Marks
The assessment is worth 40% of the overall mark for this unit.
Nature of the Assessment
For this assessment you will write a legal research essay in response to the essay question below.
This assessment aligns with Unit Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3 as shown in the Unit Outline:
CONS2000 Constitutional Law Assignment 2- Curtin University Australia.
1.Identify, analyse and apply the relevant rules of constitutional law governing the relationships between Federal and State governments and between the legislature, executive and judiciary to real world fact scenarios
2.Independently research relevant primary and secondary constitutional law materials appropriate for use in a legal research essay
3.Construct and articulate persuasive written arguments to critically evaluate and critique contemporary constitutional law issues
The assessment rubric at the end of this document provides further guidance as to how the assessment will be evaluated. Please read the rubric carefully so that you understand what is expected of you for this assessment.
The unit coordinator will answer questions regarding the instructions for the assessment and content of the assessment rubric. The unit coordinator will not generally answer questions about the essay question; inter alia, this rule is to support equity for all students in the unit and to ensure that no student is unfairly advantaged by discussions with teaching staff about the essay question.
Authentic Assessment
- This assessment simulates a law reform submission in which you advocate for or against a proposed law reform.
- Law reform has been defined as ‘the alteration of the law in some respect with a view to its improvement’.1 The drive for law reform may reflect difficulties in the administration of existing laws, denial of rights by existing laws, improper application of the law, the need for laws to address new circumstances in society, beliefs that existing laws are out-dated and inconsistent with current community values, or other issues.
- Law reforms may be proposed by a Local, State or Commonwealth Government, a government body (eg a law reform commission), a non-governmental organisation (eg an industry representative group, a community group), or a person in their private capacity.
- A submission of this kind is a written (or sometimes oral) argument that:
1.indicates the position you or your organisation are advocating (eg that a proposed law reform should or should not be implemented);
2.advances key reasons in support of the position you or your organisation are advocating; and
3.presents evidence and/or logical argument to support those key reasons.
Examples of Law Reform Submissions
Please consider the examples law reform submissions listed below.
a.Law Council of Australia – Deterring promoter conduct by legal practitioners:
b. Red fern Legal Centre – Access to justice arrangements:
c.Australian National University Corporate Accountability Project – Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia: available with footnotes under the ‘Projects’ tab at
CONS2000 Constitutional Law Assignment 2- Curtin University Australia.
These examples are NOT templates or exemplars for your legal research essay assessment.
They do, however, provide examples of how you can indicate a legal position regarding a proposed law reform, provide key reasons to support that position, and present evidence or logical argument to support those key points.
Guidance for Argument
- For this assessment you are encouraged to present an argument for or against a proposed law reform based on legal argument.
- Specifically, you are encouraged to base your reasons, evidence, and logical argument on legal concepts and legal propositions with reference to Australian legal authority (the Australian Constitution, Australian case law, Commonwealth or State/Territory legislation)and scholarly secondary sources (eg articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, chapters in academic books).
- The secondary sources you discuss or cite must include material authored by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander persons.
- Your reasons, evidence, and logical argument may rely on international materials; foreign domestic materials; textbooks on Australian law; and non-scholarly secondary sources.
- You may use a comparative approach and present reasons, evidence, and logical argument based on similar law reforms in other countries.
- You may include reasons, evidence, and logical argument based on social facts and ethical/moral reasoning.
Your legal argument may derive from, for example, consideration of:
- the interpretation of existing statutory or constitutional provisions by Australian courts;
- the possible interpretation of the proposed statutory or constitutional provisions by
Australian courts; - the effects of existing statutory or constitutional provisions on (eg) the rights or obligations
of persons; - the possible effects of the proposed statutory or constitutional provisions on (eg) the rights
or obligations of persons; - the object/intent of the proposed statutory or constitutional provisions, and the merits of
that object/intent; - the possible changes to the legal system that may be required to accommodate the proposed
statutory or constitutional provisions; and - the possible conflicts between the proposed statutory or constitutional provisions and
existing legal rules, principles, standards, or concepts.
