School: Business and Law

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

Your unit may be subject to government or third party COVID-19 vaccination requirements. Please consider this before enrolling in this unit, and speak with the unit coordinator if this raises any concerns.

  • Unit Title

    Statutory Interpretation
  • Unit Code

    LAW4625
  • Year

    2022
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    4
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Philip Bruce GLOVER

Description

This unit explores the methods by which objective meaning for words and phrases included in legislation can be distilled. Students draw from and build upon their already advanced foundational legal knowledge and familiarity with legal reasoning by undertaking practical exercises applying interpretive strategies both in unfamiliar doctrinal areas and areas of substantive law already studied. The theoretical underpinning to this mostly practically focused unit, the relationship between statutory law and the common law system (including equity), is fundamental. The unit is premised upon the notion that the law in Australia is holistic, that the relationship between the common law and statutory law is symbiotic and that movement along the common law/statutory law continuum is dynamic. The unit has been devised to equip students to identify and implement appropriate interpretive strategies in a variety of contexts encountered in professional practice.

Prerequisite Rule

Students must pass 3 units from LAW2314, LAW2350, LAW3102

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Distil and apply legislative provisions (including, where required, a preferred interpretation) using: intrinsic guides; the Acts Interpretation Act 1901(Cth) and the Interpretation Act 1984(WA); legislative aids including context and purpose; and principles and presumptions employed by the courts.
  2. Articulate, critically analyse and evaluate competing theories of statutory interpretation including current debates regarding the preferred methodologies for interpretation.

Unit Content

  1. Distil and apply legislative provisions (including, where required, a preferred interpretation) using: intrinsic guides; the Acts Interpretation Act 1901(Cth) and the Interpretation Act 1984(WA); legislative aids including context and purpose; and principles and presumptions employed by the courts.
  2. Articulate, critically analyse and evaluate competing theories of statutory interpretation including current debates regarding the preferred methodologies for interpretation.
  3. Legislative mechanisms & processes (including commencement and duration) and the anatomy of a statute (framework).
  4. Theories of statutory interpretation including the inter-relationship between the common law and statute law.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 213 x 2 hour lectureNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 213 x 1 hour tutorialNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Off-campus students access the teaching program via LMS. Regular online access is required. Lectures direct students to relevant case law and students are encouraged to consider the rules of statutory interpretation critically. Industry relevant guest speakers may also deliver lecture content. Tutorials, seminars and assessment items provide students the opportunity to discuss critical aspects of the content in greater detail and in doing so, further develop their ability to work in teams, generate ideas, solve statutory interpretation problems within a practical context and prepare interpretive advices, demonstrating professionally appropriate communication skills.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentMajor Opinion35%
PresentationClass Presentation15%
ExaminationFINAL EXAMINATION50%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ExaminationFINAL EXAMINATION50%
AssignmentMajor Opinion35%
PresentationPresentation15%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

LAW4625|4|1

School: Business and Law

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

Your unit may be subject to government or third party COVID-19 vaccination requirements. Please consider this before enrolling in this unit, and speak with the unit coordinator if this raises any concerns.

  • Unit Title

    Statutory Interpretation
  • Unit Code

    LAW4625
  • Year

    2022
  • Enrolment Period

    2
  • Version

    4
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Philip Bruce GLOVER

Description

This unit explores the methods by which objective meaning for words and phrases included in legislation can be distilled. Students draw from and build upon their already advanced foundational legal knowledge and familiarity with legal reasoning by undertaking practical exercises applying interpretive strategies both in unfamiliar doctrinal areas and areas of substantive law already studied. The theoretical underpinning to this mostly practically focused unit, the relationship between statutory law and the common law system (including equity), is fundamental. The unit is premised upon the notion that the law in Australia is holistic, that the relationship between the common law and statutory law is symbiotic and that movement along the common law/statutory law continuum is dynamic. The unit has been devised to equip students to identify and implement appropriate interpretive strategies in a variety of contexts encountered in professional practice.

Prerequisite Rule

Students must pass 3 units from LAW2314, LAW2350, LAW3102

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Distil and apply legislative provisions (including, where required, a preferred interpretation) using: intrinsic guides; the Acts Interpretation Act 1901(Cth) and the Interpretation Act 1984(WA); legislative aids including context and purpose; and principles and presumptions employed by the courts.
  2. Articulate, critically analyse and evaluate competing theories of statutory interpretation including current debates regarding the preferred methodologies for interpretation.

Unit Content

  1. Distil and apply legislative provisions (including, where required, a preferred interpretation) using: intrinsic guides; the Acts Interpretation Act 1901(Cth) and the Interpretation Act 1984(WA); legislative aids including context and purpose; and principles and presumptions employed by the courts.
  2. Articulate, critically analyse and evaluate competing theories of statutory interpretation including current debates regarding the preferred methodologies for interpretation.
  3. Legislative mechanisms & processes (including commencement and duration) and the anatomy of a statute (framework).
  4. Theories of statutory interpretation including the inter-relationship between the common law and statute law.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 213 x 2 hour lectureNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 213 x 1 hour tutorialNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Off-campus students access the teaching program via LMS. Regular online access is required. Lectures direct students to relevant case law and students are encouraged to consider the rules of statutory interpretation critically. Industry relevant guest speakers may also deliver lecture content. Tutorials, seminars and assessment items provide students the opportunity to discuss critical aspects of the content in greater detail and in doing so, further develop their ability to work in teams, generate ideas, solve statutory interpretation problems within a practical context and prepare interpretive advices, demonstrating professionally appropriate communication skills.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentMajor Opinion35%
PresentationClass Presentation15%
ExaminationFINAL EXAMINATION50%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ExaminationFINAL EXAMINATION50%
AssignmentMajor Opinion35%
PresentationPresentation15%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

LAW4625|4|2