Subject Code & Title : LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law
Assessment Type : Assignment
Research Assignment, Including Annotated Bibiliography And Assignment Plan
The Research Assignment is made up of 3 related steps, which altogether are worth 70% of your final grade. What do you have to do?
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
1.Read the essay topic carefully, and consider which countries you will use in order to engage in your comparison with Australia. Look carefully at the weekly topics covered in PPL this semester – they are ALL relevant to your final answer, so sketch out your research plan accordingly.
2.Research, write and submit an Annotated Bibliography and an Assignment Plan
• You will receive feedback on your AB and Plan (in week 9),which you can then incorporate into your Assignment.
3.Research write and submit your Research Assignment
QUESTION :
In your view, does the Australian Constitution, the public law system it creates and the powers it confers, establish an appropriate balance between protecting the community on the one hand, and respecting individual rights on the other, in times of public health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic? Why or why not? In your answer, you must:
• compare and contrast Australia with two other public law systems studied in PPL in 2020; and
This Assignment draws together the entirety of topics covered in PPL. You are expected to critically analyse the material from the lectures and readings, the material covered in your annotated bibliography, and any additional research material you consider necessary to answer the question.
This is a research assignment. As such, your answer must be evidence-based. In your research and writing, you must deal with three main points:
1.You must analyse the structure of our public law system (including the relationship between federal government and state and territory governments) in relation to the powers required to deal with public health emergencies;
2.You must make an argument about whether the public law system gives appropriate powers to the federal government to deal with public health emergencies;
3.You must address in light of two other country examples, any shortcomings or advantages to the Australian approach to powers in emergency situations.
The countries that you may choose from, to compare to the Australian public law system, are:
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
Students Should Ensure They Have Thoroughly Read And Understood The Submission Instructions And Grading Criteria Set Out In The Remainder Of This Document Before They Commence Work On The Assignment.
What are the tasks?
1.First you must write an Annotated Bibliography for your end of semester research assignment. The bibliography has two components:
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
A. A list of twenty sources relevant to your end of semester assignment, including:
• At least four primary sources (statutes or ‘domestic’ judicial decisions from Australia or another nation-state like South Africa or NZ); and
• At least four international sources (treaties, published reports/other documents issued by official UN bodies, decisions of international courts like the ICC or the ICJ); and
• At least four official government sources (such as parliamentary or law reform commission reports royal commission reports national enquiry reports, published by Australian or other nation-state governments like South Africa or NZ); and
• At least four secondary sources (books, peer-reviewed journal articles, or equivalent sources such as public reports of international non-governmental organisations (eg Amnesty International) or major pieces of investigative journalism published in quality publications.
o Remember that only scholarly sources are acceptable, so you must carefully consider how the information in non- peer reviewed sources has been verified.
NB: Please make sure you group your sources under the appropriate headings rather than in one alphabetical bibliography.This list of citations does not count in the 450 word-limit for the assignment.Ensure that you detail your sources following the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed 2018). Please Make Sure To Read The Feedback From 2019 Which Sets Out Category Errors Made By Students In Previous Years.
B. Short 150-word annotations of three sources from your list including:
I. One domestic primary source, an international source or an official government source;
II. One peer reviewed journal article;
III. One book or monograph.
Each annotation must explain:
• Why that particular source is important to your research and the role you think it may play in your research assignment; and
• The exact research methodology you used to find that source.
Each annotation has a maximum word limit of 150 words.
Why are we asking you to complete this task?
There are a number of reasons why we have asked you to complete the annotated bibliography.
First we want you to think about (and explain) how you choose the sources you will use to back up your arguments. Why have you chosen to base your argument on this source when another source would have contributed to a different outcome? Or alternatively, why have you decided to reject the approach set out in this source and take another path? A common failing of undergraduate research is the lack of breadth: if your bibliography demonstrates that you have only looked at one or two sources (or sources which all come at the issue from the same point of view) in relation to an important argument in your work, then you have failed to demonstrate breadth of research – an important component of good scholarly practice. In other words, you must ensure that you have looked at the point you are discussing from different angles – and that will require you to consider multiple sources with different approaches to the same issue, and then to consciously decide which argument or position you support and to explain why.
Second, this assignment requires you to consciously think about your scholarly practices and choices. In order to complete this step, you will have to keep a research journal as you go about preparing for the assignment; you will need to take notes of the precise search terms you used when entering databases, why you used those particular search terms, why you chose that particular database, and so on. You need to be able to reconstruct your entire research pattern leading up to that source, so that the examiner can following your steps and reasoning, find that source too. As such, it will NOT be sufficient to say you typed parliament + democracy into the google search bar, or the library database and this article was listed; you need to think about your research methodology and be able to justify and explain your choices. Given that thousands of articles appear when you put in those search terms, why did you pick this particular book to look at?
