Macquarie University
| Overview and Aims of the Program | This major will enable students to acquire understanding of international law. They will also gain knowledge and skills for research and professional practice in law of international organisations, international environmental law, law and globalisation, international human rights law, international dispute settlement, international trade and finance, and law of the sea. |
| Graduate Capabilities | The Graduate Capabilities Framework articulates the fundamentals that underpin all of Macquarie’s academic programs. It expresses these as follows: Interpersonal or social capabilities |
| Program Learning Outcomes | By the end of this program it is anticipated you should be able to: 1. explain key principles and concepts in the area of international law and global governance (K) 2. identify and evaluate relevant issues, and apply reasoning and research skills to generate appropriate responses to contemporary socio-legal problems (T, P, I) 3. communicate knowledge in oral and written form in ways that are appropriate for legal and non-legal audiences (C) 4. recognise and reflect upon issues of disadvantage and social justice, the impact of globalisation on the australian legal system (E, J) 5. collaborate and reflect upon the application of knowledge to advocate solutions for a sustainable global society within international frameworks (A, J) 6. reflect on feedback and identify opportunities to extend and apply knowledge and skills in broader professional and academic contexts (I). |
| Learning and Teaching Methods | International Law Studies are offered and taught to students, both internal and external. The program covers a wide spectrum of international law disciplines, which are predominantly specialised and elective. Subjects are taught so that undergraduates will be able to demonstrate autonomy, well-developed judgement and responsibility in contexts that require self-directed work and learning and within broad parameters to provide specialist advice and functions. Generally, learning and teaching contents are a blend of both theoretical and applied aspects of international law affording critical studies of legal principles, rules, and practices and their application in real life situations to test their effectiveness, efficacies, and role in shaping a just and inclusive regulatory regime, underpinning a reform agenda. Almost all units are interdisciplinary in nature involving law, economics, politics, diplomacy, and international relations, the interplay of which is rewarding in appreciating diverse competing interests of the world community and the progressive development of international law amid its inherent geo-political dynamics in the twenty-first century. The units are generally taught through a two-hour lecture (live, recorded, and pre-recorded, mostly audio but some involving screen capture) available on iLearn and one hour face-to-face discussion-driven tutorial in each week. Lectures provide an overview of the law and related issues for each topic. The aim is to provide an understanding of the applicable principles, practice, and a critique of their operation. Lectures draw students’ attention to the relevant cases and other international documents that are part of the readings for that week. Students are challenged to think critically and analytically about the materials under discussions. Tutorials, intensive teaching, seminars, and on-line quizzes provide opportunities to explore different aspects of each topic in detail. Teaching aids such as power-point slides are often displayed in all forms of learning and teaching deliveries and these slides are often made available through iLearn. Students are expected to have read in advance the assigned readings for each topic, participate and be realistically critical in class discussion, and to contribute to a better understanding of international law under study. The convenor of a given unit prepares the unit guide, sets assignment tasks, prescribes textbook/s and other relevant readings, and is in charge of the overall administration of the unit. International law units are diverse and high in number. This is because globalisation and high-tech information system have rendered the world intensely interdependent and legal jurisdictions inter-linked. This new dimension has resulted in an increased demand for legal professionals with international and cross-border skills, expertise, and experiences. Wide-ranging international law units help students acquire multi-discipline and multi-jurisdictional skills by exposing them to diverse global regulatory regimes and their constantly changing frontiers governing various national and international jurisdictions. The availability of these units also attracts increasing number of foreign students and exchange students at the undergraduate and postgraduate programs and higher degree research candidates, national and international, thereby facilitating the internationalisation of our academic programs. |
| Assessment | There are diverse modes of assessment in international law studies aimed at testing and achieving different learning and teaching outcomes and graduate capabilities. Specifically, at Undergraduate level, assessment will be designed to measure the development of well-developed cognitive, technical and communication skills and an ability to analyse and evaluate information to complete a range of activities; analyse, generate and transmit solutions to unpredictable and sometimes complex problems; and to transmit knowledge, skills and ideas to others. Modes of assessment in the main include: active class participation, a bank of on-line weekly assessable quizzes, sit-in closed book class test, problem-solving exercise, legal opinion, and research assignment. Active class participation requires students to read and understand various issues scheduled for discussions in advance prior to tutorials (Unit Guides list week-to-week topics/issues for discussion). It is designed to augment students’ oral communication and interpersonal skills. Students need to understand their reading materials to gather discipline specific knowledge in answering specific questions. A given take-home fact-based problem-solving exercise focusing on a problem of international law requires independent determination, examination, and research on applicable legal rules and principles and