Given the increasingly strong economic tie between Australia and China, there is an ever-growing need to have an advanced knowledge of Chinese laws, in particular those concerning the company and securities market.

This specialist subject is designed to provide students with an opportunity to study key issues of Chinese corporate and securities laws in greater depth than is often the case in the typical introductory Chinese law course. To this end, it examines not only the law on the books but also the law in action, as well as recent developments in the area.

This subject is developed and delivered on the basis of the expertise of Dr (Robin) Hui Huang, who is one of the well-respected scholars in corporate and securities law with a particular focus on Chinese issues at the international level. It is a highly valuable subject for students intending to do business and invest in China.

Principal topics will include:

• Introduction (providing background information about China and the Chinese legal system)
• Chinese financial markets and regulatory framework
• Incorporation and corporate personality (including foreign investment enterprises)
• Corporate governance issues
• Fundraising and disclosure regime
• Market misconduct
• Takeover of listed companies
• Cross-border merger and acquisition.

This subject has two main dimensions. The first is a general introduction to the Chinese legal system focusing on its development, structure and institutions. This provides an essential underpinning to any foreign lawyer who seeks to engage with China in relation to a specific issue. The second dimension of the course is to focus more specifically on the major spheres in which foreign lawyers interact with the Chinese legal system in relation to commercial transactions, including both corporate and employment law.

The subject teachers aim to shed light on contemporary Chinese law, both on paper and in practice, by discussing examples and case studies that reveal the system in action, and its potential future trajectories.

Principal topics include:

• Historical context of the current law and practice
• Constitutional issues
• Institutions of the Chinese legal system (courts, legislatures, government agencies, central and local governments and lawyers)
• Law and economic reform
• Regulation of fundamental economic and civil relationships including property and contract
• The Chinese legal system and foreign investment environment
• Investment forms and company law
• The Chinese legal response to the social impact of economic reform; the example of employment regulation
• Dispute resolution.

The emergence of Asia as an economic powerhouse is driving enormous interest in doing business in the region. This subject provides students with an opportunity to examine commercial law in an Asian context. Although parallels can be drawn between Asian jurisdictions in terms of their economic and legal development, their commercial law systems are too diverse to be treated uniformly. Instead, the focus is on analysing key legal aspects of doing business in Asia – including contracts, business entities, international trade, competition law, dispute resolution and the role of lawyers – by reference to systems and case studies in various Asian jurisdictions. Singapore and Australia will be used as reference jurisdictions. The lecturer previously worked as a lawyer and academic in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore and has written extensively on specific Asian business law topics.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to economic, political and cultural context of Asian laws
• Commercial contracts
• Business entities
• Foreign investment
• Overview of World Trade Organization and international trade regulation
• Competition law
• Overview of finance and capital markets
• Courts and dispute resolution in Asia
• The role and regulation of lawyers.

The recent spectacular ‘rise of China’ as an economic and regional power has been accompanied by both major legal change and increased foreign investment. China now exerts significant global influence and is subject itself to the profound influences of globalisation. The ways in which the Chinese legal system functions are of critical importance to an increasing range of actors both within and outside China. The divergence between law and practice highlights the challenges faced in entrenching the rule of law as a core tool of governance. Taught by a world-recognised expert in Chinese law, this subject offers insights into Chinese law and its reform in the country that will have the most influence on the path of the ‘Asian century’. It focuses on contemporary issues in economic and civil law reform. It provides insights into how the economic regulatory framework is given effect in practice by examining the powers and functioning of Chinese legal institutions from the centre to the region; dispute resolution both formal and informal, criminal law and human rights issues as they impact on commercial relationships.

Principal topics will include:

• Law and economic reform
• Regulation of fundamental economic and civil relationships including property and contract
• Historical context of the current law and practice
• Constitutional issues
• Institutions of the Chinese legal system (courts, legislatures, government agencies, central and local governments and lawyers)
• Dispute resolution—formal and informal
• Criminal law and human rights issues
• Undertaking research in Chinese law.

This subject examines the legal issues and practical challenges that arise in relation to a cross-border transaction with China. Students will work through a type of foreign investment transaction (a joint venture), which will be used as a point of reference throughout the subject. In this way, students will develop an advanced and integrated understanding of the nature of a cross-border transaction with China (involving a foreign investor and assets in China) and also the legal issues that are relevant to each stage of the transaction. These issues will include the following:

• The legal and regulatory framework for foreign investment in China
• The different ways in which foreign investment is structured, including joint ventures and acquisitions
• The various stages of a foreign investment transaction in China
• Key legal issues arising in relation to documentation, including the impact of foreign investment law, contract law, property law, company law and private international law
• Mechanisms for resolving disputes, including arbitration clauses
• The regulation and role of lawyers in a deal with China and the theory behind the skills that they require, including advisory skills, drafting skills, cross-cultural communication skills and negotiation skills.

Principal topics will include:

• The Chinese legal system and foreign investment environment
• Preliminary agreements and deal stages
• Investment forms and company law
• Merger control
• Contract law
• Property law
• Dispute resolution
• Termination, insolvency and winding-up
• The role of lawyers
• Skills—drafting, negotiation and cross-cultural communication skills.

Throughout Asia the treatment of drug offences varies, although many countries retain the death penalty. Students will be asked to critically evaluate drug law, criminal procedure law and penalties in Asian jurisdictions selected from (but not limited to) China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The subject’s approach is explicitly socio-legal. Students will interrogate regional primary sources and then investigate how the laws operate in practice, drawing upon identified practice and current research. There will be a strong emphasis on case studies of important judicial decisions from the countries selected. This subject is also comparative, asking students to incorporate and defend a comparative approach to their analysis.

The first part of the subject will be an introduction to relevant international regimes and the national regulatory and institutional frameworks for drugs law in each of the countries selected. The second part of the subject will comprise a series of studies of significant and/or high-profile case studies from the countries selected, in which the practical application of the regimes examined in the first half are investigated. A comparative approach will be applied throughout.

Principal topics include:

• Key approaches to socio-legal comparative legal studies in the 21st century
• Diverse approaches within Asia to the regulation of drugs, through detailed and nuanced examination of the relevant criminal and procedure laws, taking into account different legal systems, social, political and cultural traditions, structures and practices
• The role played by different legal institutions in the regulation of drugs offences regionally, including courts, police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, NGOS etc.
• The contribution made to the regulation of drugs and drugs-related offences by international regulatory frameworks
• The impacts of non-legal networks and institutions on the development, implementation and review of drugs laws in the region
• Divergent attitudes to the death penalty
• Drugs-law-related reforms arising from the comparisons
• The possibilities for convergence or harmonisation of drugs law in Asia.

Investors involved in transactions in developing jurisdictions face a different set of risks from those working in developed countries. Lawyers, wherever located, need to know where to look for these risks, how to interpret them for clients, employers and counterparties and how to manage them. This knowledge is fundamental to advising investors how to avoid delays, cost overruns and transaction failure. This subject is explicitly transactional and designed to assist students who wish to be involved in deals in the region.

Materials and case studies will look at a number of countries in the region with examples taken principally from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar. However, skills learnt will be generally applicable to investing and advising in unfamiliar jurisdictions.

Thomas Miller has spent most of the past 20 years in private practice in Asia working on Asian transactions as a partner in the law firm Allens Linklaters.

Principal topics include:

• The characteristics of developing country legal systems that require a different transactional approach
• The identification of areas of investment where investment challenges are most likely to occur in developing countries
• The conduct of due diligence focusing on those areas where risk profiles differ significantly from those in a developed jurisdiction, such as land entitlements and disputes
• Structuring a foreign investment
• Funding a foreign investment
• Acquisitions of existing businesses
• Financing issues—and in particular foreign exchange controls, loan registration, the adequacy of securities and securities registers, the non-recognition of trusts and the relevance of political risk insurance
• Strategies for managing risk using documentation, negotiation and transaction structures.

In this subject, students will act as lawyers advising an international investor in a hypothetical investment project in a developing Asian jurisdiction (based on real life experience of the subject coordinator). Students must identify the legal risks and potential disputes in this developing environment and advise ways to mitigate such risks and avoid or resolve disputes. Students will study relevant laws, draft contractual documents, analyse legal issues, give advice, negotiate with the local government, project finance lenders and other parties and bring the deal to closure.  Students are also involved in a dispute scenario arising out of the transaction.  After the subject, students are expected to have an overview of the key risks and potential disputes in investment deals in developing Asian systems and ways to mitigate such risks through negotiation and documentation. Students can also research more deeply into particular legal issues such as expropriation, change in law, currency conversion or performance by state-owned companies and dispute resolution. Throughout the subject, students will study different areas of law such as investment, administrative, conflict of laws and international dispute resolution.

Principal topics include:

• General overview of risks and potential disputes for investors
• Risks of expropriation
• Risks of illegality
• Performance by state-owned enterprises
• Currency conversion
• Permits and regulatory approvals
• Choice of law, dispute resolution and the arbitration process
• Negotiating with local counterparties and international project finance lenders
• Resolving disputes and closing the deal.

Islam does not, in theory, recognise a distinction between religion and law because for Muslims both are derived from their god‘s revealed message. The result is the inevitable tension between Islamic beliefs and the modern (secular) nation state that lies at the heart of the politics of Islam in South-East Asia. It has become the subject of major global controversies and conflicts in recent decades, as religious and political leaders compete with, and – in most cases – accommodate, each other. This tension, and the legal, political and social controversies that result from it, are the focus of this subject, which is based on selected comparative case studies of efforts to achieve legal Islamisation from a range of countries in Australia’s region. Teaching is led by a scholar who has conducted extensive fieldwork across South-East Asia and worked closely with Islamic legal institutions in the region. He is supported by guest lecturers specialising on South-East Asia, who will bring their own perspectives to class discussions.

This subject examines the relationship between the modern nation state and Islam in Asia, focusing on the 240 million Muslims in Australia’s South-East Asian neighbourhood.

Principal topics include:

• How the original Arabic-derived legal thought has been adapted in new Asian homelands
• The essential position of Islamic legal traditions as an alternative authority to the contemporary nation state
• Current political and religious controversies arising in South-East Asia. These will be selected from a range that may include:
  • Islamic legal codes and laws for Muslims
  • The Qadi, Islamic judicial traditions and courts for Muslims
  • Islamic criminal punishment
  • Interest-free banking, ‘Islamic economics’ and commercial law
  • Islamic approaches to the status of women (fiqh Al-Nisa)
  • Zakat and other forms of philanthropy
  • Education and the role of madrasa and pesantren
  • The introduction of revivalist Islamic codes
  • Islamic radicalism and terrorist groups in South-East Asia, including Darul Islam, Jemaah Islamiyah and Al Qaeda.

Trade and Investment Laws govern regulation of free trade and liberalisation and protection of investment. They are two of the most important and fast-developing legal subjects in China. This subject focuses on the nature, context and evolution of trade and investment law-making and enforcement in China with emphasis on several specific legal issues such as trade in goods, trade in services, intellectual property, trade remedies, government procurement, foreign investment entry into China, investment protection, promotion and administration, national security review, and trade and investment dispute resolution, The latest developments such as the pilot free trade zones and the new proposal to amend foreign investment legislation will also be explored. This subject is taught from the perspectives of both Chinese legal reform and policy change and the evolution of international trade and investment systems. The lecturer is from a leading international law institute in China and was a practising lawyer in China.

Principal topics include:

• Nature, evolution and context of trade and investment law in China
• Tariff and non-tariff barriers measures
• Intellectual property
• Trade in services
• Anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing
• Government procurement
• Foreign investment entry into China
• Establishment and operation of foreign investment companies
• Foreign investment protection and promotion
• Administration and national security review
• Trade and investment dispute resolution
• Pilot free trade zones in China
• New proposal to revise foreign investment law.

Payment systems around the globe have gone through tremendous changes and developments in the last decade. The technological and multimedia developments, recent financial crises, commercial changes and financial markets globalisation have all led to the emergence of new advanced payment devices coupled with a rapid rise in non-cash payment transactions. Fintech companies have been quick to follow this trend while striving to enhance digital payments. As payment transactions are a key component in any modern financial system, policy makers, courts and legal practitioners are now facing more challenges than ever before.

The subject deals with the law and practice of payment devices, focusing on the most recent changes and advanced innovations in the payment market. It is designed to provide students with unique knowledge of one of the building blocks of commercial and financial markets from a comparative and global perspective. In the course of studies we will analyse the main payment devices and innovative Fintech payments that are being used these days in Australia and other jurisdictions, while focusing on policy considerations, current legal frameworks, scholarly theories and business practices.

Principal topics include:

• Policy considerations in designing a payment system
• Characteristics of the Australian payment system
• Modern payment devices and their legal framework
  • The cheque as the paradigm payment device
  • Payment cards: credit cards, debit cards, stored-value cards and e-money
  • Electronic banking
  • Advanced payment networks (PayPal, Bpay, POLi, P2P networks)
  • Emerging trends - Mobile payments, digital currency (Bitcoin), contactless payments.
  • International payments.
• Consumers protection, in payment markets (unauthorised use of a payment device, stop payment order, error correction, distant payments, issuer insolvency, unused funds)
• Clearing and settlement (including real-time networks)
• The banking system and its effect on the payment market regulation
• Recent crises and the emergence of new payment systems
• The future of payments - an outline of the cashless society.

This subject examines the fundamental principles under Australian law relating to the provision of credit by financiers to businesses and consumers. The subject has as its focus the legal design of key financing transactions and the chief means by which financiers manage the risk of a borrower’s default or insolvency. The topics covered range from 'vanilla' unsecured loans to loans supported by security interests and more complex title-based transactions. The subject also discusses recent Australian reforms in the field of banking and finance law, including the Personal Property Securities Act.

This subject is a preparatory subject for the more specialised subjects in the Banking and Finance Law program.

Principal topics include:

• The financier–borrower relationship and key governance issues in banking and finance transactions
• Building blocks of banking and finance transactions
• Law relating to guarantees and security interests
• Legal design of more complex banking and finance transactions
• Recent legal reforms.

Following the global financial crisis (GFC) and the sovereign debt crisis, the debt capital markets have seen major changes. A lack of trust and disclosure led to a surge in bondholder litigation, along with ongoing enforcement action from supervisors and regulators. Investors continue to explore all available avenues to recoup losses. More recently, structured products have made a comeback as investors hunt for yield or, alternatively, seek sustainable investments in the bond markets. The focus of this subject is distinctly practical. Real-life examples from international practice will be analysed and discussed. The lecturer draws on his international experience and brings in guest lecturers from top tier law firms and financial institutions, as well as other disciplines, contributing to a highly interactive, challenging, flexible and overall rewarding subject.

This subject covers the law and practice of the international debt capital markets. It discusses the mechanics of the capital markets generally, explaining how these differ from the loan and derivatives markets. It covers the relevant actors and the (highly dynamic) legal and regulatory framework. There is emphasis in class on the legal and structuring aspects of actual capital market transactions, such as covered bonds, securitisations, (structured) bonds and hybrid transactions.

Restructuring of bond transactions (as evident in the recent sovereign debt crises) is a prominent feature. Consideration of financial markets litigation (involving investment banks, hedge funds, ratings agencies, derivative dealers and regulators) is another important aspect of the subject. Green and inclusive finance (through green bonds, some project bonds and microfinance securitisation) also features. Actual transactions, their structure, term sheet and documentation, are discussed in class, in order to provide students with a skillset that is applicable in legal practice and thus further enhance their legal prospects and careers.

This subject considers the law and practice of the international derivatives markets. It has a distinctly practical focus. A key objective is to provide students with skills they can apply in legal practice. The lecturer will draw on his extensive experience as well as bring in guest lecturers from a variety of backgrounds to add to an interactive and challenging subject. It will also include a negotiation session.

Principal topics of the subject will include:

• Derivatives markets generally (exchange-traded, over-the-counter and embedded derivatives) and their commercial drivers and legal risks, on central clearing in practice
• Derivative products (ranging from plain interest rate derivatives to credit derivatives and niche products such as weather and emission trading derivatives)
• The structure, mechanics, key features and pitfalls of ISDA derivatives documentation
• Regulation of international derivatives markets and their key risks (including a comparison of United States derivatives regulation under Frank-Dodd and the European Union implementation under the EMIR regulation)
• The interrelationship between derivatives and other financial products (the use and documentation of swaps in structured finance, for instance securitisation and covered bonds)
• Analysis of the role of derivatives, especially credit derivatives, in the Greek crisis as well as the Eurocrisis
• The risk of mis-selling derivative products and potential liabilities (examples from Australian, Asian and other overseas transactions)
• Explanation of the role derivatives can play in international development finance.

This subject is concerned with the regulation of financial intermediaries, including financial product issuers, broker/dealers, fund managers, custodians, financial planners and investment advisers. Orthodox approaches to the regulation of financial intermediaries have been under significant challenge since the Global Financial Crisis, with more to come. The subject combines a thorough technical grounding in the current law governing the provision of financial services to retail and wholesale clients in Australia with broader perspective on likely future directions in financial services regulation. The lecturer is a former Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Regional Commissioner and one of Australia’s leading experts in the areas of funds management law and financial services regulation

This subject examines the regulation of financial services providers and the legal dimensions of their relationship with their clients. In particular, it deals directly with relevant parts of Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the general law relating to brokers, dealers and financial advisers. It also covers the related topic of financial product disclosure.

Principal topics include:

• Policy underpinning Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
• Theoretical and comparative approaches to regulating financial intermediaries
• The Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensing regime
• Financial services disclosure
• Statutory and general law duties of financial services providers
• Financial product disclosure
• Roles and powers of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
• The impact of new technologies in financial services: regulating for disruption.

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Hedge funds and private equity funds involve the allocation and investment of trillions of dollars, ultimately in a wide range of financial instruments and numerous operating companies across a variety of industry sectors. In recent years, managers of these ‘alternative investment funds’ have become subject to heightened scrutiny from regulators and the media. This subject provides an opportunity to learn in detail about the structuring and operation of hedge funds and private equity funds, providing students with an advanced and specialised knowledge in the relevant areas of law, and will examine recent developments in these areas.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to hedge funds and private equity funds
• Dramatis personae
• Overview of regulatory issues relating to structuring
• Overview of regulatory issues relating to marketing
• Investors and due diligence issues
• Investment objectives and restrictions
• Legal documentation for a hedge fund
• Current issues related to hedge fund managers and investors
• Legal documentation for a private equity fund
• Current issues related to private equity fund managers and investors.

In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, the visibility of finance and financial regulation has increased dramatically. This subject will provide an overview of the global financial system and international efforts to build structures to support its proper functioning. Taking an integrative approach, the subject will look at the evolution of the global financial system, its structure and regulation. In doing so, it will analyse financial crises, especially the GFC, and responses to it, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Principal topics include:

• The historical evolution of the international financial markets from Bretton Woods to the present
• Costs and benefits of internationalisation and globalisation of finance
• International debt and derivatives markets
• International prudential regulation and capital adequacy
• The rise of emerging markets and their integration into the global financial system
• Major international financial crises, their causes and implications
• Regulatory responses to financial crises and mechanisms for crisis resolution
• The international financial architecture and its evolution
• The impact of technology on global finance and its regulation: FinTech and RegTech.

The purpose of this subject is to give students an advanced and integrated understanding of the legal issues that arise in international financial transactions. This is achieved by looking at the principal transactions, analysing the ways in which they are structured and implemented, and identifying relevant legal issues. This subject provides students with an insight into cross-border transactions and the role of international finance lawyers. It is therefore of particular interest to lawyers practising or seeking to practise law in this area and also to lawyers and bankers in commercial and investment banks.

Principal topics include:

• The regulation of international finance
• Financing options: bank financing versus capital markets financing
• Debt capital markets
• Syndicated lending
• Techniques of loan sales: novation, assignment and participation
• Legal issues, including insolvency, security, the use of trusts, contractual rights and governing law
• Islamic finance
• Transactions: derivatives, asset securitisation and project finance.

This subject involves the study and analysis of the structure, purpose and key provisions of cross border lending documentation, including large market standard syndicated credit agreements (governed by New York or English law). Students will focus on anticipating potential concerns and tensions in the negotiation process and will have the chance to review and study all the agreements and documents such as the credit agreement, other ancillary documents, schedules and deliveries that they will encounter in practice. Students will also study the structure and standard documents used in the cross-border repo market, one of the most important international capital markets.

Christian Johnson is the Dean and Professor of Law at Widener Commonwealth Law School in the United States. Dean Johnson has worked for large international law firms in New York and Chicago. In addition to teaching previously at Melbourne, he has taught lending and finance documentation to lawyers and bankers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Professor Johnson has his JD from Columbia Law School and is a CPA.

Principal topics include:

• Study of the key interbank credit markets
• Analysis of the various structures and purposes of different cross-border lending transactions
• Discuss the key differences between New York and English law in lending transactions
• Review of the key provisions and clauses found in cross-border lending documentation
• Study of the key clauses found in New York/English guarantees
• Analysis of the key legal, credit and business issues in repo transactions.

Is sustainable finance the answer to climate change, poverty and inequality?  The purpose of this subject is to immerse students in sustainable finance in international practice, from micro-finance to green bonds, renewable energy and refugee financing. Across these markets, key legal concepts, structural features and documentation are covered in detail.  By engaging in-depth, through term sheet negotiations, the students jointly develop the skills to assess, prioritise, challenge and negotiate these transactions.

The subject coordinator draws on his own experience in global sustainable finance, and invites experts from international law firms and consultant, to help you become ‘more than a lawyer’.

This innovative subject will combine classroom teaching with online learning.  Students will be expected to attend four days in class and participate in online learning prior to the subject being taught.

Principal topics include:

• The Sustainable Development Goals, their evolving regulatory framework, their implementation by banks, funds and corporates in international practice
• Development Finance, the actors and the law, covering such diverse issues as sanctions law, immunities and aspects of state aid, as well as environmental and social law in financial transactions
• Understanding the structural features of international financial transactions with a focus on sustainability
• Inclusive finance, through microfinance, gender finance and small and medium enterprise (SME) lending, and relevant regulation
• Green bonds, SDGs bonds and social impact bonds, furthering sustainability the capital markets
• Local currency financing as a means for derivatives to provide sustainable development
• Legal aspects of renewable energy project finance
• Impact investing (private equity and funds)
• Examples of structured sustainable finance, for instance through refugee finance, vaccine bonds, drought risk transfer and microfinance securitisation 
• Examples of litigation in sustainable finance, for instance the risk of mis-selling ‘green’ products, and legal means to address this risk in documentation as well as through strategic means.

Insurance is a cornerstone of effective risk transfer. It is often critical to the viability of commercial enterprises and transactions. However, insurance contracts and arrangements have become increasingly complex, and specialised knowledge is required to understand their operation and limitations. This subject will provide an in-depth understanding of liability insurance, which indemnifies insureds against liability to third parties, and comprises a large part of the insurance market. It will examine the roles and obligations of participants in the insurance industry, different types of liability insurance, key principles of the common law regarding insurance, and legislative intervention, especially the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth), including recent amendments to the Act. The lecturers are barristers specialising in insurance law, who for many years have represented and advised both Australian and overseas insurers.

Principal topics include:

• The structure and operation of contracts of liability insurance, and the main forms of liability insurance, including professional indemnity insurance public and products liability insurance, and directors’ and officers’ insurance
• The operation of the insurance industry and the roles of various insurance industry participants, such as underwriters (including Lloyd's syndicates), excess insurers, co-insurers, reinsurers, captives, underwriting agents, claims officers, lawyers, insurance brokers and loss adjusters
• An overview of the legislative and regulatory framework for the Australian insurance industry
• The construction of insuring clauses and extensions
• The construction of exclusion clauses and conditions, including cross-liability, severability and non-imputation clauses
• The operation and effect of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) and its interplay with the laws of contract, equity and tort, and with the Australian Consumer Law,on matters including:
  • The duty of utmost good faith
  • Misrepresentation and non-disclosure
  • Notification of claims and circumstances
  • Section 54 of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) and remedies for breach of insurance contracts
  • Cancellation of insurance contracts
  • Rights of third party beneficiaries
  • Subrogation
• Double insurance
• An analysis of issues requiring further legislative reform.

Managed investment schemes – including managed funds, listed and unlisted property trusts, infrastructure funds, mortgage funds and agribusiness schemes – occupy a significant place in the Australian economy. These collective investment vehicles raise particular structuring, governance and regulatory issues, many of which became apparent during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). This subject will provide participants with a detailed understanding of the legal and regulatory framework within which managed investment schemes operate and the policy imperatives that underpin it. The lecturer is Australia’s leading expert on managed investments, and a former Regional Commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Principal topics include:

• Regulatory principles
• The definition of MIS and the scope of regulation
• The registration requirement
• The constitution and compliance plan: Contents and effect
• The responsible entity: Qualifications, duties and liability
• Directors of the responsible entity: Duties and liability
• Scheme governance
• Offer, issue and redemption of interests
• Members’ remedies
• ASIC powers
• Issues in MIS insolvency.

This subject involves a detailed study of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA). The PPSA is one of the most significant commercial law reforms to have been enacted in Australia. Based partly on the Canadian provincial PPSAs and Article 9 of the United States Uniform Commercial Code, the PPSA deals with the taking of security interests in personal property (goods, accounts receivable, intellectual property and the like) and it governs every aspect of the transaction including the formalities surrounding entry into a security agreement, registration of security interests, priorities between competing security interests in the same collateral and enforcement of security interests. The PPSA replaces the registration of charges provisions in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), the state and territory bills of sale statutes and the state and territory statutes governing registration of security interests in motor vehicles. It also substantially reforms the law relating to floating charges and the law relating to reservation of title agreements. The PPSA was subject to a major review which was completed in early 2015 and the government is currently considering amendments to implement the review’s recommendations. The subject will include a systematic study of the review’s main recommendations. It will also include study of the Australian PPSA cases decided to date, along with leading Canadian and New Zealand PPSA cases, to the extent that they are relevant in the Australian context.

Principal topics include:

• Aims and objectives of the PPSA
• Scope of the PPSA
• Validity, enforceability and attachment of security interests
• Perfection of security interests and the consequences of non-perfection
• Registration of security interests
• Competing claims to collateral: the basic PPSA priority rules, purchase-money security interests and buyers in the ordinary course of business
• The secured party’s claim to collateral proceeds
• Secured creditors’ remedies.

In recent decades, the rate of technological innovation in financial services has accelerated, posing new challenges for regulators and regulated financial services firms around the world. This course will provide a brief introduction to the existing technologies and business models used by established financial services firms and the regulatory framework that applies to them, before examining how new technologies and new business models are transforming financial services around the world. Different law reform strategies adopted by regulators in different countries will be assessed, as will business strategies of regulated firms to accelerate their rate of innovation. As national regulators confront the challenge of protecting local consumers in global markets, they may respond by collaborating with other national regulators, with extraterritorial enforcement of their laws, collaboration with private regulators, or ceding the terrain to private regulators. Although cryptocurrencies, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies may receive the most media coverage, many other case studies of disruptive 'FinTech' innovation and its regulation in both advanced and emerging economies will be examined.

Principal topics include:

• Commercial banks and bank regulators
• Global harmonization of bank regulation
• Payment systems and payment law
• Legacy technologies and internal controls
• Economics of networks and platforms
• Economic drivers of innovation
• Better regulation and new governance
• The rise of smart machines
• Evidence-based problem solving
• 'RegTech' is the new FinTech
• Faster payments/immediate payments
• Bitcoin, blockchain, distributed ledger
• FinTech regulation in the United States; United Kingdom and European Union; China; and India.

Few areas of law offer the variety and dynamic reform agenda that is encountered with superannuation law. Superannuation law draws together traditional corporate, equitable and trust principles with modern legislative initiatives to achieve Australia‘s retirement incomes objectives. The superannuation industry is heavily influenced by public policy, is governed by multiple regulators and a variety of legislation. The industry is characterised by an array of different stakeholders, ranging from peak industry bodies to the Commonwealth Government. A practice in superannuation law therefore requires a truly holistic approach and a willingness to tackle relevant aspects of other laws, including employment law, family law, contracts, insurance and financial services laws generally. This subject examines the development of superannuation in Australia, the interaction between statutory and general law principles, the role played by various entities in the industry, the licensing, conduct and disclosure obligations and recent reforms, such as those proposed by the Financial System Inquiry.

Principal topics include:

• Development and history of superannuation in Australia
• Characteristics of the superannuation industry (eg the types of funds that exist)
• The regulatory environment for superannuation and the role of key regulators: the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
• Interaction of general law and statute in relation to trustee duties, rights and powers
• The trust instrument and key service provider contracts (eg investment management, group insurance, administration and custody agreements)
• Trustee decisions, complaints handling and the role of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT)
• Self-managed superannuation funds and their regulation
• Taxation of superannuation
• Licensing, conduct and disclosure obligations in the superannuation industry
• The superannuation guarantee and other employer obligations
• Recent reforms and reform proposals.

This subject relates to the cultural, economic and legal implications of the concept of 'appropriation' in art.In this subject, there will be a study of a variety of cases, articles, and book excerpts from all over the world that discuss the concept of appropriation from a cultural and from a legal point of view as well as their implications for the future. Special attention will be paid to a variety of topics, including post modern and protest art movements, intellectual property, the role of technology and indigenous concerns.

Principal topics include:

• Postmodern art and theory
• Intellectual property
• Cultural property
• Trademark law
• Indigenous studies
• Advertising
• Freedom of expression.

Historically a computer was “programmed” by a human utilising a precise set of instructions. Within this paradigm the computer was able to “process” information “fed” to it and produce a particular output based on such programming and information.

The human input was clear and transparent. As artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved in concert with the internet, cloud computing, big data gathering, data storage and data processing capabilities and the ubiquitous uptake of interactive smartphones and other “smart” devices, the relationship between the computer and direct and immediate human stewardship or control of outputs has become less readily identifiable. In turn this has given rise to significant legal issues.

There are substantial legal implications of AI which require ongoing, flexible and informed responses from lawyers and legal policy makers. This subject seeks to inform practicing lawyers, legal policy makers and non-lawyers in respect of those issues and how they might be dealt with.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to AI. What is AI?  Where is AI headed?
• The legal issues raised by AI.
• Overview of current AI legal reviews underway in the USA, EU and UK and Australia’s response to these reviews
• Intellectual property issues raised by AI
• Criminal liability in respect of AI
• Civil legal liability – examination of who is (or should be) responsible/liable for AI caused loss and harm.
• Mandatory insurance schemes for loss or damage caused by autonomous robots or AI 
• The legal regimes governing use of AI in security, law enforcement and military contexts
• Privacy and confidentiality implications of AI

There is no international consensus as to an appropriate balance by defamation laws between freedom of expression and the protection of reputation. The increasingly cross-border nature of communications has heightened the potential for conflict between different jurisdictions’ laws. This subject examines Australia’s defamation law and practice alongside a close analysis of other important common law jurisdictions, particularly the United Kingdom and North America, to enable students to analyse, apply and critically evaluate defamation laws in contemporary contexts.

The subject brings together two leading media law experts. Professor Andrew Kenyon is a Director of the Centre for Media and Communications Law and researches in all aspects of media law. Dr Matt Collins QC is an Australian barrister and author of a leading international text on defamation law.

Principal topics include:

• Elements of the cause of action: publication, identification, defamatory meaning
• Truth-related defences
• Fair comment and honest opinion
• Privilege and fair report defences
• Other defences
• Jurisdiction and choice of law
• Remedies and practice
• Related causes of action
• English and American defamation law: comparative focus.

This subject examines some legal aspects of a modern entertainment industry – in particular, contractual arrangements and intellectual property rights, as well as publicity and privacy rights. Particular reference will be made to the United States, home of the largest entertainment industry in the world, and Australia, which of course has its own important entertainment industry, but other countries will also be considered. The focus will be both on the written law (with an emphasis on legal development and policy) and the law as it is practised, with the latter part of the course devoted to a contract negotiation exercise. Cases and examples will mostly come from the fields of music, book publishing, the visual and performing arts and live theatre.

Principal topics include:

• The entertainment industry and measures of social value; stakeholders within and outside the industry; need for law; range of relevant laws
• Intellectual property and misappropriation: copyright and neighbouring rights, moral rights, trade mark rights, publicity rights, passing off, trade secret protection and unfair competition
• Contracting in the entertainment industry: licensing, joint ventures, examples of contracts in use (such as book publishing, music touring, character merchandising), and processes and strategies adopted in negotiation
• Expansion of rights: technological developments, sui generis or incremental responses, United States and Anglo-Australian approaches
• Privacy and related issues: implications for industry practice and entertainers
• Practical exercises on negotiation and drafting book and merchandising contracts (explored in a workshop environment).

Freedom of speech is a widely agreed upon principle in free democratic societies. However, at the same time, it is at the centre of fierce and wide-ranging disputes. This subject will examine the rationales for protection of freedom of speech and key controversies about freedom of speech. The subject will be broadly comparative, examining the legal protection of freedom of speech in Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. Jurisdictions of particular focus (in addition to Australia) will include India, Malaysia, Germany, the United States and Canada.

Principal topics include:

• Normative arguments for freedom of speech and for the regulation of speech
• The legal mechanisms for protection freedom of speech in international law and selected domestic jurisdictions
• The relationship between freedom of speech and laws regulating:
  • racial and religious vilification (including holocaust denial)
  • political protest
  • electoral funding
  • terrorism and national security.

Information technology is critical to almost all modern organisations and processes. The development, acquisition and use of such technology raises a myriad of complex legal issues extending beyond conventional contractual issues and includes ownership rights, rights of use and risk management. This subject explores those issues with a particular emphasis on contracting and intellectual property issues associated with the development and sourcing of information technology products and services. Both lecturers are information technology lawyers with extensive practical experience acting for both providers and purchasers of such products and services.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of information technology and the Australian information technology development industry
• Roles and relationships of the various parties to information technology agreements
• Copyright protection afforded to technology products and services, including online products and services
• Open source licensing arrangements
• Patent protection afforded to information technology products and services
• Employees and contractor rights and obligations in the context of the creation and development of information technology
• Software creation, development and exploitation
• Hardware supply arrangements
• Network management, security and maintenance
• Cloud services: risks and liability
• Database and content management issues including privacy
• Risk allocation and management of information technology contracts (including insurance and escrow arrangements).

The internet turns 27 in 2018, and remains the fastest-growing medium of communications. It is also a uniquely democratic means of communication, blurring the traditional boundaries between publisher and reader. It has created unparalleled opportunities for sharing, fully duplex peer communications and novel types of social media. Nevertheless, the legal rules governing it remain unsettled and are arguably too old-fashioned for the modern environment. These developing legal rules and norms are the focus of this subject. These issues are explored in the context of liability for infringement of copyright and breaches of privacy, defamation and obscenity in respect of the publication of material online.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of technology and avenues of distribution
• Copyright and allied rights in online services
• Regulation of transnational online products and services
• Defamation
• Privacy
• Obscenity and other criminal liability for publication
• Conflict of law
• Intermediary liability
• Theoretical issues such as the nature of democratic governance in a borderless world, regulatory arbitrage and the appropriate basis for liability where internet businesses encourage others to offend.

Whilst the High Court has recognised and applied an implied constitutional guarantee of freedom of governmental and political communication, speech on matters of public interest in Australia remains subject to a wide range of legal limitations, many of which would be struck down as unconstitutional in other common law jurisdictions. This subject explores the limitations on free speech that arise as a result of proceedings and processes initiated by arms of the state and prosecutorial authorities: legislative, executive and judicial, and from censorship of sexually-explicit material to restrictions applying to the advocacy of terrorism. Those restrictions profoundly affect the material that may be published by the media. It is the impact of the current restrictions on free speech on both the media and on non-media elements of civil society that are the focus of this subject. Taken individually and collectively, these regimes limit the access of Australians to speech that matters.

