University of Ballarat s1

bl502Tatutes2003sem1CBUB

UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT,

FEBRUARY 2003

University of Ballarat

School of Business

BL502 –FUNDAMENTALS OF LAW

First Semester 2003

A NOTE ABOUT TUTORIALS GENERALLY

And TOPIC A TUTORIALS

There will be work to prepare for each tutorial. You should plan to spend at least two hours revising the material and preparing for the tutorial. That means: read ahead to see what work needs to be done for tutorials; read ahead for lectures; read your textbook, lecture guide and overheads to make sure you know what is being covered.

Tutorials are your ‘trying out’ ground – use them to test your knowledge and understanding. They are your ‘practice matches’ if you like. They are the place to make mistakes and learn from them. Do not be frightened to ask a question or express a view – these tutorials are FOR YOU!! On the other hand, don’t expect your tutors to do the work, they will have prepared and be interested to know what you know and to help you advance your understanding. If you have any problems preparing for any of the tutorials, PLEASE see your tutor or lecturer before the tutorial if possible.

We are here to help you learn but you must help yourself too! PLUS there are up to ten marks available for tutorial participation! So you need to prepare for classes, cooperate when there is group work by offering ideas and listening to others’, volunteer answers, ask questions. This is active learning. Don’t be frightened of asking the ‘wrong’ question, a ‘silly’ question or of giving the ‘wrong answer’ – as said above – this is what tutorials are for – if you don’t understand something ASK. To check whether you do understand something ANSWER! It is a simple recipe for success.

TUTORIAL SHEET – WEEK 1

Introduction to BL502

Welcome to BL502!

You will have only just received your Unit Description, Assessment Package and Lecture Guide and Tutorial Sheets for Topic A. A lot to get on top of! Consistent persistence is the key! Please spend this tutorial getting to know your class mates and what work needs to be done for next week and the week after…….!

In this class:

- Your tutor will hand out a Tutorial Participation Name Card and explain the tutorial participation system (see the Assessment Package part of the Unit Description)

- Form into small groups – introduce yourselves and then discuss how you are going to deal with all the information you are collecting! TIME MANAGEMENT is an important skill and guidance is given on the Student Learning Support webpage via Academic Skills Guides. Attached is a summary of the Guides available - why not visit the site and download AND READ the Guides? Not all of them will be needed in week one! So put the copies somewhere safe and go back to them from time-to-time. (To find the Guides use the web address on the attached extract OR see the instructions in the Unit Description – page 2, Learning how to learn. )

- Still in the same groups – make a list of what differences you can expect from where you have come from (high school, work, home, country, city, another country) to where you are now ie University. Being aware of the differences will help you adjust and give you the confidence to ask questions! Look at issues such as –

o how classes are run

o how many people are in the classes

o what sort of information you receive

o what your responsibility seems to be

o what the responsibility of your teachers seem to be!

o What you need to find out!!

o Looking at the above Guides will certainly indicate some differences.

- If there is time, look at the work for next week – start reading the extract from Terry & Giugni – to get a head start!

- Some time between now and next week, make sure you have browsed through the handouts AND ch 1 of your prescribed text, Sweeney & O’Reilly. This will help you get organized for classes and know what to expect. Don’t worry if it all seems a bit much at the moment – just try to be organized by setting aside time each week to work on each of your units, do the best you can and in no time you will get the ‘hang of things’!

TUTORIAL SHEET – WEEK 2

Framework of Australian Law:

THE ROLE OF LAW/CLASSIFICATION OF LAW

Objectives

By preparing for this tutorial and participating in it you should have:

Ø a better understanding of the role law plays in society and what characteristics it has or should have

Ø given thought to the complex social, economic and political issues that the law has to deal with AND which influence the existence and content of the law itself

Ø clarified the difference between civil and criminal law and have found actual examples to illustrate the difference

Ø improved your research, listening, comprehension and analysis skills.

BEFORE CLASS

1. Read the attached extract from A. Terry & D.Giugni, Business Society and the Law, 3rd ed, Sydney: Thomson Learning, 2003, p8-13 AND summarise what qualities or characteristics the law should have (p12-13).

2. Collect a newspaper article that illustrates the operation of the civil law and one that illustrates the criminal law. We will have dealt with the difference in class briefly and you might want to look at another business law text to gain more information about the difference between civil and criminal laws.

3. Fill in the attached chart – note the last question : try to identify qualities or characteristics in the law or their absence!

IN CLASS

1. Clear up any language difficulties from reading T&G’s extract

2. Discuss the articles you have found and how you filled in the chart. How do the articles you found illustrate the qualities that law should have/does have? What are the social, economic and/or political pressures that might have influenced the making of the law in your article, or its content?

