Course Coordinator:Justine Poon (jpoon@usc.edu.au) School:School of Law and Society
UniSC Sunshine CoastUniSC Moreton Bay |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Online |
Online | You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
Laws cross national jurisdictional borders when they are laws of an international character or when their parties, matters, and impacts include multiple legal orders. This course provides students with an overview of how different kinds of international law overlap with the domestic legal order. Public international law governs the relations between nation states and includes international norms around human rights and the prevention of conflict. Private international law refers to situations where disputes arising under domestic laws include connections and conflicts with other jurisdictions.
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – Online Learning Materials | 1hr | Week 1 | 12 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – On-Campus Tutorial | 2hrs | Week 2 | 10 times |
| Online | |||
| Learning materials – Online Learning Materials | 1hr | Week 1 | 12 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Online Tutorial | 2hrs | Week 2 | 10 times |
International Law is a course exploring the principles and norms that govern the conduct of states, international organizations, and individuals in the global arena. Through in-depth analysis of treaties, customary law, and landmark cases, you will gain a profound understanding of the legal framework shaping international relations and the resolution of cross-border disputes. Specifically, this course will analyse:
200 Level (Developing)
12 units
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | |
| 1 | Analyse facts to identify legal issues within complex international law scenarios. |
Knowledgeable Empowered |
| 2 | Explain the relevant laws, processes and concepts of international law to resolve a legal issue. | Knowledgeable |
| 3 | Utilize critical thinking, analysis, and sound judgment to apply legal knowledge effectively in diverse contexts, generating appropriate and practical responses to complex problems and ethical issues. |
Creative and critical thinker Empowered Ethical |
| 4 | Demonstrate effective, persuasive, and contextually appropriate written and oral communication. | Empowered |
| 5 | Develop and demonstrate effective presentation skills, including proper referencing and citation techniques, to communicate legal information accurately and professionally. | Empowered |
| 6 | Research, critically evaluate, and integrate authoritative sources in support of well-substantiated legal arguments. | Creative and critical thinker |
| 7 | Collaborate effectively by actively participating and contributing to group tasks. |
Knowledgeable Empowered Ethical |
| 8 | Reflect on and evaluate your personal responses to issues you encounter in the international law space. |
Empowered Ethical |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
((LAW100 or LAW101) and (LAW105 or LAW103)) or (LAW102 and enrolled in any Law program) or (LAW108) or (JST202 and enrolled in Program AR323)
Not applicable
LAW410 or LAW412
Not applicable
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Early feedback will be provided in Weeks 2-4 through in-class practice, guided discussion, and informal feedback on progress and understanding.
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Written Piece | Individual | 20% | 1000 words or equivalent |
Week 4 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 2 | Written Piece | Individual and Group | 40% | 2000 words or equivalent |
Week 8 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check and in class |
| All | 3 | Portfolio | Individual | 40% | 2000 words |
Refer to Format | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:International Law Research Skills | |||||||||||||
| Goal: | This task assesses your ability to research and evaluate the authority of international legal materials and to evaluate key concepts. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||
| Format: | Research and citation tasks and short answer questions. Full details on Canvas course. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 2:Arbitration | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | To develop your oral negotiation and written communication skills, as well as your ability to relate to other legal professionals on behalf of a client. These skills will be developed in the context of an international law arbitration environment where you will work in small groups to produce the agreement and individually document and reflect on the process. This is an Aligned Assessment Point. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Arbitration agreement and process documentation. Full details on Canvas. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Collaboration, Problem solving, Organisation |
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| All - Assessment Task 3:Advocacy Portfolio | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | To assess your ability to create informative legal materials for a range of audiences based on international law topics of interest. You will select topics from the course to create law reform and advocacy materials with a written explanation and reflection on process and purpose. |
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| Product: | Portfolio | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Portfolio Materials due throughout trimester. Final product due Week 12. Complete details on Canvas. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Information literacy |
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A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Recommended | Reid Mortensen,Richard Garnett,Mary Keyes | 2023 | Private International Law in Australia | 5th ed | Lexis Nexis |
| Recommended | Emily Crawford,Alison Pert,Ben Saul | 2023 | Public International Law | n/a | Cambridge University Press |
This course contains an Aligned Assessment Point. For online study and group collaboration, students will need to have access to a computer with a reliable Internet connection.
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
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For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.
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