This subject provides an examination of Australian law affecting the media’s ability to report the courts, the executive and parliament.

Principal topics include:

• Contempt of court
• Contempt of parliament
• Offensive publications: violence, pornography and racism
• Seditious publications
• Access to information in court
• Government information: security and official secrets
• Freedom of speech: theoretical issues and international perspectives.

The internet has given rise to new modes of communication. Services such as Netflix, Facebook and Google pose significant challenges for traditional models of communications regulation. At present, traditional media are arguably among the most heavily regulated sectors of the Australian economy, yet new media services go largely unregulated. This subject examines the conflict between traditional regulation of old and new media. Australia’s current regulatory arrangements arose in the 1990s and reflect the structure of the electronic communications industries at that time – focusing on the separate and highly prescriptive regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications. The current regulatory framework is fragmented and complex, and covers not only technical issues but also sector-specific competition, content and ownership rules. Since the 1990s, however, the communications environment in Australia has undergone a period of rapid and profound change. The emergence and ubiquitous adoption of the internet as a mass communications system has provided new opportunities for Australian publishers and audiences by dismantling traditional technological, economic and regulatory barriers to entry. From national security to sport, this revolution in communications has profound policy issues for national regulation in a global communications environment.

Principal topics include:

• What is communications law? (including different regulatory approaches)
• Regulation of communications services, including radio and television services
• Australian content rules
• Control and ownership of broadcasting and communications enterprises
• Digital broadcasting law and regulation
• Pay TV and the anti-siphoning regime
• Competition in telecommunications (including regulation of anti-competitive practices, NBNCo and the structural separation of Telstra)
• Interconnection law and policy
• Spectrum allocation (including licensing and spectrum auctions)
• Consumer protection issues
• Regulation of internet content and filtering
• Multi-channelling of free-to-air TV services
• Regulation of new services and technologies, including convergence of media and Australian content requirements.

Whether journalists serve collectively as some citizen-informing ‘fourth estate’ or act instead merely to satisfy the consumer desire for entertainment, they need access to information. Journalists rely upon being able to disclose or convey content that is unavailable to, or at least unexploited by, others. Some will obtain this information by fair means, others by foul. The core aim of this course is to consider how law and other forms of regulation influence pre-publication behaviour.

The course reviews a range of news and information gathering practices, and assesses the extent to which such behaviour is facilitated or proscribed by law and/or regulation. The themes in the course will be taught through the comparative review of English, Australian and United States law. Dr Andrew Scott is a senior lecturer in media law at the London School of Economics.

Principal topics will include:

• The relationship between newsgathering practices and constitutional guarantees of free speech
• The protection of sources and materials (in principle; in the context of crime, terrorism and official secrets; payment of sources).
• Access to government information (freedom of information; news management)
• Journalism and justice (access to the courts and court documents; cameras and other technology in court; access to prisoners; policemedia interaction)
• Surreptitious and invasive methods (harassment; subterfuge and secret recording; entrapment; regulating the ‘dark arts’ – hacking, blagging and tapping; a ‘law-breaking privilege’?)
• The influence of publication torts on newsgathering.

The world‘s first feature-length film was thought to have been produced in Australia in 1906. The Story of the Kelly Gang told the story of Australia‘s most infamous bushrangers and received distribution in Britain and New Zealand as well as in Australia. From 1906 onwards, Australian films and television programs such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Castle, Shine and The Sullivans have helped to define the particular cultural identity of Australians. This subject explores the issues associated with the production, financing and distribution of such films and television programs, with particular reference to feature films and sport and drama television programming. The lecturer in the subject has been an in-house counsel at an Australian television network and this experience adds to the practical relevance of the subject.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to the changing landscape of the film and television industries in Australia and internationally
• Copyright clearance issues
• Moral rights
• Breach of confidence and privacy
• Sport on television
• Film financing, production and distribution
• Australian content regulation and the production of drama programming
• Production and broadcast of advertising on television
• Music: Use in film and television programming
• Distribution and merchandising of film and television programming
• Employment and contractual arrangements for film and television personalities
• Copyright and other rights in television formats.

This subject examines the relationship between surveillance and privacy, with a particular focus on the challenge of regulating new surveillance technologies and protecting informational privacy. Beginning with a brief overview of the history of identification and mass surveillance (such as census-taking, record-keeping, as well as passports and identify cards), the subject focuses on how the law in countries such as the Australia, the UK and the US has been used to protect privacy rights and restrict the use of overly intrusive surveillance techniques by the state and private sector.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of the history of surveillance, with a particular focus on the relationship between state surveillance and governance
• A detailed examination of different conceptions and justifications of individual privacy (including a critical analysis of the idea that there should be a free-standing right to privacy)
• A critical examination of how various forms of state and private sector surveillance are regulated in Australia, the UK, and the US
• A close examination of the regulatory challenge posed by emerging surveillance technologies, including various forms of biometric surveillance, data mining, and communications interception
• Discussion and debate about the legal and philosophical limits of privacy, focusing on such questions as whether there should be a right to privacy in public spaces or a general right to online anonymity
• A critical examination of the prospects for law reform in the areas of surveillance and privacy in Australia, the UK, and the US.

Privacy has been valued for centuries but now there is a resurgent interest in its protection as a result of new technologies, changing social norms  and a rise of markets focused on the commodity value of information. Overlapping with the resurgent interest in privacy is a related concern about the management of data flows, especially on the part of government agencies and business organisations. The legal frameworks that deal with privacy and data protection have a long history but are coming under pressure to adapt to a more complex modern environment.

Privacy and data protection experts Professor Megan Richardson and Karin Clark explore these issues. They pay particular attention to the scope and nature of privacy protection as well as appropriate limits and exceptions, the ongoing pressures for law reform, and the practical operation of privacy and data protection laws in Australia and comparable jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• What is privacy?
• Conceptual and legal definitional issues
• International and comparative privacy and data protection regimes
• Protection of privacy in general law in Australia and comparable jurisdictions
• The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth): regulation of personal information held by the private and public sectors
• State/territory (especially Victorian) legislative regimes for the regulation of personal information
• Current topics in privacy law such as privacy and the media, privacy and health information, online privacy (including anti-spam laws), telecommunications and surveillance privacy
• Current reform inquiries and proposals and likely reforms.

This subject will provide valuable in-depth insights into the political economy surrounding competition policy, law and enforcement in the Asia-Pacific region. Concentrating on the experience of key Asian jurisdictions including Japan, China, Philippines, Singapore and India, students will learn about the major features of the law and institutions in this region, the extent to which the regimes in the region conform to prevailing global competition norms, and the challenges facing practitioners and enforcement agencies in the Asia-Pacific. Relevant examples will also be drawn from other Asian jurisdictions such as Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Highlights of the subject include:

• Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design of competition agencies and application of competition laws in the Asia-Pacific region
• Exploration of the political economy of competition law, using experiences in the Asia-Pacific region as case studies
• Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in developing a sophisticated appreciation of the issues facing the development and practice of competition law in the Asia Pacific region.

Australia has a detailed and comprehensive consumer protection regime dealing with the supply of goods and services, including financial products, to consumers. Primary legislation is the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), found in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth); equivalent provisions in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) (ASIC Act) applying to financial services and products; and, for consumer credit, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (NCCP Act). This subject provides students with a detailed knowledge of key features of the Australian Consumer Law and of the common law principles and policy imperatives that underpin it. The lecturers include one of the Law School’s private lawyers with specialist expertise in consumer law, and a leading practitioner in this field of law.

Principal topics include:

• Purposes of consumer protection law
• The regulatory toolkit
• Common law doctrines underlying the legislative regime
• Enforcement and remedial strategies.
• Key consumer protection regimes under the ACL, ASIC Act and NCCP Act:
  • Misleading or deceptive conduct
  • Unconscionable conduct
  • Interest rate caps and responsible lending
  • Consumer guarantees and implied terms
  • Unfair contract terms.

Cartel conduct is regarded as anathema to competitive markets and consumer welfare. Such conduct encompasses various forms of collusion or collaboration between competitors, the most serious of which involve fixing prices, diving markets, restricting output and rigging bids. These categories of collusion have been shown to raise prices, reduce quality and choice, and stifle business responsiveness and innovation. They are also hard to detect, prosecute and deter. Tougher anti-cartel laws and sanctions have been a high priority for competition authorities for at least the last decade. While there is a high degree of consensus around the world as to the core tenets of the prohibitions applicable to serious cartel conduct, there is a vigorous discourse amongst authorities, practitioners, business and academics regarding the most effective approaches to sanctioning and enforcement.

At the same time, not all agreements between business rivals are anti-competitive or detrimental to consumer welfare. Some, such as joint ventures or distribution agreements, may be driven by efficiencies or may be welfare-enhancing in other ways. Competition laws and their enforcement therefore need to distinguish between different types of conduct involving competitors based on their economic rationale and likely effects.

This subject refreshes and expands understanding of the economic principles relevant to collusion (or horizontal restraints) that were introduced in the first subject in the course (Foundations: Competition Law & Economics). Students examine critically and in-depth the main prohibitions and exemptions or defences that apply to cartel conduct and other types of collaboration between competitors. They explore who should be held liable for such conduct (companies and/or individuals) and what approaches are or should be taken to sanctioning (administrative and/or criminal). Finally, students explore and assess the effectiveness of the policies and tools that competition authorities deploy in detecting, prosecuting and deterring cartels, as well as learn about and analyse the vigorous debates that relate to private actions for damages arising out of such conduct.

Highlights of the subject include:

• Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design and application of cartel laws and sanctions, drawing on examples from different jurisdictions around the world;
• Use of the rich body of theoretical and empirical research relating to cartel conduct as well as analysis of actual cases and competition authority policy documents and guidelines to aid this examination; and
• Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and enforcement of anti-cartel rules.

The enactment of the Anti-Monopoly Law in China in 2007 was a significant step in China’s transition from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy. In a short period of time, China has become a globally important competition law jurisdiction and increasingly crucial area of study and practice for competition lawyers, businesses, and enforcement agencies within and beyond China. This subject will provide students with a specialised, in-depth and practical understanding of the Anti-Monopoly Law, its implementing regulations, and important decisions made by the competition agencies and courts in its legal, economic, regulatory and political contexts. This subject also provides insights into the dynamics of the Chinese legal system and reform more broadly, as competition law in China sits at the intersection of law, economics, business, and politics.

Principal topics include:

• Competition law in the context of China’s reform and opening up
• Prohbitions in the Anti-Monopoly Law: monopoly agreements, abuse of dominance, merger control, and abuse of administrative power
• Chinese competition law and intellectual property
• Chinese competition law and regulated industries
• Chinese competition law and the state
• Institutional, enforcement and procedural issues relating to Chinese competition law
• International dimensions of Chinese competition law.

The high-tech sector represents an increasingly important part of the world economy and is challenging the boundaries of orthodox competition law rules and approaches. Many of the most significant cases adjudicated by competition authorities around the world involve high-tech corporations (Microsoft, Intel, Google, Apple, etc). The high-tech industry is highly dynamic and raises particularly complex issues that need to be addressed by competition lawyers. This subject will grapple with these issues at a sophisticated level so that students understand the complex legal and economic challenges raised by the new economy. The lecturer is one of the world’s leading experts in this field. He has been involved in some of the most significant high-tech cases as a partner in international law firms in Europe, as an expert witness in numerous arbitration and litigation proceedings, and as an academic, currently with posts at Tilburg University, George Mason University and University College London.

Principal topics include:

• The role of innovation as a goal of competition law
• The influence of dynamic efficiency in competition law rule design and application, including in the areas of market definition, merger review and exemptions
• The intersection between competition law and intellectual property rights, specifically as it arises in the high-tech sector
• The intersection between competition law, consumer protection and privacy law, specifically as it arises in the high-tech sector
• Competition law issues in multi-sided markets, including, for instance, search engines and the internet economy
• Competition law issues raised by disruptive business models, such as Uber and Airbnb
• Major cases, including the United States and European Union Microsoft cases, the EU Qualcomm case, the US Apple e-book case and the EU Google case.

Governments strive to constrain runaway health care costs through competitive markets. This can be lucrative for private players and competition authorities are increasingly called upon to investigate commercial practices in the health care industry. The competition analysis must still take account of significant government and philanthropic service providers. Further, health care markets are susceptible to market failure due to information asymmetries, adverse selection, moral hazard and principal-agent problems. This subject explores the application of competition law to a broad range of such health care markets in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, with insights that will be generalisable to many other jurisdictions.

The teachers in the subject are from leading international law firm Jones Day and have many years of experience specialising in the application of competition law to the health care sector, advising clients and government agencies, and training government officials.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to competition law and economic concepts in the context of the healthcare industry
• Health professionals and competition law
• Private health care facilities and competition law
• Public health care facilities and competition law
• Health insurance and competition law
• Competition issues arising from intellectual property protections and therapeutic good approval requirements
• Industry self-regulation and participation in government processes.

Intellectual property (IP) rights support growth by promoting innovation through the offer of a temporary ‘monopoly’ to creators and inventors. However, such rights can also stifle growth where transaction costs are high or rights are fragmented in a way making them hard to access. Poorly designed intellectual property rules can help established players in a market obstruct new players by impeding their access to technology and content. A carefully designed and dynamic intellectual property system can, by contrast, complement the spur that competition gives to innovation by enabling follow-on innovation. The interface of intellectual property and competition law is especially crucial to this goal. Taught by two experts in the fields of competition law and intellectual property, this subject examines the interface, looking both at how competition law regulates intellectual property and ways in which competition policies may be found within the intellectual property systems. Relevant Australian and comparable law will be examined, along with case studies in topical areas such as book publishing, news media, large datasets, file-sharing and luxury brands.

This subject provides an examination of the interface between the legal property rights created by intellectual property statutes (and at common law) and the body of law that controls and regulates anti-competitive practices.

Principal topics include:

• Theoretical approaches to the accommodation of intellectual property rights to competition law
• Policy goals of intellectual property and competition law
• Limitations and controls placed over the granting, subsistence, scope and infringement of intellectual property rights under statutory and common law regimes
• Statutory and compulsory licensing under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) and Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
• Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth): outline, concepts and special provisions in respect of intellectual property
• Dealings in intellectual property under intellectual property and competition statutes.

This subject will examine in depth the implications of the transnational features and effects of mergers, unilateral conduct, cartels and other business activities for the design and enforcement of competition law and policy . Students will examine rules governing extraterritorial jurisdiction, discovery, recognition and enforcement of judgments, and extradition in the international competition law context. They will learn about the ways in which competition authorities cooperate with each other and the roles played by regional and international organisations and networks. The subject also canvasses the relationship between competition and trade policies, and the particular challenges facing small and developing economies in a globalised world.

Highlights of the subject include:

• Critical examination of how tensions between considerations of national sovereignty and international comity arise in the competition law context
• Exploration and critique of the ways in which governments and competition authorities are seeking to meet the enforcement challenges posed by anti-competitive conduct that has multi-jurisdictional effects
• Consideration of the strategic opportunities and challenges for multinational business organisations in managing competition law risks
• Special focus on the increasing significance of competition policy, law and enforcement in international trade and regulation and the implications for small and developing economies
• Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and application of competition policies and rules in cross-border settings

This subject will examine the policy objectives underpinning consumer protection laws, including the intersection between consumer and competition policies. Students will develop a clear understanding of the key areas of regulation, including various forms of misleading and deceptive conduct, unfair practices and contract terms regulation, consumer guarantees and warranties, and product liability and safety regulation. They will examine key enforcement tools and mechanisms for consumer redress, focusing particularly on the challenges posed by e-commerce, and explore the often complex institutional arrangements involving national and international bodies, as well as non-governmental organisations, in this field. This subject is international and comparative in its scope and draws on examples from a wide range of jurisdictions around the world, but with a particular focus on consumer policy, law and enforcement in the Asia-Pacific region.  

Highlights of the subject include:

• Critical examination of the policy objectives and priorities underpinning, and the approaches taken to the design and application of, consumer laws, including variations between developed and developing countries in this context
• Case studies that illustrate the practical challenges associated with enforcing consumer laws, with particular emphasis on the issues that arise in the context of growing international trade and e-commerce

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as consumer enforcement authority officials, intergovernmental and nongovernmental officials and practitioners to assist students in developing a sophisticated appreciation of the issues facing the development and practice of consumer law and policy, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

European Union competition law is often emulated by other competition systems around the world and hence is a crucial area of study and practice for competition lawyers and enforcement officials beyond Europe. At the same time the ‘template’ nature of the EU system may obscure the degree to which thinkers, policy makers and decision makers at various levels in Europe embrace different and sometimes contradictory visions of the goals and functions of competition law - resulting in fractures and incoherence within the EU system. This subject will provide students with advanced in-depth insights into the origins and development of competition law in Europe, while challenging them to grapple with the theme of the ‘contestedness’, as manifest in the ‘reformation’ of EU competition law’s substantive and enforcement aspects, and in the ‘counter-reformation’ movement. Various processes of ‘modernisation’ will be studied, for example in relation to Article 101 and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in order to illustrate discontinuities of varying degree between legal doctrine and day-to-day practice, and between law and policy.

The teacher in this subject is one of Europe’s leading competition law scholars who has published extensively and taught around the world.

Principal topics include:

• Competition law in the context of the European integration process
• Intellectual origins of EU competition law
• The law on vertical restraints in a common law context
• The rise of alternative visions for EU competition law and for the European Commission
• Article 101 TFEU – reformation and counter-reformation
• The activation of EU competition law enforcement at the level of the Member States
• Article 102 TFEU – reformation and counter-reformation
• The Member States as ‘subjects’ of competition law
• Current trends in the law and enforcement of EU competition law: institutionalising contestedness.

Competition Law is an area of law with mixed legal-economic content. The central disciplinary underpinning of competition law is economics. It is therefore essential that those practising in this field, whether as legal advisors to business, competition authority staff, or members of tribunals or courts have a solid grounding in the economic theories, concepts and techniques that underpin the policy, law and enforcement in this field.

This foundational subject introduces students to the history and spread of competition law across the world over the last century and to the range of objectives, influenced by various economic schools of thought, that have informed its development in different places and at different times. It ensures that students are well-versed in core economic vocabulary, concepts and frameworks and the ways in which they are translated into categories of legal prohibitions and enforcement approaches, common to all competition systems.

The subject sets the foundation for the course, providing crucial groundwork that will equip students to confidently tackle the economic content of the remaining subjects in greater detail. While the subject includes material with basic numerical equations, examples and diagrams, it does not require students to have advanced mathematical or statistical background knowledge or skills.

Highlights of the subject include:

• Practical application of economic concepts and techniques through problem-based learning activity; and
• Expositions and insights from leading economists and practitioners on various aspects of economics and the role of economists in competition law and practice.

This subject examines the challenges and dynamics influencing the institutions that administer and enforce competition and consumer laws. It also explores the role of international institutions in promoting or enforcing competition law and policy and their various structures and modes of influence.  Although the subject’s focus is on competition and consumer authorities, the nature and role of central prosecutorial agencies, tribunals and courts are also examined. Students will be challenged to engage with a range of institutional issues including agency models, mandate, governance structures, investigative tools and processes, enforcement, compliance and advocacy and evaluation of effectiveness. Students will undertake an in-depth case-study on a competition or consumer-related body and critically analyse an aspect or aspects of its design, operation or performance against the principles developed in this subject.

This subject will provide students with international and comparative insights into a field of growing significance to practitioners in Australia and the region. While the subject will focus on the federal antitrust law of the United States (‘US’) and the competition law of the European Union (‘EU’), we will examine also the extent to which these two regimes provide models for other regimes, with particular attention paid to the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China ‘(PRC’). The subject will explore how competition laws are justified, and the extent to which different regimes converge and diverge, and the reasons for this. An understanding of the US and EU regimes will equip students to analyse the likely responses to anti-competitive actions in many other regimes, and the focus on China will be particularly useful to students within the Pacific region.

Principal topics will include:

• The policy foundations of, and history of approaches to, antitrust law in the US and competition law in the EU
• The structure of the two regimes, the role of competition authorities, and the role of public and private enforcement
• Comparative analysis of the substantive laws relating to agreements and multi-lateral anti-competitive conduct (s 1 of the Sherman Act, and article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’))
• Comparative analysis of the approach taken to cartels, with an examination in particular of differing enforcement methods (civil and criminal)
• Comparative approaches to the treatment of oligopolies, with particular reference to the concept of ‘conspiracies’ in the US, and ‘concerted practices’ in the EU
• Comparative approaches to the control of monopolisation and dominant firm abuse (s 2 of the Sherman Act and article 102 of the TFEU), with particular reference to pricing conduct (excessive, predatory and discriminatory pricing practices)
• The development, structure, and application of competition law in the PRC, including a consideration of the challenges facing new regimes
• Comparative approaches to merger control in the US, EU and PRC, with particular reference to the establishment of jurisdiction, the operation of the substantive test, and the application of remedies
• Jurisdiction, extra-territoriality, and bi-lateral and multi-lateral cooperation mechanisms in the application of competition law

This interdisciplinary subject will examine the relationships between international trade and competition policies from both legal and economic perspectives. The subject will focus on anti-competitive practices of an international scope and how they may be addressed by trade and competition rules. It will canvass the tensions and complementarities between these two areas of policy, as well as incorporate general public policy, commercial diplomacy and institutional considerations. In addition, anti-dumping/safeguards law and practices and how they relate to competition law will be taken up and their link with market access opportunities explained.

The subject will include a discussion of failures of the multilateral trading system to address international competition law problems, and options to regulate competition law in the World Trade Organization and through other means. Contemporary issues driving new initiatives such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will be discussed.

Mr Qaqaya was the head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Competition and Consumer Policies Branch for almost 20 years and has an in-depth knowledge and vast practical experience in advising governments in these fields.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to trade and competition policies: key definitions, concepts, contexts and interdependencies
• Framework for trade liberalisation: a review of trade theories, trade policy, rent seeking, lobbies, corruption and incentives
• Principles of the trading system: most-favoured-nation, non-discrimination, national treatment, prohibition of quantitative restrictions, prohibition of dumping and subsidies, anti-dumping actions and countervailing measures, General System of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries, regional trade arrangements
• Principles of competition policy: theoretical models vs competition restrictions in real world, including dominance, strategic behaviour, anti-competitive mergers, horizontal and vertical agreements and government restrictions
• The interface between the competition and trade policies: comparison of analytical approaches used by competition law and trade policy, including in relation to market definition, harm assessment, remedies, sanctions, countervailing and retaliation measures, dispute resolution, arbitration and judicial review.

This subject will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the legal rules and economic principles that underpin the review of mergers and acquisitions and the types of information and analyses used to assess the competitive effects of these transactions. Students will examine how ‘special’ cases, such as joint ventures, failing firms, strategic and minority stakes, and creeping acquisitions are dealt with, and will learn about the procedures used by competition authorities and the strategies employed by merger parties in the review context.

Highlights of the subject include:

• Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design and application of merger laws, review processes and remedies, drawing on examples from different jurisdictions around the world;
• Use of the rich body of theoretical and empirical research relating to mergers as well as analysis of actual cases and competition authority policy documents and guidelines to aid this examination; and
• Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and enforcement of merger rules and processes.

This subject provides students with a sophisticated understanding of the economic theory and principles underpinning the regulation of utility infrastructure and services such as telecommunications, gas, electricity, rail, airports and ports. Such regulation often determines the level of competition, the prices paid by consumers and the returns to investors in these industries. The subject examines in detail the access regimes in the Australian Competition and Consumer Act (2010), and how they have been practically applied. Drawing comparisons with the experience in this field in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, it explores how regulators and the courts have determined which services should be subject to regulation and what principles and processes regulators have used to set terms and conditions (including prices) for these services. The lecturers in the subject comprise an economist and a lawyer with over 25 years’ combined experience working for competition regulators, the courts, regulated entities and economic consulting and legal firms representing both infrastructure access-seekers and access-providers on regulatory issues.

Principal topics include:

• Underlying economic principles and policy intention behind third party access and utility infrastructure regimes in Australia and other overseas jurisdictions
• Outline of third party access regimes in Part IIIA and Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act (2010)
• Consideration of previous and ongoing examples of the application of access regimes in Australia and other overseas jurisdictions
• Legal and economic meaning of key terms and expressions in access regimes (e.g. promotion of competition, efficient use/operation of infrastructure/facilities and legitimate business interests of access provider)
• Assessment of whether legislative frameworks and administrative and enforcement approaches are well designed to achieve the regulatory objectives of third party access and utility infrastructure regimes

One of the means by which firms may behave anti-competitively is by engaging in unilateral conduct that damages the competitive process and consumer welfare. Such conduct may be described in various ways in different jurisdictions, including as monopolisation, abuse of dominance or misuse of market power. However, the rules that apply to it share a common aim, namely to target conduct by firms with market power that is likely to harm competition and reduce consumer welfare.

Anti-competitive unilateral conduct generally involves conduct by a firm that has substantial or monopoly/monopsony power in a market and uses that power to implement a strategy that is likely to harm competition. Debates and divergence between jurisdictions in relation to unilateral conduct relate to the level of power that should trigger legal prohibitions, the types of strategies that are likely to have anti-competitive effects and how such effects should be established and assessed. In recent years, such debates have focussed on conduct by large firms in the information technology sector.

This subject explores the approaches used by competition authorities to address anti-competitive unilateral conduct. Differences in approach between jurisdictions are critically analysed. Building on learning in previous subjects, the subject examines what is meant by unilateral market power and the conditions that enable unilateral power to be used to implement an anti-competitive strategy. Unilateral conduct that gives rise to a competition concern may take various forms, the most common categories of which are analysed in detail in this subject. Such categories include conduct involving refusals to supply and predatory pricing. However, a difficulty in addressing anti-competitive behaviour of this type is that it is not readily distinguishable from highly aggressive competition. Given this, various tests that have been used and the evidence relevant to making this distinction are examined. Seminal decisions by competition authorities and courts as well as industry case studies are used to provide insights into the competition analysis of unilateral conduct.

Highlights of the subject include:

• Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design and application of unilateral conduct laws, drawing on examples from different jurisdictions around the world;
• In-depth case studies of unilateral conduct in a range of industry sectors with a view to ensuring students can properly analyse the rationales for such conduct and assess their likely effects on competition; and
• Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and enforcement of unilateral conduct rules.

Advanced Construction Law is designed as a capstone subject, explicitly aimed at enhancing students’ ability to make a significant contribution to the ongoing development of construction law in Australia and overseas. The emphasis is on analysing and testing cutting-edge case law, commentary and other legal developments in the classroom and via research papers.

In addition to the core areas of time (including delay claims methodologies), workscope/variations, defective work and security, detailed treatment is given to extra-contractual remedies such as those under the Australian Consumer Law and those based on unjust enrichment and negligence.

Principal topics include claims in the following categories:

• Time: risk allocation, delay, liability for delay, extensions of time
• Methods for assessment of delay
• Concurrency, causation, damages and additional cost, assessment and analysis
• Prevention and liquidated damages: recent developments
• Scope of work: variations, adjustments under the contract
• Quality: measure of quality, identification and breach of required standard
• Assessment of quality and damages
• Security: for performance and for payment, access to security
• Australian Consumer Law: application in construction, tender documents
• Passing on of misleading and deceptive documents, unconscionable conduct, remedies
• Interpretation of contracts
• Equitable remedies
• Restitution: unjust enrichment, statutory exclusion, quantum meruit
• Payment: progress payments—certification and adjudication
• Negligence in construction.

The complexities of the commercial and technical environment in which construction projects are undertaken make disputes virtually inevitable. Participants in the industry – whether lawyers or industry professionals – therefore need to be aware of, and able to apply, a range of dispute avoidance and management techniques when putting together contractual documentation or administering projects. These options are constantly evolving, with recent examples including the increasing use of disputes boards and court-initiated procedures such as those being implemented by the Technology Engineering and Construction List of the Victorian Supreme Court.

The subject lecturer, David Opperman, is able to bring to the classroom extensive experience in the active resolution of disputes in construction projects by mediation and other alternative dispute resolution processes, as well as through international and domestic arbitration and litigation processes. He also involves guest lecturers who have specialist, cutting-edge experience in dispute avoidance and alternative dispute resolution techniques.

Principal topics will include:

• Construction contract provisions relating to disputes: Objectives, approaches and enforceability
• Conflict: Conflict patterns and management
• Communication and negotiation skills
• Dispute Avoidance Procedures (DAPs), Dispute Review Boards (DRBs), Dispute Adjudication Boards (DABs) and dispute resolution advisers (DRAs)
• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): Mediation (including mock mediation), senior executive appraisal/ mini trials, non-binding and binding expert determination, domestic and international arbitration and hybrid and multi-tiered processes
• Selecting the most appropriate form of DAP and/or ADR processes
• Process dynamics, options and strategic issues, including paths to ADR.

This subject develops advanced skills in the drafting and analysis of construction contracts. It covers several standard forms of construction contract, including a Standards Australia contract and an International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) contract.  The subject teaches best practice in plain English drafting techniques and provides ample opportunity for students to exercise and be tested on their drafting skills. Students will be given individual comments on their work during the subject.

The subject lecturer and highly respected guest lecturers bring to the classroom extensive practising and academic experience in construction contracts.

This subject is designed to give students a sound understanding of the law concerning express and implied terms and the interpretation of contracts. It is also designed to develop and enhance students’ abilities to draft, analyse and administer construction contracts at an advanced level. Close study and comparison of standard forms of construction contract is a major feature of the subject. So too is the development of individual drafting skills.

Principal topics include:

• Techniques for contract drafting
• Express and implied contractual terms
• Contract interpretation and analysis
• The ongoing debate within the industry as to the role and utility of standard-form contracts.

This subject provides a detailed review and analysis of the ways in which the procurement and delivery of construction and engineering projects are changing to meet the demand for more efficient infrastructure, including improved ‘whole of life’ outcomes and the reduction of claims and disputes. There is a particular focus on integrated project delivery, collaborative contracting and new technology. The subject covers a number of the current and emerging approaches to the procurement, contracting and delivery of construction and engineering projects and reviews a number of case studies from Australia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of the development of ‘collaborative contracting’ and integrated project delivery methods to date (eg joint ventures, partnering, alliancing, managing contractor, public-private partnerships, electronic document management systems, whole of life) in Australia, the UK and elsewhere
• Examining recent and emerging procurement and delivery approaches in Australia, the UK and elsewhere (including the specific legal and contractual issues implicit in such current and emerging approaches identified above), including in respect of:
  • Unsolicited proposals
  • Framework procurement models
  • Early contractor involvement (ECI)
  • Integrated project delivery (IPD)
  • Delivery partner (DP)
  • Equipment supply
  • Services alliances
  • Supply chain collaboration.
• Examining the development and implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in construction and engineering projects, including the specific legal and contractual issues associated with licensing of information technology systems, intellectual property and confidentiality generally, design risk and programming.

This subject provides a broad overview of the range of dispute resolution options available to parties in relation to construction disputes, as well as detailed insights into the practical aspects and policy drivers of these options. It provides an opportunity to understand how to efficiently conduct construction dispute procedures in various Australian courts, arbitration (both domestic and international) and expert determination. It also engages with key industry debates about the rational reform of dispute processes in Australia and internationally. The lecturers bring extensive dispute resolution expertise to the subject and have been involved in many of Australia’s most significant construction-related disputes.

Principal topics include:

• Practice and procedure in the Supreme Courts of New South Wales and Victoria and the Federal Court of Australia, considering differences and assessing where best practice lies
• Evidence for construction cases—how to identify what is necessary for the principal claims that arise in construction cases (eg variations, delay, prolongation and latent conditions claims)
• Special issues relating to expert evidence and practical issues arising from the rules of evidence
• Pleading claims
• Problems with discovery and how they may be solved (this involves a review of the policy considerations that underlie the recent changes to the Federal Court Rules and the Victorian Supreme Court Rules, as well as practice in international arbitration)
• Managing the trial or hearing so that it is as efficient as possible
• The appeal process that is available
• The domestic arbitration legislative framework: how it can be used to improve the efficiency of dispute resolution
• Issues of proof in complex disputes, focusing on delay and disruption claims.

To provide valuable advice to clients in the construction industry, lawyers need an integrated understanding of the legal and technical aspects of this specialised area of practice. This subject is designed to build such an understanding and to expose students to a wide range of construction law-related topics in an interdisciplinary mode. Students will learn about the key legal principles that are specific to construction law (from project inception through to dispute avoidance and resolution) and their interaction with the technical underpinnings of construction practice. In addition to classroom discussion, students have the opportunity to see principles put into practice through construction site visits and detailed case studies.

The subject lecturers bring to the classroom a combined, multi-disciplinary experience of decades in advising clients in the construction industry

A range of topics is covered in an interdisciplinary mode, integrating a detailed case study and site visit. Such topics may include:

• Setting up the project: delivery methods, standard forms, subcontracting, costing, risk mitigation (including insurance and performance security)
• Key technical principles: construction technology, engineering services and structures, geotechnical engineering (including the legal treatment of latent conditions), sustainability and building information modelling
• During the project: contract administration, time and programming, payment, variations, major plant deployment, cost control, dispute avoidance and resolution.

This subject provides a detailed overview of construction law, projects and practice in five representative Asian jurisdictions: the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore and South Korea. Through detailed explanation, analysis and case studies, students will gain an integrated and advanced understanding of the key features of each jurisdiction, both in isolation and in a comparative context. Students will develop their capacity to operate and advise in and across these jurisdictions as well as deriving lessons for application in their home jurisdiction.

Dr Arthur McInnis is the principal subject lecturer. He is the former head of the Construction Practice Group at Clifford Chance in Hong Kong. He has published extensively and lectured widely on construction topics throughout Asia

The subject provides a detailed introduction to construction law, projects and practice in five Asian jurisdictions, with reference to:

• The size and importance of opportunities and trends in their construction sectors
• Their key legal and regulatory frameworks, tender practices and project management norms
• The principal standard forms of contract in use
• Recent build-own-transfer, build-lease-transfer and design-build-finance-operate projects, and planned public-private partnerships in economic and social infrastructure
• Their resource management, financing, innovation and competitiveness on a comparative basis in the development of their construction sectors in the wider Australasian building and projects market
• Detailed case studies on construction, currently planned to include: the Beijing Metro No 4 Line and Mass Transit Railway (MTR) international projects; planning, financing, construction and appraisal of the Anhwa school project in Korea; recent NEC-procured pilot projects in Hong Kong; tendering, construction, operation and issues surrounding the Taiwan High Speed Rail project; and tendering, financing, construction and operation of the Singapore Sports Hub.

This subject will provide a detailed overview of construction law, projects and practice in four representative Middle Eastern jurisdictions: the United Arab Emirates (with a focus on Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Oman, with some further brief comparative analysis of Egypt, Iraq and Iran. Through detailed explanation, analysis and case studies, students will develop an advanced and integrated understanding of the key construction law-related features of each jurisdiction. The detailed treatment of both the aspects which are distinctive in each jurisdiction and those which are cross-cutting is designed to enhance the advanced knowledge and integrated understanding of students who already practice in one or more of these jurisdictions and those who are looking to expand their range of practice into them. 

The subject coordinators, William Marshall, Jeremie Witt and Debbie Barbour, bring to the subject extensive experience as construction and project finance lawyers from the Middle East. 

