LAWS5019: Ngura and the Foundations of Laws

1.  Early Feedback Task (0%)

As part of our commitment to student success, this Unit includes a required Early Feedback Task (EFT). In this Unit, the Early Feedback Task is an online written test covering the Unit content up to and including the Week 2 Tutorials.  It is designed to provide students with timely insights into their understanding and engagement with the Unit. The questions asked in the test will be similar in format to those which students will be required to attempt as part of their in-person written assessments in this Unit.  Details of how to access the online test can be found on the Unit’s Canvas site. This online written test will be available for students to attempt any time from 9am on Friday 6 March 2026 until 11.59pm on Sunday 8 March 2026 (Sydney Australia time).  Students will have 30 minutes to complete the online written test from the time they start the test. 

Students’ attempts will be graded as ‘Attempted/Not attempted’.  Those students who receive an ‘Attempted’ result will be given access to an answer guide.  This answer guide will be made available via Canvas after the closing time for submissions.  This answer guide will constitute the feedback for this task.

As this assessment has a weighting of 0%, Special Consideration is not available for this task.  Students who do not attempt the task by the due date and time will receive a result of ‘Not attempted’.

2.  Participation (20%)

Communication and collaboration in tutorials are essential to success in this Unit.  Your tutorial participation mark will consist of two components: 1) general class participation (worth 10 marks), which will be assessed each week, starting in Week 2, and 2) tutorial leader participation (worth 10 marks), which will be assessed in the week that you are assigned as the Tutorial Leader.  In Week 1, you will be assigned to a tutorial week which you will lead. When you are the designated tutorial leader, you will encourage and facilitate discussion of the tutorial materials and questions.  You will be required to prepare both the required and extension materials for that week and will be responsible for sharing with the class your analysis of the extension materials in particular. Further instructions and the marking rubrics for both general class participation and Tutorial Lead participation are available via Canvas.

Special Consideration: 

General Participation: The maximum general participation mark that a student can earn in a week is 1 mark.  There are 13 weeks of tutorials, which means that students have ample opportunities to earn 10 marks over the 13 week tutorial period.  Students should therefore not apply for Special Consideration where they are unable to attend class and miss the opportunity to earn their 1 mark participation mark.

Tutorial Lead Participation: Students who are unable to complete their Tutorial Lead Participation in their assigned week will need to apply for Special Consideration, accompanied by relevant supporting documentation.  See: Special Consideration.  If granted, consideration will take the form of a varied assessment, which may include the student doing their Tutorial Lead assessment in another week (on the topic for that week), or a participating in a group viva voce with other students on a topic chosen by the Unit Coordinator. The form of the alternative assessment will be at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator.

Disability Academic Plans: The Law School has inherent requirements for its Bachelor of Laws, Juris Doctor and Master of Laws courses. A detailed explanation of the Law School’s inherent requirements can be found here: Inherent requirements. 

Inherent requirements relevant to Participation assessment include: 

• Attending classes and contribute to collaborative learning and debate; 
• Engaging in respectful communication with others; 
• Participating collaboratively and openly in diverse groups across different cultural boundaries; and
• Communicating orally using clear standard Australian English, to convey knowledge and critical analysis of legal and interdisciplinary materials. 

For students with Disability Academic Plans, adjustments must be reasonable and cannot compromise the academic integrity of a course or professional obligations. Reasonable adjustments are provided to assist students to achieve the inherent requirements, not as a substitute for them. This means that, for the Participation assessment, reasonable adjustments cannot include an alternative assessment which does not allow the student to demonstrate the inherent requirements relevant to the Participation assessment.  

3.  In Person Written Tasks (50%)

The in-person written tasks are worth 50% of the assessment in this Unit. There are three 30-minute in-person tasks, one each in Weeks 5, 10, and 13.   Each in-person written task will be marked out of 25, and your best two out of three marks will be used to calculate your mark out of 50 for these assessments.

