LAWS1005 egal Foundations Assignment

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

The assessment is worth 30% of the overall mark for this unit and will be marked out of 100.

Nature of the assessment

For this assessment you will prepare a case analysis as detailed below. This assessment aligns with Unit Learning Outcomes numbers 2, 3 and 4 as shown in the Unit

Outline:

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

Assessment task

Locate and critically analyse the judgment handed down on the 16 December 1994 involving the litigant North Coast Environment Council Inc. Locate this case using both Westlaw AU and Lexis Advance.

You are required to critically analyse the decision made by the court, its application of previous legal precedents and its treatment by subsequent cases. In order to conduct this analysis, you will need to research the case, the legal authorities referred to within it and the wider consideration of the case in the academic literature and other judicial decisions.

Assessment questions

This assessment is worth 30% of your grade in this unit and will be marked out of 100.

1. List each available citation of this case. State the full name of each law report series in which this case is reported and identify the authorized report of this decision. (8 marks)

2. Identify:

a. the court this case was decided in;

b. the parties to this case;

c. the judge/s that decided this case; and

d. whether this was an exercise of ‘original’ or ‘appellate’ jurisdiction. (4 marks)

3. Briefly explain the procedural history of this case. (8 marks)

4. In a broad sense, what were the parties to the case seeking to achieve? Identify the main legal issue to be decided in this case. (5 marks)

5. Identify the main precedent case cited by the court in relation to the legal issue and the legal principle/s the court extracted from this case. How did the court treat this case (i.e. was it ‘distinguished’, ‘followed’, etc.)? What were the material facts of the precedent case and were they similar or different to those in this case? Identify and explain which other precedent cases were significant in influencing the outcome in this case. (20 marks)

6. What did the court ultimately decide and what orders did the court make? (5 marks)

7. Clearly state the ratio decided of this case. Justify your statement of the ratio with specific reference to the substantive reasons provided by the court. (15 marks)

8. Identify the material facts of this case. (15 marks)

9. Do you agree with the decision reached by the court? Provide reasons with reference to relevant case authorities. (10 marks)

10. Make an assessment of the significance of this decision, i.e. how has this case been treated in subsequent decisions and in the academic literature? (10 marks)