The subject will provide a detailed introduction to construction law, projects and practice in four Middle Eastern jurisdictions with reference to:

• The size, importance of, opportunities and trends in their construction sectors
• Their key legal and regulatory frameworks, tender practices, and project management norms
• Their principal standard forms of contract in use
• New developments surrounding modelling systems for monitoring cost, quality, and risk factors for sponsors, contractors and consultants
• Their resource management, financing, innovation and competitiveness in the development of their construction sectors, with particular focus on non-oil and gas sectors, and also considering 'contractor financing' as a means of project financing and delivery
• Detailed case studies on construction, which might include (subject to confirmation in the year of subject delivery) the Abu Dhabi International Airport project, planning and construction of the Dubai Metro project and the initial attempts to deliver under a PPP structure, the Dubai Creek canal extension and 'contractor financing', the construction of the Saudi Stock Exchange and the issues of contract risk allocation, the Doha Metro project, Qatar Airport developments and issues relevant to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and Mussandam Gas Plant project, in Oman. 

Risk and insurance are at the heart of all construction projects, yet their role and detailed provisions are often misunderstood, leading to significant losses and disputation. The already-sophisticated contracting landscape has, in recent years, been made significantly more complicated by the introduction of proportionate liability reforms. This subject will examine these issues with particular emphasis on how risk can be managed to minimise losses.

The lecturers are expert navigators in relation to these complex issues. They have leading-edge expertise in advising on risk, security for performance and insurance in the construction context.

Principal topics include:

• Identifying risk in a construction project and how various industry participants (including principals, contractors, designers, professional advisers, insurers, security providers, and statutory and government authorities) may bear responsibility
• Philosophies and commercial drivers affecting risk allocation in construction contracts and consultancy agreements, and how these are reflected in standard forms
• Security for performance mechanisms, including cash retentions, unconditional undertakings, parent guarantees, insurance bonds, adjudication bonds and other instruments
• Insurance products available to the construction industry (including public liability, works insurance, professional indemnity workers’ compensation and domestic building insurance) and the law relating to them, including regulation by legislation, common law principles and treatment under standard-form construction contracts and consultancy agreements
• Proportionate liability regimes (including Part IVAA of the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic)) and their impact on contract risk allocation.

In this subject, students explore the external constraints on construction. These are legal, via the public law of land use planning (sometimes called development control or zoning) and of applicable construction standards; and via the private law rights of those close to the project site. But they are also extra-legal, via community pressures to stop or modify planned development. The subject takes a comparative common law approach, considering a selection of Australian states and territories (including Victoria) and New Zealand, but also England and Wales, whose law remains the origin of the relevant law in Australasia, as well as in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and most of North America.

Philip Britton has extensive construction law teaching experience at King’s College London and in the Melbourne Law Masters and has published on ‘neighbour issues’ in construction. Melbourne colleagues will also contribute, together with guest speakers from ‘the field’.

This subject provides an examination of the legal and non-legal issues which operate as external constraints on construction projects, within a comparative common law context.

Principal topics include:

• The public law of land use planning: its aims, structures, operation in practice and openness to legal challenge
• The law of ‘building control’, via applicable construction standards: definitions, operation, enforcement and inspectors’ powers, including ongoing reforms in Victoria
• The private law rights ‘neighbours’ enjoy against the negative aspects of construction, via property/land law and the law of tort
• The remedies available in court for actual or potential infringement of these rights and judges’ approaches to the choice of remedy, including (in particular) to the assessment of damages
• How the structuring of the project may determine who bears the ultimate cost (or liability) if a neighbour successfully challenges the whole project, or where or how it is being constructed
• The powers (legal and extra-legal) of community action groups to influence decisions about new construction and how project sponsors may respond.

A distinguishing characteristic of international construction projects is the challenging environment in which they often proceed. Where there are stakeholders from several different countries, the challenges can be cultural, economic, legal, physical, political and technical. A number of troublesome issues repeatedly manifest themselves on projects around the world. By understanding how these issues affect projects, participants might not only gain a commercial advantage, but also avoid costly disputes. This subject seeks to explore these troublesome issues from a commercial and industry-focused point of view.

Paul Tracey has 30 years of international experience acting as a commercial manager and expert witness. Brodie McAdam is a solicitor and Program Leader of the Construction Law and Practice Masters at the University of Salford.

Within a comparative common law context emphasising the Middle East, the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions, this subject examines the legal and non-legal issues that operate as external constraints on construction projects.

Principal topics include:

• Contract formation and typical contractual arrangements in practice on international construction projects
• The approach to sanctity of contract around the world
• Commercial risk management on international construction projects, including unforeseen or latent conditions, caps on liability, consequential loss, force majeure, choice of law and dispute resolution mechanisms
• Managing time, cost and quality risk on international construction projects using contractual mechanisms, including the approach adopted in various countries to calls on performance bonds, and valuation of variations
• Preparing prolongation and disruption claims on international construction projects
• The role of the engineer or contract administrator
• Liquidated damages for delay and performance
• The influence of national culture on the preparation, evaluation and negotiation of time and money claims on international construction projects in the Middle East.

Cross-border construction contracting, and the avoidance and conduct of disputes, has a distinctive character and content. Lawyers and industry professionals need to be familiar with the differences between legal systems and the impact of statutory law, the key issues in the international financing and procurement of projects, the range of standard form international contracts available for various delivery methodologies, and the options for, and methods of dealing with, dispute resolution, along with the intricacies associated with those processes in an international context.

Principal topics include:

• Discussion of the key differences between common law and civil law, and how they impact on the practice of construction law in different jurisdictions
• The role of statute law applicable to the construction site, such as security of payment and mechanics’ lien legislation
• Key issues in the financing and delivery of international construction projects, including alternative financing such as PPP
• Standard-form contracts for international construction projects (including the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) suite and variants promulgated by multilateral development banks)
• The main distinctions of principle and practice between the prosecution, determination or resolution of construction disputes in different jurisdictions
• An examination of international bodies dealing with the determination or resolution of international construction disputes
• An introduction to the jurisdictional, applicable law and procedural framework for the prosecution, determination and enforcement of construction disputes through international arbitration
• Identification and consideration of contractual and extra-contractual alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and dispute avoidance procedures (DAPs) in the context of international construction.

Construction industry personnel and their lawyers are increasingly aware of the need to anticipate the legal implications of communication and ‘issue management’ throughout the project life cycle. Therefore, this subject aims to equip industry professionals and lawyers with the skills necessary to identify and proactively manage legal risk during the procurement and delivery phases. Complementing other subjects within Melbourne Law School’s construction law program that examine legal risks and their management, this subject provides practical insights into key aspects of the legal/project interface, including tendering and contract preparation procedures that efficiently ‘document the deal’ and contract administration techniques that minimise disputation.

The subject lecturers are practising lawyers who have substantial expertise and experience in advising during the various phases of a project, enabling students to develop an advanced and critical understanding of this specialised area of law.

Principal topics include:

• An exploration of the concept of legal risk and how it manifests in construction projects
• Project inception, including project feasibility and financing
• Procurement model selection and alternative contracting models and an analysis of the pillars of success in relation to each of the procurement models
• An analysis of pre-tender documentation, including consortium and joint venture agreements; an analysis of tender documentation including expressions of interest and requests for tender; and an analysis of the considerations when responding to a request for tender
• Legal risks to be managed during the pre-tender and tendering phase
• Analysis of the key project risks and their allocation and adoption between a contractor and client under a construction contract, as well as an introduction to qualitative and quantitative risk assessment
• Analysis of the key features of a construction contract and the negotiation positions available to a contractor and client in negotiating a construction contract (this will include consideration of alternative approaches and legal risks to be considered by contractors and clients in the negotiation of these obligations)
• The interface between the project management and legal disciplines, including a consideration of the ethical dilemmas that confront construction professionals
• Risk identification and mitigation strategies employed during the delivery phase and their role in avoiding unnecessary disputation
• Administering (making and assessing) claims for time and cost under construction contracts
• Managing sub-contract and interface risk (including a consideration of building information modelling (BIM))
• Managing the ‘paper war’ during the delivery phase: gaining, keeping, sharing and losing privilege in communications on and off site
• Managing defects to the works: reaching completion and post-completion issues
• A consideration of the practicalities of construction dispute resolution.

Payment has always been at the heart of construction contracting, and payment disputes have been—and remain—at the centre of construction law case law. This subject aims to provide students with a detailed understanding of the contractual procedures for payment and associated issues such as set-off. Its major focus is upon the ‘security of payment’ reforms of recent years. This state and territory-based legislation was designed to simplify the payment stream and disputation yet, in practice, has spawned hundreds of court cases, further complicating the contracting landscape for construction projects. The lecturers are based in the two states that have been at the forefront of the reforms—Queensland and New South Wales—and are therefore well-placed to guide students through this area of law.

Principal topics include:

• Payment processes under construction contracts, including treatment under standard forms and the impact of the security of payment legislation enacted in various jurisdictions
• History and policy underpinnings of the security of payment legislation, including comparison of the regimes in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand
• Processes to resolve payment disputes, including those under security of payment legislation (with detailed consideration of bases for judicial review of such processes)
• Associated issues, including set-off, securing payment to workers and subcontractors, and means of dealing with the consequences of late payment.

The concepts of urban sustainability are driving the regulation of the built form of our increasingly large, complex and smart cities. The global sustainable development goals have also led urban regulators to embrace more participatory and innovative forms of governance for our society and economy.

This subject explores how those concepts apply in the regulation of planning and construction and the framework and governance for the development of smart, resilient and sustainable cities. In particular, it will focus on the role of municipal and state laws in achieving liveable communities.

The subject will cover the Environmentally Sustainable Development (ESD) Local Planning Policies and consider whether planning regulation in Victoria incorporates best practice in environmental assessment. It will explore the interesting tension between building and planning law and the respective contribution of each in driving sustainable outcomes.

Another component of this subject will follow the introduction of building information modelling (BIM) arising out of the architecture, engineering and construction management sectors. This topic offers a further but alternate perspective of shifting regulatory dynamics that pitch towards sustainability objectives, whether on built environment projects or across broad-scaled applications.

This subject has been designed for those interested in the intersection between planning and construction law and environmental law. The course includes guest lectures, visiting some of Melbourne’s iconic green buildings and assessing urban planning initiatives, such as the Queen Victoria Market Redevelopment, for their contribution to the development of Melbourne as a sustainable city.

Principal topics include:

• Sustainability in the city; exploring new ideas on what sustainable development means in an urban setting, policy priorities for sustainability, ideas of new governance for sustainability, and new economic and legal models to achieve sustainability outcomes
• Green building and climate change developments, directions and policy, including resilience and risk
• Urban planning and sustainability, including the use and role of land-use planning laws and local governance to achieve improved sustainability features in the built urban environment, focusing on Victorian laws
• The broad regulatory setting for green buildings and urban sustainability, including a sustainability analysis of the National Construction Code
• Sustainability rating tools for energy efficiency and the regulation of green buildings, through voluntary and mandatory schemes, including GreenStar and BASIX, and a comparison of green rating and standard tools in Australia (NABERS), the United States (LEED) and the United Kingdom and Europe (BREEAM)
• An introduction to building information modelling (BIM) relative to sustainability opportunities and challenges, from construction projects and local and international policy perspectives
• An applied case study analysis of how integrated sustainable urban construction law works in practice.

This subject is designed for construction law students without prior legal training (Construction Law is for students who have a law degree). It provides an overview of the broad spread of the construction law curriculum, from the statutory and common law landscape through legal aspects of project procurement and contracting to dispute avoidance and resolution options. This subject also provides detailed treatment of legal issues specific to construction law such as variations, quality, time and payment. The seminar format is supplemented by exercises to develop students’ skills in contract preparation and writing legal hypotheticals, and includes sessions on construction law research tools and techniques.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of the regulatory regime for construction contracting
• Causes of action in construction disputes
• Contracting methodologies
• Contract administration: standard forms of contract, tendering, contract preparation and minimising legal exposure
• Role and liability of superintendents
• Issues relating to sub-contracts
• Variations
• Quality of work
• Latent conditions
• Time, programming and liquidated damages
• Contractual mechanisms for payment and security of payment legislation
• Security for performance
• Insurance
• Dispute avoidance procedures and alternative dispute resolution
• Construction litigation and arbitration (domestic and international).

Private sector involvement in the financing, delivery and operation of public infrastructure is nothing new; it is, however, constantly evolving. The public appetite for social and economic infrastructure is insatiable, yet must constantly be tempered by economic constraints. Alongside the increasingly sophisticated and internationalised market for funding and technical capacity, there has been in recent years a renewed focus upon the policy bases for public private partnerships (PPPs) by governments and the broader community. Navigating all this in its legal context is one of the great ongoing challenges faced by the construction industry and its legal advisers. This subject, taught by two leaders in the field who bring a wealth of experience to the classroom, is designed to equip students to respond to this challenge.

Principal topics include:

• Historical perspectives on private involvement in the delivery of public infrastructure, how it has changed over time and lessons learnt
• Approaches to the categorising of PPP projects, including the broad distinction between ‘economic’ and ‘social’ infrastructure
• The dynamics of financing versus the fiscal responsibility of repayments and funding
• Features specific to the structuring and procurement of projects within each of these categories, including fundamental aspects such as the need to secure an income stream in relation to economic infrastructure and the relevance of the distinction, in relation to social infrastructure, between delivery of physical infrastructure and delivery of services
• Features specific to particular sectors within each of these categories (eg toll roads, power stations, water, health care, education and corrections)
• The various policy frameworks in place in Australia (and leading international agencies) for evaluation and engagement of private sector involvement in public infrastructure delivery
• Drivers that underpin the structuring, negotiation and delivery of PPP projects, including financing, probity and value for money (including public sector comparator mechanisms), competition, tax (including issues derived from Australia‘s federal structure as opposed to unitary systems in other countries) and construction risk.

Construction projects produce difficult legal issues. Practitioners need to be confident in their understanding of the remedies available under various causes of action. Construction law requires a sound knowledge of relevant case law and legislation concerning diverse matters, such as damages in contract, recovery in tort for pure economic loss, penalties (including liquidated damages), quantum meruit, remedies under the Australian Consumer Law and the grant of interlocutory injunctions.

In addition to the primary lecturer, this subject harnesses the specialist expertise of guest lecturers, including leading academic lawyers, legal practitioners and judges. Their combined experience draws not only on their rigorous understanding of black letter law, but also on extensive practising careers.

Principal topics include:

• Damages for breach of contract
• Penalties (including liquidated damages)
• Equitable remedies for breach of fiduciary duty
• Proportionate liability
• Temporary injunctions
• Recovery in tort for pure economic loss
• Remedies under the Australian Consumer Law
• Quantum meruit claims

Every year, about half of the value of construction activity in Australia relates to the building, conversion and renovation of dwellings. The law relating to this activity is complex and multi-layered, involving difficult policy questions and significant statutory and regulatory intervention impacting on millions of people throughout the community. Despite this, residential construction law has, until recently, received relatively little attention from the majority of construction law practitioners, and not just in Australia. This innovative subject, taught by Matthew Bell and Suzanne Kirton, seeks to address this deficiency and introduce students to an evolving area of construction law in a comparative context, with material from Australasia (including Victoria) and from other members of the common law family of legal systems. Practitioners will make a significant contribution as guest lecturers.

Principal topics include:

• Legislation specifically applicable to residential construction
• Legal protection for ‘consumers’ in relation to residential construction
• Legal obligations undertaken by the seller in relation to the quality of a new residential building
• Means by which an off-plan buyer of a new residential house or unit may be protected against the financial failure of a project party
• Remedies in relation to defects in the structure or common parts of multi-unit developments
• Rights of successors in title to enjoy the remedies against the developer or any other project party responsible for defects
• The impact of limitation periods upon remedies for different categories of defects
• The role of insurance in protecting home-owners against the costs of repairs or defects claims
• The impact of mandatory or voluntary registration or accreditation systems for residential developers and suppliers of construction services

While ‘Construct Only’ and ‘Design and Construct’ delivery methodologies remain the most common form of construction procurement, principals and contractors increasingly are delivering construction projects via innovative procurement methodologies. This subject—designed to complement the existing infrastructure delivery subjects already offered within our program—provides students with a detailed knowledge of tendering, specialised forms of construction procurement and other key contract forms currently in use in the Australian construction and infrastructure market. This subject also provides an overview of the key legal and commercial issues affecting these procurement methods and specialised construction contracts.

The lecturer, Richard Wilkinson, is a construction lawyer and alumnus of the Master of Construction Law. In addition to bringing to the classroom his own extensive experience in construction procurement law, Richard harnesses the specialist expertise of leading construction practitioners as guest lecturers.

Principal topics include:

• Invitations to tender
• Unsolicited proposals
• Collaborative contracting
• Managing contractor agreements
• Engineering, procurement and construction agreements and engineering, procurement and construction management agreements
• Consultancy agreements
• ‘Design and construct’ joint venture agreements
• Consortium agreements
• Contracting arrangements in the renewables sector
• Design-build-operate agreements and design-build-operate-maintain agreements.

This subject introduces the fundamentals of accounting and financial statement interpretation within the context of government and commercial environments. Commencing with an examination of the principal financial statements the subject navigates the nature and types of transactions undertaken by organisations and how these transactions are recorded and reported. In the second half of the semester the subject addresses the key techniques for deeply assessing the financial performance, funding capacity and solvency of organisations. Finally the subject concludes with an examination of the accounting policy choices organisations may use to present their financial statements in the best possible light.

Principal topics include:

• The purpose of accounting
• Accounting reports and analysis
• Financial statement ratios
• Financial statement disclosures
• Accounting policy choices and earnings management
• Accounting reports and business failures
• The limitations of accounting information.

Company takeovers are an integral part of stock markets in Australia and overseas. Their regulation seeks to deal with the often competing objectives of market efficiency and fairness to shareholders. This subject examines the laws and rules in the area, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view and deals with the key legal concepts and steps that occur in a typical takeover bid and takeover defence, illustrated by actual transactions. The lecturer is a practising takeover lawyer, textbook author and member of the Takeovers Panel—Australia’s takeover dispute resolution body—which helps ensure that the subject matter is topical and current.

Principal topics include:

• The Eggleston principles
• The 20% rule
• Shareholding disclosures
• Exempt acquisitions
• Pre-bid activity
• Scheme alternative
• Bidder’s statements
• Action during the bid
• Defensive strategies
• Target’s statements
• Compulsory acquisition
• Role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Takeovers Panel
• Dispute resolution
• Compulsory acquisition.

This subject considers the different tools used by corporate law to, on the one hand, enable the corporate form to provide an efficient and effective means of generating value and, on the other hand, to regulate the agency problems generated by carrying out business activity through the corporate form. In particular, the subject will consider: the distribution of power within the corporation; directors’ duties and their enforcement; the use and abuse of executive compensation; the role of the market for corporate control in holding directors to account; and minority shareholder protection. The subject takes an explicitly comparative approach, with a primary focus on the United Kingdom and the United States, and to a lesser extent on Germany.

Principal topics will include:

• The economic tensions of the corporate form: Authority versus responsibility, the economic agency cost problem, managerial agency costs and controlling shareholder agency costs
• The regulatory strategies available to address these tensions
• Shareholder primacy versus director primacy/the balance of power in the corporation: Appointment and removal rights, initiation rights and decisions rights
• Directors’ duties:
  − Duty of care, business judgment rule and duty of care liability waivers
  − Duty of loyalty and self-dealing, conflicted transactions and corporate opportunities
  − Duty to promote the success of the company and stakeholder interests, enlightened shareholder value versus pluralism, the costs of decision making and stakeholder interests
• Board structure and composition: Composition themes, committee structures, composition and corporate performance
• Corporate governance and gatekeeper regulation: The role of the auditor as independent gatekeeper, the impact of Enron and United States corporate and audit failures and auditor independence regulation
• Executive compensation: Agency cost solution or cost problem and regulatory approaches to executive compensation
• The market for corporate control: As agency cost control, the pros and cons of takeover defences and models of takeover defence regulation
• Corporate ownership structures and convergence: Blockholding versus widely held companies, the controlling shareholder agency problem, efficient versus inefficient blockholding and the scope for convergence.

Corporate bankruptcy and corporate rescue pose fundamental questions for the insolvency regime. This subject examines some of the central rules, policies and principles of corporate bankruptcy and insolvency law, as well as the economic and social objectives attributed to the bankruptcy and insolvency system. The subject will be taught from a comparative perspective, drawing upon the laws of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. A comparative perspective will enable students to examine and critically evaluate the varied legal solutions to common insolvency law issues. This approach will allow students to acquire advanced and specialised knowledge in recent developments in insolvency law. The lecturer is a Professor of Law at Western University in Canada and he has taught subjects in insolvency and commercial law at universities in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

Principal topics include:

• Historical overview (a discussion of the origins of insolvency law to place current developments in context)
• Modern insolvency law objectives and theory (students will consider competing theories of modern insolvency objectives, contrasting broader distributional and public interest theories with a pro-creditor approach)
• Initiating bankruptcy proceedings against a corporation (students will assess how various jurisdictions enable creditors to initiate an involuntary corporate bankruptcy)
• Voidable preferences (students will evaluate various statutory models that have emerged to cope with the problem of debtor corporations making preferential payments to favoured creditors prior to bankruptcy)
• Director liability and the insolvent corporation (an assessment of the risk of personal liability of directors in the context of corporate insolvency)
• Equitable subordination (an emerging issue in Canada, and long established in the United States, is whether a court has jurisdiction to equitably subordinate the claim of a creditor in a corporate bankruptcy)
• Corporate rescue or liquidation? (an evaluation of the trend from traditional corporate rescue law (where the company is rescued in some form) to the more recent development of corporate liquidations being carried out under a corporate reorganisation statute)

A corporation that wishes to raise funds in Australia, either for a specific purpose or for general business purposes, can do so either by borrowing (creation of debt) or by offering securities (creation of equity). This subject is concerned with the regulation of offering securities. The fundamental premise of the regulation is that the offering corporation should provide all relevant information (mandatory disclosure) and investors should then decide whether to invest. The subject will examine the regulatory model, the rationale for the model and aspects of the model and other mechanisms (such as the role of securities exchanges) that may impact in a practical way on the offering. Globalisation means that offerings may be subject to requirements in a number of jurisdictions and so it will be important to consider whether the similarities and differences between jurisdictions are significant. The classes will involve a mix of lecture-style presentations and problem-solving worked on in small groups.

The subject will be of interest to those who work in a corporate advisory environment or who wish to do so

Principal topics include:

• The disclosure principle
• Debt and equity as alternatives
• Different equity-raising alternatives
• Outline of the regulatory situation
• When is a disclosure document required?
• Different types of disclosure documents
• Content of disclosure documents
• Liability for defective disclosure documents
• Due diligence defence
• Other defences
• Restrictions on advertising and securities hawking
• The role of the underwriter
• The role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• The role of the Australian Securities Exchange Ltd (ASX)
• Continuous disclosure.

Corporate governance is of national and international importance. This subject has a strong focus on the law relating to corporate governance, particularly the duties and responsibilities of company directors and other officers, primarily from an Australian perspective but also considering the approach taken in other jurisdictions. The director has been described in one court judgment as “an essential component of corporate governance” who is “placed at the apex of the structure of direction and management of a company”.  The lecturer is the author of leading publications dealing with corporate governance, including the major Australian book on directors’ duties, and he has also been involved in a number of corporate governance reforms enacted by Parliament.

Principal topics include:

• The concept of corporate governance
• Overview of the current framework of corporate governance and the duties of directors and other officers
• Who is subject to duties?
• To whom are duties owed?
• Duties to act with care and diligence, in the best interests of the company, and for a proper purpose
• Duty to avoid conflicts of interest
• Duty to prevent insolvent trading
• Role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in enforcing directors’ duties
• Role of shareholders in corporate governance
• Role of industry corporate governance guidelines and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations.

The law of corporate insolvency plays a significant role in a modern economy. Recent economic downturns, coupled with high-profile corporate collapses, have emphasised its importance. However, several parliamentary and other enquiries have highlighted its inadequacies and shortcomings. This subject, taught by a lawyer who practises day-to-day in the area, will focus on current issues in corporate insolvency. It will be of particular relevance to practitioners whose work involves such issues—whether from the ‘back end’ (eg litigators) or ‘front end’ (eg transactional, banking or property lawyers who need to anticipate them).

Students will be expected to have some background knowledge in the subject matter before enrolling in this subject. At the least, they should have or obtain (for instance, by previous study in corporations law or by pre-subject reading) a general familiarity with the formal regimes (i.e. liquidation, administration and receivership) and relevant statutory provisions as a backdrop against which to consider those topics and issues.

Principal topics include:

• Foundations of insolvency law: History, philosophy, policies and principles
• Parri passu: The ranking of claims; priority creditors; the effect of secured credit
• Insolvency of corporate groups
• Avoidance of antecedent transactions
• Corporate rescue: Voluntary administration and deeds of company arrangement (DOCAs)
• Receivership; intersection with other insolvency regimes
• Restructuring: Schemes of arrangement, DOCAs and informal mechanisms.
• Qualification, regulation and supervision of insolvency practitioners

As a result of the recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) around the world, numerous companies have been confronted with financial difficulties. Sometimes those difficulties resulted in a bankruptcy or comparable insolvency proceedings. Due to globalisation, such insolvency could have cross-border effects, such as the insolvency of Lehman Brothers in 2008. International Corporate Insolvency raises issues on substantive insolvency law as well as on conflict of laws, and explores those effects from various perspectives, especially on a multilateral level. Its relevance can be found in the attempts to facilitate restructuring of financially distressed companies worldwide. Professor Vriesendorp, from Tilburg University, The Netherlands, has previously taught the subject and is a well-known scholar with practical experience in the field of (international) insolvency law as restructuring partner at Dutch law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Netherlands.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction/recapitulation: what is insolvency/insolvency law?
• Causes of insolvency: external, fraud and mismanagement
• Creditor-oriented system (United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia) versus debtor-oriented system (United States, France)
• Proceedings from an international perspective: European insolvency regulation/UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and relevant forums
• Role and position of trustee/administrator versus debtor-in-possession
• Role and position of creditors
• Role and position of the court
• Position of the bank, security interests and financing restructuring
• Transfer of assets to Newco/composition and rescheduling of debt
• Fraudulent/wrongful trading and director‘s liability
• Termination of the proceedings.

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has graphically demonstrated how interconnected capital markets are worldwide. The GFC did not start in the international capital markets, but these markets became the purveyors of risk and financial calamity around the world. This subject will provide an understanding of the development of international capital markets, the most burning current issues in developed and developing economies and the regulatory responses. Associate Professor Jordan is a widely recognised expert on international capital markets.

This subject looks at the historical development of and major trends in international capital markets from a regulatory perspective.

Principal topics will include:

• Development of regulatory techniques to address international securities transactions, such as mutual recognition, harmonisation etc.
• The changing role of stock markets
• The interplay between regulated and unregulated markets
• The operation of the Euromarkets and recent attempts to create a pan-European and trans-Atlantic capital market
• United States regulatory initiatives, including Regulation S, Rule 144A, American Depositary Receipts and the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System
• The role of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and initiatives such as the Financial Sector Assessment Programs
• The role of the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the creation of international standards
• Developments in developing and transitional markets (e.g. China, Brazil etc.)
• Islamic finance.

The subject may include case studies of recent transactions in the international markets.

This subject examines the law governing the registration, regulation and termination of corporations in Australia. It will explore a range of theoretical and practical issues concerning the corporation and its participants, with a particular emphasis on corporate law in practice.

Principal topics will include:

• Introduction to the historical, theoretical, legal and constitutional basis of corporations and corporations legislation
• The corporate constitution
• Financing the corporation
• Directors’ and officers’ duties
• Shareholders’ remedies
• Aspects of corporate insolvency.

The fallout from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has put significant pressure on securities markets in Australia, which form part of the broader market for financial products and services. In the past few years, there have been significant developments in relation to the operation of the market for securities, including government approval for a new market operator (Chi-X). There has also been a regulatory response to the collapse of high-profile financial service providers, such as Storm Financial and Opes Prime. This subject will deal with these developments as well as recent case law relating to the responsibilities of listed entities, especially under the continuous disclosure regime and with other examples of market misconduct.

Principal topics include:

• The policy basis for regulation of securities markets and participants
• The evolution of Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) as it applies to securities transactions
• The key concepts of securities, financial products and financial services
• What is a financial market?
• Licensing of financial markets and financial service providers
• The role of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in regulating market participants
• The future of financial advice reforms
• The role of the ASX in regulating listed entities
• Continuous Disclosure – law and practice
• The relationship between the ASX and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Enforcement of ASX listing rules
• Regulation of financial service providers
• Prohibited market conduct
• Insider trading.

In the field of takeovers, company mergers and other corporate reconstructions, schemes of arrangement are playing an ever-increasing role. In the takeover sphere, schemes have often been used in recent times as an alternative to using the takeover provisions in Chapter 6 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). This subject will address what a scheme of arrangement is and the role that schemes play in these fields of commercial activity, particularly in the area of takeovers. The role played by the court and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) at each relevant stage of the scheme process, as well as practical considerations and guidance in connection with obtaining court approval to a scheme, are among the topics that will be addressed in this subject. The lecturers are both commercial barristers at the Victorian Bar whose areas of practice include schemes of arrangement.

Principal topics include:

• What a scheme of arrangement is and the role schemes play in the field of takeovers, company mergers and other corporate reconstructions
• The statutory framework applicable to schemes of arrangement
• Statutory and other requirements governing schemes of arrangement and their approval by shareholders and the court
• The role of the court at each of the first court hearing (the ‘meeting hearing’) and the second court hearing (the ‘approval hearing’)
• The role of ASIC
• The approach adopted by the Takeovers Panel to schemes of arrangement
• Practical considerations and guidance – including potential pitfalls – in connection with the process of obtaining both shareholder and court approval
• Issues arising in connection with the obtaining of shareholder and court approval. Topics to be drawn from matters such as:
  • Notice requirements
  • The scheme booklet: Content and approval
  • Meetings of shareholders: How, what, when and why
  • Classification of schemes and classes of members
  • The role of the independent expert
  • Break fees and exclusivity provisions
  • Warranties and performance risk
  • Treatment of Overseas shareholders
  • Dealing with options and performance rights
  • The role of directors when considering schemes including fetters or restraints on the exercise of their statutory and fiduciary duties
  • How to deal with circumstances that change during the period between the first and second court hearings
  •  Chapter 6 avoidance, ASIC position and Section 411(17) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
  • Forum consideration and differing judicial approaches
  • Opposition at court hearings and the court’s ‘approval’ discretion
• The ancillary function performed by section 413 in facilitating reconstructions and amalgamations of companies which are the subject of a scheme of arrangement
• Current issues, recent developments and reform issues.
• This subject does not address schemes of arrangement in the insolvency context.

Shareholders’ rights and remedies—and how they interact with the rights and obligations of directors, officers and the company itself—are a critical part of the law and corporate governance of Australian companies. Shareholder activism is on the rise and increasingly, the corporate regulator (ASIC), class action litigation firms and shareholders themselves are focused on what shareholders’ rights and remedies are and how they should be observed and pursued. And they are a major focus of Australia’s corporate governance principles for publicly listed companies, and therefore for those responsible for running those companies.

This subject—taught by partners from King & Wood Mallesons and Judicial Registrar Matthews—will provide participants with a detailed knowledge of the rights and remedies available to shareholders under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and at common law, how they interact with the roles of directors and management of Australian companies, and what happens when things go wrong.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of the division of power between the various organs of the modern corporation
• What the current framework of corporate governance has to say about treatment of shareholders
• Shareholders’ agreements
• Shareholders’ rights including voting and access to corporate information
• Shareholder activism, including requisitioning meetings, proxy voting and removal of directors
• Shareholders’ remedies, including oppression, winding-up-related relief, statutory derivative action and class actions
• The role of ASIC
• Law reform
• Overseas comparisons.

Business and organisational crimes differ from the popular conception of ‘crime’ as involving the most unambiguously blameworthy sorts of conduct in which citizens can engage. This subject will examine how these crimes are dealt with under Australian rules on criminal responsibility, procedure, proof and punishment. It will also address, from a comparative perspective (including both Australian state systems and relevant overseas ones), the underlying legal, moral and policy concerns that distinguish fraud, dishonesty and organisational crimes (including regulatory offences by corporations) from ‘merely aggressive business behaviour’. The subject will be of interest to government lawyers, corporate counsel and litigators – anyone who is interested in the often blurry lines that distinguish criminal from non-criminal behaviour.

Note that this subject includes an advanced analysis of aspects of Australian criminal law. The classes and the take-home examination assume a prior knowledge of Australian criminal law as taught in the core curriculum of Australian law degrees

Principal topics include:

• The concept of dishonesty and the boundaries of fraud
• Corporate criminality and individual liability in an organisational setting
• Processes, proof and sentencing for business and organisational crime
• Examinations of particular offences in the context of one or more of the above topics.

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In the preparation and conduct of litigation no area of law is more important than the law of evidence. Advanced Evidence aims to provide students with an enhanced understanding of the law of evidence. This subject focuses on key provisions of the uniform evidence legislation, which now operates in all Commonwealth, Victorian, New South Wales, Tasmanian, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory courts, and primarily examines the law of evidence in the context of criminal proceedings, where it is is strictly applied. Students can expect to refresh, deepen and develop their understanding of the factual, legal and policy issues associated with the law of evidence and to learn to analyse the admissibility of evidence at an advanced level

This subject is primarily based on a detailed examination of those rules of evidence regarding admissibility that are of particular significance in trials, especially criminal trials.

Principal topics may include:

• Relevance
• Hearsay evidence
• Opinion evidence
• Admissions
• Tendency and coincidence evidence
• Credibility evidence
• Identification evidence
• Discretionary and mandatory exclusion of evidence.

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Dispute resolution and problem-solving lie at the core of modern professional life for lawyers, business people and anyone who works with more than one other person. This subject provides an overview of the range of dispute resolution techniques used internationally. This subject differentiates the most prominent dispute resolution methods, including traditional litigation, arbitration (in its many forms, including international commercial arbitration negotiation) and mediation (also in its many forms, including partnering, mini-trials and dispute resolution coordinators). It also includes skills training in negotiation and mediation, designed to increase effectiveness in both resolving disputes and enhancing problem-solving abilities.

Principal topics include:

• The nature and varieties of disputes, how they arise and how they are avoided
• The options for resolving disputes: litigation, arbitration, negotiation, mediation and conciliation
• Factors considered by people when they choose a dispute resolution method, including social, cultural and economic factors
• Relevant law reform initiatives, with an emphasis on Australia, other common law countries and selected Asian countries
• Cross-cultural issues in the dispute resolution process
• The roles of judges, lawyers and the courts in the alternative dispute resolution process
• An analysis and comparison of the dispute resolution processes in environmental and native land title disputes, with an emphasis on Australia, Canada and the United States
• Basic skills for successful negotiation and mediation, including theory and practical exercises.

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This subject focuses on skills and strategies that are key to negotiating, swaying and influencing counterparties in business negotiations and deal-making. In this subject, skills will be developed by constantly improving as business negotiators by asking the right questions, framing issues, gaining lessons learned, defining success metrics and negotiating with others with different skill-sets, perceptions and backgrounds. The subject will have a particular focus on negotiations in cross-border settings. The teacher is a leading expert in negotiation training, having taught and researched at prestigious institutions such as Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard, and trained executives at some of the world’s largest companies. He will draw on both real-world transactional and academic experience in leading the subject.

