Legal Education in Australia
On January 25, 2005 one of Canada’s most respected law schools, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University (Osgoode), announced the launch of its new LL.B./JD programme with New York University Law School (NYU). The program provides an opportunity for students to earn both a Canadian LL.B. and a U.S. (ABA - American Bar Association approved) JD degree in four years. An LL.B. is a three-year Canadian law degree. A JD is a three-year U.S. law degree. A JD that is “ABA” approved allows U.S. law graduates to take the bar exam in any U.S. state. The program has been structured so that students will do two back-to-back years at Osgoode and two back-to-back years at New York University Law School. Students will receive both the LL.B. and JD degrees at the end of the fourth year. It is necessary to note that Osgoode Hall is not the only school to enjoin with an American university. Both Windsor and Ottawa have already established bilateral degree arrangements with U.S. law schools. Windsor has partnered with the University of Detroit whereas Ottawa has partnered with both Michigan State University as well as American University in Washington. Effectively, therefore, three of Canada’s seventeen law schools now have agreements with U.S. law schools allowing students to graduate with both Canadian and U.S. law degrees. In addition, McGill University in Montreal awards students both civil and common law degrees in three years. Commentators have suggested that it is only a matter of time before other Canadian schools will seek to establish similar programmes.
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Like Australia, common law Canada has historically conferred the law qualification in the form of a Bachelor of Laws or LL.B. However, in recent times ...
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...donesia. She is a former shop assistant and beauty student from Queensland. She was sentenced on May 27, 2005 and is currently serving her sentence in Kerobokan Prison, Indonesia. Despite the conviction, Corby maintains that the drugs were planted in her bag, and that she did not know about them. Her trial and conviction were a major focus of attention for the Australian media.
2 The ‘Bali Nine’ is the name given to nine Australian citizens arrested on 17 April 2005 in Denpasar on the island of Bali, Indonesia, in a plan to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin valued at approximately $4 million from Indonesia to Australia. Andrew Chan, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Renae Lawrence, Tac Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Myuran Sukumaran, all aged between 18 and 28 at the time of their arrests, were convicted. Several have been handed the death penalty.
Blair, Annice. Law in Action: Understanding Canadian Law. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Education Canada, 2003. Print.
Philosophers, for several years have made a large impact within Canadian law by engaging in the study of the basic nature of knowledge, reality and existence. Aristotle, one of the philosophers who has made a major influence on Canadian law studied and created the main purpose of law known as just acts. As well, Plato was another philosopher who affected Canadian law through reflecting endless truths and virtues. St. Thomas Aquinas also had significance within Canadian law by believing that the main purpose of human law was being virtuous. Aristotle, Plato, and St.Thomas Aquinas were the most influential legal philosophers in Canadian law because they created the elements of just acts, eternal truths and virtues which are present in Canadian law and the virtuous existence of human laws.
The merits of both the adversarial and inquisitorial system will be explored throughout this paper. The Australian rule of law best describes as all law should be applied equally and fairly. The five vital operations of the rule of law includes fairness, rationality, predictability, consistency, and impartially. The adversarial system adopts these operations by having a jury decide on the verdict and the judge being an impartial decision maker. In contrast, the inquisitorial system relies heavily on the judge. This can result in abusive power and bias of the judge when hearing evidence and delivering verdicts. The operations of the rule of law determine why the rule of law is best served by the adversarial system in Australia.
The first level involves the “Ontario Government and the Education Act” as an “education is a provincial government responsibility in Canada” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009). Those with...
Cole, D. P. (2008). A Day in the Life of a Judge. In Criminal Justice in Canada: a Reader (3rd ed., pp. 59-75). Toronto: Thomson Nelson.
The Queensland Drug Court system (CDP) aims at diverting offenders accused of minor drug offences from the criminal justice system (Department of Justice and Attorney-General, 2012). The program aims to rehabilitate drug offenders from abusing substances and conducting in related criminal activity by providing court enforced rehabilitation services (Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, 2015). The Queensland Drug Court system offers offenders the chance to earn themselves bail if they agree to get help, or face jail time and serious fines if they refuse (Emma Sykes 2013). Considering this aim it is unfortunate to observe that minor drug offences have continued to rise annually since 2009 (Queensland Police Services, 2015). In theory a court
The development of a national curriculum for Australia is not a new endeavour (Marsh, 2010). The ideal is that national curriculum across Australia would mean that students are provided with a quality education that helps to shape the lives of the nations citizens and continue developing the productivity and quality of life within Australia. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] have the task of developing and implementing a nationwide curriculum. ACARA (n.d.-c) claims have addressed needs of young Australians while considering that changing ways in learning and challenges will continue to shape students education in the future. A look at what the Australian Curriculum is, its purpose, structure and scope, learning theories and teaching processes and whether the curriculum has the capacity to meet the needs of 21st century learners will show that the initial construction of a national curriculum appears to be successful. However, the effectiveness of the Australian Curriculum will only be able to be evaluated in the future after implementation across the country.
