Units

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Sample subject outline - 5 Week Teaching Period - 5 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

This unit introduces you to selected legal issues concerning the health of children in Australia. These issues are new and emerging, and they present legal, theoretical and practical questions that have implications for legal, health and educational systems. As well, they pose new challenges for legal practitioners, policymakers and scholars. Studying this unit at postgraduate level provides opportunities and challenges that exceed undergraduate study. You will be exposed to a number of contemporary issues affecting children and their health. You will have the opportunity to consider, from interdisciplinary perspectives, legal problems regarding children's health that face legal, health and other social systems. You will be required to identify an important issue in Australian law relating to children and health, and to conduct legal research, analysis (which can be interdisciplinary) and writing to critically evaluate the situation.

Aims

The aims of the unit are for you to:

• develop an understanding of a number of legal issues concerning children's health; and


• gain a detailed understanding of a particular legal issue through your own extended research.

Objectives

After completing this unit, you should be able to:
1. identify major issues in the law concerning children's health;
2. conceptualise and plan an extended research paper of publishable quality about an issue of your choice regarding law and children's health;
3. demonstrate a superior understanding of the law concerning children's health;
4. demonstrate an understanding of the social and political forces that influence law and policy in these areas;
5. synthesise, critically analyse, and evaluate complex legal issues concerning children's health; and
6. write a research paper of publishable quality about an issue of your choice regarding law and children's health

Content

The unit is centred on selected legal issues concerning children's health, and will be regularly revised to adapt to changes, developments and emerging issues in law and policy. Specific topics to be covered may include, but are not limited to, the following:

child safety in the home: child protection systems;

child safety at school: education systems' legal requirements to protect children's health (including issues concerning mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect);

children's rights to healthcare (including issues concerning fertility treatment and prescription of antidepressant drugs); and

public health issues concerning children: (including legal issues concerning obesity, mental health, substance abuse, and suicide).

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

The unit will be delivered intensively via seminars over 4 days..
You will be briefed for forthcoming seminars both during the week itself, and also by the material in the Study Guide. Any preliminary notices will be sent to you electronically via the unit?s on-line Blackboard site and/or email. Ideally, you should prepare for classes by reading the authorities you are referred to and by considering the issues raised.
Seminars will begin with the lecturer introducing the topic and identifying key areas of inquiry and discussion. The lecturer will then facilitate discussion and exploration of the legal principles and problems in theory, and or practice. There will be a strong emphasis on critical evaluation of the legal principles and of their consequences. Where appropriate, interdisciplinary evidence and perspectives will be incorporated.

Assessment

Assessment is formative and summative. Formative assessment will be provided through feedback in class, in comments on your marked Outline for research paper, and in consultation with the lecturer. Summative assessment is provided through the Outline for research paper and the Research paper.

Assessment name: Outline for Research Paper
Description: The Outline for research paper (minimum 3 single-sided A4 pages; maximum 4 pages) must provide a synopsis of the research topic (maximum 1 page), a concise literature review (maximum 2 pages), and a brief research methodology (maximum 1 page). The outline therefore:
- explains the issue(s) you are exploring;
- justifies the significance of the paper (ie explains what problems of law, theory or practice - or any combination of these - are addressed);
- identifies and justifies the method(s) of critical analysis to be adopted; and
- provides a brief research methodology (regarding both primary and secondary sources).
You must have first obtained approval from the lecturer about the broad area of your research paper by the end of class. Suggested areas of research and further information about how to complete the Outline will be provided in the seminar in during class.
Relates to objectives: The Outline for research paper enables the lecturer to measure your achievement of objectives 1 and 2.
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: 8 wks after block

Assessment name: Research Paper
Description: The Research paper (6000-8000 words) is an extended written paper about an issue of your choice concerning children's health and the law. The aim is to produce a scholarly article of publishable quality. You must identify, synthesise and analyse a significant legal issue regarding law and children's health, and you must critically assess the current situation. You should then convey the results of your investigation in clear writing, observing legal citation standards. The citation method required for written assessment may be found in Written Assessment in the Law School: Legal Citation which is accessible through http://www.student.qut.edu.au/about/faculties-institutes-and-divisions/faculties/law/publications/_nocache
Relates to objectives: The Research paper enables the lecturer to measure your achievement of objectives 1-6.
Weight: 80%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: 2 wks after block

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

There is no prescribed text. The Study Guide will be used in class, and students will be referred to and can access other statutory, common law and secondary authorities on the unit's online site.

Students who wish to do some preparatory reading are referred to the following sources:

Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld)

Secretary, Department of Health and Community Services v JWB and SMB (Marion's Case) [1992] HCA 15; (1992) 175 CLR 218

B Mathews, K Walsh & J Fraser, Mandatory reporting by nurses of child abuse and neglect, (2006) 13, Journal of Law and Medicine, 505-517 (accessible online via Lawbook Online database)

Risk assessment statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 28-Feb-2013