Principal topics and skills include the following:

• Understand why conflict arises between people and business organisations, within both a domestic and international context
• Assess and apply various strategic frameworks in diverse settings (business-to-business, private-public sector, etc)
• Define specific success metrics within diverse teams and groups before, during and after business negotiations and deal-making settings
• Apply and leverage the main conceptual frameworks related to transaction planning and conflict resolution within diverse environments - including distributive, integrative, and mixed motive negotiation styles (among others)
• Analyse and synthesise business negotiation theories, skill-sets and studies as current or future business negotiation professionals
• Recognise implicit and explicit biases and nudges that may hinder or help business negotiations, while developing strategies on how to bridge and create value from such gaps
• Develop, and learn how to continually develop, a value-added business negotiation toolbox and confidence as business negotiators and deal-makers
• Understand key contractual terms that may pivot business negotiators and negotiations
• Enhance effective communication skill-sets, both verbal and nonverbal, and develop an empathetic understanding of how and why counterparties may see things differently from you and your business unit
• Possess an overall understanding of the nature of disputes and conflict resolution, including ethical, cultural, economic, psychological and emotional factors.

Class actions have become an increasingly prominent feature of Australia’s litigation landscape. Some people think they enhance access to justice, offer an efficient way to deal with large numbers of claims and function as an effective regulatory tool, while others criticise them as improper ‘private’ regulation or as just another way for lawyers to become wealthy. Students will have the opportunity to critically evaluate these views. Law reform proposals will be considered, as will the development, present state and likely future directions of the law and practice of Australian class actions. While the focus will be on Australia, methods used in other countries to bring and manage group proceedings will be considered and compared. Students will have the opportunity to engage and debate with lecturers and guest lecturers with substantial academic, practice, judicial and international experience.

Principal topics include:

• The origins of modern class action regimes in Australia
• Comparisons of the federal and Victorian regimes with those in other Australian and overseas jurisdictions
• The main stages of class action litigation
• The roles of lawyers, judges, parties, litigation funders and regulators
• Specific issues, including choosing a forum, defining the class, the role of the lead plaintiff, entrepreneurial lawyering, identifying and notifying class members, settlement and court approval
• Comparing class actions with other procedures available for bringing and managing complex litigation
• Securities class actions and the regulatory role of the class action
• Funding and costs issues, including the role of commercial litigation funders.

This subject provides an outline of the UNCITRAL Model Law legislation and the LEADR & IAMA Rules and a detailed analysis of the procedures involved in the conduct of domestic commercial arbitration proceedings. It will provide lawyers involved in the conduct of such proceedings and practising arbitrators with an opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of all elements of the process. The subject includes consideration of the principles of procedural fairness, the law of evidence and their application to commercial arbitration proceedings. The subject will also include written exercises intended to develop skill in the process of decision-making and the writing of decisions and awards in arbitrations.

Principal topics include:

• An introduction to the UNCITRAL Model Law legislation
• A detailed analysis of procedural rules and their use in the course of proceedings
• Identification of issues, pleadings and issues statements
• Evidence, documents, statements of evidence and admissibility generally
• Expert evidence, identification of issues, adoption of rules and procedural control
• Procedural fairness and its application in practice
• Procedural efficiency and control of the process
• The process of analysis of evidence and reasoning
• Award writing.

Civil litigation is experiencing unprecedented levels of reform. Legislative changes, court decisions, changes to court rules and economic pressures are changing the way litigation is practised across the common law world. The proper roles of parties, lawyers, judges and courts are under scrutiny and discussion. The focus of this subject is current and significant issues in civil litigation, with an emphasis on new and emerging developments.

Andrew Higgins is an Associate Professor in Civil Procedure at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and a Fellow in Law at Mansfield College. He is also a practising barrister specialising in mass tort litigation and General Editor of Civil Justice Quarterly.

Bernie Quinn is a Queens Counsel at the Victorian Bar who practices in a wide range of areas including commercial law, public law and product liability law. He speaks Bahasa Indonesian and was an Associate to Justice Michael Kirby. The subject will include guest lecturers drawn from the judiciary and the profession.

Principal topics include:

• Significant procedural reforms in Australia and overseas
• Law reform proposals
• The role of the judge, including case management trends
• Principles of apprehended bias
• ‘Overarching’ obligations of participants in the civil justice system
• Summary and interim relief
• Discovery
• Client legal privilege
• Expert evidence
• Procedural issues in conflict of laws
• Procedural issues in collective redress
• Costs and funding rules
• Appeal processes
• Enforcement
• Alternative dispute resolution
• Online dispute resolution and its impact on civil procedure.

Expert evidence continues to play a major role in civil litigation and criminal prosecution, as well as in administrative regulation. Moreover, the field of expertise in law has become the site of numerous contemporary controversies over judicial standards for admissibility of expertise, how to evaluate the reliability of expert testimony and the ethics of experts and attorneys who present expert testimony. This subject is primarily a detailed examination of the law and policy of the regulation of expert evidence in Australia, as well as comparative reform movements of likely significance to Australia in the future, notably developments in the United States. The materials for the subject, most of which are from court files of actual cases, will emphasise the practical uses of expert evidence inside and outside the courtroom.

Principal topics include:

• The legal framework for regulating expert evidence
• Debate and controversies about expertise
• The admissibility of expert testimony
• Restrictions on the conduct of experts
• Use of expert evidence inside and outside courtrooms.

The above topics will be illuminated through the study of specific instances of expert evidence, conduct and regulation that have prompted change and reform or controversy in Australia or other countries, especially the United States.

Conflicts with intercultural dimensions are ubiquitous in today’s legal practice. Lawyers need cultural fluency to navigate and manage diverse values and expectation, communication norms, and worldviews. Cultural fluency is the ability to communicate and problem-solve across a wide range of differences. As the roles of lawyers change and a growing accent is placed on effective negotiation, the importance of cultural fluency only increases. Experiential education will be used to explore processes, capacities, and creative tools for addressing intercultural conflict. This subject will apply theory, research and practical skills to a variety of practice contexts, integrating insights from neuroscience research.

Drawing on current interdisciplinary literature and case examples from scholarly and personal sources, students will:

• Explore intrapersonal, interpersonal and intergroup dynamics of intercultural disputes
• Learn about processes to address deep-rooted intercultural conflict
• Examine and critique cultural dimensions of conventional dispute resolution processes including in-person and online mediation
• Analyse implicit meanings and cultural values of a continuum of dispute resolution processes as applied in a variety of sectors and settings, including private and public sector organisations and communities
• Identify ways that chaos, complexity and neuroscientific theories inform conflict analysis and implications for dispute process design
• Experience and apply imaginative and creative tools for transforming cultural disputes
• Experiment with somatic, arts-based methodologies including applications and limitations in intercultural dispute intervention
• Apply cultural fluency in a range of case types and practice settings through small-group discussion and practice outside the classroom.

Successful completion of the course will expand participants’ abilities for culturally- fluent analysis, intervention and follow-up as third parties, participants or advocates in negotiation and dispute resolution processes. Participants will learn valuable skills of integrative thinking and creativity through experiential exercises and the final paper.

International dispute resolution has increased dramatically in recent years, with the emergence of complex mechanisms for resolving disputes between states and between states and other actors, including international organisations, corporations, and persons. Older mechanisms, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) continue to play an important role in resolving key disputes. Through analysis of classic case law and doctrine, as well as recent cases, the student will acquire advanced knowledge of non-adjudicatory procedures (eg mediation), arbitration and judicial settlement in international law. Moreover, this course will explore specialised rules for resolving injury by States to foreign nationals, including foreign investors. The lecturer for this course has appeared before international courts and tribunals on behalf of numerous governments and private actors, has served as the United States agent to the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, and is presently a professor of international law and member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

Principal topics include:

• The international obligation to settle disputes
• Non-adjudicatory procedures, such as negotiation, mediation, and conciliation
• International arbitration, including establishing the arbitral body, typical procedural rules, and salient problems
• The International Court of Justice, including its formation, contentious/advisory jurisdiction, and ancillary issues
• Other international courts and tribunals
• Remedying injury to aliens and foreign investors, including key substantive standards (national treatment, most-favoured-nation treatment) and procedural rules (continuous nationality, exhaustion of local remedies)
• Contemporary cases of significance in this field.

With a primary focus on experiential learning and interactive discussion, this subject will provide a practical guide to the use of mediation in resolving disputes and to the legal environment in which mediation takes place. The objectives of this subject are to identify where mediation sits among available dispute resolution processes; its distinguishing characteristics and advantages; the applicable legal environment; to learn to apply mediation principles and techniques in the resolution of disputes; and to explore topical issues in mediation, including different regimes applicable to the admissibility of evidence of communications within mediation.

The lecturers are lawyers who have led and been at the cutting-edge of developing mediation and other ADR techniques. They are nationally accredited mediators and also have substantial experience in teaching and training in this field.

Principal topics include:

• Identifying the characteristics of different dispute resolution methods
• The roles of facilitative and evaluative techniques in mediation
• Practising mediation techniques in mediation scenarios
• The legislative environment in which mediation takes place
• Case law and guidelines for lawyers applicable to mediation.

Mediation has become the likely forum for the resolution of most disputes – whether convened voluntarily, by contract, statute or court order – but its inherent confidentially makes it hard for outsiders to understand fully.

This subject will cover the majority of the material required for Accreditation under the National Mediator Accreditation Scheme (NMAS), but also recognise that mediation needs to be understood by all involved, not just future mediators.  In light of this, it will examine the roles of solicitors and barristers, other advisers and experts, and the parties themselves. It will do this through teaching by Andrew Moffat, who regularly mediates commercial disputes in Melbourne and Sydney, supplemented by guest lecturers who fill these roles in mediations.

It also recognises that mediation is – and must maintain – a uniquely flexible process capable of very different approaches based on the context of the dispute. Guest lecturers who are expert practitioners in other dispute contexts will share their insights.

Students will develop a sophisticated understanding of current mediation theory and practice, and learn to put this learning into practice as mediators and mediation participants, through extensive involvement in simulations. Finally, students will learn about the mediation industry and the business and career elements of developing a mediation practice.

Successful completion of this subject, and a complete attendance record to all sessions, is expected to be credited for 60 per cent of National Mediator Accreditation Scheme training, under the auspices of the Resolution Institute, which will offer students the opportunity to study the remaining 40 per cent required for NMAS accreditation.

Principal topics include:

• Mediation within the broader context of dispute resolution
• Moving from positions to interests
• Standard NMAS mediation model
• Key concepts – voluntariness and empowerment
• Triggers for mediation – optimising timing where possible
• Mediator skills and when and how to intervene
• Changing dynamics in joint sessions
• Mandatory mediation as public policy
• Typical participants and their roles
• Alternatives and options in private sessions
• NMAS Approval and Practice Standards
• Setting the scene – the opening statement
• Mediation challenges – complexity and ethical issues
• Optimising mediation in cross-cultural disputes
• Mediation as a career.

This highly interactive subject will give students practice-relevant skills for negotiation and dispute resolution. Negotiating effectively involves being able to change the conversation, shifting from adversarial to collaborative approaches. The best negotiators are also skilled at structuring processes and listening beneath what is said. This program will introduce a proven framework for creating value and resolving disputes, informed by recent research and extensive practice. Using experiential approaches, case studies and simulations, participants will deepen their abilities to represent clients and negotiate across a range of practice contexts. Participants will have multiple opportunities to refine their negotiation and dispute management skills, and will leave with a series of practical tools for dealing with difficult negotiation behaviours and hard bargaining tactics in diverse settings. This subject will be useful for those working on a wide range of complex issues in a range of contexts including commercial, environmental, public policy and human rights.

Drawing on current interdisciplinary literature and case examples from practice, students will:

• Learn a proven framework for dispute analysis and negotiation to address a range of disputes
• Understand the dynamics of intractable disputes and a range of tools to address them
• Heighten their awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses as a negotiator
• Gain problem-solving techniques to enhance possible solutions in complex negotiations
• Acquire skills for choosing the right process to craft durable outcomes
• Heighten their abilities to work across diverse contexts
• Practice and refine negotiation and dispute management skills toward more successful outcomes

Successful completion of the subject will expand participants’ abilities for complex issue analysis, intervention and follow-up as negotiators, representatives and facilitators in negotiation and dispute resolution processes. Students will learn valuable skills of integrative thinking and creativity through experiential exercises and their final papers.

Irrespective of their speciality, lawyers must negotiate. Litigators resolve far more disputes through negotiation than by trial. Business lawyers in every domain negotiate on behalf of their clients. Public interest lawyers, in-house counsel, government lawyers, criminal lawyers, tort lawyers and commercial litigators all share the need to be effective negotiators. However few lawyers have any systematic understanding of why negotiations often fail or have suboptimal results, the dilemmas inherent in negotiations, or the characteristics of effective negotiators.

By combining theory and practice, this subject should improve students’ understanding of negotiation and effectiveness as negotiators. This subject should improve their ability to prepare for a negotiation, to engage others in joint problem-solving, and to select appropriate strategies when negotiations don’t go well. Above all, this subject will equip students to continue refining their skills as they gain more experience.

Florrie Darwin has taught negotiation skills to students, as well as a broad range of professionals, around the world.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to negotiation principles
• Basic framework for preparing, conducting and reviewing a negotiation
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Creating value in negotiations
• The challenge of distribution
• Effective listening
• Managing interpersonal differences
• Negotiating via email
• Effective responses to difficult negotiation tactics
• Dealing with structural complexity in negotiation/multi-party negotiations.

Lawyers need to persuade many different audiences, including their clients, their opponents, their employers and employees, juries, the courts and others. This subject will help lawyers to persuade more effectively, through a mixture of theoretical and practical approaches. Students will read widely about advocacy, persuasion and influence, including from empirical studies and research from disciplines other than law (such as psychology). Students will also develop their practical skills in both written and oral persuasion, led by a very experienced teaching team: Noah Messing from the Yale Law School (and author of The Art of Advocacy), Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth from the Supreme Court of Victoria and experienced commercial barrister and teacher David O’Callaghan QC.

Principal topics include:

• Leading theories of persuasion, in the law and generally
• Empirical research into the persuasion of judges, other lawyers and lay people in a legal context (including juries and clients)
• Empirical research into other instances of persuasion
• Cognitive biases and how the law does—and should—react to them
• The balance between ethics and persuasiveness
• Developing a generalised theory of persuasiveness and how various actors reach various decisions
• Different ways to practically apply those theoretical approaches.

Proof in litigation is primarily designed as a subject for lawyers looking to improve their skills in analysing evidence as part of the process of preparing for adversarial litigation. The subject is taught in a hands-on workshop format and the final day is spent in the Moot Court, putting the preparation into practice.

This subject presents a systematic method for analysing and organising the factual information in a brief or file as part of a lawyer‘s preparation for trial. The method will be taught through its application to a hypothetical case file. While the focus is on trial preparation, application of the method to a matter is beneficial, whether or not the matter ultimately proceeds to trial.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction
• Preliminaries
• Chronologies
• Investigation
• Developing a case theory
• Proving the theory
• Arguing from and about evidence, including: witnesses and other sources of evidence, relevance and the drawing of inferences, negative and missing evidence, probative value and the standard of proof
• Analysing for admissibility
• Pulling it all together for trial.

Increasingly and at all levels of the judicial hierarchy, written submissions are expected of, and are becoming an important tool for, advocates. Written advocacy also plays a role in a range of other legal documents, such as advices, affidavits and statements of facts. This subject aims to critically evaluate the use of written advocacy (principally in litigation) and to develop advanced skills in the preparation of legal documents. There will be a particular focus on written submissions, including written submissions at first instance and on appeal, and including both the factual and legal aspects of submission writing. This subject will focus on effective written advocacy by examining techniques used in Australia and, by way of comparison, techniques used in appellate courts in the United States and the United Kingdom. The subject will involve guest speakers from the judiciary and the Victorian Bar to provide practical perspectives on written advocacy.

Principal topics will include:

• Written advocacy:
  • History and role of written submissions in Australian courts
  • Comparison with oral advocacy
  • Comparison between Australia and the United States and the United Kingdom
  • Submissions at first instance and at appellate level
  • High Court submissions
• The writing, organisation and structure of well-written submissions, with a focus on the various aspects of the submissions, including:
  • Themes
  • Issues
  • Structure
  • Facts
  • Legal Argument
  • Style.

This subject investigates the legal regulation of workplace bargaining in Australia. With the requirement that bargaining be conducted in ‘good faith’ under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), this has become one of the most contested areas of federal labour regulation. The subject is informed by the historical, political and economic factors that have shaped the development of the law, as well as relevant international legal principles. While the focus of the subject is on the system regulating workplace bargaining under the Fair Work Act, other relevant areas of law are analysed, including the common law regulation of strikes and industrial action and the contract of employment. The special regulation of bargaining and industrial action in the building and construction industry is also examined.

Principal topics include:

• The historical development of the law relating to workplace bargaining
• Relevant international legal principles and Australia’s obligations in this respect
• Common law regulation of strikes and industrial action
• The system regulating workplace bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), including the conduct of bargaining and the taking of protected industrial action, and the role of trade unions
• The form, function and content of registered workplace agreements
• The relationship of workplace agreements to other means of regulating working conditions, including the contract of employment
• The ‘general protections’ under the Fair Work Act for freedom of association and the exercise of ‘workplace rights’ in relation to bargaining
• Special regulation of bargaining and industrial action in the building and construction industry.

The Australian superannuation system has become a world-wide model for occupational pension plans for other countries to emulate, especially as many countries face increasingly-ageing populations and the need to develop effective retirement-saving systems. The Australian system’s mandatory, defined contribution plan model, coupled with its use of stand-alone pension funds, provides an innovative system for guaranteeing retirement security for its citizens. After studying the Australian superannuation system, a number of other country workplace pension models will be explored, such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan. The subject will not only seek to determine the benefits and disadvantages of the various workplace pension systems, but also ask what role occupational pensions should play in the larger provision of retirement to the elderly, and what should happen to employee occupational pension claims where the employer becomes insolvent.

Principal topics include:

• The Australian superannuation system, including the history of its development, its current form, and prospects for future modification
• Other forms of occupational pension schemes throughout the industrial world, with emphasis on the systems utilised by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan
• Discussion of the major policy issues surrounding the development of workplace pensions, including the ageing of the population, the recent financial difficulties faced by many governments, the choice between defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution pension plans, and the choice between governmental pension plans and occupational pension plans
• Exploration of the insolvency system in Australia and in other countries to examine how pension claims are treated during an employer’s insolvency.

Complaints of bullying, harassment, discrimination and other interpersonal grievances have become commonplace. Employers’ disciplinary decisions in relation to misconduct are also subject to increased scrutiny by courts and tribunals. A fair and thorough workplace investigation provides the foundation for taking, and if necessary defending, disciplinary and other action by an employer in response to any workplace issue. This subject explores the current legal framework applying to workplace investigations in Australia and proposes a structure for conducting investigations to minimise risk.

The lecturer in this subject has over two decades of experience conducting independent workplace investigations, coaching and advising clients on managing in-house investigations and appearing as an advocate in contested matters.

This subject analyses the current law in Australia governing the investigation of complaints and conduct concerns in the workplace. It also explores various structures for undertaking effective and fair workplace investigations in this rapidly developing area of practice.

Principal topics include:

• Analysing the legal framework (federal and state) impacting upon workplace investigations in Australia
• Understanding what a workplace investigation is, and distinguishing investigations from other workplace processes
• The basic structure of an investigation
• Identifying the relevant scope of an investigation
• Establishing the appropriate foundation for conducting an investigation, including considerations in the selection of the investigator and work arrangements during the investigation
• Addressing other threshold issues prior to commencing an investigation, including appropriate roles of stakeholders
• Gathering information relevant to the scope of the investigation from people and from documents/things
• An examination of relevant principles of procedural fairness/natural justice – the bias rule and the hearing rule
• Making findings – evaluating the information gathered; applying the relevant legal tests, burden of proof and standard of proof and assessing credibility
• Applying the findings of an investigation in a disciplinary context, the role of the decision maker and implementing and communicating outcomes
• Learnings from overseas jurisdictions and potential for future developments in the field.

Employment contracts have been a major source of litigation in recent years, with some cases leading to very large payouts. This subject examines the evolving law of employment contracts, and other related kinds of personal work contracts. Drawing on recent cases as well as leading articles by Australian and international scholars, the lecturers consider several key questions. These include determining and varying contract terms, employer and employee duties, non-compete clauses, termination and damages. The subject also looks at the interaction between employment contracts and major statutes, such as the Australian Consumer Law and the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). The subject seeks to combine discussions of the practical realities of contracting with a broader analysis of the underlying assumptions in current law.

Principal topics include:

• The scope of employment regulation: which work relationships are covered?
• The regulation of independent contracting, such as agency relationships
• The content of the employment contract: express terms
• The content of the employment contract: implied terms
• Non-compete clauses and restraint of trade
• Employment, the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and estoppel
• Variation and flexibility in the employment contract
• Termination and remedies at common law
• The relationship between contracts, awards and agreements.

Discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace represent an overwhelming majority of total complaints made to anti-discrimination authorities. Equality and discrimination at work remain pressing concerns for employees, managers and, more broadly, for society. Achieving equality is elusive and, indeed, the very meaning of equality is highly contested.

This subject explores the legal meanings of equality, with a focus on the frameworks through which Australian parliaments have sought to address inequality, discrimination and harassment. It examines federal and state laws that deal with discrimination, including the four federal laws, the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and the adverse action provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Consideration is given to discrimination based on race, sex, disability, and pregnancy and family responsibilities. The lecturers in this subject combine many years of academic scholarship in this area, engagement in law reform debates and practical client-focused legal advice

This subject provides an examination of the development and current scope of Australian equality and discrimination law, as relevant in employment and work relationships. It will focus on federal and Victorian jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• A study of the framework and key features of federal and state legislative provisions dealing with equality and discrimination in the employment context, including theEqual Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth), the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and theAge Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth)
• An examination of the general protection provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), including redress for certain types of adverse action
• Debates regarding the meaning of equality, discrimination and other contested concepts such as choice, especially as choice relates to carer responsibilities
• The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic), and its potential impact in the interpretation of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act
• Conciliation, dispute resolution and remedies
• Alternative regulatory regimes, including the National Employment Standards, equal remuneration provisions under the Fair Work Act, contract law and occupational health and safety issues such as bullying
• Current processes of legislative revision at federal and state level
• The potential for future developments in the field.

Human rights law is a subject of growing importance with wide implications, for governments and business. This subject considers how human rights law can be used to regulate private power (the power of the employer) and a private law relationship (the contract of employment) in an era of globalisation and transnational corporations. It examines, in particular, the question whether labour rights can be regarded as human rights, and considers the main international instruments designed to regulate the workplace.

The main focus will be the four core principles of the International Labour Organisation, concerned with the right to freedom of association, protection from discrimination, the elimination of forced labour, and combating child labour. Consideration will be given to how these and related obligations can be enforced against governments, but also against corporations. Different instruments of corporate accountability are fully explored, and attention is paid to how business can keep on the right side of human rights standards, and the risks of failing to do so, with reference to the law and practice of Australia and other common law jurisdictions.

What is the relevance of human rights at work for governments and corporations in Australia, whether doing business here or overseas? What are the ‘risks’ of human rights at work, legal or otherwise? Conversely, how can trade unions mobilise around human rights at work to advance the interests of their members?

Principal topics include:

• The nature of protection of labour rights in international and domestic law
• The scope and relevance of international labour standards for domestic law
• The role of hard and soft law mechanisms and the collapse of the hard/soft law distinction
• The application of human rights principles to private law relationships in selected areas.

As labour and capital markets transcend domestic borders, the objectives of labour law can no longer be confined solely to actions within the nation state. The purpose of this subject is two-fold. First, to identify the diverse components of international employment and labour law, the institutions, the claims and the methods for advancing social protection to workers worldwide. This enquiry spans beyond traditional instruments that are associated with labour law, and includes trade law and corporate social responsibility. It further seeks to embed the study of legal instruments in the broader economic and sociological debates on globalisation. The second goal is to critically assess how international developments affect domestic labour law with a particular focus on the European Union, the United States, China and India.

Principal topics include:

• The importance of the concept of globalisation in understanding national systems of labour regulation
• The composition, powers and functioning of international organisations that regulate labour internationally, including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the European Union (EU)
• The relevance of different theories of international regulation
• The usefulness of a comparative approach to labour law, including consideration of the major models of labour regulation like the Wagner Model in the United States and Canada
• The role of intergovernmental and corporate codes of conduct in securing international labour standards
• The emerging challenges posed by the use of migrant, contingent and precarious workers in the global economy
• The success of adopting a human rights approach to labour regulation in the face of changes to domestic and international labour law frameworks.

Equality and discrimination law is continuing to increase in importance, but remains controversial. This subject examines international and comparative aspects of equality and discrimination law. The subject is not confined to, but will include a focus on labour and employment issues. Equality and discrimination issues will be examined at four levels: international law, transnational, state constitutional law, and state human rights law. A review of the content and operation of the major United Nations (UN) and International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions relevant to discrimination generally and to equality at work is directly relevant to Australian domestic law as these treaties provide a constitutional basis as well as content for much Australian anti-discrimination legislation. For comparison, an overview of the European Union (EU) system for regulating discrimination law will be included. The focus then shifts to comparative national law, with an examination of protection of equality and discrimination rights at constitutional and legislative levels in Australia and other countries that take different approaches: some or all of Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This subject provides a critical examination of the scope and operation of equality and discrimination law at international, transnational and national levels and utilises comparative doctrinal and policy analysis. While the major focus will be on work and employment, other areas will be considered where they cast light on the development of the law.

Principal topics include:

• An introduction to the different roles played by equality and discrimination at different locations and levels of the legal system
• Consideration of debates about the meaning of equality, discrimination and other contested concepts such as choice and responsibility
• Analysis of the roles, framework and key features of international treaties and conventions relating to equality and discrimination in both general (human rights) and specific (ILO) contexts
• Analysis of some of the key EU equality directives and their adoption in some Member States
• An analysis of constitutional protection of equality rights in countries with different modes of protection, chosen from Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States
• An examination of anti-discrimination and equality laws across several countries to contrast different approaches and conceptualisations of these rights, and also different social environments and barriers to achieving a more equal society
• Consideration of the role(s) of law in relation to equality and discrimination, and the uneven progress in the countries analysed
• Exploration of possible future directions for better protection of equality and discrimination rights.

International investment is today understood as a key element of successful development policy. However, both the historical and conceptual foundations of this apparent convergence demand careful investigation. While mainstream economic thinking asserts that foreign investment is beneficial for poor countries, critics have pointed out that it can be positive or negative depending on how it is regulated. Against this debate, investment treaties are typically weighted in favour of developed states, and as a matter of international law, poorer countries have increasingly limited regulatory tools at their disposal with which to govern the operations of transnational investors within their territory.   Conflicts frequently arise between the needs of local communities and international investors over access to land, resources, and water, leading to displacement, loss of livelihoods and human-rights violations.  The role of the state in regulating these conflicts is often complex, and the responsibilities of large multinational corporations are unclear. Using a historically-grounded case study-based approach, this subject will provide students with an opportunity to critically examine the relationship between international investment, local communities and the state within contemporary legal and institutional development policy and practice.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to the contested meanings of international investment, regulation and development
• The links between investment, development and regulation, examined through case studies
• An examination of the historically contested role of international law in framing the terms on which multinational corporations access resources in developing countries, including investment treaties, business and human rights, as well as older initiatives
• An examination of the role of international institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in governing investment and development
• The debate over global versus local labour standards and the dilemmas over monitoring
• The debates over ‘land grabbing’ and access to agricultural land in developing countries.

This subject addresses the relevant provisions of the key federal statute governing minimum employment standards in Australia, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which is the centrepiece of Commonwealth statutory regulation of working conditions. The subject examines the mechanisms by which minimum wages, working hours regulation and leave entitlements are set and reviewed, as well as the function and content of these standards. This subject also addresses the important topic of how compliance with labour standards can be enforced and considers issues such as the role of the Fair Work Ombudsman, and the challenge of enforcement in the context of different business models, such as franchise networks.

This subject covers federal statutory regulation of minimum employment conditions in Australia. It addresses the relevant provisions of the key federal statute, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

Principal topics include:

• The scope of the national system of labour regulation
• The institutions that regulate labour standards and working conditions, including the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman
• The role and content of the National Employment Standards (NES) as a means of maintaining a safety net of fair working conditions
• The form, function and content of modern awards as a mechanism for setting further minimum labour standards at an industry and sectoral level
• The relationship of modern awards and the NES to other means of regulating working conditions, including the contract of employment and enterprise agreements
• The legal mechanisms and sanctions relating to enforcement of minimum labour standards and working conditions by employees, unions and the Fair Work Ombudsman
• The administrative sanctions available to the Fair Work Ombudsman
• Emerging issues and innovative approaches in regulating and enforcing labour standards and working conditions, including protection of vulnerable workers such as interns, casual and part-time workers and outworkers, extra-territorial coverage of labour standards, and regulation of work/life balance.

Paid work is central to the lives of most adults. It not only provides an income but also is constitutive of their identities. For society at large, the organisation of paid work relationships is crucial because of the need to produce goods and services and to protect those engaged in production. Regulation of these work relationships by law is, therefore, important.

This subject provides a thematic overview of the legal regulation of work relationships in Australia in an industrial, social and political context. It examines how work relationships are regulated through statutory regimes as well as through contract law. A major focus of the subject is the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which sets minimum employment conditions, regulates modern awards and workplace agreement-making, provides redress in relation to adverse action and also provides processes to deal with issues of bullying at work. Anti-discrimination law will also be examined.

This subject is designed to be of particular assistance to students without previous (or recent) legal study in this area. Principles of Employment Law is compulsory for students who do not have a law degree from a common law jurisdiction, and it is strongly recommended that this subject be taken before any other employment and labour relations law subjects. Principles of Employment Law is also recommended for students who have not studied an equivalent subject in their law degree, or who have not done so recently. Principles of Employment Law is ideal for students undertaking a masters in another specialisation, or a Master of Laws, who wish to study one subject in the field of employment and labour relations law.

Principal topics include:

• The constitutional framework for Australian employment law
• Statutory standards under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) including unfair dismissal, minimum wage rates, hours of work, leave, adverse action and right to request regimes
• The regulation of employment rights and working conditions by modern awards and enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)
• Various aspects of the common law contract of employment
• Anti-discrimination and equal opportunity law.

In 2010 all Australian governments publicly committed to implementing nationally uniform laws about workplace health and safety. This development is bringing to fruition a process that began 30 years ago. However, Victoria is one of two states that have not implemented the agreed national laws. Therefore this subject examines in detail the content of Victorian law, as well as the new national laws.

By referring to the existing state, territory and commonwealth body of law, this subject considers the operation of Victorian workplace health and safety law in its historical and industrial setting as well as the likely practical operation of the new regulatory regime. The lecturer is a barrister with extensive practical experience in running cases under workplace health and safety laws.

Principal topics include:

• The problem of work-related injury and disease
• The history of the legal regulation of health and safety at work
• Nationally uniform workplace health and safety laws
• Standard-setting under the Australian workplace health and safety statutes
• State enforcement of the workplace health and safety legislation
• Workers’ rights under the Australian workplace health and safety statutes
• The anti-bullying jurisdiction of the Fair Work Commission
• Workers’ compensation schemes in Australia
• The rehabilitation of injured workers
• The role and impact of the common law duty to provide a safe workplace.

This subject examines the legal framework governing natural resources and renewable energy in China, with particular focus on mineral deposits, living organisms, and climate resources (i.e., wind, sunlight and atmospheric moisture). The objective is to provide students with a practical understanding of this important area of economic regulation, and an appreciation of the broader normative considerations (i.e., efficiency and redistribution) that are applicable to similar issues elsewhere. This subject draws from the lecturer’s extensive academic scholarship on resources law, regulatory theory, and Chinese legal system.

Principal topics include:

• The normative theoretical framework for assessing resources law, in particular the controversies and ambiguities surrounding the conceptions of economic efficiency and redistributive fairness 
• The constitutional framework in China governing natural resources, in particular provisions on property rights, ownership/allocation of natural resources, and environment protection.
• The core legislation/regulation governing natural resources and renewable energy in China with emphasis on provisions governing allocation, extraction/exploitation, and transfer
• The social, economic and political factors shaping the respective approaches towards natural resources management
• The strengths and weakness of the regulatory regime and general implications for natural resources management

Adequate, reliable and sustainable supplies of energy are crucial to modern societies, and their assurance demands the close and continuous involvement of governments. This subject explains the challenges—affordability, security of supply, safety, control of monopoly, sustainability in an age of global warming—that the economic and technical characteristics of different energy sources present to governments in Australia, and analyses the regulatory tools that they have at their disposal for responding to such challenges. It shows how the law can function both as an essential vehicle for such regulation and as a constraint on its content. The lecturer is a leading international authority on oil and gas law and has published extensively in the field of regulation.

Principal topics include:

• The nature of regulation, its development in Australia and its relationship with law
• General explanations and justifications for regulation
• The techniques of regulation
• Regulatory issues posed by the supply of different types of energy:
  • Mineral energies: coal, petroleum and uranium
  • Network energies: electricity, gas
  • Renewable energies
• The Australian federal environment for energy regulation. Two or more case studies of Australian energy regulation:
  • Electricity and gas: from state monopolies to regulated national markets
  • Mined energies: securing effective exploitation, managing resource conflicts
  • Renewable energies: regulatory incentives
• Cross-cutting issues in energy regulation:
  • Regulatory authorities
  • Forms of regulation: prescription versus goal-based regulation; discretion versus rules; legislation versus contract
  • Regulatory review and evaluation.

This subject explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of energy resources in so-called ‘emerging markets’, and in particular in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies. Russia will be used as an example of an emerging market presenting particular characteristics and problems that provide important insights into emerging markets elsewhere in the world.

The subject coordinator has conducted research on ‘emerging markets’ over many years, and has extensive practical experience as an adviser in these matters. His work is widely published in numerous books and journal articles.

Principal topics include:

• Corruption and money laundering
• Liability for human rights abuses
• Forms of foreign investment and commercial transactions
• Local accreditation
• Taxation
• The privatisation process
• Intellectual property protection
• Import-export regulations
• Currency controls
• Project and conventional financing
• Banking
• Development and regulation of capital markets
• Securities and commodities exchanges
• Financing
• Environmental protection.

There will be daily simulated negotiation exercises.

The mining industry is international in character and many mining and exploration companies operate in multiple foreign jurisdictions. This subject examines the legal, fiscal and regulatory regimes that govern mineral exploration and production internationally, with a particular emphasis on exploration and mining in developing countries. It deals with the negotiation of mining development agreements with host governments, regulatory schemes and fiscal regimes, community agreements, principles of sustainability and international norms affecting the mining sector. The lecturer has extensive practical experience in mineral ventures in a number of different jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• Mining development agreements
• Mineral ownership
• Legal structures
• Exploration regimes
• Fiscal regimes
• Foreign investment controls
• Marketing and financing issues
• Communities and indigenous peoples
• Land access issues
• Sustainable development principles
• International frameworks and norms applicable to mining.

This subject considers the legal issues and structure of transactions relating to the exploration, production and marketing of petroleum that, owing to its economic and strategic importance, is the most important commodity traded worldwide. This subject will give students a detailed understanding of how crude oil and gas are exploited and marketed worldwide. It will cover how countries establish sovereignty over petroleum resources and how host governments or their national (state-owned) oil companies contract with private companies to explore and develop oil and gas resources. This subject also reviews and analyses key contracts among petroleum companies, and contracts between petroleum companies and petroleum-services contractors, that facilitate exploration, development and marketing of petroleum. As petroleum is one of the most politically charged commodities, this subject will also consider extra-territorial anti-corruption law and political risk. In a broader sense, this subject will help students develop better analytical skills—especially the ability to critically evaluate contracts.

