIA is …” . It is also insufficient to merely describe commonalities and differences. The task is to express a clear view about the chosen topic and use the comparison between the two jurisdictions/systems/orders to advance it.
Also, remember that engagement with legal scholarship is essential to legal writing in common law systems and to the development of law through precedent, and is, therefore, one of the assessment criteria. For further information regarding the requirements of the research essay, please consult the Marking Rubric for this item of assessment in Moodle.
b) SUBMISSION DATE
The submission date for the final assignment is: Friday, 9 May 2025, 11.59pm.