This unit examines how law engages with vulnerability. It focuses on how law protects and empowers those in positions of relative weakness, such as vulnerable and disadvantaged young people, elders, people with physical, mental and intellectual disabilities, refugees and migrants, and Indigenous people. Legal frameworks considered include international and national human rights laws, capacity law, discrimination law, and the criminal justice system.

This unit may be co-taught with a G version of the unit.

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Apply and analyse principles of legal process, including comparing and contrasting different legal responses to particular aspects of vulnerability;
2. Create and evaluate legal arguments, employing research, writing, and advocacy skills to agitate persuasively for reform; and
3. Examine the relationship between law and vulnerability in society.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
2. UC graduates are global citizens - behave ethically and sustainably in their professional and personal lives
2. UC graduates are global citizens - understand issues in their profession from the perspective of other cultures
2. UC graduates are global citizens - think globally about issues in their profession
2. UC graduates are global citizens - understand issues in their profession from the perspective of other cultures
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - be self-aware
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - apply their knowledge to working with Indigenous Australians in socially just ways
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - use Indigenous histories and traditional ecological knowledge to develop and augment understanding of their discipline

Prerequisites

Must have passed at least 24 credit points including 11251 Foundations of Law and Justice.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

None.