Very often undergraduate students use a source because it was at or near the top of a list on a search engine: that fact that it was listed first does not make it a good choice – it just means that you were captured by a search engine algorithm. What were you looking for specifically, and why? Did you read some thing some where that suggested that this was a good search term to use? Did you follow a footnote from another article? Did you read this author’s name somewhere, and went looking for other things they had written? Why? We want you to think consciously about your research, and about the road not taken when engaging in research.
Third, we want you to practice concision in your writing – having to establish both the worthiness of the source, and your research method, in 150 words,will be difficult, but working on concision is a very valuable lawyerly skill.This assessment task will give us the opportunity to provide feedback to you
on your English expression, which will help you in the final assignment.
You must also submit an Assignment Plan. The word limit for the Assignment Plan is 300 words.
• The Plan requires you to provide an outline of the intended structure for your assignment; the argument you intend to make; your chosen countries and how you plan to use them in your assignment.
The purpose behind the Plan is to ensure that you have some formative feedback before you start writing. If you do not properly set out your argument, we will be unable to provide feedback about whether you are on the right track.
Submission Details
1.The Annotated Bibliography and Assignment Plan
• The Bibliography and Assignment Plan must be saved as ONE Microsoft word document and this document must be submitted to Turnitin, via the submission box on LMS.
• The two tasks are worth 20 percent of your final mark in this subject.
2.The Research Assignment is
• The Research Assignment must be saved as a Microsoft word document and submitted to Turnitin via the submission box on LMS.
• The Assignment is worth 50% of your final mark in this subject.
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
Presentation :
Both Assignments must be presented as follows:
• Typed in 12-point font, with at least 1.5 line spacing.
• Margins should meet standard A4 page layout requirements.
• Pages should be consecutively numbered.
• An accurate word count must be stated at the end of the text of your essay,NOT on a cover sheet.
Citations and the Bibliography should follow the style guidelines in the Australian Guide to Legal Citation
Late Submission, Extensions and Special Consideration
The penalty for late submission of the Assignments is as set out in the La Trobe University Assessment (Late Submission of Tasks) Policy:
• The standard penalty for late submission of assessment tasks is 5% of the marks for that task for each delay in submission of a day or partial day up to a maximum of five (5) working days after the due date.
• Assessment tasks will not be accepted after the earlier of the following occurrences:
o The fifth (5th) working day after the due date; or
o Feedback on the assessment task has been returned to any student by the Teaching Team member.
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
The time and date of submission are recorded by TurnItIn. That your computer crashed or internet connection failed or TurnItIn locked you out or you forgot to submit it in the right place or any other excuses are not reasons that will avoid the application of the late penalty. Accordingly, you should contemplate handing your Assignment in early just to be safe.
As the Assignment is the final part of a scaff olded assessment scheme in PPL, and the Assignment question has been available to students since Week 1 of the semester extensions for the Assignment will only be granted in very exceptional circumstances.
Applications for extensions should be made via email to the Subject Coordinator Emma Henderson at least seven (7) days before the due date of the Assignment and must be accompanied by appropriate documentary support, including for example medical certificates where appropriate.
Students are advised to keep of copy of the Assignment and retain it until the final marks for the subject have been released.
Assessment criteria for the Annotated Bibliography and Plan:
i. Relevance: Does the Annotated Bibliography set out the appropriate number of each kind of source? Does it make clear how the three most important sources will contribute to the argument the student intends to make in the assignment? Does it adequately explain why these three sources are more important for the assignment than the other sources identified?
ii. Research: Does the Annotated Bibliography adequately explain how the student found the work, for example by citing the search reference terms used in the search engine or catalogue, or by otherwise mapping the research method?
iii. English expression: Is the Annotated Bibliography concisely written and properly formatted?
iv. Acknowledgment of sources: Do the citations follow the style set out in the Australian Guide to Legal Citation
v. Assignment Plan: Does the Plan clearly identify a relevant problem to be solved establish the jurisdiction of federal parliament to enact such legislation and establish a sufficient and realistic justification for the solution proposed?
vi. Compliance with instructions : Does the Annotated Bibliography and Plan comply with relevant instructions? For example, was it submitted in time and in the correct format within the word limit?
Assessment criteria for the Research Assignment
The Assignment will be marked in accordance with the criteria set out below. Not every element of this list requires equal attention or is intended to be of equal weighting.