Legal argument requires you to advance and defend propositions.
Legal Writing and Propositions
Academic legal writing involves argument.
Argument involves advancing propositions.
We also talk about making claims.
They are the same thing – this is a handy video:
Characteristics of propositions (and claims):
they are statements (thus clarity and concision vital)
they usually assert that something is true
Essay Question & Background
Essay Question:
Proposed law reform
Membership for the National Voice should be determined through the ‘Structurally linked’ model, with Members selected from Local and Regional Voices.
Background
- On 9 January 2021, the Commonwealth Government commenced a consultation process for the Indigenous Voice proposals:
- The proposed Indigenous Voice would have a national body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (the National Voice) and a community designed and led governance structure at a regional level (the Local and Regional Voice):
- A range of resources, including a copy of the Indigenous Voice Co-design Process Interim Report to the Australian Government, have been made available to support the consultation process:
- Submissions are due 31 March 2021 You are encouraged to consider submitting a revised version of your assessment as a submission to the public consultation process.
The Indigenous Voice Co-design Process Interim Report to the Australian Government states, at page 33:
The way members are selected is an important consideration. For a National Voice to have legitimacy, its members must be selected by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and as much as possible have a connection to the local community level. There are different styles
and approaches to ensure legitimacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ representation. This can be through different mechanisms or their combination, such as an election, communities nominating or selecting members, or by drawing on or incorporating cultural leadership involved in traditional decision making and governance structures. There is
no single method. The two core models presented below represent the National Co-design Group’s views of the appropriate ways of selecting members of the National Voice. These models will be refined as feedback is received during the stage two consultation and engagement process.
Instructions for the Assessment
Guidance for the essay
1.Your essay must present an argument for this proposed law reform or against this proposed law reform.
2.You should only argue for OR against the law reform in your essay.
Thus, if you have decided to present an argument for the proposed law reform, your essay should advance reasons to support the proposed law reform. Your may consider reasons against the proposed law reform in your essay (eg, so that you could refute them), but you not obligated
to do so.
Likewise, if you have decided to present an argument against the proposed law reform, your essay should advance reasons to oppose the proposed law reform. You may consider reasons for the proposed law reform in your essay (eg, so that you could refute them), but you not
obligated to do so.
CONS2000 Constitutional Law Assignment 2- Curtin University Australia.
3.A suggested structure for your essay is set out below:
a. Introduction
b. Key Reason 1
c. Key Reason 2
d. Key Reason 3
e. Conclusion
4.The purpose of this suggested structure is to encourage you to focus on making an argument for or against the proposed law reform that is based on (1) a few key reasons and (2) evidence and logical argument to support those key reasons. You will not be penalised if you use a different essay structure. Please note that the assessment rubric also contains other relevant guidance on essay structure.
General instructions
Academic Integrity
Please read and consider the text in the unit outline relating to academic integrity.
You are strongly encouraged to access and review a copy of the Turnitin
Originality Report for at least one draft of your assessment, prior to
submitting the final version of the assessment:
The Turnitin portal for the assessment been set to allow you to submit
multiple times to the portal until the due date and time for the assessment.
Each new submission replaces the one before it and generates a new
Similarity Report.
For detailed guidance regarding academic misconduct, including
plagiarism and how to avoid it, please refer to:
There is also a booklet you can download, Academic Integrity Guide for Students, from this site and a helpful Checklist to Help You Prevent Plagiarism in Your Work.
Presentation
Your assessment must be presented in 12 point Times New Roman font,with 1.5cm line spacing and 2cm margins.
This formatting is to allow for easier reading and the provision of feedback. If you do not know how to format to follow these instructions, then please ask well in advance of the submission date.
Referencing
Referencing in the appropriate style is mandatory for academic integrity
in all academic disciplines but particularly so in law, given its reliance on
precedent and authority.