Life for Fariba Nawa after 18 years was an eye opener and a very tragic experience. Nawa coined a way to narrate a story of an Afghan society, she once knew. The multibillion drug trade now ruled her country. In 1999 they made between $25 million and $75 million just from taxing opium farmers and traffickers (106). It was surrounded with opium, crime, smugglers and opium brides. Opium brides were sold to traffickers to pay off a pervious opium debt. The opium have taken over and damaged the lives of many Afghanistan residents.
smuggling charges," USA Today, July 31, 1997, p. 3A; "Airline Workers Held in Drug Ring,"
Overall, the Criminal Code of Canada is more just than it used to be. People are offered second chances to change for the better rather than being executed for their crimes. Criminals are sentenced equally regardless of gender. Minors and adults are judged differently. Where would society be if people still got hanged over stealing a cow?
The “War on Cocaine” has been trying to fight a battle on two fronts. The first objective of the American government is to deter the consumer from using illegal products. The genesis of punishment against users is sited in the 1914 Harrison Act, in which addicts and others that possessed drugs were punished for buying or possessing cocaine or heroin without a prescription (Bertram, 26). This act began a trend that still today allows law enforcement to arrest the user along with the supplier. The supplier (drug trafficker) is the key in this type of police action, because most of the time the user will be unaware of the exact origin of the substance or have any knowledge as to where it was purchased or manufactured. The main problem with this type of arrest is that 70 to 75 percent of the narcotic arrests per year are for possession and only 25 to 30 percent are for actual drug trafficking offenses. Although the user should not be overlooked, a greater emphasis ought to be focused on the supplier in order to reach the actual manufacturer of the illegal substances.
Canadian intergovernmental relations are complicated due to many factors including the division of powers between the federal and provincial government. It is widely known that the Constitution Act, 1867 laid out the powers and jurisdiction of the federal and provincial government. In order for the Constitution to be upheld and followed, a national court was needed. Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie and parliament enacted the Supreme Court Act which created a final Canadian Appeal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada which was composed of one Chief Justice and five puisne Justices (Iacobucci, 28). However, the number of Judges in the Supreme Court has risen to nine, which includes the Chief Justice. The Justices are chosen from throughout Canada “so that the judges would bring a rich diversity of experience and understanding to the Court (Iacobucci, 32). Functions of the Supreme Court of Canada include interpreting the Constitution including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, judicial review, and determining the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Supreme Court of Canada has had a significant role in determining the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments; therefore, has made how the country of Canada the way it is today. The role of the Supreme Court of Canada has changed throughout history, having different effects on the Canadian government. The interpretation of the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments by the Supreme Court has changed substantially through the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, peace, order and good government clause, province inabilities, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In the year 1970, the Canadian government founded the Law Reform Commission of Canada to ensure the progression of law making and to make recommendations for legal changes . The Law Reform Commission of Canada is constantly importing and suggesting proposals towards the criminal code of Canada. During the year of 1985, t...
The Australian Legal System has a rich and detailed history dating from 1066. Law is made in Parliament. We have four sources of law and three courts with different jurisdictions that interpret the law when giving out justice. Important doctrines act as the corner-stones of our legal system. There is a procedure in the courts for making appeals. Separation of powers exists between officials in the courts, the parliament and the Executive. Everyone in Australia is treated equally under the Rule of Law, no matter their office or status. The Law is always changing as society changes, but it can never be perfect and cannot please everyone.
American Law schools are very expensive, especially if you plan to attend a private law school. That being said, there are excellent law schools in the States (Yale, Harvard, NYU, UT Austin, to name a few), and if you want to practice in the States, this is a good way to go about it. However, the competition to get into the top-rated law schools in the States is ferocious and exceeds by far the competition to get into Canadian law schools. The advice that most people give surrounding applying to US law schools (as there are so many), is to apply to a few "sure-thing" schools, a few schools were you would probably get in, a few where you would probably not get in, and a few "reach" schools, where it seems unlikely that you would be admitted. Keep in mind that even a very high GPA and LSAT score can not guarantee you admission to Harvard, Yale and the other top-rated schools. Because there are so many people in the US, there are more people with excellent grades applying, therefore reducing your chances, too. After finally finalizing your arrangements and getting into your chosen law school, you must attend school. Law schools differ in their various requirements: many schools have required courses in all years, and some schools only have required courses in their first or second years. As well, many schools will require that you take some breadth courses, which are courses that are intended to round out your education. These courses are ones that are outside the canonical law school curriculum. At some point in the course of law school, you will probably have to do a moot, which is like mock court. In the moot, you are given a fact situation and you have to prepare arguments and deliver ...