Hi Elyse:)
Thank you for uploading the themes and challenges page
What agruments can i make with the themes and challenges "law reform".
Also what cases and legislations can i include for law reform.
Thank again
Hi Christian!
Law Reform is a very broad theme and challenge - applicable to all topics in our hsc course (depending on electives of course). I assume you're talking about crime however and it is very possible that a hsc question could specifically zone in on law reform; i would wager that this would be on one subheading though e.g. trial, investigation processes / young offenders.
Generally from what i've seen questions focus on
evaluating the role of law reform or its
effectiveness in achieving justice. Thus, you may wish to structure a response around reforms to certain aspects of the crime syllabus and how they achieve justice for the victim/offender/society. In most essays you will be required to
make a judgement on how effective this reform is. A popular method to do this is to take both sides (as most good essays do) in condemning the nature of law reform as only responsive to certain events that violate
human rights. Remember that the law is a
reflection of societal values (linked with another theme and challenge) and therefore is contextually limited - you may need to refer to the circumstances surrounding reforms e.g. patriarchal values so the marker fully understands the purposes and influences upon such changes.
Some examplesR v. Skaf (2004) - this was on elyse's slides and resulted in reforms to aggravated sexual assault in company
R v. Loveridge (2013) -
One punch law case that resulted in
mandatory sentencing as set out in the
Crimes Amendment (Assault/Intoxication) Act 2014The various amendments to the
Bail Act - the 2007 amendment regarding
presumption against bail for
domestic violence offenders (in response to the case of Trish Van Koeverden) and the 2013 Amendment (in response to the rise in terrorism) which created an
unacceptable risk test to protect the societal right to safety.
Hope this helps