Information for students

CM05B
Building 5, Block B (City campus, Haymarket)
Cnr Quay Street and Ultimo Road
Haymarket, Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Faculty of Law
University of Technology, Sydney
PO Box 123
Broadway NSW 2007
Australia

CM05B.3.03
Level 3, Building 5, Block B (City campus, Haymarket)
Cnr Quay Street and Ultimo Road
Haymarket, Sydney NSW 2000
telephone +61 2 9514 3444
fax +61 2 9514 3400
email law@uts.edu.au

Opening hours

The LIO is open Monday to Friday at the following times and at other times by appointment:

Websites

UTS website

Faculty of Law website

Faculty structure

The Faculty of Law Executive is led by the Dean and is supported by two Associate Deans (Teaching and Learning, and Research), and the Faculty Manager.

The Faculty of Law is governed by the Faculty Board in Law which consists of ex officio members, nominated members, elected staff members and elected student members. The Faculty Board in Law meets quarterly and is the formal decision-making body of the Faculty. A number of Faculty committees report to the Faculty Board in Law.

In 2007, a new Law Executive Council was formed comprising Faculty management and representatives from the legal profession, government and the community. The Law Executive Council is responsible for ensuring that the academic standard of the Faculty is maintained, and has the task of scrutinising all new programs and proposed initiatives as well as offering strategic advice and an external focus for the Faculty.

Faculty policies and procedures

Progression and acceleration
Timetable
Guide to Essay Writing
Assessment

Progression and acceleration

Students will be permitted to enrol in subjects totalling a maximum of 28 credit points per semester with the leave of the relevant academic program director if:

• there is no timetable clash
• maximum class size is not exceeded
• the student's academic record indicates that he or she is capable of performing satisfactorily when accelerating, and
• the student can demonstrate that his or her work and other non-study commitments permit him or her to accelerate without detriment to his or her studies.

The Faculty of Law cannot guarantee avoidance of timetable and/or examination clashes where students do not follow the standard course progression.

Timetable

The current timetable is posted on the noticeboard on level 3 of the Faculty, adjacent to the Law Information Office (CM05B.3.03), and is also available online at:

Guide to Essay Writing

Essays and other written work should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the Faculty of Law's Guide to Essay Writing. For details visit our website at:

All work submitted for assessment should bear an assignment coversheet. These are available outside the Law Information Office.

If required by the lecturer concerned, the work must be typed. It must also be properly written with due regard to spelling, punctuation, grammar and syntax.

Unless otherwise instructed by the lecturer concerned, all written work should include footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography in the manner set out in the Guide to Essay Writing.

Any piece of written work which does not comply with these requirements may be:

• required to be rewritten in proper form
• penalised in marks, or
• rejected without assessment.

Assessment

Lodgment of assignments

Students are required to retain a copy of all assignments submitted. Students who are handing in written work must submit it, with an assignment coversheet attached, in the assignment box located adjacent to the Law Information Office on level 3 of the Law faculty. The assignment box is cleared daily at 6.00 p.m. Assignments submitted by DX, facsimile or email will not be accepted by the Faculty, unless otherwise arranged with the lecturer.

Late work

Any work submitted after the date of submission may be penalised in marks or rejected without assessment (where circumstances dictate).

Subject coordinators have the right to establish individual assessment regimes. University Rules provide for an appeal against assessment result if students are not told of changes to assessment by week two of semester (although in some circumstances revision can be made during semester).

Lecturers may deduct five marks per week (one mark per business day) for assessment work submitted late and refuse to accept work once the assessment piece has been returned to other students, subject to reasonable excuse and permission given beforehand.

Plagiarism

Where individual work is required for the purposes of assessment, the copying, unacknowledged use of, or reliance on the work of other individuals without acknowledgment is considered to be cheating/misconduct. The penalties imposed for cheating/misconduct or allowing work to be plagiarised are severe under the University rules and regulations.

Plagiarism is one of the most serious crimes in the academic community – it indicates an attempt by someone to pass off the words and/or ideas of another as their own. To take any but a few sequential words of another without acknowledgment is plagiarism and tantamount to cheating. It will be so treated at the Faculty of Law.