Principal topics include:

• Host government contracts
• Joint bidding, confidentiality, exploration and farmout agreements
• Joint operating and unitisation agreements
• Managing and contracting to avoid corruption problems
• Managing and allocating risk in service contracts.

The delivery of major energy and resources projects is an organic process which involves multifaceted interactions with the law. In this subject, students will gain insights into the way that advising on such projects involves navigating an often-challenging intersection of construction and regulatory systems, drawing on aspects of property law, environmental law, native title, finance, banking and commercial law.

Students will also engage with the need for reform in major project delivery, with the cost of project delivery in Australia already prohibitive and globally uncompetitive.

The subject will examine how major energy and resources projects are defined, designed, structured and developed, the pressure points for successful and cost-efficient project delivery in Australia, and the areas where conflicts and disputes emerge and how they are managed.

Principal topics include:

• Project scoping from feasibility to design, including examination of recent studies on procurement practices and a simulated workshop on feasibility models, risk analysis and front-end engineering and design (FEED)
• Overview of regulatory approval frameworks for major project delivery in the energy and resources sector, including a case study-based discussion of the interaction of such frameworks with construction document development and management
• Project delivery models and frameworks in the energy and resources sector
• Examination of leading causes of project stress and failure, including the need for proactive forensic planning
• Interactive case study where students collaboratively examine particular aspects of project design and execution
• Current approaches to dispute management in major project delivery, including exercises examining common problems encountered in drafting dispute resolution clauses in project documentation, as well as a discussion of contemporary and innovative approaches to dispute management and avoidance in major projects.

Mineral and petroleum resources have shaped Australia’s history, economy, society and environment for more than 150 years and continue to do so. The exploitation of these resources involves governments as proprietors and regulators, together with private enterprise as explorers and developers. The complex relationship between governments and private enterprise provides the central theme of the subject. Australia’s federal system of government adds to the complexity of that relationship. The subject begins by identifying fundamental legal issues that occur in most countries in the exploration for and production of mineral and petroleum resources. It then examines the ways in which these issues are resolved in Australia, using statutory title regimes and government agreements. The effectiveness of the Australian approach to these matters is examined in the international context of legal arrangements employed for management of mineral and petroleum resources elsewhere in the world.

Principal topics include:

• Terminology: the meaning of ‘mineral’ and ‘petroleum’
• Jurisdiction over mineral and petroleum resources
• Property in mineral and petroleum resources
• Statutory exploration and production titles
• Government royalties
• Petroleum production controls and unit development
• Dealings and registration
• Private royalties
• Access to land
• Environmental controls
• State agreements
• Unconventional gas
• Underground storage
• Greenhouse gas storage
• Uranium
• Case study 1: Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990 (Vic)
• Case study 2: Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Cth).

Mineral and petroleum resources play a significant part in the Australian economy. The exploitation of these resources involves governments, as proprietors and regulators, together with private enterprise, as explorers and developers. The complex relationship between governments and private enterprise includes several fiscal components: State and Territory royalties and stamp duties; Commonwealth income tax, GST, customs and excise, and ‘carbon taxes’; and ‘special’ Commonwealth levies, such as the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and the Minerals Resource Rent Tax. Australia’s federal system of government adds an important dimension to that relationship.

This subject examines all aspects of these fiscal measures relating to mineral and petroleum resources. The subject is not limited to tax specialists. It is designed for private and public sector lawyers and advisers with tax or non-tax backgrounds, seeking a practical overview of the legal and taxation implications of mining and petroleum operations and transactions, as well as an understanding of the framework of mining and petroleum laws that underpin the relevant tax regimes.

Principal topics include:

• Property in minerals and petroleum
• Constitutional authority over exploration for, and production of, minerals and petroleum
• Statutory regimes governing exploration for, and production of, minerals and petroleum
• Tenement transfers and sub-leases, farmouts, joint ventures and overriding royalties
• State and Territory royalties
• Corporate income taxation of exploration for, and production of, minerals and petroleum
• Petroleum Resource Rent Tax
• Selected GST issues
• Selected stamp duty issues.

Project finance is the financing of major projects. It often takes the form of a financing arrangement under which the monies raised for a project are repaid primarily from the project’s cash flow, with the project’s assets held as collateral. It enables the sponsor of a project to arrange financing with no recourse, or limited recourse, to the sponsor’s balance sheet. Project finance is complex in view of the number of parties involved, the security that is taken over the project’s cash flow and assets, the nature of the rights that are exercised by the lenders in respect of the project generally and the cross-border character of stakeholders. Project finance lawyers need to have an in-depth understanding of both the legal issues that arise as well as the commercial and operational aspects of the project.

The lecturers are leading practitioners in this area and they introduce students to the key legal, contractual and structural issues concerning major projects and project finance, and analyse these issues in the context of a number of case studies in the mineral, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Principal topics include:

• Characteristics of suitable projects
• Characteristics of project financing in Australia
• Project financing techniques
• Identification of risk and techniques for allocation of risk
• Structuring financing requirements for a project
• Contractual arrangements
• Project financing default and remedies
• Case studies of project financing in mineral, energy and infrastructure sectors.

The exploitation of mineral and petroleum resources involves substantial risk. The resources joint venture provides a commercial opportunity to manage this risk. It is a particular legal relationship: an association of persons (natural or corporate) to engage in a common undertaking to generate a product to be shared among the participants. Management of the undertaking is divided: the participants determine some matters by agreement at the outset of the relationship; the power to determine other matters is vested in a committee on which the participants are represented and entitled to vote; a manager (or operator) is appointed by the participants to conduct agreed activities, on their behalf, within the scope of the common undertaking (exploration, development production). This subject examines the legal issues involved in this complex relationship, together with ancillary transactions (such as farmouts). In doing so, it considers the capacity of the common law to respond to commercial imperatives. It also evaluates the effectiveness of legal documentation employed in establishing the joint venture relationship.

The lecturer, a former Dean of Melbourne Law School, has published extensively in the fields of energy and resources law and served as President of the Australian Mineral and Petroleum Law Association.

Principal topics include:

• Statutory titles, government agreements and production-sharing agreements
• Farmouts
• Joint ventures and operations
• Unit development
• The operator/manager
• Fundamentals of contract law and property law
• Assignment
• Liability
• Default
• Disclosure and confidentiality
• Sole risk
• Termination
• Codification.

Conservation biologists warn that we are in the midst of a great extinction crisis. Biodiversity Law is an emerging field, examining legal regimes designed to conserve Earth’s endangered forms of life. We will voyage to foreign intellectual lands – e.g. environmental ethics, conservation biology – and take a few real voyages to see biodiversity law in action. We will examine the nuts and bolts of Australian and foreign legal regimes with an attempt to discern most effective legal practices to conserve biodiversity, grounding our analyses in in-depth case studies.  Our investigations will be framed by two overarching questions: What is the legal framework for preserving life on Earth? What should be the components of the legal framework for preserving life on Earth?

Principal topics will include:

• A short primer on principles of environmental ethics and conservation biology and how these principles inform the practice of Biodiversity Law;
• Understanding the threats to biodiversity the law must confront;
• In-depth study of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) to understand how this law interacts with Australian State and Territorial law to protect biodiversity;
• Consideration of Australian court cases that have interpreted the EPBC’s (and other biodiversity protective legal) provisions as applied to threatened species and ecosystems;
• Comparative studies of United States, South Africa, and other national legal approaches to, and court decisions on, biodiversity conservation;
• Attention to Australian (and foreign) biodiversity facing particular challenges (Great Barrier Reef, isolated marsupial populations, cetaceans) and how the law is (or is not) meeting those challenges;
• Analysis of the Convention on Biological Diversity,and other international treaties including how they are implemented in domestic law;
• In-depth case study on global wildlife poaching and smuggling;
• Discussion of “ownership” of biodiversity, including the rights that indigenous populations have to biodiversity;
• Discussion of market mechanisms designed to incentivize biodiversity conservation;
• Examination of non-legal means to preserve biodiversity;
• Synthesis of best practices for how to preserve and steward life on Earth.

Climate change is a pressing environmental, economic and social problem. Global warming is predicted to have wide-ranging impacts, and it presents enormous challenges for conventional models of law and socio-economic governance due to its pervasive character, long-term effects and the need for dynamic change in many of the fundamental areas of life. This subject examines the challenges for law in driving that change, from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its associated Paris Agreement, to international trade and litigation, to federal and state legislative responses, through to local effects including on Indigenous peoples. The lecturer is active in research and advice in climate change law and governance in the international and domestic law spheres.

Principal topics include:

• The scientific basis for global warming and physical impacts of climate change
• The international legal framework, including the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement and associated international instruments
• Social and cultural impacts and legal responses, such as human rights protection
• The schemes for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).
• The role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in climate change governance, particularly with respect to renewable energy technologies and the disciplining of fossil fuel subsidies
• The interaction of climate change regimes with other international law frameworks; eg World Heritage, refugee law and security
• The federal legislative framework for climate change mitigation and adaptation, including direct action plans, market mechanisms and carbon trading
• State-based legislative and regulatory responses to climate change
• Climate change regulation and its impact on corporate entities
• Bio-sequestration and carbon capture and storage
• The nature of climate change litigation

The frequency and severity of ‘natural’ disasters, like flood, cyclone and bushfire, and longer term phenomena, such as drought and sea level rise, will increase as a result of climate change; posing major threats to settlements, infrastructure, natural resources and biodiversity. This subject covers the multi-scalar legal response to disasters involving international treaties and soft-law instruments, national and regional regulation, and private law (torts and contract), and encompassing climate change adaptation, emergency management, environmental liability, insurance and human rights. It will examine approaches to prepare for, avoid or minimise disaster impacts, and to respond effectively and equitably post-event. Relevant case studies are drawn from Australia and various comparative jurisdictions regionally and internationally.

This subject critically examines different legal approaches to avoid, mitigate and respond to natural disasters and relevant adaptation planning, emergency and natural resource management regimes.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of disasters and climate change impacts, focusing on predicted changes to the frequency, intensity and geographical occurrence of natural hazards, and impacts on human settlements
• Examination of the types of public and private planning and legal mechanisms at the local, state, national and international scale relevant to disaster management
• International agreements and soft law, with case studies of their application to recent disaster events (eg liability regimes for oil and gas disasters and mining incidents; funding mechanisms for disaster risk reduction; instruments for the protection of persons in disasters)
• Emergency management and adaptation planning in Australia, with selected case studies covering: coastal hazards: NSW coastal management and land-use planning regimes; bushfire: Victorian land-use planning, emergency management and recovery, and relevant compensation law for the 2009 bushfires and fires in open cut coal mines in the La Trobe valley in 2015; Flood: statutory planning and insurance regimes in Queensland, and the response to the 2011 floods; Drought: emergency water allocation management in urban and rural areas in south-eastern Australia
• Comparative case studies in developed and developing countries, evaluating the transferability of legal principles (eg responses to drought and water scarcity in the western United States and southern Africa; coastal adaptation planning instruments in the US and United Kingdom; and typhoon readiness in South East Asia).

Environmental protection is one of the central policy issues in the world today. Approaches to protecting the environment vary widely, as do perspectives about the efficacy of such approaches. This subject provides an advanced inquiry into environmental regulation with a special focus on compliance issues. The subject includes review of critical strategies that are in use throughout the world to promote environmental protection, including market-based approaches, regulatory approaches, common law approaches and information-based approaches. The subject also reviews key legal and policy issues that relate to promoting compliance with environmental requirements including, for example, different theories for promoting compliance (deterrence-based, cooperation-based, hybrid approaches, etc). In addition, the subject explores important authorities for government and citizen enforcement, including litigation and the types of authorities that enhance government and citizens’ capacity to enforce effectively. As well, the subject assesses the role of international institutions in promoting effective enforcement.

The lecturer in this subject has received multiple honors for his academic scholarship. In addition, he has extensive practical experience in international governance as well as service as a federal and state official. The lecturer served as Director of the NAFTA Commission’s Citizen Petitions Process, and as an enforcement official in the United States with the US Department of Justice, US Environmental Protection Agency and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

This subject provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to environmental regulation, with a specific focus on environmental compliance.

Principal topics include:

• Review of strategies available to promote environmental protection
• Examination of theoretical approaches to promoting environmental compliance
• Assessment of important legal authorities for effective environmental compliance, including consideration of citizens’ enforcement
• Review of the possible role that international institutions may play in improving domestic environmental compliance.

Environmental law deals with some of the most vital but also highly controversial issues within Australia and the global society. Environmental issues are a prominent feature of public debate, scientific research and regulatory action and this subject canvasses how law has evolved in response to such challenges, as well as identifying where reform may be required. The subject equips students with a strong grounding in the foundational principles of environmental law in Australia by reference to the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999, as well as relevant pollution control and biodiversity legislation. In addition, it provides an introduction to international environmental law dealing with questions such as trans-boundary harm and World Heritage protection, as well as considering how international influences have shaped the direction of Australian environmental law.

This subject will provide an examination of the development and current scope of Australian environmental law, with a focus on the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) and related state environmental protection legislation.

Principal topics include:

• The growing importance of international law, with the recognition that environmental protection issues cross regulatory boundaries
• Greater integration between relevant discipline areas concerned with environmental protection
• Greater diversity in environmental law approaches, including integration with other regulatory areas such as planning, natural resource management, water use and indigenous land management, and financial measures and economic instruments.

These themes will be illustrated by case studies in the following areas:

• Environmental law: The drivers of change
• Environmental actors, including public interest litigation
• The range of legal and regulatory tools deployed in environmental law, including consideration of market mechanisms
• The interaction of law and science, with a focus on the precautionary principle
• Integration and complexity challenges in implementing environmental law with a focus on biodiversity protection
• International law trends, including trade and environment and climate change governance.

With policy and law-makers under pressure to subordinate environmental concerns to short-term economic imperatives, environmental advocates are increasingly looking to human rights as a means of reinforcing the importance of environmental protection to human welfare. Domestic, regional and international human rights laws present a range of opportunities and challenges for addressing harms done to the environment.  There are also a number of conceptual concerns with framing environmental issues in terms of human rights.  Students will work as a class and in small groups to understand the relationship between human rights law and environmental protection at domestic, regional and international levels. The subject will provide insight into strategic aspects of human rights advocacy for the environment, using case studies to explore the roles of state and non-state actors in environmental protection and to consider a range of approaches in the different regions of the world.  Resources drawing from academic, policy and advocacy material will be used to interrogate practical and critical perspectives on human rights law and environmental protection.

Principal topics include:

• The relationship between human rights and the environment in theory and practice
• Human rights that protect the environment, including general rights such as the rights to privacy, health and to information as well as specific rights ‘to’ and ‘of’ the environment
• Domestic, regional and international governance of human rights in relation to the environment
• Sustainable development and its relevance to issues of human rights and the environment in the different regions of the world
• The implications of human rights law for indigenous peoples and environmental protection
• The roles and responsibilities of non-state actors in relation to ‘environmental rights’, including environmental advocates and businesses
• Channels for redress beyond formal legal mechanisms for people and for ‘nature’.

This subject will evaluate a range of policies and green technologies that have been adopted as part of the emerging global effort to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases associated with climate change. It will examine the legal, economic, and policy dimensions of efforts to promote the development and diffusion of green technologies, emphasising the role of market-based mechanisms and patent rights. The subject will focus on policy developments in the United States, Europe, and Australia, and will assess the merits of different policy instruments (eg, patents, renewable-energy portfolio standards, tax breaks, direct subsidies, prizes) as means of overcoming the barriers to development and deployment of green technologies. A series of technology-specific case studies will be discussed, with technologies including renewable sources of electricity, biofuels used in transportation, green building, and carbon capture and sequestration. The subject will utilise in-class exercises, including green technology pitches, a simulated trading regime and structured policy debates. Students should note that traditional regulation of fossil fuels and economic regulation in the electricity sector will not be covered.

Principal topics include:

• Green technology - barriers and opportunities
• Economics of positive and negative externalities
• Traditional environmental regulation and innovation
• Pitfalls and promise of policy portfolios built around pollution trading regimes
• Renewable energy policies
• Policy myths and realities of grey technologies.

This subject focuses on Indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights both in and beyond Australia. Current issues in this dynamic area of law will form the basis of the subject but will include comparative material, particularly but not limited to other common law jurisdictions, consideration of international instruments such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, conceptual material on property rights and reforms to indigenous land title in Australia and Canada. Native title law and practice will provide the context of much of the Australian material and will occupy a significant part of the subject. Particular attention will be given to three aspects of the native title process: the operation of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), the effect of recent jurisprudence on the enjoyment of native title rights and recent developments in the negotiation and implementation of agreements, whether as native title or non-native title outcomes.

This subject has a strong emphasis on comparative legal regimes for granting and managing indigenous land title and resources. Topics and case studies will be chosen from various jurisdictions.

Principal topics will include:

• Traditional indigenous cultural relationships, landholding systems and settler land titling systems
• Indigenous land claims, land access and agreement making in Australia and other jurisdictions
• A detailed examination of the structure, content and operation of legislative regimes, including the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
• State and territory land rights and cultural heritage legislation
• Mediation, negotiation and litigation processes and the institutional relationships in native title cases in Australia and other jurisdictions
• Recent court decisions in Australia and other jurisdictions
• Forms of conflict resolution over resource use, e.g. the Resource Management Act 1991 (NZ) and the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
• The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Case studies from Australia and elsewhere (e.g. indigenous land title and climate change, indigenous title to water and the review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 (NZ), customary land titles and individual title).

International environmental law is the field of public international law concerned with the protection of the natural environment, and those aspects of the built environment recognised as world cultural heritage. It is a vitally important branch of international law, seeking as it does to safeguard the environment on which humanity depends for its very existence. International environmental law seeks to integrate the activities of diverse actors—states, international organisations, businesses, communities and non-government organisations (NGOs) and uses a wide range of legal tools (including economic instruments and participatory mechanisms) to address pressing environmental concerns. This subject explores the critical governance and regulatory dimensions of international environmental law, as well as introducing you to cases and treaties that have been pivotal to the development of this area of international law. The lecturers in the subject are international environmental law experts, with both academic and practical experience in the field, which will be drawn into the delivery of a stimulating and relevant subject.

Principal topics include:

• The need for international environmental law and its historical development
• Fundamental principles and concepts necessary for an understanding of international environmental law, eg sustainable development, precautionary principle and 'polluter pays' principle
• The principal institutions and actors involved in the creation, implementation and enforcement of international environmental law
• The principal cases and treaties that have been influential in the development of international environmental law
• Current issues of concern in international environmental law, including atmospheric pollution and climate change, the protection of the oceans, species protection and biodiversity, and international trade.

The High Court’s 1993 Mabo decision and the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) enable Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders to seek the recognition in Australian law of rights arising under their traditional laws and customs in respect of land or waters, as native title. Native title groups may also seek compensation in certain cases for acts that have extinguished or otherwise affected their native title.

A determination of native title by the Federal Court requires proof of matters including the content of the relevant traditional laws and customs, the nature of the rights and interests, and the connection of the native title claim group with the land or waters by those laws and customs. Other matters to be addressed at trial include whether particular rights and interests are capable of being recognised by the common law, and whether valid laws or executive acts of the state or Commonwealth have extinguished native title such that it may not be recognised. Establishing native title also raises issues that are both theoretical and practical, such as the nature of ‘law’ and ‘tradition’, and the interaction between two systems of law.

Once native title is recognised, or a claim is registered, native title holders must engage with other elements of Australian law including state land management and resource extraction regimes, negotiate with other land users including mining companies, make and implement agreements, and manage the proceeds of those agreements using contemporary legal tools such as companies and trusts. Native title holders must manage their recognised native title rights and interests through a corporation that holds the native title on trust for them or manages it as their agent.

The lecturer has many years of academic scholarship in this area, engagement in law reform debates and providing practical, client-focused legal advice.

Principal topics include:

• Aboriginal and Western relationships with land: two systems of law
• Recognition of native title: the Mabo decision and the Native Title Act
• Proof of native title
• Native title practice: role and obligations of a lawyer for a native title group
• Decision-making by native title groups
• Extinguishment of native title
• Dealings with native title: future acts and agreements
• Alternative approaches to land justice in Australia
• Managing native title: commercial native title rights, tax, native title corporations, native title and land management, etc.
• Compensation for invalid acts affecting native title
• International and comparative approaches.

This subject provides an in-depth examination of negotiated instruments as a means of addressing international environmental problems. It focuses on legally binding agreements between states - that is, treaties - but also explores other types of negotiated instruments such as declarations and codes of conduct, which may be non-binding or involve non-state actors. The subject analyses issues of treaty negotiation and design by comparing the development of different environmental agreements, including the Montreal Ozone Protocol, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), and the World Heritage Convention. At the end of the subject, students will apply what they have learned in a mock negotiation.

This subject will focus on the functions of international environmental agreements, how they are negotiated and designed, and how they develop and evolve over time. Subject materials will include case studies of particular environmental negotiations and international relations explanations of environmental negotiations, including treaty design choices.

Principal topics include:

• Why do states negotiate environmental agreements? (costs and benefits, normative factors, domestic politics)
• Categorising agreements: legal/non-legal, constitutive/regulatory, global/regional
• Pre-negotiations: determining the negotiating forum and mandate
• Negotiating process: actors (coalitions/groups, chairperson, secretariat, NGOs), decision-making rules, organisation (inter-sessional meetings, open and closed sessions, means of resolving 'crunch' issues), adoption
• Treaty design: legal form; architecture; breadth; depth, types, and differentiation of obligations; institutions; mechanisms to promote participation, compliance, and flexibility; entry-into-force requirements
• Drafting techniques and, ways of resolving differences
• Treaty development: protocols, amendment, decisions of parties, interpretation
• International relations explanations.

This subject examines the law applicable to planning and development projects within Victoria. A detailed analysis of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) and its application will be supplemented by an examination of the various political and economic aspects that are continually at play in the Victorian planning regime. The subject will also address the interaction of the Victorian planning regime with a number of other statutory processes relevant to the development of land within Victoria, such as those contained within the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic), the Subdivision Act 1988 (Vic), and the Building Act 1993 (Vic).

A key component of the subject will be a case study concerning a hypothetical development proposal.

Principal topics include:

• The conceptual framework for planning law in Victoria
• Evaluation of the various components of the Victorian planning regime, focusing on the operation of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) and the Victoria Planning Provisions
• The role of key actors under the Victorian planning regime (such as the Victorian Minister for Planning and municipal councils) and the key processes established under the regime
• The review of decisions made under the regime (both in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Supreme Court of Victoria) and the powers available to relevant planning authorities under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic)
• Particular problems that arise in the Victorian planning system such as the fair and equitable distribution of undesirable land uses, the limitation of urban sprawl within metropolitan Melbourne, the appropriate level of public participation in decision-making processes, and the need to deliver sound planning outcomes in a timely and efficient manner
• The interaction of the Planning and Environmental Act 1987 (Vic) and the Building Act 1993 (Vic).

From corporate self-regulation to multi-stakeholder certification, transnational private regulation is exploding. Multinational firms and powerful governments often succeed in exploiting the resulting overlaps and intersections amongst actors and institutions to bypass unattractive forums, shift decision-making to preferred arenas, shape outcomes in their favour and impose their desired rules on others. Marginalized equity-seeking actors such as workers, indigenous peoples, subsistence producers and industry-affected communities sometimes resist these efforts successfully. Rarely, they even exploit these overlaps and intersections to advance their own interests. Using real-world examples and cutting-edge interdisciplinary theory, the subject examines how powerful actors exploit transnational governance interactions in their favour and how these interactive dynamics can instead be harnessed to improve regulatory capacities, raise standards and empower weaker actors. The teacher heads the interdisciplinary Transnational Business Governance Interactions research network and is a leading scholar and practitioner of transnational private regulation.

Principal questions and topics to be addressed will include:

• What is transnational private regulation? Definition, actors, institutions, processes, history, trends, examples and relation to domestic and international law
• What are transnational governance interactions? Drivers, mechanisms, pathways, forms, impacts and spatio-temporal dynamics
• How do powerful actors exploit transnational governance interactions to advance their interests and sometimes to frustrate transnational regulation?
• When and how can transnational governance interactions be harnessed to enhance regulatory capacities, raise social and environmental standards, or empower weaker actors?
• What legal and other theories and methodologies might help to explain, predict and evaluate these interactive dynamics?
• What happened in selected cases of transnational governance interactions drawn from various sectors and issue areas including:
  • Agri-food
  • Biofuels
  • Climate Change
  • Derivatives Trading
  • Financial Technology
  • Fisheries
  • Food safety
  • Forestry
  • Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
  • Labour Standards
  • Oil and Gas
  • Social Responsibility Standards
  • Sports Mega-Events
  • Supply Chain Management
• What can be learned from these case studies? Implications for legal theory, practice, ethics and professionalism in a globalizing world.

Outer space, high seas, the deep seabed and Antarctica are areas governed by international law using the same set of legal principles centred around international management, non-appropriation, equitable use and peaceful purposes. The importance of these international areas and their resources has increased exponentially over the past 30 years due to globalisation and the need for these resources. New technologies, increasing demands for new resources, climate change and exotic tourism, driven by a tripling of the global economy over the next 30 years, mean that their importance will again increase dramatically. Management of these areas and their valuable resources is a rapidly developing area of international law that will affect many different areas of commerce and the law. This subject provides a unique opportunity to learn from two international lawyers with practical experience in the field.

Principal topics include:

• What are international areas, what is their importance and what are future trends in their use?
• The historical development of regulations governing the use of international areas and their resources, such as fishing, oil and gas extraction, pollution and access to orbits
• Law governing major international areas and their natural resources, including:
  • high seas
  • deep seabed
  • Antarctica
  • atmosphere
  • outer space
• Current issues and developments, in particular:
  • management of resources in the deep seabed, continental shelves, polar regions and celestial bodies
  • the right to protest at sea in connection with the use of natural resources
  • equitable access to outer space orbits, especially geostationary orbits
  • challenges of tourism in the deep sea, outer space and Antarctica
  • environmental impacts of human activities (polar melting; space debris; ocean fertilisation; marine pollution and dumping)
  • new and emerging uses of these areas (eg geo-engineering and the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture).

This subject provides an examination of current environmental tort, waste management and contaminated land laws – from Victoria, Australia and beyond – critiqued against the concepts of responsibility and justice, and contextualised through case study examples and practitioner perspectives.

It will ask: What are the risks and advantages of relying on each law to regulate waste, pollution and contamination? The subject will present Victoria as a case study for these laws, while also offering comparative insights, analysing developments in the law of torts, waste and contamination from Australia, overseas and internationally. It will also draw on recent controversies and experiences of practitioners to learn about the law in action.

Principal topics include:

• Toxic torts
  • An introduction to the notion of a ‘toxic tort’
  • The origins of the toxic tort discourse
  • Perspectives from the United States
  • Toxic tort actions and environmental justice
• Environmental harm, trespass, nuisance and negligence
  • Offences of creating environmental harm and causing or permitting pollution with a focus on the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic)
  • Recent developments in the environmental torts landscape, particularly within the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic)
  • Environmental torts and notions of tortious responsibility
  • A comparative analysis of environmental torts
  • Australian torts case studies and practitioner perspectives
• Waste management laws
  • An international law framework for waste management
  • An overview of waste management laws – from the global to the local
  • A case study-based critique of international, national, state and local laws and policy
• Contaminated land
  • An examination of Victoria’s contaminated land laws under the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic)
  • A comparison with Australian and overseas jurisdictions
  • Discussion of the possible liability of a broader community of responsible parties—including financers and company directors
  • Practitioner perspectives on how clients manage contaminated land and pollution risk under the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic) and how lawyers can minimise potential future liability for contamination through due diligence and contract drafting.

Transnational Corporations (TNCs) are increasingly relevant players in the global economy, and international law is evolving to account for their growing impact. These trends are particularly visible in respect of the protection of the environment and human rights, on the one hand, and in the operation of investment law and arbitration, on the other. This subject will examine the challenges posed upon international law by TNCs, with an emphasis on two focal areas: (i) the interaction between investment arbitration and the environment; (ii) the interaction between human rights and TNCs. Those two focal areas will enable students to visualize the imbalances apparent in the international legal order relating to TNCs. The lecturer combines many years of academic experience with international practice at the Human Rights Council and in investment arbitration.

Principal topics include:

• An analysis of the rise of the TNC as a critical player in the global economy, as well as a critical analysis of the imbalances apparent in the international legal order relating to TNCs
• Review of the conceptual framework relevant to the legal relations between States and corporations, including notions of sovereignty and the law on diplomatic protection, human rights law and investment law
• An examination of key cases involving the general law on diplomatic protection as applicable to corporate actors, including Barcelona Traction and Diallo
• Debates regarding the policy issues at stake in investment arbitration and the environment, including the right and duty of States to regulate private actors and the tension between stability and change in investment law
• Key investment arbitrations pertaining to the environment and human rights, including landmark cases such as Methanex, Tecmed, PacRim, Chemtura and Clayton
• Historical evolution of the debates on TNCs at the United Nations, from the draft Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations up to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• An examination of the content and scope of State duties to control the activities of non-state actors, within their jurisdiction and extraterritorially, in order to protect human rights
• Current processes at the UN Human Rights Council toward a binding instrument on human rights and TNCs, including key building blocks and debates on principles, scope and mechanisms
• The potential for future developments in the field.

This subject focuses on legal and policy issues concerning the regulation of environmental quality. The first part of the subject considers the theoretical foundations of environmental regulation, including economic and non-economic perspectives on environmental degradation; the scientific predicate for environmental regulation; the objectives of environmental regulation; the valuation of environmental benefits; the distributional consequences of environmental policy; and the choice of regulatory tools, such as command-and-control regulation, taxes, marketable permit schemes, liability rules and informational requirements. The second part analyses the political dimensions of environmental law, including the role of the various institutional actors, the allocation of regulatory authority in a federal system, and public choice explanations for environmental regulation. The third and major part of the subject analyses, from legal and policy perspectives, the principal United States (US) environmental statutes, particularly the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the statutes regulating hazardous substances.

Principal topics include:

• Economic and non-economic perspectives on environmental degradation
• Scientific predicate for environmental regulation: Risk assessment
• Objectives of environmental regulation: Risk management
• Distributional consequences of environmental policy
• Choice of regulatory tools: Command-and-control regulation, marketable permit schemes and effluent fees
• Choice of regulatory tools: Deposit-refund systems, liability rules and informational approaches
• Federalism and environmental regulation
• Environmental law and public choice
• US Clean Air Act
• US Clean Water Act
• US Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• US Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA): Introduction; potentially responsible parties.

Water law and natural resources management are fundamental to human society, environmental protection and many aspects of economic productivity. Legal rules around water co-evolved with the development of many societies. Water is both necessary for life but also a source of conflict. This subject considers the international laws governing water, including principles addressing trans-jurisdictional water governance for major river systems. It canvasses emerging questions, such as whether there is a human right to water, and climate change impacts on water availability. It examines the development of common law rules around water allocation and water quality that retain an important role in water management. There is a major focus on indigenous water rights.

The general development of statutory-based water law, concentrating on the Australian federal and Victorian situation, provides the main case study of water law and governance. The subject examines the water law reforms leading to adoption of the national Water Act 2007, and covers the federal legislation, such as the development of environmental water regulation and water trading. It provides an examination of the Victorian water legislation, which explores catchment and natural resources management issues. The subject has a focus on groundwater and looks at impacts on groundwater due to mining and fracking. This subject covers urban water laws, with a focus on novel uses, such as water recycling and storm water capture.

Principal topics include:

• International law and policy governing water, including examination of relevant treaties and conventions
• Water rights: including human rights and cultural rights – especially those of Indigenous peoples
• An overview of the current system of Australian statutory regimes for surface water and groundwater allocation and use
• Australian national water and resource management reforms, including the National Water Initiative
• The Water Act 2007 (Cth), including water trading and water planning
• Environmental water regulation
• Victorian water laws, including water authorities and governance models
• Water quality: addressing point source and diffuse water pollution
• Integrated catchment and natural resource management, including relevant catchment management legislation
• Urban water laws, including alternative water uses such as stormwater, and innovative recycling models such as water-sensitive urban design.

Constitutional Law in Practice focuses principally, but not solely, on the litigation of constitutional matters in the High Court of Australia. In recent years, the High Court has been very active in the constitutional arena, and it is important to understand not only the substance of the issues the Court has dealt with but also how constitutional cases come before the High Court (and other courts), the process by which they are heard and decided and the relief that can be granted. In addition, constitutional law arises in practice in non-litigious settings, in particular in the provision of advice to government (both from government lawyers and from independent practitioners). This subject aims to critically evaluate the practice of constitutional law and to build key skills, such as written and oral advocacy. To that end, the assessment takes the form of preparation and presentation of both the written and oral aspects of an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court. The subject will also involve presentations from leading constitutional law academics and from practitioners who appear regularly in the High Court.

Principal topics will include:

• Initiating a constitutional case
• Bases of jurisdiction
• Remedies
• Applications for special leave
• Written submissions
• Oral argument
• Use of comparative and international materials
• Interpretation and overruling
• Interventions and amicus curiae
• Consequences of invalidity
• The case studies will be based on recent major constitutional litigation before the High Court. Issues to which attention will be paid in relation to each case study include:
  − The basis of the decision to litigate
  − Any impediments to litigation
  − The jurisdiction of the High Court, including the need for special leave
  − Standing
  − Justiciability
  − The choice of remedy or remedies
  − Forensic strategy
  − Methodology of the High Court, as revealed by decision
  − Reflection on the nature of judicial review.

From one of the earliest concerns of morality and political philosophy to the subject of the latest global treaty sponsored by the United Nations, corruption has had a fascinating role in human affairs. Corruption’s importance as a matter of law and policy has grown in recent decades, thanks to an increasing awareness of its devastating effects on development efforts, human rights, democracies, economies, and environmental protection efforts. Responding to that growing importance, this subject provides an overview of domestic, regional, and global approaches to corruption.

The domestic approaches examined in this subject include those undertaken by a sample of Latin American and Asian countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The regional approaches targeted include those sponsored by the Organization of American States, the Asian Development Bank, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank. Finally, at the global level, this seminar covers the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

Entering into force in 2005 and obtaining 183 States Parties by 2017, the UNCAC has taken strides in implementing a comprehensive and partially binding global approach to corruption. This subject explores the five pillars of that approach—international cooperation, preventative measures, criminalization and law enforcement measures, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange—and their linkages to domestic and regional initiatives. A major question at this stage will be the UNCAC’s ability (or potential) to supplement or improve upon those pre-existing initiatives.   

At each of its three levels of legal inquiry (domestic, regional, and global), this seminar examines questions of substantive law (what conduct is targeted), procedure (how are suspected violations of the law exposed and addressed), institutions (how is each legal framework administered and modified), and effectiveness (under a number of metrics). Notably, this subject addresses the advantages and criticisms of anti-corruption law in its many forms.     

Although this subject relies primarily on legal analysis, it also encompasses economics, history, and political science. That interdisciplinarity enables the consideration of the broader questions that inform anti-corruption law. Those questions include: How are definitions and patterns of corruption changing over time? What effects does corruption have on development, businesses, local economies, and global capitalism? What effects does it have on human rights, democratization, elections, and lawmaking? What lessons have been learned about the effectiveness of different legal approaches to corruption? How could domestic, regional, and international anti-corruption initiatives be improved?  

