LAWS5230: International Law: Conflict and Gender

Early feedback task (0%): As part of our commitment to student success, this unit includes a required Early Feedback task. This task has no impact on students’ grades but is designed to provide students with timely insights into their understanding and engagement with the unit content. The task is an online multiple-choice quiz assessing material covered to the end of week 2. The task will be available from 9am on 3 August 2026 and must be completed by 11:59pm on 20 August 2026 (Sydney, Australia time).

Class participation (20%) : Students will be assigned two specific readings from the reading list for the unit and will be expected to be able to explain the reading in a small group setting and/or to the class as a whole. Students will be expected to be able to answer discussion questions from the teacher and additional follow-up questions from teachers and classmates on the content of the reading.

While participation marks are primarily given on the basis of your understanding of your assigned reading, general participation is considered and can enhance your final mark. For example, we will consider whether you are asking questions of and engaging with other students’ accounts of their own assigned reading. Therefore, it is important to engage with all your assigned readings. A Class Participation Rubric will be made available on Canvas so that you can see how this will be assessed.

In-class test (20%): Students will complete 45 minutes in-class test on Thursday 3 September 2026 during class time (Sydney, Australia Time) consisting of multiple-choice questions. This assessment evaluates students’ ability to recall and apply ICL concepts and principles. Instructions and details will be provided on the unit Canvas site prior to the assessment. The test supports the development of analytical reasoning and legal problem-solving skills, as described in the unit’s learning outcomes. 

Feminist judgment plan (with oral component) (10%):  Students will be required to submit a plan (500 words) excluding citations (note: footnotes containing citations do not count toward the word count, but discursive footnote containing additional information do)".  The plan must be submitted by 11.59pm (Sydney, Australia time) on 28 October 2026 (before the final day of class). Students should come to class ready to discuss their plan. A Plan and Oral Component Rubric will be uploaded to Canvas.

Feminist judgment (50%): Students will select one of the provided ‘real world’ international law decisions, then rewrite it from a feminist perspective. The Feminist Judgment outline, will be released at 9:00am (Sydney, Australia time) on 3 August 2026. The total word limit for this assessment (i.e. rewritten judgement and commentary) is 2000 words (excluding references and headings). No bibliography is required. In general, you should devote more words to the judgment than to the commentary. You are not expected to match the length of the judgment you are rewriting, and you will not be marked down for lacking the depth of a much longer piece of writing! See the Rubric on Canvas for more details regarding how this will be marked. This assessment uses the ‘feminist judgment method’. The Feminist Judgment must be submitted via Canvas no later than 11:59pm (Sydney, Australia time) on Monday 16 November 2026.

Word limit penalty: A piece of assessment which exceeds the prescribed word limit will attract a penalty of 10% of the total marks available for the piece of assessment for every 100 words, or part thereof. The total word count for all written assessments excludes footnote references, and acknowledgements of permissible assistance from editors, automated writing tools or generative AI.  ‘Discursive footnotes’, i.e. footnotes containing text other than citations, do form part of the word limit.

Use of editors or proof-readers: In completing unsupervised assessments, students may use editors, proof-readers, and automated writing tools (including translation software, grammar checkers, reference generators and artificial intelligence), provided that all use is acknowledged and consistent with University policies and procedures including Academic Integrity Policy. Acknowledgment must be made in writing on the front of the work submitted for assessment, or in an appropriate footnote or other reference, and state the name of the person or software. 

You are permitted to use generative AI for this assignment, but you must not submit AI-generated text or images as your own work. You may use AI, for example, to brainstorm ideas, and to assist with editing your own writing. You must include a declaration that explains, in detail, how you used AI.

Special consideration: Successful grants of Special Consideration may involve alternative tasks such as a viva (oral examination), designed to fulfill the learning outcomes of the original task. 

Assessment requirements to pass a unit of study: 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. As the EFT is an early diagnostic tool, this task is not included in the final grade for the unit.