3. What IS the role of ‘law’? If time permits, bring in current events eg current corporate collapses: do governments have a responsibility to ‘prevent’ companies going out of business; protect employees…. What about some social issues eg laws to stop business polluting-should we ratify international treaties that would restrict how business goes about its business?; What about laws dealing with ‘civil rights’ -abortion….treatment of refugees.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LAW

QUESTIONS / CRIMINAL LAW / CIVIL LAW
Write down the name and date of the newspaper article and its title / (eg. Sunday Age, 21/10/01
‘Pensioner bashed’) / (eg The Australian, 12/10/01 ‘Qantas sued’)
What area of law is being discussed?
Briefly – what happened? / (eg assault) / (eg defamation, negligence)
What court was the action brought in/would it have been brought in?
Who would bring the action (ie start it – injured party, police?)
What burden of proof was/will be used to determine the outcome?
What were/could be the consequences?
Any comment from you?
-do you agree with the law or its outcome?
-qualities of the law involved?
-social/economic/political
issues raised?

TUTORIAL SHEET – WEEK 3

Court hierarchy; Role of judges and the High Court

Objectives - by preparing for this tutorial and participating in it you should have:

Ø investigated the role of the High Court compared to other courts

Ø considered whether judges should ‘make’ law

Ø improved your researching techniques

Ø attempted to reference using either the Harvard or Footnoting style

Ø completed a quick quiz, to give you feedback and prepare you for the upcoming test

BEFORE CLASS

1. Find information on the High Court: its judges and its role. You will need to look outside S&OR at another business law text; and online – see eg the High Court’s own site:www.highcourt.gov.au. Look for and make a note of:

(a) the names of the Judges (who is the Chief Justice?) and their backgrounds (what were they before they were judges, how many are men/women?)

(b) What does the High Court do?

(d) Why are some of the High Court judgments controversial?

(e) Do judges ‘make’ law and, if so, it that appropriate given that judges are not elected by the people?

2. Read the attached article entitled ‘Our job has changed, says Chief Justice’.

3. Write up to one page on the role of the High Court and whether judges should make law. Reference your work. To do this you will need to obtain a copy of the University’s General Guide to the Presentation of Academic Work from the Bookshop or use the Citation Style guide found on the Library’s webpage or use the style suggested by A. Stuhmcke, Legal Referencing – a summary appears in her appendix 4 which is attached.

IN CLASS

1. A quick consolidation quiz – as a bit of fun, to provide feedback and to get

used to the type of questions that will be on the test.

2. Discussion about:

a) Finding resources

b) Role of the High Court and law-making powers of judges

c) Referencing style

TUTORIAL SHEET – WEEK 4

Framework of Australian Law:

STATUTORY INTERPRETATION

Objectives:

§ to understand why courts need to interpret statutes and how they do this

§ to improve your case analysis skills

BEFORE CLASS

Read through ch 6, Carvan (attached to lecture guide)

2. Read the attached case of Stewart and Lizars

Summarise the case by writing down:

(a) the case citation

(b) the Court the case was heard in

(d) Outcome of the decision

(e) Reasons or ratio for the decision

(f) What you learn from the decision

Answer these questions:

(a) Why did the Magistrate dismiss the prosecution’s case?

(b) In the appeal to Winneke CJ, what rule/s of statutory interpretation did the applicant prosecution say should be used?

IN CLASS

Another quick quiz.

Discuss answers to pt 4 questions and if students want, question 3.

______

More self-testing:

See Carvan ch 6 (attached to your lecture guide):

· Do the sample question on p.96-97

· Try the questions on pages 97-98. For each question try to write down, using the rules of statutory interpretation and cases:

Arguments for prosecutor Arguments for defendant

TUTORIAL SHEET – WEEK 5

Framework of Australian Law: PRECEDENT

Objectives -By preparing for this tutorial and participating in it you should have:

- become more confident about how to find a ratio

- understood how the law develops through the doctrine of precedent

- started to improve your case analysis skills

- started to link Topic A and Topic B.

BEFORE CLASS

1. See S&OR page 14 for an example of a case and its parts

2. Read Carvan, ch 5 (attached to lecture guide).

3. Summarise the case of Donoghue v Stevenson under the following headings using the attached case extract (see also pp90-95, Ch 5, Carvan):

(a) Case citation

(b) Court the case was heard in

(d) Outcome of the decision

(e) Reasons or ratio for the decision (this case is unusual because you can find a wide and narrow ratio!)

(f) What you learn from the decision about when a duty of care will be owed.

Learning hint: when we start looking at cases in contract and negligence, it is a good idea to summarise each case this way.

IN CLASS

1. Check summary of Donoghue v Stevenson

2. In groups consider the following:

(i) Dr. Grant bought some underwear from a retail store. The underwear had been manufactured by Australian Knitting Mills. Dr. Grant suffered severe dermatitis after wearing the underwear. Who owed Dr. Grant a duty of care and why? What rules of precedent will you use to determine this?

(ii) Ruby was driving down the road in Ballarat, Victoria. She did not slow down as she passed a primary school. Billy ran out from behind a parked car and Ruby crashed into him. Billy has commenced proceedings in the County Court of Victoria – did Ruby owe him a duty of care? Precedent rules?

(iii) A finance company was asked to extend more finance to a company. The finance company obtained a copy of the company’s accounts prepared by XYZ Accountants. The finance company relied on the accounts and extended more finance. In fact XYZ had carelessly prepared the accounts. The company went into liquidation. The finance company wants to sue XYZ in the Supreme Court of Victoria – does XYZ owe a duty of care to the finance company? (We will revisit this example in the lecture area: Tort - Professional Negligence.)