Experience shows that one of the most common ways for plagiarism to occur is when students work together. It is acknowledged by the academic staff that study groups are an efficient and beneficial method of learning – peer tuition is effective – but problems arise when it is extended into the assessment process. The Faculty expects, in fact demands, that all assignments submitted be the work of the person who is credited with the mark. It can be an extremely fine line between discussion of an essay topic with another, and collaboration, but where comparisons of various students' work indicate collaboration, this will be taken to be plagiarism and the Faculty policy will be invoked (see the Guide to Essay Writing).

Any acts of plagiarism will be penalised. Such penalties may include, depending upon the seriousness and nature of the offence:

• a requirement that the assignment be rewritten de novo
• a penalty in the reduction of marks awarded to the work, which may include a reduction to zero, or a sharing of the mark awarded to the document among its apparent authors
• a Fail result in the subject concerned and a referral of the matter to the Associate Dean or other appropriate body.

Student facilities

UTS Law Library

Full details about the UTS Library can be found at:

Computer labs

The Faculty provides three computer labs for use by Faculty of Law students. Students have access to the full range of Microsoft Office applications, the internet and printers, and are supported by a Faculty-based IT team.

Locations

Opening hours

Monday – Friday, 8.00 a.m. – 10.00 p.m. and Saturday, 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. during semester.

In addition, the UTS Information Technology Division (ITD) provides computer laboratories for UTS students on all campuses. For further information, see:

Law Students' Society

The UTS Law Students' Society (UTS LSS) acts as a communication channel between the Faculty and the student body, representing student concerns to the Dean. In addition, the UTS LSS organises social functions, runs legal competitions and produces careers publications for its members.

The Law Students' Society is governed by a Council of student members, elected at the Society's Annual General Meeting held in October each year. The Council meets on a monthly basis during each semester to review the Society's activities and discuss new initiatives. Interest and input are encouraged from students; many of the ideas acted upon come from members.

Social functions are an important part of university life and the Society regularly organises functions for students. Popular events include the annual Graduation Ball and a variety of 'drinks nights' throughout each semester, as well as a harbour cruise and many on-campus barbecues. The Society can also assist in organising functions that students wish to hold.

Services to members include:

• legal competitions such as mooting, client interviewing, negotiation, witness examination and paper presentation
• affiliation with the Australian Law Students' Association (ALSA), and
• careers publications for legal and non-legal graduate opportunities.

The Society is responsible for the publication of Full Bench magazine. This provides an outlet for the Council to communicate with its members. Also, members may submit articles of interest, whether social, academic or education-based. These will be reviewed for inclusion by the Council. A list of Council members is posted on the Law Students' Society notice board, located outside the Society's office.

Inquiries

Centres within the Faculty

The Australasian Legal Information Institute

The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) provides free access to Australian legal material online; making it one of the world's largest publicly accessible databases of legal materials on the internet. AustLII aims to make available all public legal information: primary legal materials (legislation and decisions of courts and tribunals), and secondary materials that are (or ought to be) in the public domain or able to be licensed free of charge.

AustLII's public policy agenda is to convince governments, courts, law reform bodies and other publicly funded organisations to make legal materials they control available free via the internet. It has an innovative approach to computerising legal materials, based on 10 years' research and development.

AustLII's research features include automated rich hypertext, development and use of its own search engine (SINO), and integration of hypertext and text retrieval.

AustLII is jointly operated by the Faculties of Law at UTS and the University of New South Wales. It was established by funding from the Department of Education, Employment and Training, and the two host universities, and also receives funding from the Australian Research Council, AusAID, Thomson Legal and Regulatory Ltd, the Federal Attorney-General's Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Defence Legal and other bodies.

Inquiries

Postal address

UTS Community Law Centre

The UTS Community Law Centre was opened in May 1996. The Centre is a part of the Faculty of Law. It provides free legal services to UTS staff and students (UTS Union Legal Service), and to staff and students of TAFE Sydney Institute (TAFE Outreach Legal Service). In providing legal services the Centre relies on the assistance of law students who each volunteer for four hours per week.

The Centre provides advice, representation and referral in a broad range of matters such as credit and debt, criminal law, discrimination law, domestic violence, employment law, social security, tenancy and victims' compensation.

The Centre aims to develop effective ways of informing the community of their legal rights and responsibilities by organising legal education seminars and workshops, and publishing information in printed form or on the Centre's website. The Centre adopts a multidisciplinary approach to legal advice and research, recognising the complexity of providing legal solutions in modern society.