In-person written tasks will be conducted in your tutorials under examination conditions. You must arrive at your allocated tutorial on time with your student ID card which you will display on your desk. You are not permitted to sit an in-person written task assessment without your student ID card present. You are not permitted to attempt this assessment in a different tutorial time. 

Further information about the format of this assessment, materials allowed in the assessment and the marking rubric will be available via Canvas.

Special Consideration:  Students who are unable to complete any in-person written task in their assigned tutorial will need to apply for Special Consideration, accompanied by relevant supporting documentation.  See: Special Consideration.  If granted, consideration will take the form of the student undertaking a replacement in-person assessment, at a time set by the Unit Coordinator.  This replacement in-person assessment may include a replacement in-person written task or an in-person viva voce (interview) assessment, at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator.

Disability Academic Plans: Students with Disability Academic Plans in place which include exam adjustments will be advised of an alternative time/date/venue to attempt their in-person written task, so that their exam adjustments can be accommodated. Note that these alternative in-person written tasks will also take place in weeks 5, 10 and 13, and may conflict with students’ normal tutorial times in this Unit. Where this occurs, students may seek the approval of the Unit Coordinator to attend an alternative tutorial for that week, so that they do not miss the tutorial content. 

4.  Collaborative Legal Artefact Task (30%)

This is a group assessment. 

Students will be allocated to a pre-assigned collaborative task group for this assessment (your ‘task group’). Your task group will not be assigned until after census date (31 March 2026).  This is to ensure, as far as possible, that all group members will be enrolled in the Unit at the end of the semester. 

Your task group will be presented with a list of sources of law and will be required to conduct a critical analysis of one of these sources.

This group assessment will assess both the product and the process of your task group’s collaboration. While the task group will receive an overall mark for the artefact they produce and evidence of their work-in-progress, your individual mark for this assessment may be adjusted based on your group members’ assessment of the quality of your contribution to the collaborative process.  All students must participate in the peer assessment process.

The final artefact produced by the group must be submitted online 11.59pm on Tuesday 9 June 2026 (Sydney Australia time).  However, task groups may also be required to submit evidence of their work-in-progress towards this assessment prior to this date, for example a team agreement, records of group meetings, reflection on use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools, and a research diary. The due dates for these work-in-progress tasks will be advised via Canvas.

Maximum length for final artefact: 2500 words for a written submission. 20 minutes for an audio/audio visual submission.  Maximum word/time limits for work-in-progress submissions will be specified on Canvas.

Further details about this assessment, including the format of the artefact and the work-in-progress, support for collaboration and marking rubrics for all aspects of the assessment, will be available on Canvas.

Simple extensions: Automated simple extensions are unavailable for this task, as it is a group assessment.

Special Consideration: In this Unit, Special Consideration is not  available for this group assessment, which means that no extensions will be granted.  Any group that submits work after the due date will be subject to relevant late submission penalties.  Students should ensure that they work consistently and collaboratively on this task to ensure that they meet required deadlines.

Word limit/time limit penalty: Where assessments have word limits (for written submissions) or time limits (for audio/ audio/visual submissions), these should be strictly adhered to.  Markers will STOP MARKING once the assessment reaches the word/time limit.  The total word count for any written assessments will exclude all references, and exclude acknowledgements of assistance from editors, automated writing tools or generative AI (where use is permitted).

Referencing: The Sydney Law School expects you to use the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th edition, 2018) for your footnoting style, although you should confirm this with your lecturer. A link to the library website where this is set out comprehensively is available at Referencing and Citation Styles: AGLC4

Assessment requirements to pass a unit of study: To pass this Unit, students must:

• Attempt all assessment items.  A student must make a genuine attempt at all assessment tasks set out in this Unit of Study in order to obtain a Pass mark and grade (or above); otherwise an Absent Fail grade will be recorded as the student’s result for this Unit of Study. Please note that as the EFT is an early diagnostic tool, this task is not included in the final grade for the unit;
• Attend at least 70% of the tutorials in the Unit (this is 9 out of the 13 tutorials);and
• Achieve a mark of at least 50% overall for the Unit.