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ANU Law School · ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy
Law’s History and Context explores history’s role in revealing new insights about law, lawyers and legal institutions and examines how lawyers enlist history to achieve certain ends. Topics include: the relationship between law and colonialism; the contextual qualities of First Nation’s law; the history of legal education and the legal profession; historical and socio-legal methods; legal life writing; law and the history of capitalism; law and the history of the environment; the history of crime; and law’s changing role in matters of gender, sexuality and race. The course is framed around a number of case studies, both local and international, which interrogate long-held beliefs and assumptions about law. The case studies illustrate how history and sociology can unearth the way that law has been politically and socially constructed. A central goal of the course is to illustrate the imaginative power of history and how it can change and deepen perceptions about law and legal practice. In this course you will be encouraged to reflect on your own engagement with law’s history, both within and outside of law school, and consider its depiction in a range of media (literature, films, photographs, the land and so on). You will learn to think like an historian, compare such thinking to that of a lawyer and consider how the thinking in one field may enrich the other. By situating law within its broader context this course aims to help you understand the relevance of your studies to your future careers, politics and society.
The proposed means of assessment for this course will provide students with at least two pieces of assessment, including one piece during the teaching period. More information about the means of assessment, including the relationship between the assessment and the learning outcomes of the course, will be available in the class summary and on the course WATTLE page.
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
- Classes offered in non-standard sessions will be taught semi-intensively with compulsory contact hours of approximately 36 hours of face to face teaching. The course will also require advanced preparation through assigned readings. In total, it is anticipated that the hours required for completion of this course (class preparation, teaching and completion of assessment) will not exceed 120 hours. - Classes offered during semester periods are expected to have three contact hours per week. Students are generally expected to devote at least 10 hours overall per week to this course. In total, it is anticipated that the hours required for completion of this course (class preparation, teaching and completion of assessment) will not exceed 120 hours."
Students must rely on the approved Class Summary which will be posted to the Programs and Courses site approximately two weeks prior to the commencement of the course. Alternatively, this information will be published in the Program course list when finalised. Preliminary Reading Students must rely on the approved Class Summary which will be posted to the Programs and Courses site approximately two weeks prior to the commencement of the course. Alternatively, this information will be published in the Program course list when finalised.