Law,B-LAWS

Overview

Gain the skills to provide legal advice, perform legal work and appear in court as a legal practitioner.

Curtin's Bachelor of Laws offers a rich and professionally relevant foundation in legal knowledge.

You will learn core skills essential to effective legal practice and build a strong commercial awareness.

From early on in your studies, you’ll start to recognise the importance of respecting the rule of law, along with the responsibilities and ethics of legal practice.

You can also choose from optional units that focus on topics such as forensic advocacy, employment law, environmental law and policy, law and technology human rights law and native title law and policy. This range of optional units enables you to tailor your degree to your interests.

You'll complete most of your course at Curtin Law School in the heart of Perth’s legal precinct. You can gain practical experience by undertaking simulated legal proceedings in our high-tech moot court, working on real cases at the John Curtin Law Clinic and participating in our Legal Internships Program.

Through the Legal Internships Program, you can experience working in a legal environment such as a court, law firm or community legal centre, with an organisation's in-house legal team or with a barrister. These experiences will develop your practical legal skills and help you identify the area of law in which you'd like to practise. Curtin Law School has developed relationships with a range of organisations to offer legal internship placements to our students.

The first year of this course is delivered in semesters at Curtin Perth, with the second and third years delivered in trimesters at Curtin Law School in Perth city. This accelerated format, which is equivalent to a four-year (full-time) undergraduate degree, means that you can graduate after just three years of full-time study.

Practical Legal Training

Our Practical Legal Training (PLT) course is a graduate diploma designed for graduates who have completed a Bachelor of Laws or Juris Doctor course at an Australian university and intend to apply for admission to the legal profession in Western Australia.

Approved by the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia, this is the first specialised PLT program to be delivered by a WA university.

Double degrees

We offer a range of double degrees with our Bachelor of Laws:

• Law and Arts
• Law and Commerce
• Law and Innovation
• Law and Psychology
• Law and Science.

What you'll learn

• apply knowledge of the Australian legal system, statutory rules and case law principles in both the fundamental areas of legal knowledge and a range of elective fields to the resolution of legal problems
• critically and creatively analyse legal problems to articulate the issues involved and apply legal reasoning to make a considered choice between competing solutions
• identify, access, assess and synthesise relevant information from primary legal sources such as cases and legislation and secondary sources such as journal articles and commentaries (including electronic versions of these sources) and gather relevant oral and documentary evidence
• communicate the outcomes of legal research and analysis effectively, appropriately and persuasively to colleagues, to clients and to other professionals and the broader community
• use appropriate electronic legal databases for research purposes and be able to communicate effectively in electronic forms
• maintain intellectual curiosity as to justice and its practical application in the legal system, be able to identify areas where their legal knowledge and skills require further development, and to critically reflect on their own performance as legal professionals, making use of feedback as appropriate
• articulate the similarities and differences between local and other jurisdictions, including interstate and overseas ones, and be aware of the principles of public and private international law
• articulate distinct concepts of law, justice and human rights, with an awareness of different legal traditions and cultures, particularly indigenous cultures; identify how and where indigenous persons and other identifiable social groups are differentially impacted by the legal system.
• work independently, as well as collaboratively, with a developing sense of the ethical issues that arise in legal practice and how these may be resolved

English requirements

Curtin requires all applicants to demonstrate proficiency in English. Specific English requirements for this course are outlined in the IELTS table below.

You may demonstrate English proficiency using the following tests and qualifications.

If your documents are not issued in English, an official translation from a recognised translation service must be provided.

Recognised translation services

• National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) accredited translator in Australia
• The Awarding institution
• A Notary Public Office
• The official Government body
• An official and accredited translator*

*Official translations are subject to review.

If you have undertaken previous study or work that matches the content of some of your Curtin course units, you may be able to obtain credit for recognised learning, which exempts you from studying those units.

You can apply direct online through our Applicant Portal. You can access the Applicant Portal by:

1. Navigating to the relevant course page
2. Click ‘Apply now’
3. When the pop-up window appears, select “Apply directly to Curtin University”.

If you want to package your course with a Curtin English course, you can submit your application with your course application documents to streamline the process.

If your application is successful, you will receive an offer that you will need to accept or reject.

If you accept your offer, you will receive a Confirmation of Enrolment ­– a document from Curtin that details your course, how long you will be studying the course, and the tuition fees. This document can be used for acquiring a student visa.

Apply to the Australian government for your student visa. Gaining a student visa will allow you to participate in full-time study in Australia and work up to 40 hours in a fortnight. If you’re under 18 years of age, you must have approved accommodation and welfare arrangements in place before a visa can be issued.