Policy on Advanced Standing for Torts, Property and Contracts
All Australian law schools are required to teach subjects that are compulsory for students who want to be admitted as a legal practitioner. The compulsory subject areas are set out in the Legal Profession Admission Rules 2005 (NSW), rule 95. The compulsory subjects include Torts, Contracts and Property both Real (including Torrens system land) and Personal.
At UNE we teach these subjects in two, one semester long units (LS231 Torts I and LS232 Torts II; LS281 Property Law I and LS282 Property Law II and LS371 Contract Law I and LS372 Contract Law II). Each unit is compulsory.
If you have completed a one semester unit in Torts, Property or Contract Law.
Some universities teach these subjects in single semester units. Even though those units are only one semester long, they meet the requirements for admission. It is unnecessary to make students who have completed a one semester unit to do those units again where there would be considerable overlap with prior studies. On the other hand, it is a requirement for admission as a legal practitioner that students complete a degree that is equal to three years full time study. If we allow students to get advanced standing for both of our units we would be giving ‘two for the price of one’ and would reduce their degree by up to three units or nearly one semester.
Our policy is:
Where a student has completed a one semester unit in Torts, Property, and/or Contracts, and that unit is sufficient to meet the requirements for admission, then that student shall be given advanced standing for LS231 Torts I, LS281 Property Law I and/or LS371 Contracts I (as the case may be) and shall be exempt from the requirement to complete LS232 Torts II, LS282 Property Law II and/or LS372 Contracts II (as the case may be).
The effect of this policy is to accept that students who have completed one semester units that meet the requirements for admission do not have to do further study in these subject areas but only gives 6 credit points toward the degree. By granting an exemption from the second unit, students do not have to complete that unit but they do not get the credit points and so will have to elect to do another elective unit in order to make up sufficient credit points to complete their degree.
An exemption is an exemption for all purposes, so where a student is exempt from a unit that is a pre-requisite for another unit, they may still enrol in that second unit.
A special note for students who have studied with the NSW Legal Practitioners Admission Board (the LPAB).
The LPAB teaches the unit 05 Real Property. This unit does not cover all the learning areas prescribed by the Legal Profession Admission Rules 2005 (NSW). For details on advanced standing offered to students from the LPAB see LPAB Advanced standing.
If you have studied at another university that teaches Torts, Property or Contract Law over 2 semesters (or equivalent).
Other universities, like UNE, teach these subjects in two single semester units.
If you have completed both those units then you will get advanced standing for both UNE units.
If you have completed only one of the units from the other institution then we will have to consider what, if any, advanced standing we can give. If the unit you have done matches the content of one of our units then you can get advanced standing for that unit. If your original institution has split the various subject areas in a different way you may get no advanced standing. If, for example, your original institution tought some of what we teach in Property I and some of what we teach in our Property II in their Property A unit, the we cannot give you advanced standing for either of our Property units. If we did give advanced standing for Property I and required you to do Property II then you would double up on some areas, but miss out on other areas of compulsory study. We are required to certify that you have met the requirements of the admission rules and could not do so.
If you have completed only one out of two units at your original institution, we will have to make a detailed comparison of the unit content to see if any advanced standing can be given.
Michael Eburn
Law Course Co-ordinator
5 October 2006