Principal topics include:

• What is corruption? How is corruption defined by different legal regimes?
• How does corruption manifest in distinct environments, including campaign and party finance, elections, lawmaking, law enforcement, government procurement, business, international development efforts, and banking and finance? What are corruption’s economic, political, and social effects?
• What are the regulatory challenges involved in preventing, exposing, and punishing corruption in its distinct environments? To what extent have domestic, regional, and international legal regimes been successful in meeting those challenges?
• How could those laws and institutions be improved? In particular, what are the main successes and shortcomings of the UN system for preventing and combatting corruption? What are its prospects for improvement? 
• What are the different roles that lawyers play in addressing corruption? What skill sets do they employ?

Freedom of Information (FOI) laws have been introduced in over 90 countries around the world to date, with most of these being introduced in recent years. The right to information is increasingly recognised at both domestic constitutional level and by international human rights tribunals. At the same time, FOI is experiencing considerable challenges in terms of the balancing of access rights against other important societal values, such as the protection of privacy, law enforcement and the protection of national security. Here in Australia, the FOI landscape has undergone significant change in recent years. This subject explores the way in which the tension between access and other interests is being negotiated in the new Australian FOI regime. It offers insights from other jurisdictions, both domestic and international. The lecturer brings to this subject a wealth of experience of writing, lecturing and advising on FOI matters in various parts of the world.

Principal topics will include:

• Background to the development of access legislation
• Access to information: The theoretical framework
• The human rights dimension of access to public information
• Reuse of government information
• National regimes on access
• Comparative approaches
• Defining the ‘public interest‘.

This subject seeks to understand how judges arrive at judgments and thus the complex question of adjudication. By examining key elements of the vast literature that has analysed the process of adjudication, the course attempts to develop the conceptual tools by which each student can approach the reading of judgments of courts. The subject then intensively discusses a number of important cases from various jurisdictions – the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada. By applying the insights learned from the earlier conceptual discussion, the course examines the judicial mind that has given rise to the judgments so studied. In this way, the subject talks to practitioners who litigate and can reflect on the means of help shaping the judgment they so seek, as well as to those lawyers who wish to develop a comprehensive understanding of both the theory and practice of adjudication.

Principal topics include:

• A critical reading of key texts – Hart, Raz, Fuller, Dworkin, Habermas, Derrida and Kennedy
• Language, linguistic theory and the law
• Reading judgments (Australian and comparative) – both in the area of constitutional/human rights law and private law
• The impact of political emergency upon the judicial function/adjudication.

This topical subject deals with the interface between private law and public law in common law systems from the perspectives of history, doctrine, theory and practice. It will explore the traditional absence of such a division in the common law, and the reasons for this, as a basis for understanding the relevance of the distinction in the contemporary legal system. The subject will critically assess the distinction from a theoretical perspective, testing whether the idea of a distinction between public law and private law can withstand scrutiny. A range of cutting-edge doctrinal issues will be examined and placed in wider context. These include whether public law principles should extend to the activities of non-governmental entities such as private firms and charities; whether the law should recognise a special set of rules to regulate public contracts; whether public authorities should be governed by the ordinary law of tort or a set of special administrative liability principles; procedural divisions between public law and private law; the role of the public interest in private remedies and of private remedies in public law cases; and whether public law issues should be heard by specialist administrative courts. The subject should be of interest to lawyers working in any field in a common law legal system and to those trained in the different traditions of the civil law who are interested in better understanding the structures and assumptions of the common law.

Principal topics are likely to include:

• History of the concept of public law in common law legal systems
• Concepts of public and private
• Implications of a distinction between public law and private law
• Overview of current practice
• Law applicable to non-governmental entities
• Legal framework for public contracts
• Liability of public authorities
• Remedies
• Specialist or generalist courts.

Regulation has become a permanent feature of the way in which contemporary democratic economies, including Australia, are governed. There are few spheres of economic activity that are not subject to some form of regulatory oversight and control. Daily news programs rarely pass without some mention of a significant regulatory decision, proposed regulatory reform or allegations of some regulatory failure or scandal. For lawyers, dealings with regulators and regulatory regimes have become part of the staple diet of their work. Yet the practice of regulation is far from straightforward. Regulatory policy and practice has evolved considerably from its traditional origins in the form of ‘command and control’, accompanied by the growth of specific terminology and concepts that are likely to be unfamiliar to those other than regulatory technocrats. This subject provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of, and critically to evaluate, the basic tools, techniques and decision-making methodologies that are employed in regulatory design and practice. It will be of interest to both private and public sector lawyers who practise in regulated sectors of the economy, enhancing their understanding of how regulators go about the business of regulatory decision-making.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction: What is ‘regulation’ and ‘governance’?; the regulatory agency: institutional features, strengths and shortcomings; the rise of the ‘regulatory state’; regulatory regimes and the role of non-state actors
• Tools, techniques and instruments of regulation: command—traditional legal prohibitions backed by sanctions; competition—market based approaches; communication—information disclosure and publicity-based approaches; consensus (including self-regulation); code architecture and the use of ‘nudge’ techniques
• ‘New governance’ approaches to regulation: choice of Instrument; ‘hybrid’ approaches to regulation; responsive regulation, ‘smart regulation’ and its variants (including meta-regulation); cost-benefit analysis and regulatory impact assessment and ‘better regulation’
• Enforcement and compliance: problems with rules; principles-based regulation; the role of the criminal and civil law; punitive civil sanctions (the Macrory Review); regulatory enforcement styles; national styles of regulation; private enforcement, third party monitoring and certification systems
• Appraising Regulation: regulatory accountability; regulatory legitimacy: between democracy and expertise.

In the first half of the 20th century most civil actions were for causes of action not much affected by statute: trespass, negligence, libel and slander, breach of contract and the various forms of equitable suit. Most criminal prosecutions were for offences created by statute but whose elements were treated as identified largely by judge-made law. There were great codifying acts; intellectual property acts, facultative acts, and regulatory statutes, but judge-made law was of central and dominating importance. The second half of the 20th century saw the statutory cause of action emerge to prominence, the enactment of laws permitting modification of privately-made agreements, the creation of new rights and obligations and novel forms of criminal offence. Statute became the central and dominating form of regulation of rights and obligations. The proper construction and application of statutes always has been, but now more than ever is, an essential legal skill. This subject seeks to develop and refine those skills.

Principal topics include:

• Construction—a text-based activity but involving more than a dictionary in one hand and the text in the other
• The importance of the constitutional framework and other basic assumptions
• The search for meaning and the metaphor of intention
• The place of Interpretation legislation, including rights Acts
• The canons of construction, their use and abuse ('canons to the right of them; canons to the left of them; on into the valley of death')
• Ambiguity and its resolution, including the use of extrinsic materials
• Inconsistencies, repeals, amendment, consolidation and retrospectivity
• The legislative misfire
• Special rules for special areas
• Rules and regulations—power to make, construction and use in construing the legislation
• Overarching theories and descriptions of the construction process.

A properly functioning legal system can be seen as a defining characteristic of modern society. The adversary system can be seen as a defining characteristic of a common law legal system. But as times change, both the common law and the adversary system of trial have changed and will continue to change. What then are the bases of these systems? What corollaries follow from adopting a particular mode of trial? What are the challenges with which the Australian legal system must now deal in resolving disputes? How might those challenges be dealt with and are there implications for what we define as the adversary system and, more generally, the rule of law in a properly functioning legal system?

Principal topics include:

• Development of the common law
• The 20th century adversary system
• The adversary system today and its implications
• Statutes and the common law
• Lessons from other systems
• Complexity – issues, evidence, experts and costs
• Curial method – the law, facts and findings
• Economic and commercial implications – class actions, alternative dispute resolution, arbitration and access to justice
• Legislative and executive power
• Implications for the rule of law and the practitioner.

2017 marked the 25th anniversary of the landmark Australian medical law decision Rogers v Whitaker. Medical litigation remains an exceptionally vibrant and challenging field, underpinned by the rapid pace of scientific and social developments that generate new issues for the law. Many of the more challenging issues are at the core of policy – birth, reproduction and death. The legal issues are fundamental, covering the existence of duties, what should be considered negligent, the challenges of legal causation and the appropriate compensation regime – all against a background of insurance affordability, the ongoing health and safety improvement mechanisms, the reporting and disclosure agenda and the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme. This subject examines the framework of medical litigation, current challenges and issues on the horizon.

The subject presenter Bill Madden is a lawyer specialising in medical litigation, the co-author of two health law texts and a regular writer and presenter on medical law topics.

Principal topics include:

• History and incidence of medical litigation
• The impact of recent legal and court-based reforms including mediation
• The medical indemnity marketplace and government intervention
• Duty, breach of duty and statutory defences/special protections
• Consent, informed consent and treatment errors—the legal differences
• Causation and loss of chance
• The importance and changing framework of expert evidence
• Privacy and confidentiality issues
• National regulation, conduct and crime
• Mandatory reporting impacts
• Coroners’ investigations and hearings.

This subject is a collaborative effort to reflect on, critique, appreciate, and learn about international advocacy that responds to global injustice using a human rights framework.  It provides a map of the field of international human rights advocacy—its dominant forms of action, strategies, and range of methods—and introduces students to the core elements and skills involved in that work, including the collection of evidence of human rights abuses; interviewing witnesses, governments and other potential opponents; report writing; media work; advocacy strategies; quantitative and qualitative methods; litigation; and measuring effectiveness.  The subject also introduces the ethical principles and professional rules related to human rights lawyering. It addresses the obstacles to effective global justice and human rights work, and the technical, procedural, and substantive problems with the manner in which advocates investigate abuses, seek accountability, and conduct advocacy. Teaching materials are drawn from a diverse range of fields and interdisciplinary sources including law, medicine, psychology, political science, social theory, critical theory, toolkits and how-to-guides, stories, video, podcasts, human rights reports, and witness testimony.  The success of the subject depends, to a great extent, on the active, engaged, and critical participation of students. The subject will be of interest to students whose work already intersects with human rights directly or to students who wish to explore ways to further inject human rights into their work. It is designed to be of relevance to students whether they are working within Australia, other countries or at the international level.

The subject will examine human rights law and institutions; ethics for human rights lawyers; crafting strategy; fact-finding (including interviewing, documentation, open source investigations, and quantitative and qualitative research methods); and advocacy methods (including reporting, campaigning, messaging, and litigating).

This subject will introduce and explore the main concepts, laws, institutions and policies at the intersection of international climate change law and international human rights law.

Specifically, this subject will explore two aspects of the intersection between climate change and human rights. First it will explore the nature and extent to which the impacts of climate change and response measures to address climate change can affect the realization of core human rights. It will examine the substantive and procedural rights afforded through national, regional and international instruments to those affected by environmental harms, and the ways in which such rights can be extended to cover climate harms. It will in this context analyze cases in national, regional and international courts and tribunals that engage human rights in the context of climate harms. Second, this subject will examine the treatment of human rights in the international climate change regime, and the prospects for further integration of human rights concerns in the regime. 

More broadly, through a study of these two aspects, this subject will examine the potential, prospects and limits of international law in protecting the rights of those affected by climate harm.

Principal topics include:

• Articulation of environmental protection in the language of human rights, both substantive and procedural, in international, regional and national human rights systems, instruments and case law
• Autonomous ‘right to a healthy environment’ and its extension to a healthy climate
• ‘Greening’ of established rights such as the right to life, health and privacy, and their extension to protection from climate harms
• Treatment of human rights in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the 2018 Katowice Rules

The subject explores this Australian intellectual property regime in predominantly black-letter terms. It asks students to consider the doctrinal issues implicated by the various aspects of copyright law: subsistence, ownership, infringement, exceptions to infringement and remedies. Also integrated with the curriculum are moral and performers' rights, and the treatment of internet service provider liability as an intermediary between copyright owner and infringer. The subject is structured within an international framework, explaining the importance of treaty norms and with selective use of comparative law.

Principal topics include:

• The evolution and theory of the national and international copyright system
• The material protected by copyright
• The duration of protection
• The rights granted by copyright
• Infringement of copyright, including defences and available remedies
• Ownership, licensing and assignment of copyright
• Moral rights and their infringement
• Copyright law in international perspective.

Design plays a critical role in the production and marketing of goods. Adequate protection of designs is important in order to encourage the creation of innovative products and thus enhance the Australian economy. This subject is primarily concerned with the laws in Australia that protect designs and will cover the registered regimes for protecting designs under the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) and parts of the Designs Act 1906 (Cth), as well as the protection of designs as original artistic works under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The first lecturer is a well-known intellectual property law academic and former barrister, while the second is a senior patent attorney with extensive experience in designs law and practice. This subject meets the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) requirements for ‘Topic Group I: Designs Law’. It will also include coverage of the  relevant aspects of the laws of New Zealand on these matters.

Principal topics include:

• Registrable designs: definition of design and registrability requirements
• Application and registration procedures and Designs Office practice
• Duration of registration and removal procedures
• Registration, examination, certification and infringement
• Defences to, and remedies for, infringement
• Validity and infringement of designs registered under the Designs Act 1906 (Cth)
• Ownership, transfer and exploitation of design rights
• Rectification and correction of the Register
• Artistic works protected by copyright and the designs/copyright overlap
• Relationship of designs protection to innovation patents under the Patents Act 1990
• The treatment of registered designs under New Zealand law and the availability of copyright protection for designs under New Zealand law
• International conventions and the protection of designs.

This subject provides an outline of some of the more important or notable features of European intellectual property (IP) regimes and reform proposals, selected either for their unique nature or their comparative relevance to Australian law. The subject will deal with a variety of sources of European IP law, including: European Union (EU) Directives and Regulations on or relating to IP; non-EU IP treaties (such as the European Patent Convention), and domestic IP law in European countries, in particular the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Principal topics will include:

• An overview of the European IP regime
• The European patent system under the European Patent Convention and the European unitary patent initiative
• Key features of European patent law: patentable subject matter (including the impacts of the 1998 EU Biotechnology Directive); claim construction, inventive step and sufficiency/claim support
• The EU supplementary protection certificate (SPC) system
• EU laws specifically protecting databases and software, and the ramifications of those protections upon copyright protection generally
• European legal protections of authors’ moral rights
• European graduated response initiatives directed at internet-based copyright infringement
• The registered and unregistered European Community designs regimes
• The relationship between European designs and artistic copyright protection
• European laws extending trade mark protection to mark dilution and unfair advantage
• Internet-related trade mark infringement in settings such as online marketplaces and search engines
• Trade mark issues relating to comparative advertising and parallel importation
• The interface between the European IP regime and European competition/free trade protections, in particular the question of exhaustion of rights within the EU.

Fundamentals of Intellectual Property provides a good introduction to intellectual property (IP) for students wishing to pursue more specialised graduate studies in this area. It also provides a general overview of IP law for Australian and non-Australian students who are seeking this as part of an overall commercial and trade law program.

The objective of this subject is to provide an introduction to, and general overview of, the various Australian legal regimes protecting IP. IP laws, including those with respect to patents, designs and copyright, are directed at the encouragement and protection of innovations in science, technology and cultural products. They also operate, through the laws of trade marks and unfair competition, to provide protection for the later stages of development at which these innovations are disseminated and marketed. There is a potential for conflict between these laws and competition laws, and this interface will be discussed, together with an introduction to the international framework of treaties under which the owners of IP rights (IPRs) from one country can seek protection in another.

Completion of the first day of this subject (Overview of Intellectual Property one day seminar) meets the requirements of the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) for ‘Topic Group A2’.

Note: If you enrol in Fundamentals of Intellectual Property (LAWS90125), you do not need to enrol in Overview of Intellectual Property.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to the concept of and rationales for IPRs
• Models used for the protection of IP (the patent model, the copyright model and variations of both)
• Patents for invention, including:
  • Registration process
  • Subject matter
  • Conditions for protection
  • Exclusive rights and infringement
  • Defences
  • Innovation patents
• Protection of confidential information and trade secrets under general law
• Registered designs
• Copyright and allied rights, including:
  • Subject matter protected - works and other subject matter
  • Conditions for protection
  • Duration
  • Exclusive rights
  • Exceptions
  • Licensing and exploitation
• Trade marks and unfair competition
  • Protection for unregistered marks and other indicia through common law and equity
  • Protection for registered marks
• Sui generis regimes of protection: geographic indications, plant breeder's rights, circuit layouts and other systems of protection  
• International treaty framework for IPRs
• IPRs and competition law.

This subject teaches students the fundamental principles and basic skills of drafting patent specifications. It does so through a combination of in-class instruction sessions on a range of topics, in-class drafting exercises with review sessions, and out-of-class drafting exercises with tutorial review sessions. Students are assessed by two practical assessment tasks, undertaken individually outside the classroom. Passing the subject will satisfy the knowledge requirements specified by the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) for Topic Group G: Drafting patent specifications. The lecturers for this subject include a number of practising patent attorneys with substantial experience teaching drafting skills.

Principal topics include:

• History and nature of specifications and claims
• Approaches to claim drafting
• Interpreting claims
• Drafting basic claims
• Drafting product claims with reference to prior art
• Drafting process and method claims
• Preparing a description
• Consequences of drafting.

Intellectual property (IP) – how effectively it is protected and how it is balanced with other policy domains such as public health – occupies a central, if contested, place in international trade relations. From the mid 1980s, a growing perception that inadequate or unbalanced IP protection was undercutting the economic interests of major economies made disputation about IP inevitable. The resulting tensions were a critical factor behind the inclusion of IP standards in the World Trade Organization (WTO) system of multilateral trade law, in the form of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). Rather than resolving disputes over IP protection through bilateral wrangling and unilateral pressure, the rule of law would be applied in a predictable, transparent and equitable way through the multilateral dispute settlement mechanism maintained by the WTO, building on the major conventions separately administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Yet recent years have seen a sharp rise in the conclusion of bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements that establish alternative or complementary sets of standards on IP and mechanisms to resolve IP disputes. The result is an intricate array of overlapping substantive standards and parallel forums for dispute settlement. This subject enables the student to navigate this complex legal landscape and to deal with its consequences from the point of view of dispute settlement practice, from the perspective of legal principle and public policy impact, and in terms of international governance and the management of trade and political relations. The lecturer offers insights from extensive experience as a senior official in both the WTO and WIPO, as an Australian official engaged in litigation and negotiation, and as a legal and policy analyst.

Principal topics include:

• A practical anatomy of international intellectual property conventions, standards and institutions: from the creation of the major multilateral systems within WIPO and the WTO, to the current trend towards bilateral and regional deals
• The political economy of international intellectual property: the economic, political and technological factors driving disputation over IP and the creation of competing dispute settlement mechanisms
• The core principles of international IP law: IP principles and the idea of 'balance', the preservation of 'space’ for domestic law and policy, and the integration of trade law and public policy principles into international IP law
• The distinctive features of international IP dispute settlement: cause of action, sources of law, remedies and challenges for treaty interpretation
• Dispute settlement practice and emerging TRIPS jurisprudence under the WTO: a survey of TRIPS disputes and the use of TRIPS in cross retaliation, and a close analysis of landmark disputes
• The evolving architecture of bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements covering IP: the practical implications for treaty interpretation, for the initiation, management and settlement of IP disputes in multiple fora, and for domestic law and policy
• Compliance and monitoring of compliance: the institutional mechanisms, and the sources of information for practitioners and government officials, for legal and policy analysts and for scholars.

Over the past two decades, the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) globally has become a major issue both for right holders and users, and one that has had profound implications in a number of important areas of public discourse, such as international trade, public health, education and research, national development and the promotion of biodiversity. This subject seeks to engage with all these issues, and begins with a discussion of the sources of international intellectual property (IP) law, including the principal IP treaties and the general architecture of the international IP system. It then considers a number of case studies where particular IP issues arise and where international solutions are presently being negotiated. It will also examine the growing tension between the territoriality of IPRs and the global scope of IP exploitation, considering how this clash plays out in the key area of private international law. Both lecturers have had extensive experience in international intellectual property matters, and bring to the subject both academic and practical perspectives that add greatly to its interest and relevance.

This subject consists of a survey of the economic, legal and political elements and forces that shape the international IP system.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to the international IP system, including the main producers and owners of IP, the institutional architecture and the treaty system, including those administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization (notably the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), and the emergence of bilateral and regional trade and investment protection treaties that have an impact on the protection of IP rights
• Instruments and strategies for obtaining protection internationally—the Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid System, Hague System and regional systems
• Human rights, IP and the development agenda
• IPRs and public health
• IPRs and food security
• Biotechnology, access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge
• Access to knowledge
• The protection of names, marks and other identifiers and content, with particular reference to the internet
• Dispute settlement and private international law issues.

Reading and interpreting patent specifications is a central part of a patent attorney's daily practice. It is also a critical feature of any patent litigation where both sides will be competing for alternative interpretations that favour their client. This subject is intended to hone these skills of analysis and interpretation, working on the basic legal principles that students seeking Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB)accreditation have already obtained through their study of patent law and patent practice. It is taught by experienced attorneys and litigators, and meets the TTIPAB requirements for Topic Group H.

This subject will be conducted with a number of case studies carried out by a team of practitioners to develop skills in the application of the rules of interpretation to patent specifications and in the application of Australian and New Zealand patent laws.

Principal topics include:

• The validity of an Australian or New Zealand patent or patent application under the provisions of Australian and New Zealand laws concerned with support, sufficiency of description and utility
• The validity of an Australian and New Zealand patent or patent application in the light of prior art information supplied, including through prior published specifications and prior user
• The scope for making amendments of patent applications
• The infringement of an Australian or New Zealand patent by a competitor's product or process.

Technology transfer is a term used to describe the process by which skills, knowledge and intellectual property rights are moved from one person or organisation to another. Governments and businesses around the world now recognise the fundamental importance of innovation and the commercialisation of new technologies to economic prosperity. Here, technology transfer and in particular intellectual property licensing have a vital role. This subject looks at the legal and commercial issues relevant to technology transfer, with a focus on intellectual property licensing and the negotiation of licence agreements. The subject also includes the licensing of trade marks and software.

The subject lecturers have worked in the field of technology transfer for many years and bring practical perspectives to the topics covered.

Principal topics include:

• Licensing of:
  • Patents and know-how
  • Trade marks, including franchise agreements
  • Copyright, including computer software
• Impact of competition laws
• Payments and taxes
• Contractual and commercial issues
• Negotiation of licence agreements.

For at least 400 years, patent law has been the primary regulatory mechanism for optimising innovation. With more than two million patent applications filed annually around the world, the patent system is both highly complex and of great economic importance. This subject provides the foundational knowledge necessary for a professional understanding of patent law and the patent system. It does so through a combination of instructional sessions and hands-on workshop sessions. These provide students with a detailed understanding of the principles of patent law, with a particular focus on the requirements for the grant of a valid patent, and for infringement of a patent, under Australian and New Zealand law. In the workshop sessions, students apply the principles of patent validity and patent infringement to actual prior art, patent claims and infringing embodiments. Successful completion of this subject satisfies the knowledge requirements specified by the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) for Topic Group E: Patent Law.

Principal topics include:

• Rationales for and alternatives to patents
• Trade secrets protection (breach of confidence)
• Patentable subject matter
• Requirements for patentability – novelty, inventive step and utility
• Specification requirements – clarity, support, disclosure and best method
• Fraud, false suggestion and misrepresentation
• Infringement, defences and remedies
• Inventorship, entitlement and ownership
• Duration and commercialisation of patent rights
• Future of the patent system.

This subject builds on the material covered in the Trade Marks and Unfair Competition subject. Trade Mark Practice is primarily concerned with the procedures and practices of the Australian Trade Marks Office in obtaining and maintaining registered trademarks and relevant aspects of New Zealand trade mark procedures and practice. This subject is thus particularly valuable for students wishing to prosecute trade mark applications through those offices. The rights, privileges and responsibilities of a patent or trade mark attorney are also covered in the wider context of attorneys’ professional conduct. The lecturers in the subject have extensive experience in the obtaining of trade mark registrations and the subject meets the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) requirements for ‘Topic Groups’ B and D.

The emphasis of this subject is on the documentation, procedures and practice of the Australian Trade Marks Office and relevant aspects of New Zealand trade marks procedure and practice.

Principal topics include:

• The respective national offices, registers and official journals
• Determining the availability of a trade mark for use and registration, searching the Trade Marks Office database and other search options
• Applications for registration, including Madrid Protocol, Convention, divisional and series applications
• Examination and acceptance of applications
• Opposition to registration
• Initiating and opposing applications to remove a trade mark for non-use
• Amendment of applications and other documents; revocation post-registration
• Obtaining registration and renewal of registration
• Obtaining extensions of time
• New Zealand trade mark practice (relevant issues)
• Exploitation, including assignments and registration of security interests
• Parallel importations and Customs seizure
• International conventions and initiatives, and protecting trade marks in foreign countries
• The rights, privileges and professional responsibilities of a patent or trade mark attorney.

This subject is concerned with the laws in Australia that protect trade marks and relevant aspects of New Zealand law on this topic. Trade marks play a pivotal role in the marketing of goods and services, and generally are one of a trader‘s most valuable assets. The protection of trade marks is thus of critical importance to all traders but is also important to consumers, who rely on the information conveyed by trade marks. This subject concentrates on the trade mark protection regime provided by the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth), and  involves a detailed study of the provisions of this Acts and related case law, together with relevant aspects of the corresponding New Zealand laws and cases. The action for passing-off and actions for contravention of the Australian Consumer Law provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), and corresponding New Zealand statutory provisions, proscribing misleading and deceptive conduct are also covered.

This subject meets the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) requirements for ‘Topic Group C’.

Professor Robert Burrell is an experienced intellectual property academic and a registered trade mark attorney with extensive experience of Australian trade marks law and practice.  Lindy Golding is a former partner in a leading London law firm who specialised in intellectual property matters, including copyright and trade marks.

Principal topics include:

• The function of trade marks
• Registration of trade marks under Australian and New Zealand laws
• Infringement, defences and remedies
• Licensing and assignment, and other exploitation of trade marks
• Removal and cancellation of registration
• Management and maintenance of trade marks
• The action for passing-off and actions for contravention of the Australian Consumer Law provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) proscribing misleading and deceptive conduct (and the corresponding provisions under New Zealand law)
• Other protections for name and insignia, including the domain name system.

The subject will cover the relationship of statutory to constitutional norms, particularly with respect to US copyright’s accommodation of freedom of expression. The copyright 'Subject Matter' topic will include applied art and computer programs – works whose protection courts have not easily resolved. Ownership will focus on the peculiarities of the US works made for hire doctrine. The 'Formalities' topic will explore the extent to which formalities still condition the exercise of copyright in the US. The 'Exclusive Rights' topic will include analysis of the scope of rights in the online environment. The 'Exceptions' topic will concentrate on 'fair use', and will consider its 'portability' particularly in light of calls to incorporate 'fair use' into other countries’ copyright laws, including Australia’s. Remedies will address enforcement, including the liability of online service providers

Jane C Ginsburg is the Morton L Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia University in New York City, where she teaches copyright law, and is the author or co-author of many books and articles on US and international copyright law.

Principal topics include:

• Constitutional foundations of US copyright
• Subject matter of copyright
• Ownership of copyright
• Formalities
• Exclusive rights
• Exceptions
• Remedies.

Intellectual property is an increasingly contested field – both nationally and internationally. Different states’ intellectual property laws manifest different attitudes towards the defining policy tension in this field of law: how to encourage and reward innovative activity, while ensuring that intellectual property does not raise intolerable barriers to market entry or impede fundamental rights and freedoms. This subject provides an overview of key United States intellectual property doctrines, statutes and principles, and will help students understand some of the ways the United States addresses these issues through its intellectual property laws. Before taking up his joint positions of Professor of Law at Melbourne Law School and Chair in Private Law at Victoria University, Professor Austin directed the intellectual property program at the University of Arizona College of Law.

Principal topics will include:

• Copyright protection for data-rich products
• Prohibitions on copyright and trade mark protections for ‘useful articles’
• Work for hire rules in copyright
• The ‘fair use’ exception to copyright
• Indirect liability for copyright infringement
• Establishment of trade mark rights under state and federal laws, including ‘intent to use’ applications
• Trade mark infringement
• Forms of abandonment of trade marks, including by naked licensing
• Patentable subject matter and standards for patentability
• Scope of patent and trade secret rights
• Remedies.

This subject provides an in-depth overview of the fundamental principles of US patent law and practice. It is taught by a distinguished former US judge and practitioner who has had extensive practical experience in patent litigation in that country. It will be a subject of immediate interest and benefit to patent attorneys and lawyers who deal regularly with US-based clients.

Principal topics include:

• Patent eligibility, with particular emphasis on biotech and software patents
• Utility
• Anticipation and novelty (both before and under the America Invents Act)
• Non-obviousness, including secondary considerations and specific issues concerning chemical and biotech patents
• The specification and objective disclosure doctrines, claims and indefiniteness
• Prosecution, inventorship, inequitable conduct and post-grant procedures
• Infringement (literal infringement, doctrine of equivalents and indirect infringement)
• Equitable defences and remedies (injunctions, damages).

The law of the sea relates to the allocation of jurisdiction and peaceful uses of the seas and oceans, the equitable and efficient utilisation of marine resources, and the study, protection and preservation of the marine environment. Historically concerned with the ‘freedom of the seas’ for sovereign states, the law of the sea must also address contemporary and emerging challenges such as climate change, marine species preservation, pollution, overlapping territorial claims and national security. The overarching legal regime of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is supplemented by specific agreements as well as market techniques and supply chain oversight. This subject provides an overview and critique of the established and newly forming international regimes – and their interaction – and is informed by an institutional approach that acknowledges the influence of dispute settlement systems, non-state participation and transnational and administrative practices. The lecturers have published widely on fisheries law, trade law, the law of the sea and on the interaction between international legal regimes.

Principal topics include:

• The Law of the Sea Convention and associated instruments governing the high seas, including the Fish Stocks Agreement
• Divisions of jurisdiction within the Law of the Sea, including key notions of the territorial sea, exclusive economic zones (EEZ), areas beyond national jurisdiction (high seas) and the sea-bed area
• Voluntary instruments of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, including the Compliance Agreement, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Port State Measures Agreement, as well as emerging views on the ecosystem approach and marine protected areas
• The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
• World Trade Organization (WTO) rules relating to subsidies, labelling and restrictions on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
• The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs)
• Marine pollution, including microplastics and greenhouse gas emissions from bunker fuels
• Relevant dispute settlement bodies, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), arbitral bodies and the WTO.

Other topics may include:

• Marine protected areas, including efforts to create a new legally binding international agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ)
• Freedoms of the seas in contested areas of jurisdiction (such as Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise)
• Overlapping maritime claims such as the ruling on the South China Seas issued by an arbitral tribunal based at the Permanent Court of Arbitration
• The role of indigenous rights, subsistence and artisanal practices
• Selected regional approaches to fisheries management
• The influence of legal approaches to climate change, especially with respect to low-lying island coastal states.

Science and technology are at the heart of many of the most pressing legal and social problems of our day: disease prevention, bioethics, big data, state and corporate surveillance, the regulation of military technologies, and so on. This subject invites students to consider the common challenges of law, policy and public discourse posed by problems of this sort, at both the domestic and international level. In doing so, it asks: how do scientific discoveries and their technological applications shape our legal and social worlds? And how do law and society affect scientific and technological developments in turn?

The overall aim is to equip students coming from diverse backgrounds, training and experience with the analytical and critical tools necessary to understand and respond to complex questions of science and technology in all their legal, social, (geo)political, ethical, and cultural dimensions.

The lecturer undertakes research and advocacy in this area and was recently a visiting fellow at the Harvard Program on Science, Technology and Society.

Principal topics include:

• Science and technology studies as a field
• The relationship between ‘law’, ‘science’, ‘technology’ and ‘society’ as concepts and fields of practice
• Biotechnology and bioethics
• Drug patents and disease prevention
• Big data and global surveillance
• Military technologies
• Public discourse around science and technology
• The future: advocacy, law reform and other critical encounters between law, science, technology and society.

The subject tackles one of the most interesting responses to globalisation, namely regional integration. Following an outline of its most prominent structures (e.g. NAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN), it focuses on the deepest and most topical one, that is, the European Union (EU).

It provides an overview of its main constitutional and institutional structure, its main policies and its economic and political role in the world. It examines whether there is a distinct EU approach to regional integration and queries whether this may be transposed in other contexts.

The subject is topical and its approach contextual, as it

• Examines law in its wider political and economic context
• Explores the implications of the current economic and political crisis in Europe
• Places EU law within the increasingly interdependent globalised political and economic order.

The subject is taught by Panos Koutrakos, Professor of EU Law and Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at the University of Bristol (UK), and joint editor of the European Law Review.

Principal topics will include:

• Regional integration as a legal and policy imperative
• The EU as a model of regional integration
• History, structure and institutions of the EU
• Interactions between the EU and national law
• The rights of individuals under EU law
• EU trade law
• The EU in the world
• Sanctions, terrorism, human rights and EU law.

This subject will examine the economic and legal issues facing developing countries in their engagement within the World Trade Organization (WTO). A central organising theme will be the evolving theory and practice relating to the role of economic liberalisation in the developmental processes of these countries. The lecturer has extensive experience in the area in research and teaching and has also acted as a consultant to a variety of governmental and intergovernmental agencies.

Principal topics will include:

• History of developing country engagement in the GATT–WTO
• Evolving theory on trade and development
• GATT legal framework: pre-Uruguay Round
• Overview of Uruguay Round and WTO legal framework
• Agriculture
• Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
• Trade remedies: anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguards
• The ‘fair trade’ debate: environmental and labour standards
• The ‘non-WTO’ Singapore issue of foreign investment
• The developmental implications of bilateralism and regionalism
• The future: the Doha Ministerial Declaration.

International trade is being transformed by the globalisation of the internet and the ability to move data across borders. Small businesses and firms in developing countries are using internet platforms such as eBay and Alibaba to engage in international trade. Software, music and books that used to be traded physically are now being transmitted digitally across borders; lawyers, consultants and other professional services are using the internet to reach new markets. Data analytics and cloud computing have become essential tools for firms in domestic and international markets.

This subject will examine the impact of the internet and global data flows on international trade. Students will learn about the varied and innovative ways that the internet and data enable international economic activity. Students will look at how government regulation in areas such as privacy and national security affects digital trade and will examine the balance between achieving these goals and maximising opportunities for trade, growth and jobs. Students will learn about the extent to which international trade rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement support an open internet and global data flows; will identify gaps in law and practice; and will analyse where new global norms and rules are needed. Special topics covered may include: the opportunities of digital trade for developing countries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs); challenges posed by the 'Internet of Things' and privacy regulation; and digital trade and national security.

Joshua P Meltzer is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies where he teaches international trade law. He is a leading scholar on digital trade issues, consults governments, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum and was appointed an expert witness in digital trade and privacy litigation.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of the globalisation of the internet including global trends in internet access and use
• The economics of the internet - students will learn how internet access and global data flows are improving productivity, enabling innovation and expanding opportunities for global engagement
• What is the impact of the internet and data flows on international trade? This will include the role of digital platforms and the increasing importance of digital services trade
• What are the barriers to digital trade, who is erecting them and why? Students will learn about the regulatory challenges to digital trade in areas of consumer protection, financial and privacy laws and the different approaches being taken in the European Union, the United States and Australia, and consider how to achieve domestic regulatory goals while maximising digital trade
• Applying international trade law to digital trade issues and identifying the legal gaps - students will analyse where existing international trade rules apply to digital trade issues. This will include analysis of WTO agreements and cases as well as new trade rules in free trade agreements. Gaps in trade law will be identified and students will consider whether new trade rules and norms are needed and where they can be negotiated.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are arguably the two least understood and most controversial international organisations. Both are key components of the international financial system and significant players in the worldwide response to the Global Financial Crisis. They also play a vital role in national economies (as seen for example in the IMF’s involvement in the Euro-zone rescue and its analytical work on the historic rise in sovereign debt). This subject will focus on the IMF and World Bank while also providing students with a sophisticated understanding of the broader international financial system and its problems. 

