Year 11 Legal Studies Guest Speaker

Professor Emeritus Rick Sarre presented the Year 11 Legal Studies class with an informative session about a number of criminal and civil Australian cases. Cases discussed were Erin Patterson, Henry Keogh, Lindy Chamberlain, a variety of Magistrate Court cases and some civil cases. This showed the marked difference between criminal and civil law jurisdiction. He explained the structure of parliament and our court hierarchy, reminding students of importance of our democratic system of government and the impact of media on our perspective of justice and society. This reinforces the topic of Law and Communities that students are studying as their first topic for Semester 2.

Rick Sommariva
Legal Studies Teacher

Year 12 Legal Studies 

Interactive session with Commonwealth Parliamentary Education Office

In Week 3, the Stage 2 Legal Studies class took part in an interactive online class with Alec, an educator from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Education Office in Canberra.
With exams approaching, it was helpful to revise the Doctrines of Separation of Powers and Division of Powers, as well as the concept of a representative democracy and the role of the Monarch.

The students also worked through case studies of the Communist Party case of 1951, and the National gun buy back scheme of 1996-1997.

A Question and Answer session at the end provided the students with opportunities to find out more about areas of interest and curiosity, including the differences between governance of the States and governance of the Territories.

The session provided the students with new insights, and an opportunity to consolidate their learning in to the Constitution and Australia’s system of government.

Judy Harris
Legal Studies teacher