LAW4537 Public Policy, Regulation and the Law

Workload:
Two 1.5 hour lectures per week + a fairly intensive research assignment involving class presentations. Several key readings (mainly journal articles) that were important to read.

Prescribed Prerequisites/Recommended Prerequisites:
Arts or Economics students would find this unit easier possibly.

Assessments:
Research assignment (group or individual) on a chosen topic. Lots of flexibility with topic choices. Had to present topic to class. There was also a closed book exam.

Recorded Lectures:
No.

Past exams available:
No, but lots of guidance given as to questions.

Textbook recommended?
No textbook.

Comments:
Semester 1, 2015
 * This was a really enjoyable unit, it provided a really good introduction to public policy making and regulation.
 * Highlights included the numerous guest lecturers and the class presentations, as this provided an opportunity to learn about real life policy and regulation.
 * Graeme also had great personal insights into the whole area and we had some great ‘practical class exercises/experiments’ but I won’t ruin the surprise!
 * Challenges included that the content is very theoretical until it is applied to a specific area (and often the learning comes first and the application much later) - this can make the content slightly harder to grasp and remember.
 * Practical skills include learning a way of ‘framing’ policy issues and ways of understanding different types of regulation and its effectiveness.
 * Make sure you choose a research assignment topic that is interesting to you, that way it won’t even feel like an assignment!
 * Take notes from the readings as you go - the key quotes from the readings were listed in the power point slides.
 * I took this unit during one of the busiest semesters of my course and still achieved a good result.