HSC Legal Studies Question Thread

[MisterNeo]

hi legal people, i'm low key high key freaking out about some of the themes in the crime syllabus... in the crime essay, what would i write for 'issues of compliance and non-compliance in regard to criminal law' and 'the extent to which law reflects moral and ethical standards'? i'm doing cssa trials and they tend to pick syllabus points you can't write much about or themes. thanks so much!

Hi!! There's no need to freak out when you've got ATAR Notes
I suggest reading this guide by Elyse on the different themes and challenges in Crime and also Human Rights. (I find it very helpful)
The "reflecting moral and ethical standards" questions are mainly focused on law reform and how they are constantly change to be based on the community's perception of what real justice should be. You would need a LOT of case/media/legislation (especially for crime) to argue your viewpoint in the "extent" of the effectiveness of the law in addressing the standards of the community.

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hi!! There's no need to freak out when you've got ATAR Notes
I suggest reading this guide by Elyse on the different themes and challenges in Crime and also Human Rights. (I find it very helpful)
The "reflecting moral and ethical standards" questions are mainly focused on law reform and how they are constantly change to be based on the community's perception of what real justice should be. You would need a LOT of case/media/legislation (especially for crime) to argue your viewpoint in the "extent" of the effectiveness of the law in addressing the standards of the community.

thank you!! also, that guide was really helpful, thanks elyse!

[caitlinlddouglas]

thanks so much!

[elysepopplewell]

thank you!! also, that guide was really helpful, thanks elyse!

No worries! Just to add on to the answers above: I really think compliance and non-compliance is one of the easiest themes and challenges to incorporate into your essays. Simply: we would not have a legal system if we had complete compliance. The legal system aims to encourage compliance and adequately punish/prevent non-compliance. So every single crime essay can effectively discuss compliance and non-compliance in a way that doesn't really throw you out too much!

[kiiaaa]

Hey guys for world order i was wondering what exactly is the difference between a court and tribunal and also what is an Adhoc trial and are those effective? Im super confused on those 3 terminologies

Thank you soo much!  

[MisterNeo]

Hey guys for world order i was wondering what exactly is the difference between a court and tribunal and also what is an Adhoc trial and are those effective? Im super confused on those 3 terminologies

Thank you soo much!  

The main difference between a court and a tribunal is that a tribunal specialise in a certain issue, whereas a court hear a wider range of things. Tribunals more relaxed and have less power than a court.
Ad hoc trials are created "for a specific purpose as the situation arises" (definition of ad hoc).
These include trials like the Nuremberg Trials, ICTR, and ICTY. They're argued to be more effective than the International Criminal Court because they're quicker/cheaper and have actually more convicted people. This can be used in questions that ask you to assess international measures.

[clareyeung5]

Family and world order predictions for the trials ?

[katie,rinos]

How many legislations, cases and media should I have in my crime essays? Should this be different for family or consumer essays?

Also Elyse: Was it just cases and media that you had in your huge green folder? What else did you have? Did you have a seperate folder for all your legal class work? I would really like to start up a folder for this soon because all my legal stuff is really unorganised. This would be great for finding evidence for legal practise essays.
Thanks heaps

[elysepopplewell]

How many legislations, cases and media should I have in my crime essays? Should this be different for family or consumer essays?

Also Elyse: Was it just cases and media that you had in your huge green folder? What else did you have? Did you have a seperate folder for all your legal class work? I would really like to start up a folder for this soon because all my legal stuff is really unorganised. This would be great for finding evidence for legal practise essays.
Thanks heaps

Ahh...the infamous green folder! Haha, it had media articles and cases that I'd found online but also anything I'd been given in class. So basically, anything I had for legal studies that wasn't written in my book, so anything floating, was in the green folder. Assignments I'd had marked and given back were in there, research for assignments, scraps of notes, scrappy essay plans, everything. It was about this time before trials that I even put the folder together, so I really recommend you do it! Just organise everything into crime, human rights, options, etc, and then slide it all in! It was definitely a good investment for me.
As for the options: very similar in terms of cases. I found for world order, I had fewer cases but they were much larger, and covered more aspects of the syllabus. But for family, my "cases" were similar to crime for the most part in that they just reflected an isolated section of the syllabus. BUT, finding cases for family can be difficult given the nature of family issues of course, so I had a lot more stats and reports for this option than what I did for crime or my other option

[katie,rinos]

Ahh...the infamous green folder! Haha, it had media articles and cases that I'd found online but also anything I'd been given in class. So basically, anything I had for legal studies that wasn't written in my book, so anything floating, was in the green folder. Assignments I'd had marked and given back were in there, research for assignments, scraps of notes, scrappy essay plans, everything. It was about this time before trials that I even put the folder together, so I really recommend you do it! Just organise everything into crime, human rights, options, etc, and then slide it all in! It was definitely a good investment for me.
As for the options: very similar in terms of cases. I found for world order, I had fewer cases but they were much larger, and covered more aspects of the syllabus. But for family, my "cases" were similar to crime for the most part in that they just reflected an isolated section of the syllabus. BUT, finding cases for family can be difficult given the nature of family issues of course, so I had a lot more stats and reports for this option than what I did for crime or my other option

Thanks heaps! I have an extra week of holidays next week, so this is definitely something that I want to start doing, especially seeing that my notes are all over the place now. I feel like your green folder has motivated me to be a lot more organised and to look for/print off a lot more media articles.

