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2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Legal Studies

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Legal Studies course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2013 Higher School Certificate examination, highlighting their strengths in particular parts of the examination and indicating where candidates need to improve.

This document should be read along with:

Section II

Part A: Human Rights

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • making a clear distinction between the term ‘rights’ and the term ‘peace’ (Q.21)
  • using terms such as ‘inalienable’, ‘inherent’ and ‘universal’ in an appropriate way (Q.21)
  • clearly identifying how education is protected, either on an international level and/or a domestic level (Q.22)
  • identifying appropriate instruments and legislation such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CROC, the UN Charter and the Education Act 1900 (NSW) (Qs.22 and 23)
  • clearly identifying the specific agencies/organs of the United Nations and articulating how they assist in the protection of human rights (Q.23)
  • recognising that the degree of assistance may be hindered by the concept of sovereignty (Q.23)
  • supporting explanations with case studies and relevant examples (Qs.23, 24)
  • making the causal link between changes in values and changes in the promotion and enforcement of the particular human right (Q.24).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • linking the various measures/potential measures such as a Charter of Rights or the UDHR to protection of the right to education (Q.22)
  • elaborating on explanations and supporting these with the use of examples rather than just making general statements (Q.23)
  • writing a response which addresses the question, rather than writing a narrative (Q.24)
  • choosing a human rights issue which enables them to address the key terms in the question (Q.24).

Part B: Crime – Question 25

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • demonstrating a detailed understanding of the role of discretion in sentencing and punishment
  • supporting their response using contemporary examples, international examples, media references and recent legislation such as the Crimes Amendment (Murder of Police Officers) Act 2011
  • making judgements of value, quality and outcomes to assess the role of discretion
  • writing a sustained but succinct response within the suggested word limit of 600 words.

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • discriminating clearly between the sentencing process and punishments that apply.

Section III – Options

Question 26 – Consumers

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • supporting their judgement with relevant cases and legislation
  • making an informed judgement about the extent to which law reform had responded to a variety of contemporary issues (part a)
  • evaluating the effectiveness of law reform (part a)
  • identifying a range of objectives of consumer law (part b)
  • making an informed judgement that integrated a range of up-to-date legislation, recent media reports, cases, documents and international instruments
  • demonstrating extensive knowledge of consumer law.

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • not just describing consumer law issues or outlining the historical evolution of consumer law when the question calls for a judgement to be made
  • demonstrating knowledge of recent legislative changes
  • explaining the relevance of cases to the question
  • providing arguments for and/or against consumer law achieving its objectives rather than describing these objectives and/or cases such as Donoghue v Stevenson.

Question 27 – Global Environmental Protection

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • demonstrating knowledge of the historical international instruments and global environmental protection initiatives
  • making a clear and informed judgement about the nature of legal and non-legal responses and the extent to which the international community has achieved global environmental protection (part a)
  • using a wide range of contemporary examples such as international instruments, documents, legislation, cases and media references
  • recognising the challenges and issues with enforcement of international initiatives and multi-lateral instruments and institutions
  • understanding the impact of barriers to the international community achieving global environmental protection (part a)
  • exploring Australia’s involvement in global environmental protection initiatives, international conferences and global institutions (part b)
  • understanding the role and operation of domestic legal institutions and the operation of environmental law in Australia (part b)
  • explaining the key principles of ecologically sustainable development (part b).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • avoiding narrative accounts of examples or excessive description of international initiatives
  • using contemporary examples to explore the extent to which the international community has achieved global environmental protection (part a)
  • integrating relevant examples such as international instruments and documents into the responses to support their judgement
  • demonstrating familiarity with the Australian legal framework with respect to global environmental protection (part b).

Question 28 – Family

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • discussing law reform and law reform agencies (part a)
  • integrating legislation, cases, international law, media reports, documents and official evaluations/Royal Commissions
  • referring to contemporary issues
  • demonstrating knowledge of the move to mediation and the move towards shared parental responsibility (and the associated conflict) (part b)
  • providing explicit reasoning to support conclusions.

