CASE BRIEF ASSIGNMENT 2015/AIMS & OBJECTIVES
To practise the skills of:
(a) locating primary legal material,
(b) reading legal judgements,
(c) understanding legal reasoning,
(d) legal writing and analysis, and
(e) writing a case note.
Task
Case: Markan v Bar Association of Queensland (No 3) [2014] QSC 225
Find the named case and write a case note on it. Your case note should give a concise summary of:
(a) the legally relevant facts;
(b) the legal issues in contention;
(c) the legal reasoning on each issue;
(d) a brief statement of the outcome, and the ratio of the case; and
(e) a short comment on the persuasiveness of the case’s reasoning and its significance or consequences.
In thinking about and writing your case note, use the materials in the Resources to Assist with the Case Note Assessment on the Assessment page of the Foundations of Law Learning@Griffith site to assist you.
Assessment criteria
Students will be assessed on:
? Ability to find and access a case report nominated by the course convenor
? Understanding of case report interpretation, including identifying important reasoning in the case
? Understanding of case reporting conventions and norms
? Ability to draft a clear, concise and accurate item of written assessment, including grammar, spelling and writing style
? Appropriate and accurate referencing
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
A link for Case Brief Assignment Submission will be set up under the ‘Assessment’ tab on the course site. To submit your assignment, click this link and follow the prompts to attach the file and submit. Your assignment will then be uploaded and processed via the Turnitin submission tool on Learning@Griffith.
Your assignment must be submitted as either a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF (.pdf) document by the due date.
If you have any difficulty submitting your assessment via the Turnitin Case Brief Assignment Submission link, please email a copy to your course convenor before the due time and date. (Please note: Most students will NOT need to email a copy of the assignment. Only do so if you are unable to upload your assignment via Learning@Griffith).
Cover sheet: Please include a copy of the Griffith University assignment cover sheet as the first page of your assignment. You will find a copy here: http://www.griffith.edu.au/students/exams-assessment/submitting-assignments
Weight: The assignment is worth 15 marks, or 15% of your final grade in 1031LAW.
Research: This is not primarily a research exercise. Your task is to find, analyse and prove your comprehension of the case assigned. Secondary sources may be useful, but only to give you background context. Since this is not a research essay, you will get no particular credit for referring to secondary sources.
Referencing: You must appropriately reference any idea which is not your own, including any direct quotes or copied material from any source.
For details of the Griffith Law School referencing style and processes, refer to The Australian Guide to Legal Citation. It is downloadable from:
http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/files/dmfile/FinalOnlinePDF-2012Reprint.pdf
Plagiarism Warning & Referencing: If you do draw on published sources and quote from them or directly use their ideas, you must give them credit. To fail to do so is plagiarism. It is also poor legal argumentation: Your argument will be stronger if you can give external authority for ideas or propositions, and then build on those authorities with your own, clearly expressed, reasoning.
If you quote directly from the case that you are noting, you must indicate that it is a quote by either putting it in quotation marks ‘like this material in quotation marks’ or indenting it in a separate paragraph:
Like this indented paragraph.
You must then add a footnote giving the source of the quote. If you closely summarise the ideas in the case, you should also use a footnote, showing the source of the idea.
Plagiarism also occurs if you hand in work that is essentially similar in any key respect to another student’s.
Both forms of plagiarism are serious forms of academic misconduct (see the Course Outline for further information and warnings about plagiarism penalties).
Griffith University Assessment Policy: Please read the Griffith University Assessment Policy and Student Academic Misconduct Policy for more information about extensions, penalties for late assignments or plagiarism:
http://policies.griffith.edu.au/pdf/Assessment%20Policy.pdf
http://policies.griffith.edu.au/pdf/Student%20Academic%20Misconduct%20Policy.pdf