Centre staff are also involved in legal research, policy and law reform. These activities facilitate community access to researchers at the Centre and academic staff in the UTS Faculty of Law. The Centre provides community organisations with legal research expertise in order to respond to the impact of particular laws and policies on their communities. The Centre offers an optional law subject – Community Legal Research – giving law students the opportunity to undertake research addressing community legal issues.

The Centre also seeks to promote practice-based education by providing students with direct experience of assisting clients, the dynamics of law reform, community consultations and the impact of politics on the legal system.

Inquiries

Postal address

Location

Industrial training/professional practice

Practical Legal Training program (PLT)

Admission to the Supreme Court of NSW to practise as a legal practitioner in NSW is based upon the successful completion of an accredited legal qualification (i.e. Bachelor of Laws) and an accredited course of Practical Legal Training (PLT).

The UTS Practical Legal Training program is accredited by the Legal Profession Admission Board of the Supreme Court of NSW. UTS was the first university to offer an accredited practical legal training program in Sydney.

Practical legal training can be undertaken in three courses at the UTS Faculty of Law.

• The Graduate Certificate in Legal Practice (C11128) is available to UTS Bachelor of Laws students only and students must be concurrently enrolled in the UTS LLB.
• The Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (C07075) is available to Bachelor of Laws graduates or holders of the LPAB/SAB Diploma qualification.
• The Master of Law and Legal Practice (C04148) is offered to students who have a Bachelor's degree in an area other than law and who wish to attain a legal qualification. The UTS Practical Legal Training program is a compulsory component of the Master of Law and Legal Practice.

Practical Experience

A compulsory and integral part of the Practical Legal Training program is completion of a Practical Experience work placement. Students must undertake an approved 16 weeks of full-time, or equivalent part-time, work placement.

Graduate Employment and Summer Clerkship programs

The Faculty of Law participates in the Graduate Employment and Summer Clerkship programs conducted by many of the law schools in NSW in conjunction with the major Sydney law firms and government departments.

Students are eligible to apply for the Graduate Employment scheme if at 30 June they have at least one but no more than two whole semesters to complete in order to obtain a law degree leading to admission as a legal practitioner. Students are eligible to apply for the Summer Clerkship program if at 30 June they have at least two but no more than four whole semesters to complete in order to obtain a law degree leading to admission as a legal practitioner.

Students should be aware that the deadlines imposed are strictly adhered to. Further details on conditions of participation and closing dates are available from the Faculty website at:

Cross-disciplinary subjects

The Faculty of Law offers a range of cross-disciplinary law subjects – studies in various strands of the law for students not undertaking a law qualification, but who wish to become familiar with the law as it affects their chosen profession. Through its cross-disciplinary program, the Faculty of Law offers subjects for students in the faculties of Business; Engineering; Nursing, Midwifery and Health; Science; and Design, Architecture and Building.

Contacts

Cross-disciplinary students enrol in Faculty of Law subjects through their home faculty and any enquiries should be made in the first instance at the student's home faculty office. However, the Law Information Office can provide information and assistance to cross-disciplinary students once enrolled in a Law subject.

Majors and sub-majors offered to students from other faculties

Majors

The following Law majors are available within the Master of Business Administration (C04014) and the Master of Business Administration (Limited Work Experience) (C04018) from the Faculty of Business.

• Dispute Resolution major (MAJ09002)
• Business Law major (MAJ09362)
• International Trade Law major (MAJ09004)
• Law major (MAJ09005)

Sub-majors

The following Law sub-majors are available within courses from other UTS faculties:

Bachelor of Business (C10020 / C10021 / C10026 / C10027)

• Business Law sub-major (SMJ09030)
• Taxation Law sub-major (SMJ09033)
• Foundations in Law sub-major (SMJ09032)
• E-Commerce and Information Technology Law sub-major (SMJ09031)

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (C10148 / C10150 / C10152)

• Information Technology Law sub-major (SMJ09045)

Master of Business Administration (C04014/C04018)

• Dispute Resolution sub-major (SMJ09021)
• Business Law sub-major (SMJ09037)
• International Trade Law sub-major (SMJ09046)

Some courses from other UTS faculties may also include Law subjects not listed under any of the above majors and sub-majors – students should check the handbook entry for the course in which they are enrolled for further details, or contact their home faculty.