Graduate Diploma in Law (Grad Dip Law)

Program Overview

The Graduate Diploma in Law by coursework offers law graduates the opportunity of advanced graduate study in law either generally or within specialised areas without undertaking a full Master of Laws degree.

There is no difference between the Grad Dip Law and the LLM by coursework in terms of the content and depth with which particular courses are studied – the Grad Dip Law merely requires completion of fewer courses. Courses combine a degree of sophistication or technical difficulty in terms of legal content with a substantial consideration of relevant interdisciplinary aspects of the course matter and a focus on policy.

Program Structure

Students must complete four single session (6 unit of credit) courses or the equivalent to a total value of 36 units of credit. Students may elect to complete a major sequence of courses in a specialist area (see below). International students must enrol in a full-time load each semester that is 18 units of credit.

International students must enrol in the course Australian Legal System in the first semester of their enrolment.

International Grad Dip Law coursework students

International LLM coursework students are required to enrol in the course  LAWS8271 Australian Legal System in their first semester.

This course has three aims:

• to give a substantive background to the Australian legal system and its common law principles. This includes visits to court and parliament
• to provide an introduction to the academic culture of UNSW including supplementary courses in legal English and legal research for the common law
• to provide the foundations of a network among international colleagues

Some students may be exempt from this course because of their academic and professional background.

Specialist Major Sequences

• Corporate and Commercial Law
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Corporate, Commercial and Taxation Law
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Criminal Justice and Criminology
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Dispute Resolution
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Human Rights and Social Justice
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Innovation Law NEW SPECIALISATION
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• International Law
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• International Business and Economic Law
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Media and Technology Law NEW SPECIALISATION
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

• Taxation
• 2010 Courses
• All Courses

To incorporate a major sequence, candidates will be required to obtain no less than 24 of the 36 uoc required for the award of the degree from the courses allocated to that major sequence.

Candidates who wish to qualify for a specialisation in Corporate, Commercial and Taxation Law must complete a total of 36 uoc as follows:

• 18 uoc from courses offered in the Corporate and Commercial Law specialisation stream, and
• 18 uoc from courses offered in taxation offered by Atax in the Law Faculty.
  

To qualify for a specialisation in Taxation, students must complete a total of 36 uoc as follows:

• minimum of  3 courses ( 18 uoc) offered by the Law School; and
• minimum of  3 courses ( 18 uoc) offered by the Australian School of Taxation.

When a student completes the Graduate Diploma in Law which incorporates a major sequence as above, the student’s academic transcript will identify the major sequence and the courses which constitute it and the student’s Testamur will contain the words ‘Graduate Diploma in Law specialising in [the major sequence completed]’ or words to like effect.

School of Law Courses

• All Courses
• 2010 Courses

Program Options

A student may apply to the  the Coordinator of Postgraduate Education to complete research papers of about  12,000 words in place of a session-long course.

A student may apply to the  Coordinator of Postgraduate Education for permission to take, as appropriate to the student’s overall program, up to  18 units of credit from the following options:

• School of Taxation (Atax) – up to 18uoc
• Cross-institutional postgraduate law courses offered at other universities – up to 18 uoc (please note that cross-institutional courses will be awarded 6 uoc credit towards postgraduate law programs)

Students may apply to convert their enrolment to a Master of Laws by coursework.

Assessment

All postgraduate courses have a strong research dimension and course assessment is principally on the basis of research essays (6,000 words). Essay topics are agreed upon with the lecturer within the first few weeks of semester to enable students to work on their research and writing with continuous feedback from the lecturer. Papers are normally due a week or two after the end of semester.