The applicable Style Guide for the Curtin Law School is the Australian
Guide to Legal Citation (4th edition) (AGLC4). A copy of the AGLC4
may be downloaded from:
The AGLC4 prescribes the use of footnotes, not in-text references or
end notes, for referencing. A bibliography is required for this assessment.
You must comply with the AGLC4 Rules except for Rule 1.1.5 (Discursive
Text in Footnotes) (see further guidance in the Word Limit section below).
If you are unsure about why you need to reference, when you need to
reference or how to reference then you may find it helpful to review the
Curtin Library’s Referencing LibGuide (which includes a section on AGLC4):
Word limit
The ability to develop and communicate a clear, concise and relevant
argument is very important in law. The word limits often imposed on
assessments are intended to encourage that ability.
The word limit for the written assessment is 2000 words.
The word limit includes all words in the text of the assessment (including
headings, quotations and the names of cases and legislation included in the
body of the text). It does not include words on the cover page or in the
footnotes.
The text for footnotes must contain citation information for primary and
secondary sources only. Footnotes must not contain any discursive text or
any other information that is not relevant to the citation of a source. For
the purposes of this assessment, you are to disregard AGLC4 Rule 1.1.5
(Discursive Text in Footnotes). Text in footnotes that is not relevant to the
citation of a source will be included in the overall word limit and penalties
will apply if the word limit is exceeded.
Assessments that exceed the word limit may be penalised by deducting 1
mark from the student’s final mark for the assessment for every 100 words,
or part thereof, over the word limit. The penalty for going over the word
limit are designed to mimic the real-world impact of actions such as going
over Court-imposed word or page limits.
There is no penalty for being under the word limit. However, if an
assessment is under the word limit it may lack sufficient depth of content
and/or analysis.
Submission of the assessment
You must:
• paste in the required assessment cover sheet as the first page of your assessment as text (not as a picture). The cover sheet can be found on the Blackboard site (under the ‘Assessment’ tab);
• fill the cover sheet in, type your name against the statement that confirms this work is your own and is not copied, or substantially copied from another person’s;
• save your complete assessment as a Microsoft Word document (not
PDF) and give it a file name as follows ‘[Your Surname]_[Your Initial]_Unit Name_Assessment Reference’. Your assessment reference may be the assessment number or name.
• upload your assessment by the due date to the Turnitin link
provided on the Unit’s BlackBoard site in .doc or .docx format.
PDF format is not acceptable.
• you can only submit assessment via Turnitin; assessments attached to emails are not acceptable.
Instructions on how to submit are on Blackboard if required.
Assessment extensions and late assessment penalties
Please refer to the Unit Outline for details on how to apply for an
assessment extension and what evidence is required to support one.
The Unit Outline also specifies the penalties that apply for late submission
without an approved extension.
The penalties for late submission are designed to mimic the real-world
impact of actions such as missing Court filing deadlines.
You are strongly encouraged to start your assessment and plan your time to
complete it before the due date,so asto avoid any last minute panic over any
unexpected events that impact on your ability to complete it.
Self-review of your assignment using assessment rubric
5.Prior to submitting your assignment, you must conduct a self-review of your assignment using the assessment rubric.
6.You must submit a copy of the self-review as part of your written assignment.
7.To complete the self-review, shade in the cell in each line of the assessment rubric (ie for all 16 criteria) that you think reflects your performance for the assessment (Below Expectations – Fail; Meets Expectations – Pass; Meets Expectations – Credit; Exceeds Expectations – Distinction; Exceeds Expectations – High Distinction).
8.Do not indicate a mark for any of the criteria or categories or for the assessment as a whole.
9.To include the self-review in your written assignment:
CONS2000 Constitutional Law Assignment 2- Curtin University Australia.
a. insert a Section Break at the end of assignment (after the bibliography);
b. in the new section you have created, change the Orientation to Landscape;
c. copy the self-review of your assignment (ie the shaded cells of the assessment rubric) and paste it into the new section;
d. you do not need to adjust the formatting of the text in the header and footer for the new section that contains your self-review.
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