1.Structure and Development (Graduate Capability of Literacies and Communication Skills)
A Grade
• The introduction convincingly identifies the main question issue and why it is important; the author’s thesis; and how the points arguments are organised.
• Arguments are expressed with discernment, presented logically, and contain references to relevant and appropriate evidentiary material.
• The conclusion very clearly summarises the central arguments that have been discussed to establish the thesis statement.
B Grade
• The introduction clearly identifies the main question issue and why it is important the author’s thesis; and how the points arguments are organised.
• Arguments are expressed effectively, presented logically and contain references to relevant and appropriate evidentiary material.
• The conclusion effectively summarises the central arguments that have been discussed to establish the thesis statement.
C Grade
• The introduction adequately identifies the main question issue and why it is important the author’s thesis; and how the points arguments are organised.
• Arguments are expressed adequately presented logically for the most part, and contain some references to relevant and appropriate evidentiary material.
• The conclusion adequately summarises the central arguments that have been discussed to establish the thesis statement.
D Grade
• The introduction only weakly identifies the main question issue and why it is important the author’s thesis; and how the points arguments are organised.
• Arguments are expressed in a limited and sometimes illogical fashion,and contain very few references to relevant and appropriate evidentiary material.
• The conclusion weakly summarises the central arguments that have been discussed to establish the thesis statement.
N Grade
• The introduction fails to identify the main question issue and why it is important the authors thesis and how the points arguments are organised.
• Arguments are not expressed very well, lack logic and contain minimal references to any evidentiary material.
• The conclusion fails to summarise the central arguments that have been discussed to establish the thesis statement.
2.Research, Analysis and Understanding (Graduate Capability of Inquiry and Analytical Skills)
A Grade
• Highly pertinent set of reference materials relied upon.
• All topics and concepts identified.
• Insightful critical analysis of the materials.
• Highly relevant use of reference materials.
• Well-reasoned arguments.
• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of substantive law.
B Grade
• Mostly relevant set of reference materials relied upon.
• Most topics and concepts identified.
• Thorough critical analysis of the materials.
• Mostly appropriate use of reference materials.
• Reasoned arguments.
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of concepts and principles of public law.
C Grade
• Mostly relevant (but some irrelevant) reference materials relied upon.
• Acceptable number of topics and concepts identified.
• Acceptable level of critical analysis of the materials.
• Mostly appropriate (but some inappropriate) use of reference materials.
• Credible arguments.
• Acceptable level of knowledge and understanding of concepts and principles of public law.
D Grade
• Some irrelevant reference materials relied upon.
• Some topics and concepts identified.
• Some critical analysis of the materials.
• Some inappropriate use of reference materials.
• Weak reasoning.
• Variable knowledge and understanding of concepts and principles of public law.
N Grade
• Mostly irrelevant reference materials located.
• Few or no topics and concepts identified.
• Very little or no critical analysis of the materials.
• Mostly inappropriate use of reference materials.
• Poor and inappropriate reasoning.
• Rudimentary knowledge and understanding of concepts and principles of public law.
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
3.Presentation Grammar and Citation Graduate Capability Personal and Professional Skills
A Grade
• No grammar or spelling errors.
• Excellent integration of reference material into arguments.
• Correct referencing.
• Compliance with all instructions.
• Comprehensive bibliography provided, with AGLC-compliant presentation.
B Grade
• No spelling, but some minor grammar errors.
• Very good integration of reference material into arguments.
• Mostly correct referencing, some minor errors.
• Compliance with nearly all instructions.
• Thorough bibliography provided, with mostly AGLC-compliant presentation.
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
C Grade
• Some minor spelling and grammar errors
• Adequate integration of reference material into arguments.
• Mostly correct referencing, some major errors.
• Compliance with most instructions.
• Adequately bibliography provided, with adequate ACLG-compliant presentation.
D Grade
• Some major spelling and grammar errors
• Insufficient integration of reference material into arguments.
• Mostly correct referencing, some major errors.
• Several important instructions not complied with.
• Poor bibliography provided, with poor AGLC-compliant presentation.
LAW1PPL Principles of Public Law Assignment – La Trobe University Australia.
N Grade
• Some major spelling and grammar errors
• Failure to integrate reference material into arguments.
• Failure to reference/potential academic integrity issues
• Most important instructions not complied with.
• No or very poor bibliography provided, with no or very poor AGLC-compliant presentation.
Examples of Annotated Bibliographies are provided on LMS for your information but please note that they are not designed to act as Model Answers and they come from an assignment with a different research question than that set in 2020.