LAW7250 - Administrative justice issues in tribunal adjudication
6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL
Postgraduate Faculty of Law
Leader(s): Dr Pamela O'Connor
Offered
Not offered in 2009
Synopsis
Online seminar with individual and paired or group activities. Module A: re-opening of tribunal findings in other proceedings; Tribunals' power to correct their own decisions; Jurisdictional consequences of breach of procedural requirements in legislation; Must the government keep its promises? - estoppel and legitimate expectations; Conflict of interest, ethics and the bias rule. Module B: Implications of compulsory referral of parties to alternative dispute processes; Overcoming adversarial culture; Representation and unrepresented parties; tribunal undependence from executive government iinfluence; implications for administrative justive of performance management regimes for tribunals.
Objectives
On completion of this unit students will have demonstrated the ability to:
- apply principles of Administrative Law to actual or simulated problems in adjudicative practice
- investigate selected issues of administrative justice in depth
- compare and evaluate different proposals and responses to the selected issues
- collaborate in the presentation of a clear and coherent written response, and
- lead group discussion on their chosen Topic in an online seminar.
Assessment
The assessment will comprise four tasks: Students will select two (2) Topic questions from Module A, and answer in 1,800 words each (each question is 20% of the total assessment). Students will select a Topic question from Module B or seek approval of a Topic of their own devising, and will present a 3,750 word written seminar to the class - 50%. Each student will initiate discussion on his or her seminar topic for Module B by posting an opening message to the online discussion forum of about 750 words - 10%.
Contact hours
The unit requires the equivalent of 12 hours per week over one semester. This will be made up of a combination of: reading the online materials and guided readings, optional further readings, self-directed reading for the Module B group activity, completing assessment activities, leading and contributing to the online discussion forum.