LA4036 - Indigenous People and Law in Australia

Credit points:	03
Year:	2010
Student Contribution Band:	Band 3
Administered by:	School of Law Office

The subject examines the impact of Australian law on Indigenous peoples. Policies and practices for building cross-cultural awareness, doing ethical research, professional best practice and promoting reconciliation are outlined. Major topics addressed by the subject include: Terra Nullius and dispossession; the Constitution and the race power; sovereignty and citizenship rights; a Treaty and international human rights law; governance and self determination; criminal law and over-representation; child welfare law, assimilation and genocide; native title and property rights; intellectual property law and traditional knowledge; heritage law and sacred sites; social, economic, cultural rights and social exclusion; biodiversity conservation law and caring for country; rights and/or mediation; social justice and reconciliation.

Learning Outcomes

• to develop a cross-cultural awareness for practice and co-existence as citizens;
• to enable students to contrast competing systems of governance, norms, values and beliefs operating in the contemporary Australian context;
• to enable students to critique the appropriateness of state law and legal institutions and processes for Indigenous people;
• to enable students to understand the historical development of the law relating to the Indigenous peoples of Australia in a local and international context;
• to enable students to understand the key areas of Australian law that impact on Indigenous people.

Graduate Qualities

• The ability to think critically, to analyse and evaluate claims, evidence and arguments;
• The ability to adapt knowledge to new situations;
• The ability to define and to solve problems in at least one discipline area;
• The ability to speak and write logically, clearly and creatively;
• A coherent and disciplined body of skills, knowledge, values and professional ethics in at least one discipline area;
• The ability to use a variety of media and methods to retrieve, analyse, evaluate, organise and present information;
• The ability to reflect on and evaluate learning processes and products;
• The ability to learn independently and in a self-directed manner;
• A commitment to lifelong learning and intellectual development.

Prerequisites:

(LA1101 and LA1102 and LA1103 and LA1104) 0 (LA1007 and LA1006)

Availabilities
External, Study Period 10
Census Date 09-Dec-2010
Coordinator:	Ms Heron Loban
Method of Delivery:	WWW - LearnJCU
Assessment:	end of semester exam (50%); essays (45%); essay proposal (5%).

Note: Minor variations might occur due to the continuous Subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.