their creative application to a new, real, or hypothetical factual situation of contemporary international life. It affords students with an opportunity to understand core fundamentals of international law through an exploration of the present challenges that contemporary issues pose to these fundamentals. A take-home legal opinion is designed to provide a means for students to develop an independent understanding of legal rules and principles and their application in a given factual situation, and enhance their writing abilities through explanation, analysis, and argument. This is expected to lead students to understand how international law operates in the world today and how it may develop in the future. It is meant to be thought-provoking, warranting an innovative and interdisciplinary approach. A research assignment is a thought provoking exercise intended to stimulate students to develop their own topic of research and to work out an appropriate research proposal. It usually requires students to respond to existing issues warranting reform, critically analyse a contemporary issue, report on a case study, or prepare a brief on an emerging issue to chat its future direction of evolution. Students are expected to go deep into the topic, creatively apply theoretical scholarship (legal and interdisciplinary), and present it in a logically coherent manner. This mode enables students to demonstrate their independent legal research and analytical skill, to be free and innovative thinkers and ventilators of new ideas, and adopt a policy-oriented approach to pursue a reform agenda. The Unit Guide of each unit usually contains the due dates for assignment submission (mostly through Turnitin), formal and substantive requirements, marking rubrics, and marking criteria of each mode of the assessment scheme. Brief written comments and feedback are provided for all written assignments usually prior to the next assignment enabling students to understand comments and feedback to be used for improvement in future assignments. Additional comments and feedback may be provided if necessary and upon request from students. Marked assignments are returned to internal students in their tutorials and by COE to external students and may be viewed through Turnitin. Marks available for each mode of assessment are raw marks which may change through a moderation process for the sake of consistency between markers. Assignment submission after its due date and without having obtained time extension and/or alternative end of the semester test on special consideration for study disruption will not be marked. Late submission is not an option. There is no scope for remarking in any unit. Students are entitled to grade appeal at the end of the semester and these appeals are determined in accordance with the Macquarie University Policy on Appeals against Grade provided in Unit Guides. |
| Recognition of Prior Learning | Macquarie University may recognise prior formal, informal and non-formal learning for the purpose of granting credit towards, or admission into, a program. The recognition of these forms of learning is enabled by the University’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Policy (see www.mq.edu.au/policy) and its associated Procedures and Guidelines. The RPL pages contain information on how to apply, links to registers, and the approval processes for recognising prior learning for entry or credit. Information can be found at: https://mq.edu.au/rpl |
| Support for Learning | Macquarie University aspires to be an inclusive and supportive community of learners where all students are given the opportunity to meet their academic and personal goals. The University offers a comprehensive range of free and accessible student support services which include academic advice, counselling and psychological services, advocacy services and welfare advice, careers and employment, disability services and academic skills workshops amongst others. There is also a bulk billing medical service located on campus. |
| Program Standards and Quality | The program is subject to an ongoing comprehensive process of quality review in accordance with a pre-determined schedule that complies with the Higher Education Standards Framework. The review is overseen by Macquarie University's peak academic governance body, the Academic Senate and takes into account feedback received from students, staff and external stakeholders. |
| Graduate Destinations and Employability | Graduates with this major will apply their expertise to a range of professional practice areas in international law, including government, NGOs, foreign service and the private sector. |
| Assessment Regulations | This program is subject to Macquarie University regulations, including but not limited to those specified in the Assessment Policy, Academic Honesty Policy, the Final Examination Policy and relevant University Rules. For all approved University policies, procedures, guidelines and schedules visit www.mq.edu.au/policy. |
Inherent requirements are the essential components of a course or program necessary for a student to successfully achieve the core learning outcomes of a course or program. Students must meet the inherent requirements to complete their Macquarie University course or program.
Inherent requirements for Macquarie University programs fall under the following categories:
Physical: The physical inherent requirement is to have the physical capabilities to safely and effectively perform the activities necessary to undertake the learning activities and achieve the learning outcomes of an award.
Cognition: The inherent requirement for cognition is possessing the intellectual, conceptual, integrative and quantitative capabilities to undertake the learning activities and achieve the learning outcomes of an award.
Communication: The inherent requirement for communication is the capacity to communicate information, thoughts and ideas through a variety of mediums and with a range of audiences.
Behavioural: The behavioural inherent requirement is the capacity to sustain appropriate behaviour over the duration of units of study to engage in activities necessary to undertake the learning activities and achieve the learning outcomes of an award.
For more information see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/inherent-requirements
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