School Of LawProfessional Responsibility and Legal EthicsWestern Sydney University Unit Code: 201049.1
Discipline: LEGAL PRACTICE
Student Contribution Band: 4
Level: 7
Credit Points: 10
Corequisite
201046 Fundamentals of Australian Law
Unit Enrolment Restrictions
Students must be enrolled in a postgraduate course.
About this Unit
This unit provides students with the opportunity to critically reflect on the legal, statutory and ethical principles and standards that underpin the professional obligations of legal practitioners. Students will also analyse ethical issues that commonly occur in professional legal practice in contemporary multicultural Australia, particularly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It deals with the professional, legal and ethical responsibilities legal practitioners owe to the law, the courts, their clients and to fellow practitioners, as well as the state and society at large. Students will be able to explain and evaluate the law and practice of legal practitioners, by reference to key topics, such as: professionalism; legal ethics; the history, structure and regulation of the legal profession; and the interpersonal, psychological and cultural factors affecting lawyering. In addition students will be able to demonstrate the process of ethical decision making by selecting and using ethical decision making tools in a legal context and develop their own ethical framework by exploring the relationship between personal and professional attitudes and values; and by reflecting on their own performance.
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