[jamonwindeyer]

Thanks heaps! I have an extra week of holidays next week, so this is definitely something that I want to start doing, especially seeing that my notes are all over the place now. I feel like your green folder has motivated me to be a lot more organised and to look for/print off a lot more media articles.

I feel like Elyse should change her forum name to "The Green Folder," with a photo to match

Family and world order predictions for the trials ?

Family - I reckon we could be due for a question focusing on the care and protection of children, or perhaps a broader question on effectiveness? We've not had a super broad question in the Family topic for a while, would be nice! They might even focus on courts specifically

World Order - Very little practical variety in these questions, you'll be able to adjust something to one of the questions virtually guaranteed

[kiiaaa]

Hey Guys,
i was wondering what rights are protected in Aus. under the Constitution/statute law/ common law/court and tribunals/ NGO's/ media and how are they protected? Ive seen lots of questions like this come up in past papers and i have no clue how to answer them so if you could please help for each of those it would be great as i cant wrap my head around that dot-point
Thank you sooo much 

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hey Guys,
i was wondering what rights are protected in Aus. under the Constitution/statute law/ common law/court and tribunals/ NGO's/ media and how are they protected? Ive seen lots of questions like this come up in past papers and i have no clue how to answer them so if you could please help for each of those it would be great as i cant wrap my head around that dot-point
Thank you sooo much 

a question like this was actually in my half-yearly exam, so i'll just put the question and answer:

Identify a right contained in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and provide a domestic law that protects that right.

Answers could include:
- the right to life
- freedom from torture and slavery
- freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- prohibition on war propaganda and advocacy of racial hatred
- freedom of assembly and association only limited by the needs of a democratic society
- democratic rights of participation in government
- the rights of minorities to enjoy their culture, profess and practice their religion and use their own language.

Domestic Law
- Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)
- Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth)
- Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW).

under the constitution, you can also mention the external affairs power, which if i'm not mistaken, the high court can use treaty decisions in cases. there's also express and implied rights in the constitution. everything else, with ngos and the media you can say they bring issues to the attention of the general public. hope this helps!

[rodero]

Hey guys!

Super confused with this trial past paper. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer sheet so I can't confirm which would be the correct answer. However, i'm stuck on this specific question. It seems as though the son is both an accessory before and after the fact. Does this bring him to the level of a principle in the second degree? I always thought the principle in the second degree had to be present in some way.

Question is attached, thanks everyone

[isaacdelatorre]

Hey Guys,
i was wondering what rights are protected in Aus. under the Constitution/statute law/ common law/court and tribunals/ NGO's/ media and how are they protected? Ive seen lots of questions like this come up in past papers and i have no clue how to answer them so if you could please help for each of those it would be great as i cant wrap my head around that dot-point
Thank you sooo much 

Hey Kiiaaa,

Just to add to the awesome answer already provided by fantastic beasts3; there are a few ways human rights are protected in Australia.

Firstly the Constitution - within it there are 5 express rights that are protected by the constitution:

• Right to trial by jury
• Freedom of religion
• Freedom from discrimination based on one's state of residence
• Right to just compensation if the state takes your property
• Right to vote

As well as this, the constitution also contains implicit rights, meaning they are not expressly stated, but they can be inferred based on the other provisions; this is to the right of political communication. The constitution protects these rights as a breach of any of these rights would be unconstitutional and would be punishable by the state.

In the same way, statute law is able to protect rights that the government deems to be necessary in society; as fantasticbeast3 said, the racial discrimination act, anti discrimination act all protect the right not to be discriminated against. This is also further reinforced through agencies such as the Australian Human Rights Commission which can mediate and take a stand against human rights, but lacks enforceability.

However, BOSTES says that the courts are the best protection of human rights within Australia, this is for a few reasons. Firstly, the courts, through the common law system can change and adapt to changing values and ethics in society, thus it can change in terms of what rights are at the forefront of society. Another reason is that the courts actually enforce human rights protection since they are the ones to issue out legal remedies if rights are breached.

This is just a quick summary of human rights in Australia, but I hope it is a good starting point for you to get your head around it and then research further. You should definitely check out Elyse's notes for legal and the free notes section; I'm sure there are other explanations around there

Hope this helps!!