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • referring to the work of the Law Reform Commissions and reports into legislation (part a)
  • being aware of the expenses and delays involved in family law and the impact of these on the effectiveness of the law (part a)
  • referring accurately to key terms and concepts, for example DOCS is now FACS and ADVOs are not ‘aggravated’ they are ‘apprehended’ (part a)
  • considering aspects of conflict outside the realms of divorce and domestic violence (part b)
  • developing their understanding of the use of the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court in resolving conflict (part b).

Question 29 – Indigenous Peoples

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • integrating a variety of indigenous peoples’ cases from around the globe, for example Ainu, Wai Wai, West Papua, Maori, Sami and Mapuche
  • integrating international and domestic law to demonstrate the need for law reform (part a)
  • acknowledging that state sovereignty is an obstacle to resolving contemporary issues facing indigenous peoples
  • integrating a variety of legal measures, both domestic and international (part b)
  • identifying the specific rights of indigenous peoples (part b).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • highlighting specific areas within the law and the impact of these on indigenous peoples’ issues and linking this to law reform (part a)
  • being more aware of contemporary issues such as loss of cultural rights including language, land rights, legal rights to natural resources, intellectual property rights
  • differentiating between legal and non-legal measures (part b)
  • providing specific details of legal measures
  • linking Australian domestic law and case material to international perspectives that Australia has implemented (part b).

Question 30 – Shelter

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • explaining changes in society with respect to values and ethics and making reference to specific laws that demonstrated these changes (part a)
  • integrating clear examples of current legislation, cases and, in particular, media articles to demonstrate how values and ethical standards are reflected in society (part a)
  • recognising the limitations of current laws in relation to the ethics of securing shelter (part a)
  • including detailed discussion of changes to legislation and common law precedents as examples of law reform (part b)
  • describing an extensive range of legal and non-legal methods to secure shelter (part b)
  • demonstrating extensive knowledge of contemporary issues and the range of legal changes available to improve security of shelter (part b)
  • integrating knowledge of government shelter policies.

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • understanding the difference between government policy and legislation
  • making better use of specific shelter cases and legislation in relation to securing shelter
  • analysing contemporary issues in depth – it is more effective to analyse one or two issues in depth than to attempt to cover all four syllabus issues.

Question 31 – Workplace

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • demonstrating extensive knowledge of contemporary workplace issues (part a) and both legal and non-legal measures used in resolving conflict in the workplace (part b)
  • making informed judgements using contemporary examples of case law, legislation and media reports (part a)
  • linking changes in the workplace to changes in societal values and standards and often tying this in with international documents (part a)
  • comparing the effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures used in resolving conflict in the workplace based on explicit criteria (part b)
  • making reference to specific cases, legislation or media reports (part b).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • understanding the relationship between behaviours in the workplace and ethics and standards as they are understood in the wider society (part a)
  • explaining how changing values are reflected in changing ethical standards (part a)
  • linking examples of cases, legislation and media to an observable outcome or result and the impact of that on the individual, the employer, society and the government (part a)
  • integrating examples of case law, legislation, media and international documents into the response to demonstrate understanding (part b)
  • stating the outcome or the result of the examples and making a statement about its impact or effect on the individual, employer, society and government (part b).

Question 32 – World Order

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • demonstrating extensive knowledge of a wide range of legal and non-legal measures (part a) and world order issues (part b)
  • understanding the evolving nature of world order (part a)
  • integrating relevant and current case studies into the response (parts a and b)
  • incorporating and analysing relevant media reports, documents, international law and quotations from eminent persons (parts a and b)
  • making arguments and analysing legal and non-legal measures to inform a judgement about the extent to which these measures respond to the evolving nature of world order.

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • presenting an argument and supporting judgements (part a)
  • linking examples to the evolving nature of world order (part a)
  • developing a broader knowledge and understanding of Australia’s involvement in, and response to, world order issues (part b).
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