It is taught by Katharine Christopherson, Assistant General Counsel in the IMF Legal Department, and Danielle Malek Roosa, Senior Counsel at the World Bank. The subject provides a valuable insider’s perspective on the ‘Bretton Woods‘ institutions.

This subject examines the global financial order, with a strong focus on the international monetary system and the IMF.

Principal topics include:

• Key institutions of the global financial order, namely the IMF and the World Bank, including their history, powers, policies, practices and political and economic rationale
• The role of these institutions within the globalisation debate
• The linkages between these institutions and other institutions, including the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• The IMF, including its Articles of Agreement, IMF surveillance and conditionality
• The role of the IMF in the prevention and resolution of financial crises
• The institutions of the World Bank Group, their Articles of Agreement and their respective roles in promoting development
• The role of human rights and other ‘political issues’ in the work of the World Bank
• Current challenges to the IMF and the World Bank, and proposals for their reform.

This subject is a basic 'how-to' on international business transactions and is essential for those wishing to practise international trade law. The subject intentionally covers a vast array of related topics, with the focus being on the legal issues faced by practising lawyers in the field. Particular emphasis is placed on issues such as trade terms, international sales of goods, documentary credits, carriage of goods, customs and border regulations. This subject also considers several issues relating to international trade, such as intellectual property rights, licensing, franchising and governmental measures regulating investment. Such coverage ensures students are exposed to the most important and frequent issues facing the practising trade lawyer.

Principal topics may include:

• Basic trade contracts and common trade terms
• Choice of law and choice of jurisdiction in international trade contracts
• The Vienna Convention on International Sale of Goods
• Payment systems, including documentary credits and collections
• Customs law, including classification and valuation of the goods
• Import and export restraints
• Regulatory issues and red tape
• Franchising
• Intellectual property rights, including parallel importation of goods
• Foreign direct investment.

International commercial arbitration is the most important method globally for resolving cross-border commercial disputes. The focus of this subject is on the basic principles of international commercial arbitration law and is taught from the perspective of both the practitioner advising clients and the scholar interested in advanced research. There will be a particular focus on the desirability of arbitration compared with other dispute resolution methods, the relationships between the courts and arbitrators, drafting techniques and developments in Australia and other countries.

Principal topics include:

• The nature of international arbitration
• Applicable law in international arbitration
• The Australian procedural regime and an introduction to the UNCITRAL Model Law
• Enforcing international arbitration agreements
• Appointment and qualifications of arbitrators
• Misconduct of arbitrators
• Privacy and confidentiality
• Enforcement and challenge of awards.

Newspaper headlines frequently concern global economic issues, from trade disputes between countries and investment claims by foreign investors against sovereign states, to countries facing balance-of-payments crises and seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This subject examines the law governing global economic issues. It is designed both as a comprehensive introduction in its own right to this important field, as well as a foundation for further exploration through specialist subjects in the curriculum. It begins with a historical and theoretical background to the field before turning to focus on international trade law, particularly the rules and dispute settlement procedures of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It then discusses contemporary developments in international trade law and policy, including the negotiations for regional or bilateral preferential trade agreements. The subject then considers international investment law, examining key substantive obligations relating to investor protection and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms (particularly through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)). Finally, the subject provides an introduction to the lending policies and practices of international financial institutions, particularly the IMF and the World Bank.

Principal topics include:

• Nature, evolution and context of international economic law
• The law of the WTO
• Dispute settlement in the WTO
• International investment law
• Investor-state arbitration under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention
• International financial institutions (particularly the IMF and the World Bank).

International investment law regulates the entry and operation of foreign investment and is one of the fastest-growing fields of public international law. This subject begins by tracing the historical, political and economic causes for the protection of foreign investment across custom, bilateral and regional investment treaties. It then focuses on the unique system of dispute resolution in this field, which gives private (foreign) actors the right to pursue claims for damages against states. This subject explores a series of case studies to evaluate the impact of investment law across a range of core values, including public health, environmental regulation and the protection of human rights.

Principal topics include:

• Nature, evolution and context of international investment law
• Overview of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Energy Charter Treaty and parts of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Scope of protection: definition of ‘investor’ and ‘investment‘
• Relative obligations of non-discrimination: most-favored-nation (MFN) and national treatment
• Obligation to accord foreign investors ‘fair and equitable treatment‘
• Expropriation and the quantification of compensation
• Contract claims versus treaty claims: the ‘umbrella’ clause
• Arbitration under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention.

This subject is at its core is an advanced common law treatment of international trade law dealing with the import and export of goods by sea. Apart from CIF, FOB and related matters, it deals with bankers’ letters of credit financing such sales. Approximately 20 per cent of the course is also dedicated to the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods 1980, with emphasis on the differences between this instrument and the common law approach. This subject deals with the international sale of goods, primarily with respect to the sale of commodities, where the interplay between sale as a commercial activity and sale as a speculative instrument can most acutely be observed. Uniformity is an important theme is this subject, whether it is based upon the choice of a standard form contract and the same applicable national law, or the uniformity that is manifest in the national law of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods 1980.

Principal topics include:

• The passing of title to, and risk in, the goods
• Allocation of responsibility for arranging carriage and insurance
• The relationship between the carriage and insurance contracts and the sale contract
• Export and import licences
• Bills of lading and the network of contracts that work to effect international sales
• How and when payment is to be made for the goods
• The International Chamber of Commerce Incoterms 2010
• The application and content of the UN Convention on the International Sales of Goods (CISG)
• Non-conformity of goods and the buyer’s remedies
• Documentary letters of credit and documentary collection
• Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits 2007 (UCP 600).

International trade is of great importance to almost every country in the world. Many legal relationships are necessary for goods to be traded from one country to another, and they are all predictably flavoured by the issues that arise when different legal systems interact. This subject considers the private commercial legal issues that arise when goods are traded from one country to another, framework contracts such as agency and exclusive distribution, as well as public international law issues that arise when governments try to influence the subject of international trade. The goal of the subject is to give some sense of how the private commercial aspects of trade create issues for government-to-government relationships about trade, and vice versa.

Principal topics include:

• The contracts by which trade in goods takes place: sale, transport, payments and insurance
• Marketing and licensing structures: distributors, agency, franchising, licensing and transfer of technology
• The impact upon trade of international institutions and agreements: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Impediments to, and regulation of, international trade: anti-dumping, duties and antitrust
• Regulation of international investment
• Conflict of laws issues in international trade
• Resolution of disputes in international trade litigation, arbitration, alternative dispute resolution and the recognition of foreign judgments and awards.

As markets are increasingly globalised, there is an accompanying diffusion of sites of regulation and governance. Diverse actors and organisations – public and private, national and international, spanning jurisdictional boundaries – compete for the authority to define and operationalise the rules for the conduct of global commerce. These developments raise a number of fundamental questions for lawyers: how is regulatory authority distributed in global markets, and how should it be? How are completing claims to such authority mediated and resolved in practice? And what role does law play in shaping the dynamics of global markets?

This subject helps students think about these questions from a number of different perspectives. Students are introduced to the range of techniques and institutions that currently exist to address regulatory controversies and to set the conditions for regulatory coordination. In addition, students are asked to engage with some of the deeper questions of normative political and social theory raised by the operation of these techniques and institutions, through readings drawn from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, science and technology studies, politics and law. This technical and theoretical material is set side by side with, and explored through, a series of four grounded case studies, typically drawn from contemporary global markets in financial services, tobacco control, biotechnology, carbon trading, fisheries and energy. The subject develops understanding of ‘fragmentation’, which in this context refers to the proliferation of sites of global governance, as well as the theme of ‘expertise’, which signals an interest in contemporary re-articulations of the power-knowledge nexus. Regulating Global Markets will be of interest to lawyers whose practices support international businesses, students who are engaged with contemporary political questions around economic globalisation and the backlash to it, and anyone with an interest in questions of political and social theory as they relate to international law.

There will be four case studies addressed in the subject, the content of which may change from year to year. Illustrative topics include the global dimensions of:

• The regulation of biotech foods
• Currency manipulation
• Tobacco control
• Financial stability
• The industrial policy of climate change
• Global fisheries management
• Public support systems for energy (both renewable and fossil-fuel based)
• Foreign investment in agriculture and infrastructure services.

The theoretical writing will be organised around four themes, which may include some of:

• Global constitutionalism
• Empire
• Sociotechnical imaginaries
• Reflexivity
• Regime interaction
• Expertise studies
• International governmentality studies
• Global administrative law
• New governance
• Global experimentalist governance.

The law and institutions covered in the subject will depend on the case studies chosen. However, students can expect a significant part of the subject to focus on such institutions as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, the World Health Organization, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and their related bodies of law.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is at the centre of ongoing debates concerning both fragmentation of public international law and persistent inequities between developed and developing countries. It also provides one of the most active systems in the world for resolving international disputes, with jurisdiction over some of the largest and most significant matters arising today. This subject offers a sophisticated understanding of the WTO and its dispute settlement system, including a detailed analysis of the fundamental principles and jurisprudence of WTO law. The instructors are both leading scholars in WTO law and former Legal Officers with the Appellate Body Secretariat of the WTO.

Principal topics include:

• History and objectives of the WTO
• WTO dispute settlement
• Core disciplines under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994):
  • Tariff bindings
  • Non-discrimination (most-favoured nation (MFN) and national treatment)
  • Prohibition on quantitative restrictions
• Exceptions to WTO commitments, eg environment, health, public morals, culture, free trade agreements, and special and differential treatment for developing countries
• The regulation of trade in services under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
• Current challenges facing the WTO and the Doha Development Round of negotiations.

The proper role to be played by labour standards and human rights in the construction of the international economic order, and in the development process, is an intricate issue and a matter of controversy. This subject examines the relationship between (economic) development and labour law – exploring the place of rights within both investment and trade-led development models, and the contrasting social justice-based developmental approaches.

In investigating the role of labour law in development, this subject interrogates the rationales, content, institutions and regulatory frameworks relating to labour standards and human rights at regional and international levels. This entails not only a technical analysis of transnational instruments and supervisory structures but also detailed consideration of underlying political and economic concerns. Such regulatory frameworks for labour that have prevailed in the global ‘North’ have been the basis of transplantation and experimentation in the 'South', and might obscure the actual characteristics of labour relations in the ‘South’. The subject examines the redefinition of labour law, paying close attention to North-South relations in the regulation of labour; to the relationship between labour rights and human rights; and to the limits of rights discourse.

Attention will be given to various case studies. Illustrative topics include:

• Introduction: Re-imagining labour law for development
• Labour and the turn to human rights discourse
• The changing nature of work: informalisation, ‘precariatisation’, and the rise in low quality work
• Defining labour in the global North and the global South: Unpaid labour, family employment and care work
• Setting, supervising and enforcing international labour standards
• ‘Core’ labour rights and the International Labour Organisation
• Development, free trade and labour rights: socio-economic rights as a condition of international trade
• Competing regimes and norms on migrant labour
• The regional and sub-regional dimension: the European Union, the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• Labour dimensions of codes of conduct, social labelling and investor initiatives: effectiveness and legitimacy
• ‘Post-industrial’ labour law in the global North and South: Alternative models of social protection and social justice, Universal Basic Income and employment guarantees

The concept of development has been crucial to structuring international legal relations from the end of World War II to the present day. During that time, international law and institutions have taken on ‘development’ as a primary project. In both the public and economic domains, the vast majority of international institutions engage with the development project in some shape or form. This subject invites students to think about the nature and importance of development and its relation to international law. The history of development in relation to imperialism, decolonisation, the Cold War and globalisation means that this set of relations is complex and dynamic. Understanding it is crucial to understanding the place of international law, and the work development does in the contemporary world.

Principal topics include:

• Law and development as a field
• The ‘development’ concept and its precursors
• The relationship between the concepts of ‘law’ and ‘development’
• The institutionalisation of development
• Development, imperialism, decolonisation and the nation state
• Permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the new international economic order
• Debt crises and development(s) at the Bretton Wood institutions
• Trade and development
• Globalisation, governance and the rule of law
• Sustainability, democracy and human rights
• Resistance, alternatives and post-development
• The future: development and security.

The subject considers key legal concepts employed in commercial law and the practical role they play in solving commercial disputes. Our focus is on key structures and relationships used in commercial transactions, and the question of how such structures and relationships may affect third parties. As commercial parties often need to decide what legal structure to adopt in a relationship, we consider and compare the differing legal consequences of different types of commercial transactions, looking at their effect on both contracting parties and third parties. In doing so, we look at how key conceptual building blocks of commercial law (such as agency; trusts; sale; assignment; and security) are applied in practice. Given the international nature of much commercial law, and the important ongoing influence of shared common law concepts, we consider both Australian and English materials.

The syllabus remains flexible to ensure that our focus is on recent developments and topics of current interest. In 2019, the core topics studied will be: (i) agency: its internal and external aspects; (ii) trusts and their use in commercial transactions; (iii) sale and the effect of passing property; (iv) assignment of contractual rights and the practical effects of non-assignment clauses; (v) the operation of good faith in commercial relationships.  Broader themes to be discussed include: (i) the effects of different transactions on third parties, including the limits placed by the law on the parties’ freedom to determine such effects; (ii) the interaction of common law, equity and statute in commercial contexts.

Students taking this subject will be assumed to have a basic knowledge of the principles of contract law, property law, equity and trusts, as applied in Australia or other legal jurisdictions.

Principal topics:

• Agency: internal and external aspects
• The use of trusts in commercial relationships
• Sale and the effect of passing property
• The transfer and protection of intangible commercial rights, including assignment of choses in action
• The role of good faith in commercial transactions

Equitable doctrines and remedies lie at the heart of commercial conduct, transactions and private law litigation. They provide unique standards of conduct that restrict and guide commercial dealings and a raft of powerful personal and proprietary remedies that dictate defendant liability when transactions fail. Over recent years their influence has been seen not only in important judicial decisions affecting commercial dealings, but in the raft of legislation that now builds on those equitable foundations. This subject considers some of the more pressing points of convergence between equitable doctrine and commercial practice, and examines their ongoing relationship with key statutory counterparts. In doing so, the subject is tightly structured to ensure that students are exposed to cutting-edge legal theory concerning court-led equitable developments and to the ramifications of those developments at the coal-face of commercial practice and dealings.

This subject will be relevant to transaction lawyers involved in planning, initiating and drafting contracts, for corporate lawyers and regulators involved in consumer and banking law and for commercial litigators. The lecturers are internationally recognised experts in the commercial applications of equitable doctrines and remedies. They are also exceptional teachers, evidenced by the consistently outstanding results in the student experience surveys for this subject.

Principal topics include:

• The role of equity in commercial transactions
• The nature of the fiduciary obligations, including the avoidance and ‘management’ of fiduciary conflicts
• Undue influence, mistakes and the enforcement of domestic guarantees in banking contexts
• Quistclose trusts
• The role of estoppel in commercial transactions
• Equitable remedies for breach of obligation, with special reference to gain-based awards and constructive and resulting trusts.

The law of contract interpretation is one of the most practically important areas of commercial law. In recent years, interpretation disputes have come to dominate contract litigation. Because views can differ as to basic questions — such as whether particular words have a plain meaning, and what ‘commercial sense’ dictates in a given situation — the outcome of these cases is often difficult to predict. This subject will study the core principles of contract interpretation in Australian and English law. It will also examine the closely related principles concerning implied terms, rectification and estoppel by convention. Current issues and controversies will be considered. The common law approach to contract interpretation will be compared with those adopted in important international instruments such as the United Nations (UN) Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The lecturer is a former commercial practitioner who has taught contract law for many years and has published widely on relevant topics.

This subject will examine the principles governing the interpretation of commercial contracts, and the closely related principles concerning implied terms, rectification and estoppel by convention.

Principal topics include:

• The place of interpretation in the law of contract
• The modern approach to interpretation
• The core principles of interpretation
• The availability and relevance of extrinsic evidence
• The identification of implied terms
• The equitable remedy of rectification
• Estoppel by convention
• A comparison between the common law principles of contract interpretation and those of international instruments such as the United Nations (UN) Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts and the Principles of European Contract Law.

Contract is central to the legal regulation of most commercial and economic activity, and underlies many specialist areas of legal practice. As market costs and values move, many contracts become increasingly valuable to one party and burdensome to the other. One party’s ability to terminate, or to successfully resist the termination of, a commercial contract is frequently a matter of considerable financial importance. The complex interaction between common law termination rights and rights to terminate expressly conferred by clauses in the contract in question is seldom properly understood, as illustrated by many of the cases from which this subject is taught.

This subject is taught from selected cases rather than textbooks. Principal topics include:

• Breach of conditions, including what makes a promissory term a strict condition
• Non-fulfilment of conditions precedent, and associated promissory obligations
• Breaches of intermediate terms, and what makes them sufficiently serious to justify termination
• Repudiation in its different forms
• Breach of time obligations, and the use and consequences of Notices to Perform/Complete
• Express termination clauses—the different principles concerning their operation, and ‘compare and contrast’ the principles concerning termination at common law
• Possible limits on an aggrieved party’s right to terminate through:
  • Election/affirmation
  • Estoppel
  • Breach or an absence of readiness, willingness and ability to perform on his/her own part
  • Relief against forfeiture
• Remedies accompanying effective or attempted terminations, including:
  • Principles of quantifying expectation damages at common law
  • Limited rights to damages on termination pursuant to an express clause
  • Contractual rights to remuneration accrued due prior to the termination
  • Exceptional limitations on the recoverability of contractual remuneration.

Negligence is one of the most heavily litigated causes of action in common law jurisdictions. It is of enormous practical importance in a very wide range of fact situations. It is also a dynamic area of law: the relevant principles are constantly being applied to new fact situations, and the courts are regularly forced to grapple with difficult questions about the scope of negligence liability. This subject examines key current issues and controversies in the law of negligence in the light of theoretical and comparative perspectives. The lecturers have both published widely on private law topics, including a range of issues in the law of negligence.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of the law of negligence, including theoretical and historical perspectives and the place of negligence in tort law and private law
• The duty of care requirement in general terms, including the distinction between duty in law and duty in fact, the approach to the duty question in novel situations and the role of public policy in duty decisions
• Liability for psychiatric injury
• Liability for pure economic loss
• Liability for omissions
• Liability of public authorities
• Current issues in the standard of care and its application, with particular reference to professional negligence cases
• The requirement of damage
• Factual causation, including recovery for loss of a chance
• Scope of liability (legal causation and remoteness)
• Defences (both common law and statutory).

This subject provides an introduction to the global law relating to international commercial contracts. A major focus will be on contracts of sales, as codified by the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). However, some issues of the general law of contract will also be covered in detail (eg formation, interpretation, third party rights, the duty of good faith and fair dealing). The treatment of some of these topics will be based on an examination of the 2016 UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC). The approach is comparative. Examples will be drawn from the decisions of national courts as well as arbitral awards.

Principal topics include:

• Global commercial contracts
• Applicability and application of the CISG and the PICC
• Interpretation and supplementation of the CISG and the PICC
• Contract formation
• Interpretation of international commercial contracts
• Third party rights
• Obligations of sellers and buyers
• Contractual remedies
• Good faith and fair dealing
• Transnational commercial dispute resolution.

With the explosion in international commercial transactions in the past decades there has also come a significant increase in cross-border disputes before Australian and other national courts. The aim of this subject is to examine the key principles governing cross-border litigation in Australia, focusing on the questions of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition of foreign judgments. The subject is designed for both practitioners and scholars and will be taught by Professor Richard Garnett, a leading expert on conflict of laws in Australia who regularly advises on cross-border disputes, and Dr Albert Dinelli of the Victorian Bar, who completed his Oxford doctorate in the field.

This subject will examine, from an advanced and specialist point of view, litigation of cross-border disputes in a commercial setting. It will consider the key doctrinal principles in the area as well as problems commonly encountered in commercial practice.

Principal topics include:

• Whether a Victorian/Australian court has jurisdiction to consider a matter
• Whether a Victorian/Australian court will decline jurisdiction in a matter by staying its proceedings or whether it may restrain proceedings in a foreign court
• Which law should govern the substantive issues (in the areas of tort, contract and equitable obligations)
• The effect of foreign judgments and orders in Victoria/Australia.

This subject is a study of trusts in an international context, beginning with the rise of the modern form of discretionary trust and the problems of holding trustees to account and controlling the exercise of their discretion. It explores how trusts are used in the 'offshore world', which allows for private purpose trusts and makes use of enforcers, protectors, and letters of wishes. It looks at how trusts are used, and misused, to protect assets from creditors, and how they are used in civil law jurisdictions.

It is suitable for those with common law or civil law backgrounds, whether they have studied trusts at an undergraduate level or not. Suggestions for some extra introductory reading will be provided for those who are new to trusts or wish to brush-up on basic trust concepts.

Principal topics include:

• Control of trustees
• Purpose trusts
• Enforcers and protectors
• Letters of wishes
• Shams
• Asset protection
• Trusts in private international law
• Trusts in civil law jurisdictions.

A considerable amount of litigation is concerned with legal responsibility for things said and done during contract negotiations, whether or not those negotiations result in a formal contract. Liability can arise from promises, representations and non-disclosure, and can arise by way of unintended contracts, the addition of unintended contract terms, through different forms of estoppel, under statute, in tort or in restitution. All of the relevant causes of action are at various points complex and uncertain. This subject will involve an advanced study of the circumstances in which those causes of action arise, their remedial consequences and the relations and distinctions between them. It will focus particularly on recent developments in Australian and English law. The lecturers have written extensively on the topics covered by the subject, and their published work has been widely cited and discussed by the courts in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Principal topics include:

• Preliminary agreements and ‘subject to contract’ clauses
• The incorporation of contract terms, the parol evidence rule and ‘entire agreement’ or merger clauses
• Pre-contractual promissory estoppel, proprietary estoppel and estoppel by convention
• Pre-contractual misleading or deceptive conduct
• Pre-contractual liability in tort
• Liability in restitution where contracts fail to materialise.

This subject examines the remedies commonly awarded in commercial litigation. All the major common law, equitable and statutory remedies will be covered, along with personal remedies, such as damages and proprietary remedies, such as the constructive trust. The strategic selection of remedies in commercial disputes will be considered and Australian law will be compared, where relevant, with the law of other major commercial law jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• Damages in tort (excluding personal injuries) and for breach of contract, including issues of concurrency, where both tort and contract damages are available. Expectation and reliance damages and the protection of the ‘performance interest’ in contract. The role of liquidated damages clauses, and the penalties doctrine, will be considered, as well as the principles governing the award of exemplary and nominal damages.
• Statutory damages awards, with particular reference to damages awarded under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
• Equitable compensation for breach of equitable obligations, including breach of fiduciary obligation. Statutory damages under the Chancery Amendment Act 1858 (Imp) and equivalent Australian legislation
• Specific performance of contracts, with particular reference to the role of specific performance in common law and civil law jurisdictions
• Injunctions, including a study of the interests protected in injunction litigation. Interlocutory orders, including Mareva orders, will be examined
• The account of profits as a remedy for equitable wrongdoing, and debates about the availability of the account of profits as a remedy for breach of contract
• Proprietary remedies, with particular reference to the distinction between institutional and remedial constructive trusts
• A comparison of the role of the constructive trust, in commercial litigation, in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Although of ancient origin, the law of restitution is a new, intensely interesting and vital part of the common law of Australia. The law of restitution intersects with, sits alongside or forms a part of, contract law, insolvency, equity, trusts and torts, and as such an understanding of the subject is important for lawyers or non-lawyers with an interest or who practise in the field of private law. The subject syllabus focuses on decisions of Australian courts, with some reference to English and Canadian cases. Through the cases, an understanding of the law of restitution is developed. Practical and theoretical aspects are also considered: from how to plead a claim for restitution to examining the place of the law of restitution under the current High Court. Both lecturers are ideally suited to provide instruction on the subject: The Hon. Keith Mason as the former President of the NSW Court of Appeal and co-author of the leading Australian text on the subject. Mr Michael Rush, presently practising at the Victorian Bar with a doctorate in restitution from the University of Oxford.

This subject provides an analysis of the law of restitution in Australia. Principal topics will include:

• Overview of the law of restitution, including the principles on which it is based, its nature and ambit, how it should be pleaded, its role as part of the common law of Australia and its impact on unwinding commercial transactions
• Identification of parties: Determining the breadth of what constitutes an enrichment in the hands of a defendant and how a plaintiff can establish a connection to that enrichment sufficient to found a cause of action in restitution
• Reasons for restitution: When is it unjust for a defendant, who receives an enrichment at the expense of the plaintiff, to retain that enrichment? Grounds for restitution, including benefits conferred by mistake, failure of consideration, duress, undue influence and instances where the claimant has no intention to benefit the recipient. Consideration of restitutionary claims for wrongdoing, including breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty
• Defences: Change of position, estoppel, passing on, illegality, bona fide purchase and ministerial receipt.

Many international transactions choose the law of a US jurisdiction as governing law—especially New York or Californian law. This subject covers doctrines distinctive to US contract law, with attention to important differences between New York and California. US contract law derives from the common law, but departs in important and surprising ways from the law of other common law countries. This subject will therefore be of interest to both common law and civil law lawyers. The focus will be on those aspects of US contract law that are distinctively different from the law of England or Australia. This includes substantive differences in legal doctrine as well as distinctive legal sources in the US federal system. The lecturer, first trained in Australian law, has taught contract law at New York University School of Law for 20 years, including many times to foreign-trained lawyers. He has published on the theory of contract law.

Principal topics include:

• Legal sources for US contract law, including the Restatement of Contracts II and the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
• Enforceability, focusing on the unique US doctrine of promissory estoppel and its implications for other doctrines such as the Statute of Frauds
• Interpretation and the parol evidence rule, focusing on differences between New York and California law.
• Distinctive elements of the US law of contract remedies, including remedies for promissory estoppel, restitution as a remedy for breach of contract, and the remedies provisions of the UCC
• The US approach to problems of assent in the context of standard forms, including the ‘battle of the forms’ under the UCC and the idea of ‘rolling assent’
• Termination for breach.

Protecting the integrity of sport from doping and match-fixing has become a high profile cause, especially with growing concern over links to illegal gambling, money laundering (estimated at US$130 billion through sports betting) and organised crime. Yet perhaps an even greater threat to the integrity and reputation of sport is to be found away from the fields of play. Corruption in the board rooms and administrative offices of the bodies charged with bringing leadership and good governance to world sport threatens to undermine the willingness of national governments, broadcasters and sponsors to provide essential support and serves to disillusion athletes and fans.

Corruption in International Sport explores the murky realm of ‘institutional or off-field corruption’. By comparison with anti-doping and anti-match fixing, off-field corruption has been lightly regulated and controlled. This subject will investigate the major scandals and the legal and regulatory responses of both international sports bodies and national governmental authorities. With an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the international legal order applying to corruption in sport, students will be in a position to contribute to debate and regulatory development concerning this important issue.

The lecturers share extensive knowledge in sports integrity and will bring international and national perspectives to the subject matter.

Principal topics include:

• Nature and incidence of corruption in international sport with particular attention to the allocation of event hosting rights, commercial dealings, governance and links between doping, match-fixing and sports betting
• The role and nature of international and national laws against bribery and corruption including jurisdictional issues and the realtionship between such laws
• Anti-corruption standards and measures in international sports bodies
• Regulatory measures of sports bodies to address corruption in the awarding of event hosting and other commercial rights
• Ethical standards in the governance of sports bodies including protocols for transparency
• The mechanisms of investigation and prosecution of corrupt activity including information-sharing between sports and relevant government authorities
• The role of independent, private monitoring agencies and pressure groups such as the news media and Transparency International.

Esports refers to competitive video gaming, often in the form of professional events (league competitions, tournaments, championships or battle/match) and typically between sponsored gamers or teams. In the past decade, esports’s business model has developed rapidly from one initially based on individual game publishers to the contemporary multi-stakeholder industry that is projected to have revenues of Aus$2 billion in 2022 and a fan base on over a 1 billion in the same year. Esports leagues and franchises are now aligned with leading global sports entities such as the NBA and FIFA and it is in line to be included in future Olympic Games. This rapid growth and investment from traditional sports has not always been accompanied by adequate governance structures or legal protections for investors, sponsors or players. Being the first of its kind and delivered by experts in the industry and in sports law, the subject reviews the legal challenges and opportunities ahead for esports as an innovative and important revenue stream of the sports industry domestically and abroad.

This subject provides a critical examination of the development and current scope of esports as an industry and with respect to its current and future governance and legal obligations both domestically and globally as informed by a comparative approach.

Principal topics include:

• An introduction to the esports ecosystem
• Stakeholder overview: publishers; event organisers; league operators; teams and organisations; players; talent and content creators; fans
• Governing control in esports: software IP and license agreements
• esports mega events
• Regulating the esports scene; gambling and integrity; player rights and unionisation; diversity and inclusion; pathways into pro gaming.

Bidding for and managing major events have become a significant part of the sporting and cultural scene in Australia and internationally, attracting the interest of governments and major businesses. Australia, and Melbourne in particular, are recognised for their leadership in this growing segment of the entertainment industry, with Melbourne repeatedly winning the title of the world‘s ‘Ultimate Sports City‘. This subject provides students with an applied approach to the legal aspects of staging major events from beginning to end. The two lecturers work in the industry and bring to the subject strong practical experience of bidding for events, providing the necessary physical and legal infrastructure and dealing with operational issues.

Principal topics will include the legal aspects of:

• Event ownership
• Event procurement, including bidding processes and government support
• Role of host organisations and promoters
• Commercial arrangements, including broadcasting, sponsorship, corporate hospitality and merchandising
• Venue hire
• Role of federal and state governments, including special-purpose legislation, policing and security, traffic and transport, public health, and business and tourism development programs
• Ticketing and accreditation, including sale and distribution methods, and terms and conditions
• Brand protection and anti-infringement strategies
• Risk and incident management.

Gambling is one of the most heavily regulated industry sectors in Australian society, yet is a leisure activity enjoyed by many Australians. This subject will provide background to the manner in which it is regulated in Australia, and internationally, and provide guidance on the challenges facing the sector and how it may be regulated in the future. The subject will also address emerging issues affecting the gambling sector, including the impact of new technologies and the globalisation of the industry.

The two lecturers are leaders in the field. Jamie Nettleton is recognised internationally as a leading expert in legal issues relating to the gambling industry and advises all categories of operators within the gambling industry. Professor Rose is an internationally recognised scholar in the area with more than 1,500 published works and as a public speaker, often the keynote speaker on gambling issues.

Principal topics include:

• What is gambling?
• The regulation of the Australian gambling sector
• The policy, business and legal challenges posed to the success of the Australian gambling sector, both within Australia and from international sources
• The best compliance model for the regulation of the sector.

‘Player contracts’ is often the first thought that comes to mind when sports law is mentioned, but it is the framework of labour market rules concerning the likes of transfers, drafts and salary caps that constitutes one of the most engaging and unique aspects of the sports law landscape. The international nature of sport is reflected in this subject’s exploration of employment, labour market rules and the role of player associations and collective bargaining in major sports across three continents. This popular subject is for anyone interested in the representation of athletes and their employers. Between them the lecturers muster a vast knowledge and practical experience in this important field.

This subject will examine sports employment law issues internationally, particularly in Australasia, Europe and the United States. Attention will be paid to the major professional team sports in these different legal jurisdictions and the legal needs of key stakeholders. A prominent theme will be the unusual aspects of the sports labour market and industrial relations process.

Principal topics include:

• Commercial environment of the sports labour market
• General principles of employment law in sports
• Labour market controls in professional team sports and the role of competition law in Australasia, Europe and the United States
• Emergence and role of player associations
• Collective bargaining agreements
• The player/agent legal relationship and the regulation of agents
• Player marketing rights
• Selected issues in employment law, including selection, disciplinary measures, disability and workers’ compensation, termination and grievance procedures.

For centuries the breeding and racing of animals, especially horses, has been pursued with interest and passion in many parts of the world. A race attracts betting and from that emerges the prospect of misdeeds. As the scale and economic significance of the racing and associated betting industries have grown, so too has regulation by private groups and public authorities. Today, these industries face new challenges to their economic and regulatory models, born of a wide range of alternate gambling opportunities and the need to safeguard integrity. Changing attitudes to animal welfare are also influential. This subject explores different ways in which the law operates in this field and might be developed to meet the new challenges. It is for anyone interested in animal racing, including legal counsel, integrity officers and gambling industry participants. The three-member teaching team brings to the subject a varied and high level of expertise.

This subject will consider selected topics concerning the regulation of the racing industry (thoroughbred, harness and greyhound) in Australia. The primary focus will be upon analysing evolving regulatory arrangements and the role of public policy.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of the structure of the racing industry in Australia, including identification of key stakeholders and commercial and legal relationships
• Governance and regulatory issues, including the historical role of Principal Clubs and the trend to public regulation
• Public policy issues in gambling control and their relationship to the racing industry
• Legal aspects of breeding, purchase and ownership, including the role of the Australian Stud Book and syndication
• Liability for injury
• Occupational regulation of jockeys, trainers and bookmakers
• Legal aspects of race results, prizes and incentive schemes
• Legal issues in professional gambling
• Disciplinary powers and processes, including stewards’ hearings, appeal tribunals and judicial reviews.

Highly paid international athletes continually attract the attention of tax authorities and the media with regard to the way that they structure their finances. Similarly, sporting organisations and clubs are also subject to continuous scrutiny with regard to their finances and tax affairs.

The international nature of sport provides a wealth of opportunities for tax planning and also for pitfalls when it comes to tax compliance. Keeping your affairs in order when you are a globe-trotting sportsperson in a multitude of countries is not easy, and many athletes and sporting organisations rely heavily on expert advisers.

This subject is for sportspeople, sports agents, sports administrators and other sporting advisers to expand their knowledge of how to manage their or their client’s tax affairs. The subject should enable students to better identify tax issues and tax opportunities with regard to sporting income and sporting-related financial arrangements.

While the subject has a focus on sporting-related income, it also provides a broad introduction to individual international tax and double tax treaties.

Principal topics will include:

• Income tax aspects of income from sport activities:
  • Amateur versus professional
  • Special tax regimes for athletes
  • Individual sports
  • Team sports
• Income tax aspects of other income related to sports activities:
  • Publicity on clothing
  • Use of products
  • Sponsorships
  • Subsidies and grants
  • Inducement payments
  • Athlete’s image rights
  • Merchandising
• Income tax aspects of sports clubs and associations
• Taxation of sports events
• Foreign income derived by resident athletes
• Taxation of non-resident athletes deriving Australian source income
• Tax planning aspects for athletes.

Commercialised sports in the developed world constitute a multi-billion-dollar industry raising unique issues under competition law. Courts around the world have recognised that clubs that are commercial rivals necessarily need to collaborate in some ways for their sporting competitions to serve the public. Outside of North America, commercialised sports competitions form part of an integrated system of sports, typically under the supervision of a single national governing board. This too raises important questions about the use or abuse of a commercially-dominant position.

The overall structure of sporting competitions is thus potentially subject to judicial challenge under competition law statutes around the world. Specific agreements attributed to multiple parties, or to a single entity with a dominant position, are also subject to competition law challenges by governments, affected stakeholders or consumers.

The lecturer is an international leader in the field of the application of competition law to sports and has authored works dealing with this issue in developed economies, including Australia and New Zealand.

This subject considers the basic principles of competition law statutes applicable in North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand, as well as relevant principles of the common law of restraint of trade. It then applies these principles in exploring a number of cutting-edge issues in the sports industry, including:

• The formation and structure of sports leagues
• Restrictive labour market practices (salary caps, drafts, limits on free mobility)
• Collective agreements regarding broadcasting, internet commerce, sponsorship, merchandise, intellectual property licensing etc.
• Competitive effects of league or federation rules regarding finances and ownership
• Permissible and impermissible responses to creation of rival competitions.

Application of competition law precedents covers several recurring questions, including the availability of private remedies, market definition and the relevance of non-commercial purposes in justifying conduct that might be clearly unlawful in non-sports industries.

Although the subject assumes no prior knowledge of competition law, other than a review of foundational principles underlying various competition statutes, it offers students with competition law background an opportunity to apply their knowledge to a unique and intellectually challenging setting.

The resolution of sports disputes has become more formalised and complex over the past two decades, especially with the emergence of international bodies such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The importance of understanding the legal principles, processes and skills of sports dispute resolution has never been greater. The lecturers bring to this subject an impressive knowledge and experience in the theoretical and practical aspects of sports dispute resolution at national and international levels.

Principal topics include:

• The legal principles (substantive and procedural) that comprise the ‘ius ludorum’ (law of games)
• Types of sport resolution procedures (domestic and international)
• Techniques for effective advocacy and decision-making in sports dispute resolution.

Sport is both an industry of the modern age and a traditional activity that reaches to the core of the social fabric. Law and sport intersect in many and varied ways, some of which challenge established notions of thinking about law. Sports Industry and the Law is the flagship subject of the sports law program, surveying many areas of legal controversy in sport, with particular emphasis on the link between the commercialisation of sport and the emergence of sports law. This subject is the best place to start for students embarking on a program of sports law studies and, for the student with wider interests, the ideal subject through which to sample sports law.

The aim of this subject is to provide an account of how the law influences the operation, administration and playing of modern sports. Although the subject focuses on legal doctrine, it will bear in mind sport’s historical, cultural, social and economic context, including the drama and colour of major sporting events and leading personalities. And although it is inevitably very much concerned with elite professional sports, it is not dominated by them and seeks to cover the widest possible range of sports, professional and amateur.

Initially, the subject addresses practical issues such as the structures of national and international sport, and examines the evolution of the body of law known sometimes as “sports law” or lex sportiva. Thereafter, three main themes are identified: regulatory, participatory, and financial aspects of modern sport. The regulatory theme is dealt with in lectures that consider the manner in which decisions of sports governing bodies may be challenged in the ordinary courts and the development of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in sport. The participatory theme includes the legal regulation of doping and criminal violence in sport, as well as the broader topic of tortious liability for sporting injuries. The financial theme, reflecting the enhanced commercialisation of sport at all levels, is developed in lectures concerning issues in applied contract and employment law for players and legal matters surrounding the organisation of major sports events.

In sum, the subject is designed to cover fundamental and topical areas of sports law:

• Sports law in general
• Sports bodies and the courts
• Arbitration in sport
• Corruption
• Doping
• Violence
• Civil liability
• Discrimination
• The commodification of modern sport
• The likely future of sports law.

Sport is renowned for embodying some of the highest and most inspiring of human ideals. Few other pursuits activate the passion with which sport is played and followed. For many people, sport delivers release from the shady aspects of life. This shining image is threatened by corrupt practices around doping, match-fixing and other activities; some with links to illegal gambling and organised crime. Also, the holding of public inquiries into questionable incidents and behaviour occurring in the context of sport can have an adverse impact.

Sport bodies and governments around the world are taking legal and regulatory steps to counter these threats. This subject will explore the new frontier of sports law, from criminal laws to mandatory information sharing and monitoring arrangements, and onto the establishment and processes of inquiries. With an understanding of the international legal order around ‘integrity’ and sports investigations, students will be well-placed to contribute to this emerging field both practically and academically.

Between them, the lecturers have extensive knowledge and industry experience in sports law, anti-doping, investigations and governance.

Principal topics include at both national and international levels:

• Nature and meaning of integrity in sports competition and governance including historical and empirical perspectives
• The criminalisation of the manipulation of sporting outcomes
• The legal regulation of gambling on sport and its relationship to integrity
• Regulatory measures of sports bodies to address manipulation of sporting outcomes
• Doping and the criminal law
• The structure and role of investigative and enforcement bodies such as ethics commissions and integrity units
• The establishment and conduct of inquiries into sports activities and bodies
• Powers of investigation and information-sharing of sports bodies and relevant government authorities with particular emphasis on doping and the manipulation of sporting outcomes.

This century has witnessed much controversy concerning the governance of sport. Good governance and legal structures are seen by many astute observers as key elements in sporting success. From grassroots to the highest echelons, the governance of sport is a central practical issue and fascinating field of study. The law has struggled to meet the needs of community groups looking for effective but simple structures and governance models to propel sports participation and social connection, while successful professional sports leagues have searched for models that respond to their peculiar combination of sporting competition and economic cooperation. In the face of intensifying legal and public scrutiny, sports governing entities and regulators strive to implement good governance principles, structures and practices at the local, national and international levels of sport. This subject explores the legal aspects of these issues.

The lecturers bring an unrivalled combination of knowledge and experience in this area, encompassing leadership of major sports organisations, corporate and sports law practice, and published research on the business models of clubs, leagues and related sports law issues.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of the organisational structures of Australian and international sport, encompassing clubs, regional and national governing bodies, professional leagues and tours, government authorities, special-interest groups, international federations and Olympic and Commonwealth Games organisations
• Legal status of sports entities, including the legal personality and capacity of unincorporated clubs, incorporated associations and companies limited by guarantee, the meaning and consequences of trading activity and non-profit status and taxation
• Legal regulation and corporate governance of sports entities, including the role and obligations of directors, officers and committee members of sports entities
• The policy, regulatory and funding roles of the Australian Sports Commission
• The legal and governance structures, and underlying economic principles, of professional sports leagues and other competitions
• Sports entities and the legal process, including the sources and limits of legal authority over members, jurisdiction of domestic courts over international federations, leagues and tours, arbitration agreements and ouster of jurisdiction
• Stakeholder rights and interests, incorporating a broad legal and policy analysis of issues of accountability, transparency and due process in the relationships between sports entities at various levels, government, financial supporters, elite and non-elite participants and fans.

Sponsorship announcements and media rights deals in sport can attract publicity like gold medals. The ingenuity of an ambush marketer may rival the game plan for an upset victory. This subject surveys the legal underpinnings of modern sports marketing and the role of the media, especially the new media, from the perspectives of key stakeholders: sports bodies, athletes, sponsors, the media and venue owners. Conflict between rights holders and those who claim commercial free speech at the fringe of official rights is analysed. This subject covers how specific new laws and increasingly intricate contractual allocation of rights aim to contain the ambusher. It will be of interest to lawyers, sports, marketing and media executives, and player agents. One lecturer is a barrister who has studied and written in the area, and the other is a lawyer who has served as in-house counsel for a public broadcaster for many years.

This subject considers the legal aspects of sports marketing and associated media in Australia. Attention is paid to the different legal needs of key stakeholders in sport. It involves assessing the impact on the legal environment of sports marketing and media rights in an era of increased commercialism and professionalism in sport, and of significant change in the technology of communication and marketing.

Principal topics include:

• The commercial environment of sports marketing
• Intellectual property and related legal principles as they apply to sports marketing: passing-off, copyright, designs, misleading or deceptive conduct, trade marks, trade names and internet domain names
• Laws promoting competition as they apply to sports marketing and the sale of media rights: restraint of trade at common law and restrictive trade practices under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
• Olympic marketing arrangements and protection of Olympic insignia
• Athlete marketing rights, including personality rights, misleading or deceptive conduct and defamation
• Event, facility and organisation marketing, including rights to a spectacle
• Television and electronic media, including broadcast agreements, anti-siphoning laws, virtual advertising and regulation of alcoholic beverage advertising
• Regulation of tobacco advertising
• Principles of sponsorship agreements
• Ticketing.

With attention often focused on the legal side of commercial dealings and related disputes in sport, the law‘s role regarding the basic building block of sport – the human body – can be overlooked. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this subject will explore the legal and ethical aspects of the medical treatment of elite athletes and the important field of anti-doping. Medico-legal approaches to past and present controversies, including participation of disabled and pregnant athletes, concussion, infectious diseases and single-sex sports will be investigated in case studies sure to interest and challenge.

This subject is for medical professionals working in sport and for sports administrators and legal counsel responsible for day-to-day operational issues, especially anti-doping. The lecturers are two internationally eminent sports medicine practitioners and a legal expert in the field.

This subject considers selected topics from the medico-legal aspects of sports and anti-doping. The primary focus will be upon analysing the legal relationship between the sports medicine professional and the athlete-patient, especially in the context of team sports, where responsibilities are divided between athlete and team. It will incorporate selective study of a number of legal disciplines, including negligence, confidentiality, anti-discrimination law and anti-doping law.

Principal topics include:

• Responsibility for injury in the practice of sports medicine
• Sports participation with injury or disability
• Working with other health professionals in the ‘sports medicine team‘
• Boxing
• Concussion
• Infectious diseases in sport
• Performance-enhancing drugs with an emphasis on the medico/legal interface
• Illicit drugs
• The pregnant athlete
• Sex status of sports participants.

This subject is for those interested in how United States (US) intercollegiate, Olympic and professional sports are internally structured and governed and externally regulated by a wide variety of federal and state laws. Those who have taken this subject say it provides ‘great insights into the US sports law industry’ and ‘a thorough and interesting look at how things are done in the US sports industry and the role the US law system plays in the administration of sports’.

Taking this subject provides students with a comparative sports law perspective by studying how US law shapes and regulates the major North American professional sports leagues’ business models as well as the relationships among their member clubs and with their players and labor unions. It also looks at the ‘amateur’ model of intercollegiate athletics and the nature of the legal relationships between universities and studentathletes along with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s governing authority and legal limits thereon. This subject considers how Olympic sports are governed by the United States Olympic Committee pursuant to the legal framework established by the Ted Stephens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. In addition, it covers some important legal issues affecting sports at each of these different levels of athletic competition such as protection of intellectual property and athlete health, safety and injury compensation issues.

The lecturer is the director of the premier sports law institute in the US and an internationally recognised sports law scholar who has substantial experience as a sports arbitrator, attorney and expert witness.

This subject will consider how intercollegiate, Olympic and professional sports are internally governed and regulated by the United States legal system.

Principal topics will include:

• Structure and organisation of US sports
• Regulating intercollegiate athletics, specifically the legal relationship between a university and its student athletes, university duty to protect student athletes’ health and safety, National Collegiate Athletic Association rules infraction enforcement process, scope of judicial review of NCAA rules and enforcement proceedings, antitrust issues and gender equity issues
• Regulating Olympic sports within the US, including limits on use of national law to regulate Olympic sports and the operation of the United States Anti-doping Agency
• Regulating professional athletics, specifically internal league governance and commissioner authority, antitrust limits on internal league governance, labor law and relations, labour arbitration, drug testing issues, and the injury compensation system for professional athletes as well as the legal framework for regulating athlete agents
• Protection of sports-related intellectual property under US law.

This core tax subject examines the law, policy and structural features of capital gains tax (CGT) in Australia and considers and applies CGT rules in a number of different private and business contexts. The subject examines the operation of CGT in detail in the context of the treatment of information and goodwill, earn-outs, the application of CGT to non-residents, in relation to real estate transactions, litigation and the use of trusts and deceased estates.

Principal topics include:

• Structure of the capital gains tax system and its interaction with other tax provisions
• Selected CGT Events and their key concepts
• The CGT treatment of information and goodwill
• The CGT treatment of earn-outs
• The application of CGT to non-residents
• CGT and business structures, restructuring, available rollovers and the small business CGT concessions
• Capital gains tax problems in conveyancing and real estate development
• Capital gains tax problems in compensation payouts
• Capital gains tax problems in trusts and estates.

Globalisation is driving corporate tax systems closer together and often into conflict. For many tax practitioners, it is now not enough to know their own corporate tax system—they must grapple with and question the operation of other corporate tax systems. This subject seeks to develop an ability to understand and analyse any corporate tax system and assess its impact on corporate decision-making. With a dedicated textbook (written by the presenter), this subject compares a number of influential and archetypal corporate tax systems (both common law and civil law) and assesses their behaviour in the context of practical problems. For tax professionals, this subject develops an ability to ask direct and informed questions about a foreign corporate tax system and discuss that system at a high level with foreign tax professionals.

This subject will compare and analyse income tax law in selected countries (Australia, Germany, the US and the UK) and consider how these laws interface with corporate law. Other jurisdictions may also be covered briefly during the course and students are permitted to cover other countries in their research paper.

Principal topics include:

• Identification of entities (including hybrids) subject to corporation tax
• Corporate groups and service companies
• Debt versus equity and dividend relief
• Cross-border corporate income and dividends
• Gains/losses on the disposal of shares, takeovers and trading in loss companies
• Corporate formation, share buy-backs and liquidation
• Bonus issues, convertible notes, mergers and demergers.

This subject will provide a detailed comparative analysis of the principal topics in international taxation. The core principles of international income tax will be examined, with the different approaches taken by nations (developed, emerging, and developing countries) outlined and critiqued. The compatibility of international tax systems in dealing with international transactions will be examined, and key areas of mismatch and overlap identified. The ongoing reform of international tax rules under the O.E.C.D. Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project will be considered. This subject will equip students to analyse international tax issues using a comparative approach and to acquire a deep understanding of the underlying structural, institutional, and policy influences that have shaped international income tax systems. This knowledge is directly applicable to analysing international tax problems in any particular country.

Principal topics include:

• Jurisdiction to tax (residence and source)
• Taxation of foreign income of residents, including elimination of double taxation
• Deductibility of expenses to earn dividends from foreign corporations
• Controlled foreign company rules
• Taxation of non-residents
• Thin capitalisation rules
• Tax treaties
• BEPS issues.

All taxing jurisdictions face the perennial challenge of how to define the boundaries of permissible tax planning and how to address and deter impermissible tax avoidance. Different jurisdictions historically and today have taken different approaches to this challenge, ranging from judicial doctrines of abuse of law or substance over form, to general and specific anti-avoidance rules enacted in the tax statute. This subject examines Australia’s general anti-avoidance rule in comparison with the approach to tax avoidance taken in other jurisdictions. The subject examines recent trends towards legislative general anti-avoidance rules. The focus is, in particular, on developments in the common law world, including the United Kingdom (where a general anti-avoidance statutory rule is proposed to be legislated), the United States, New Zealand and Canada. Attention may also be paid to anti-avoidance approaches in European and other contexts.

Principal topics include:

• Concepts of tax avoidance in Australia and comparative common law contexts, including the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand and Canada, as well as European and other legal contexts
• The role of judicial doctrines and responses to tax avoidance in the common law and other judicial traditions
• General statutory anti-avoidance provisions in comparative legal contexts
• Obligations of taxpayers and advisers in relation to tax avoidance in a global and comparative context.

This core tax subject examines the policies, detailed rules and current practical problems involved in the taxation of companies and shareholders in Australia, particularly at shareholder level. The lecturers are leading practitioners and they will consider the tax rules that apply to shares, corporate distributions, Australia‘s imputation system, the debt-equity integrity rules and the hybrid entity rules. 

Syllabus

This subject consists of a detailed examination of the tax rules applied to companies and shareholders in a domestic setting in Australia, with a focus on issues at the shareholder level.

Principal topics include:

• The policy and problems of taxing companies and shareholders
• Tax treatment of contributions of share capital and assets to a company
• Debt-equity classification
• The corporate shareholder imputation system
• Private company deemed dividends
• Franking credit and capital streaming and associated anti-avoidance rules
• Taxation of company distributions and dealings with interests in companies, including liquidations and share buybacks
• Hybrid rules.

This advanced corporate tax subject provides an in-depth analysis of the tax rules for Australia‘s largest public and private consolidated corporate groups, and the rules for use of losses by companies and corporate groups. It includes detailed discussion of the latest reforms in these highly technical areas of corporate tax practice, in light of tax policy applicable to companies and consolidated groups operating in Australia today. This subject is co-taught by experienced lecturers who combine academic and practitioner experience to deliver this advanced and commercially essential subject.

Principal topics include:

• The rules for membership and formation of a consolidated group in Part 3-90 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth)
• Operation of a consolidated group through normal trading operations, including the single entity rule, treatment of assets and liabilities, tax payment obligations, tax-sharing agreements and the company shareholder imputation system for consolidated groups
• Tax cost setting on joining and leaving of subsidiary members of a consolidated group, including group-to-group transactions
• Tax rules for multiple entry groups owned by foreign investors in Australia
• The interaction of consolidated group tax rules with other tax rules
• Tax rules for losses in companies and consolidated groups, including loss integrity rules, in Divisions 165 and 166 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth).

In today’s global, digital era, international tax is vitally important, and the environment is changing rapidly. Tax issues on diverse topics of cross-border work, consumption, deals and investments are important for taxpayers ranging from individuals to multinational corporations. Governments are increasingly cooperating on tax collection and enforcement, but spill overs from unilateral tax changes of some countries may dramatically affect other countries. Meanwhile, tax competition continues. Tax havens are being brought into the global net and anti-abuse rules are strengthened, yet low tax jurisdictions remain significant for international tax policy. This subject is led by international tax experts and brings academia, government and the profession together to explore the latest trends in international tax and implications for Australia and the world.

The subject will address the latest developments in tax practice and theory on a range of topics such as:

• International tax principles: are residence and source still relevant?
• OECD-G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting measures
• Anti-abuse rules in a global digital era
• Multilateral and bilateral cooperation: Is multilateralism the way of the future and how important are bilateral tax treaties?
• Transnational tax administration and taxpayer rights
• Processes and players in international tax reform
• Future design of international tax rules for corporate, individual and consumption taxes in a global digital context.

This core tax subject examines the fundamentals of taxation, with a focus on Australia’s most important tax: the personal income tax. It engages with the tax law that is most relevant to legal and tax practice for individuals and businesses.

This subject equips students to interpret statutory tax rules and apply judicial approaches, and to understand the policy and implications of tax reform in this fast-changing and challenging area of law. Foundations of Tax Law is a required subject for international tax students and is recommended for all masters students who have had little previous study or experience in tax law and wish to gain a solid grounding in the area

Principal topics include:

• Overview of federal and state taxes in Australia, how tax laws are made, sources of tax law, tax policy and design principles and reform
• The structure of the income tax, concept of income and tax rates
• Income tax law, including calculation of taxable income; definition of income from services, property and business, capital gains, deductions and treatment of business and investment assets
• Overview of income tax of business and investment entities
• Tax avoidance and evasion, and the general anti-avoidance rule.

This core tax subject will examine Australia’s Goods and Services Tax (GST). The subject identifies the core legislative features in Australia’s GST contained in the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999.

The subject includes:

• reference to the value-added tax systems in other jurisdictions such as the European Union, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore; and
• analysis of rulings and cases that are relevant to the operation of, and compliance with, Australia’s GST in practice.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to the GST: the objectives of a tax on household consumption expenditure and the design features and legislative scheme of Australia’s GST
• GST’s ‘basic rules’ and the legislative building blocks contained in the GST law: the taxable person, consumption expenditure, tax value, registration, jurisdictional scope, supplies to and from offshore, exemptions, the destination principle (exports and imports) and input tax relief.
• A legislative overview of the Australian GST treatment of the “difficult to tax” issues: real property and financial services.

This subject is an advanced study of the rules under the Australian income tax legislation and tax treaties for dealing with international tax avoidance. The subject builds on the basic principles studied in International Tax: Principles and Structure. The subject will include a detailed study of Australia’s anti-deferral rules (CFCs and transferor trusts), including their interactions and reconciliations. Other major BEPS issues to be examined in the Australian context include interest deductibility, cross-border tax arbitrage in relation to financial transactions, treaty shopping and taxation of digital transactions. The subject will critically examine the policy underlying Australia’s rules and evaluate whether their technical implementation achieves their policy objectives. There will be consideration of the ongoing reform of the rules, including international developments through the BEPS process. BEPS has the potential to redefine the rules for dealing with international tax avoidance and students working in international tax need to be aware of how these rules are being developed and reformed both globally and in Australia.

Principal topics include:

• Detailed study of Australia’s CFC and transferor trust rules
• Multinational anti-avoidance Law
• Diverted profits tax
• Interest deductibility
• Cross-border tax arbitrage in financing transactions
• Taxation of digital transactions
• Treaty shopping
• Exchange of information.

This core international tax subject is of central importance given Australia’s ever-growing role in the global economy. This subject covers the fundamental international income tax rules that apply where income or capital gains are derived in circumstances that have a connection with Australia. It considers Australia’s tax jurisdiction of residence and source, and relief from double taxation under domestic law and tax treaties. It also examines measures to prevent tax avoidance, such as controlled foreign company measures and transfer pricing.

This subject is designed to explore in detail the fundamental principles of Australia’s international taxation regime. The subject will examine both the issues of tax design and policy, and the relevant provisions in the legislation, cases and rulings.

Principal topics include:

• Principles of international taxation
• Rules for determining residence and source
• Domestic rules for the taxation of residents’ foreign income (foreign income tax offsets, accruals taxation of foreign income and exemption of foreign income)
• Domestic rules for the taxation of non-residents’ Australian source income (business income, interest, dividends and royalties)
• Introduction to tax treaties
• Introduction to thin capitalisation rules.

This subject provides an overview of United States (US) income tax rules for cross-border investments, transactions, and other activities, with specific relevance for Australians investing into the US and for US persons investing into Australia. The subject will incorporate the latest developments in United States international tax rules. It will examine rules, regulations, and administrative practices with an emphasis on major case decisions relating to taxation of foreign persons in the US, taxation of US persons investing abroad, the foreign tax credit, controlled foreign corporations, transfer pricing, and US income tax treaties.

The subject will examine the rules contained in the US Internal Revenue Code (Title 26 of the United States Code), as well as regulations, rulings, and other documents produced by the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Principal topics may include:

• Entity classification rules
• The definition of 'foreign' persons
• The economic substance doctrine
• Source rules
• Statutory rules for taxation of foreign persons
• Taxation of foreign operations of US persons
• US tax treaties
• The foreign tax credit
• Transfer pricing
• Foreign currency.

Not-for-Profits, the law and the state is a hot topic.  As the government retreats from the direct provision of social welfare and public goods, and as not-for-profits seek as never before to integrate commerce and advocacy with their traditional purposes, much attention is being focused on not-for-profit law.  These profound developments also suggest that not-for-profit law is becoming as important to contemporary societies as corporations law or administrative law.  In this subject, we will look in depth at the key elements of this critical body of law and on the relationship between the state and the not-for-profit sector.  We will reflect on important questions raised by not-for-profit law in its contemporary setting, questions relating to the definition of charity, the taxation of not-for-profits, and not-for-profit regulation.  We will adopt comparative, theoretical and practical perspectives in working through these questions.  The subject will be taught by two of Australia’s leading not-for-profit law experts.

• The legal definition of charity in Australia and other analogous jurisdictions
• The public benefit test and recent developments in the law of public benefit in Australia and abroad
• The extent to which not-for-profits can undertake for-profit activities and member benefit arrangements
• The treatment of religion in charity law
• The treatment of political advocacy in charity law
• The tax treatment of not-for-profits from a critical perspective
• Not-for-profits and discrimination on grounds like race, religion and sex
• A comparative examination of the regulation of the not-for-profit sector.

Using a series of case studies, this subject will explore complex issues involving the interpretation and application of tax treaty provisions. During this subject, students (who will have a previous general knowledge of tax treaties) will be asked to analyse how these provisions apply in situations to which multinational enterprises and tax administrations are often confronted.

The subject will be given by Jacques Sasseville, a former tax treaty negotiator who has lectured and written extensively on tax treaties and who is now Head of the Tax Treaty Unit of the OECD. In this capacity, he is involved in all the work related to the regular updating of the OECD Model Tax Convention and provides training and advice on tax treaty issues to OECD and non-OECD countries.

Principal topics that will be addressed during the subject include:

• The application of the permanent establishment definition
• The tax treaty rules for the attribution of profits to permanent establishments
• The application of tax treaties to transparent and hybrid entities
• The taxation of expatriates
• The tax treaty treatment of employee stock-options
• The tax treaty treatment of various digital economy payments
• The interaction between treaties and domestic anti-abuse rules
• Timing issues related to tax treaties.

The Australian states and territories levy various taxes on businesses and individuals, including payroll tax, land tax, duties on conveyances, leases and other transfers and workers’ compensation levies. Interpreting and complying with this multitude of taxes, only some of which are harmonised across state borders, poses significant challenges for Australian businesses and state revenue agencies alike. Many jurisdictions are enacting more comprehensive anti-avoidance and business entity rules in key state taxes – for example, those applying to trusts or corporate groups – and there is increasing litigation on state taxes in courts around the country. This subject will provide tax professionals with an advanced knowledge of the structure and practical operation of state taxes and duties in a commercial context, taking account of the most recent trends and developments in this field.

This subject will consider in detail the operation of various state taxes and duties, in particular:

• Duties
• Land tax
• Payroll tax and workers’ compensation levies.

Principal topics include:

• Analysis and comparison of duties, land tax, payroll tax and workers’ compensation levies legislation in Victoria and other jurisdictions
• Consideration of duty liabilities on various documented and undocumented transactions 
• Consideration of the nature of land holdings that are subject to land tax and how different types of land holder entities are taxed
• Consideration of the types of compensation that are subject to payroll tax and/or workers’ compensation levies
• The broad range of anti-avoidance provisions
• Exemptions from state taxes, duties and levies
• Administration of the state taxes system, including obligations to provide information and rights to object to assessments and appeal

Effective tax administration is fundamental to achieving tax policy goals. This subject examines the practical issues that arise in the administration of the Australian tax system and tax administration generally. The sessions will explore in depth the administrative role of the Federal Commissioner of Taxation (FCT) in Australia's tax regime, the FCT's general powers and the interaction of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with taxpayers, tax professionals and other authorities and agencies. The subject will also include international comparisons as relevant.

The subject will be taught by the Inspector-General of Taxation, Ali Noroozi.

Principal topics include:

• Tax administration under a self-assessment regime
• The FCT's general powers of administration
• The FCT's remedial powers
• The structure of the ATO, including the corporate governance regime and internal checks and balances
• The interaction of the FCT and the ATO with the tax profession and the role of the Tax Practitioners Board
• The ATO's interaction with taxpayers
• External scrutiny of the ATO by government and other agencies and authorities
• The ATO's role in tax policy advice and law design
• The ATO's interaction with other Australian government agencies
• The ATO's interaction with international agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

This subject will examine the operation of the substantive criminal law covering taxation offences under the general criminal law and under tax specific legislation. It will consider important distinctions such as those between fraud and evasion and between evasion and tax avoidance, in the context of criminal law. It will consider the application of criminal processes to taxation matters at the prosecution, trial and sentencing stages. In addition, it will examine the role of taxation agencies and specialised law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of the criminal law, as well as the potential application of the criminal law to taxation advisers.

Principal topics include:

• The substantive criminal law covering tax (eg the federal Criminal Code and the Crime (Taxation Offences) Act 1980)
• Offences and penalties under the tax legislation, including the uniform administrative penalties regime)
• Tax evasion – issues including the problem of the cash economy, the challenge of e-commerce, money laundering and small business compliance issues
• The distinction between avoidance and evasion from a criminal law perspective
• The application of criminal process to taxation matters
• The role of the ATO; disclosure by ATO of tax information to law enforcement agencies such as the ACC; and voluntary disclosures to ATO and amnesties from prosecution
• The powers of relevant investigative bodies (the Wickenby Taskforce)
• Advisers and promoters
• Taxing the proceeds of criminal activity.

This subject will address critical issues in the taxation treatment of activities relating to the development of new knowledge and products. Australia has a comprehensive but complex system that provides taxation concessions for expenditure on innovation, which this subject will examine in detail.   The subject does not assume a tax background.

The general income tax and capital gains implications of income and expenditure in relation to the development of intellectual property, both domestically and internationally, will be considered. A key component of this subject is understanding the underlying policy drivers in Australia and other jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• What is research and development?
• The elements of intellectual property at general law and their impact on its taxation
• The source of intellectual property (IP) in an inter(net)connected world
• Research and development concessions and the regulatory regime
• The advantages of early stage innovation companies (ESICs) and early stage venture capital limited partnerships (ESVCLPs)
• The assessability of income from, and deductibility of expenditure on, the innovation of products and the development and exploitation of intellectual property
• The Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)effect and transfer pricing of intellectual property
• Litigation of research and development disputes and their unique problems.

This subject examines both general and specific anti-avoidance provisions in Australia and in comparable jurisdictions. The subject will examine in detail the provisions of Part IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth), as well as its Goods and Services Tax (GST) equivalent, and consider the differences between permissible tax planning and impermissible tax avoidance.

Principal topics include:

• Concepts of tax avoidance
• General anti-avoidance provisions
• Specific anti-avoidance provisions
• Judicial responses to tax avoidance
• Obligations of taxpayers and advisers in relation to tax avoidance
• Tax avoidance and consolidation.

Today’s tax professional requires a combination of technical tax expertise and a deep understanding of the practical aspects of providing tax advice. This subject will be presented in a panel style and cover the latest developments in the essential practical skills required by employers in the tax profession.

The emphasis of this subject will be on equipping you with the practical aspects of dealing with the day to day issues you will encounter as a tax practitioner. You will learn how to draft clear, concise and effective advice and the importance of managing tax risk. The subject will also arm you with the skills required to draft ruling applications and objections and understand your legal obligations as a tax adviser.

The subject will be presented by leading silks, partners and tax practitioners. It presents a unique opportunity to benefit from their extensive experience.

Principal topics include:

• Negotiating with revenue authorities during audit, dispute and litigation
• Understanding the various forms of advice provided by the Australian Taxation Office
• The operation of legal professional privilege in the taxation environment
• The obligations of the tax advisor
• Taxpayer redress.

This specialist subject taught by leading members of the Victorian Bar specialising in tax, teaches all of the legal principles associated with tax litigation. It addresses the system of tax appeals, administrative and judicial review of decisions made by the Commissioner, evidence-gathering and the preparation of objections, tax appeal statements, affidavits, expert reports and legal submissions in a tax case. It explains how tax cases are tried and how they are dealt with at appellate level. It also covers the rulings system, the imposition and review of penalties and the Commissioner‘s rights of recovery. The focus of the subject is on the practical, and not theoretical, application of these principles.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction and the appeals process under Part IVC of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth)
• Challenging an assessment, objections, objections decisions and appeal
• The audit process and the Commissioner‘s information-gathering powers
• Interlocutory steps for getting a case ready for trial, including the Federal Court Taxation Practice Note No.1
• Written advocacy—the different needs at various stages of the appeals process
• The hearing
• Use of expert witnesses
• Appeals to Federal, Full Federal and High Courts
• The rulings process
• Judicial review of decisions made by the Commissioner
• Recovery of tax.

All countries face the challenge of ensuring their tax systems are able to support effective governments in the global era of increasingly mobile capital and labour, and to establish effective, fair, simple and sustainable tax systems for the future. Australia has undergone a number of major tax reform exercises over recent decades and there is an ongoing public debate in Australia, as in other countries, about how to keep the tax system relevant in a changing international economy.

This subject engages with the fundamental fiscal policy issues of today for all levels of government. It will analyse the major tax bases available for governments, the interactions of tax law with the transfer system, the challenge of environmentally sustainable taxes and issues of tax law design, complexity and administration for the future. The subject is taught by Paul Tilley, a former Australian Treasury official with a long history of tax reform in Australia.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to macroeconomics and fiscal policy
• Introduction to microeconomics and resource allocation policy
• Principles, objectives and main concepts in tax policy formulation
• The social, economic and historical – political contexts of tax policy formulation in Australia
• Major issues in tax reform in Australia, including in relation to fiscal policy and revenue adequacy, the major tax bases at each level of government, interactions within the tax-transfer system and issues of tax policy design cost, complexity and administration.

Tax advocacy today, like other advocacy in Australia and overseas, is largely conducted in writing. To succeed in advising or advocating for clients, whether private or government, tax professionals need outstanding written advocacy skills. This subject will enable tax professionals to develop an effective and persuasive writing style in tax advocacy. This subject will focus on the skill of writing key tax documents and developing precedents for future use, including letters of advice and opinions, objections, tribunal and court documents and written submissions, including appeal documents, ruling requests and briefing expert witnesses.

Principal topics include:

• Effective legal writing: writing techniques directed to persuade in a clear and effective way
• Writing letters of advice and opinions: section 264 information requests
• Objections
• Tribunal and court proceedings
• Appeal documents
• Applications for special leave to appeal
• Written submissions; eg to the GAAR panel, court proceedings and position papers
• Ruling requests
• Briefing the expert witness.

Today, attention is increasingly focused on tax reform to deliver revenue for spending on public goods so as to achieve fair and sustainable economic development in countries across the globe. This subject examines tax policy to finance development goals and sustainable governments. The subject addresses budget laws; policy and law design principles for taxation, including equity, market efficiency and tax administration; and key taxes. It will analyse how national governments and international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) engage in tax policy and reform and seek to establish global norms and cooperation in taxation. The subject will present topical case studies of high and low income countries. It will address topical issues including tax transparency and multinational tax avoidance, the role of tax in addressing inequality, and international tax competition and cooperation between nations. It will equip participants from tax, development and international law backgrounds to analyse critically the law and policy of budgets and tax systems and the interaction between the global, national and local levels in tax reform.

Principal topics will include:

• Budget policy and laws, including fiscal balance or deficit, transparency and accountability
• Tax mix, tax structures and types of tax
• Tax policy and design principles: sustainability, efficiency, fairness, simplicity and administrability
• Selected tax policy and law issues for key taxes including the personal and company income tax, sales tax and resource taxation
• Tax incentives for foreign investment
• Tax competition and cooperation, tax avoidance and tax havens
• The domestic and international processes of tax treaties, norms and reform.

Globally, countries have negotiated more than 3,000 bilateral tax treaties and the number of treaties continues to grow. Tax Treaties provides an in-depth examination of international tax treaties, regarding both inbound and outbound investment. This subject uses the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Treaty and Commentary and examines important tax treaties of Australia and its major trading partners.

Associate Professor Michael Kobetsky has advised the United Nations (UN) and country governments on these issues. This lively, engaging and relevant subject equips students to deal with the most topical and advanced issues of international tax in the application and interpretation of tax treaties, including the meaning of permanent establishment and taxation of business profits, residence and source, the treatment of investment income, exchange of information and avoidance of double taxation.

Principal topics include:

• The role of tax treaties in preventing double taxation and tax avoidance
• Interpretation of tax treaties
• Relationship between tax treaties and domestic law
• Impact of tax treaties on investing in Australia
• Impact of tax treaties on investing overseas
• Entities and tax treaties
• The mutual agreement procedure
• Tax treaties and tax avoidance.

Tax treaties are an important aspect of the international tax system and an in-depth understanding of them is crucial for the modern international tax practitioner or administrator. Using a series of case studies, this subject will explore complex issues involving the interpretation and application of tax treaty provisions. Students will be required to analyse the application of key provisions to common scenarios faced by multinational companies and tax administrations. The subject will also cover important features of the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.

The subject will be presented by Professor Carlo Garbarino of Bocconi University, author of “Judicial Interpretation of Tax Treaties – The Use of the OECD Commentary” (Elgar, 2016).