HSC Legal Studies Question Thread

[Whitey]

My Legal half-yearly (yr 12) is in about 2 and a half weeks. My school has shifted around our topics and we are doing Crime and the Family Option first. I have a few questions particularly in regard to family essays;

I'm in the same situation too. I'm wondering, do you @rachelmassar have to write any crime essays for your half yearlies?

[rachelmassar]

Hey, yeah there is going to be a 15 marker

[Mary_a]

Hey,

I was just wondering (half yearlies are coming up pretty soon!) what's the best way to approach a legal studies exam in terms of study and then actually receiving the paper? I'm always really nervous around exam time.

Thank you so much,

Mary x

[kiiaaa]

Hello all!
i was wondering if you had any good notes for crime on your website you recommend i should use.  there are soooo many files i don't really know which one to download being so many
thank you very much

[Whitey]

Hey, yeah there is going to be a 15 marker

Sweet as, both the classes at school are complaining because it would be 1 of 4 essays so its good to know that we aren't the only ones.
With a family law essay plan, our teacher gave us a very broad essay plan example for one question. Its attached below. Hope its some help.

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi Elyse!!

I haven't posted on the site before so I hope I am doing it right... I am big fan of all your notes/lectures, love your work !!

My Legal half-yearly (yr 12) is in about 2 and a half weeks. My school has shifted around our topics and we are doing Crime and the Family Option first. I have a few questions particularly in regard to family essays;

Hey Rachel! You certainly are doing it right, welcome to the forums! I'm not Elyse (obviously ), but hopefully I can help with your questions (I took the first set of Legal lectures for your cohort in September, if you went)!

What is the best way to prepare for family essays without memorising content/arguments? I understanding memorising, especially at this early stage, is counter-productive. However, our class is no where near finished the Family topic and I'm unsure how to approach my study as I don't want to leave Family until the last minute. Should I go ahead in the content and practice essays earlier? And should I also practice essays open book, and then in exam conditions closer to the exam? I am a perfectionist and struggle to practice not thinking my work is perfect yet !

If you have time to get ahead and start practicing early, go for it! But of course if that isn't realistic that is okay too - Just do what feels right yo you! You can definitely practice open book too if you prefer - Just make sure you get some practice under exam conditions. For Family, you should primarily be memorising evidence - Laws, cases, media, reports, stats, treaties, etc - You should make some summary sheets with that sort of stuff on them! I'd link you the ones I used that are available in our Notes Section, but it is down right now (will hopefully be fixed very soon if you want to browse!)
- Since family only amounts to essays, once I have done comprehensive notes, should I structure the important parts under themes + challenges, and other parts of the syllabus? (ie evaluate sections)

I am a little flustered in structuring my essay struggle since they could mould questions into either broad or specific topics --> should I memorise thesis statements to likely questions as well as evidence?

You should memorise lots of evidence, enough to cover you for any possible question, and then practice writing Thesis statements/ideas in response to the question. You can of course memorise Thesis statements too, if you feel like you need too, but I'm a fan of just knowing your evidence really well and then working your Thesis on the spot - And that takes practice!

Is it too early to be using HSC papers for study? Or is it appropriate for the content we have already covered..

You can definitely use them! Just ignore the Option you haven't done yet (or anything you haven't done yet really). That said, you might want to save the HSC Papers until the HSC itself, in which case you could use some Trial Exams as practice!

With the two options for family essays, can they ask absolutely any 2 from syllabus? Is there any construct they follow? (ie recently they have covered all the contemporary issues in a question each)

They can ask pretty much anything, but 99% chance it will only come from either the contemporary issues, divorce, or domestic violence. Usually there is at least one contemporary issue, and you can have an educated guess by looking at past exams (I predicted they'd ask about surrogacy in my Legal HSC lecture last year, just because as you say, the cycle called for it. Ditto for the Crime question and YA). That said, half yearlies definitely don't follow the trends, so you need to be prepared for anything, and you should be prepared for anything anyway

In regard to the syllabus requirement: 'Evaluate the effectiveness of the law in protecting victims of domestic violence' --> how appropriate is it to discuss the failure of preventative measures and stopping domestic violence initially? This is obviously one of the main concerns, however the wording of the question is problematic in terms of referencing 'victims'. Would this still be addressing the question?
[/quote]

To my interpretation, you can definitely discuss the effectiveness of preventative measures! And I'm sure I've done it in essays before too

I hope this helps! Be sure to shoot any more questions you have our way

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey,

I was just wondering (half yearlies are coming up pretty soon!) what's the best way to approach a legal studies exam in terms of study and then actually receiving the paper? I'm always really nervous around exam time.

Thank you so much,

Mary x

Hey Mary! So basically, you should be doing as much practice as possible - Exams, essay plans, sample tests, etc of course that can get a little dry, so you might want to try some of these other cool ways to study for Legal!

In the exam, beyond knowing the content, the most important thing is to be able to formulate a strong argument for your essays. I have a guide on constructing an effective argument for Legal as well

I hope these help!

[jamonwindeyer]

Hello all!
i was wondering if you had any good notes for crime on your website you recommend i should use.  there are soooo many files i don't really know which one to download being so many
thank you very much

Hey kiiaaa! The Notes section is actually down right this second (should be fixed soon) - But when it is fixed, if you add "state rank" to your search query, my Notes for Crime will come up. Obviously I'm biased but I think they are great

You should literally download everything though! Then spend some time going through them all and chopping and snipping things around - Every set of notes will have a slightly different spin and so you can gain a lot by comparing them and learning from them all simultaneously!

[Mary_a]

Hey Mary! So basically, you should be doing as much practice as possible - Exams, essay plans, sample tests, etc of course that can get a little dry, so you might want to try some of these other cool ways to study for Legal!

In the exam, beyond knowing the content, the most important thing is to be able to formulate a strong argument for your essays. I have a guide on constructing an effective argument for Legal as well

I hope these help!

Hey Jamon! Thank you! These will help greatly!

Mary x

[Kekemato_BAP]

Hi Elyse, my half yearly for legal is tomorrow Tuesday, and i need some more evidence for the international crime topic. Any suggestions for drug trafficking and lack of nation cooperation? Thank you

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi Elyse, my half yearly for legal is tomorrow Tuesday, and i need some more evidence for the international crime topic. Any suggestions for drug trafficking and lack of nation cooperation? Thank you

Welcome to the forums!!

Being in Venice, Elyse might not read this until you are asleep, but have a flick through this thread for some recent Crime developments (there should be Int. Crime in amongst the mix, some of the World Order ones could be useful too) I also wrote this guide with some key bits of evidence for use in the International Crime topic!

Hope these help - Good luck for your exams! Be sure to stop back and let us know how you went

[Bubbly_bluey]

hey guys! i would like to know the difference between genocide and crimes against humanity. They both have very similar definitions in my textbook
Crime against Humanity are acts committing a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilian population.
Genocide includes brutal acts intended to destroy all or part of a national, ethic, racial group.
So is there an easy way to tell them apart?Thanks

[jamonwindeyer]

hey guys! i would like to know the difference between genocide and crimes against humanity. They both have very similar definitions in my textbook
Crime against Humanity are acts committing a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilian population.
Genocide includes brutal acts intended to destroy all or part of a national, ethic, racial group.
So is there an easy way to tell them apart?Thanks

Hey Bubbly! So the exact definition of crimes against humanity is fluid (based on international customary law), but the most appropriate answer here is that genocide is a crime against humanity. It is an example of the bigger idea

[Kekemato_BAP]

Hi!! I was wondering if the "right to privacy" in the UDHR and ICCPR can be used for arguing against police powers and the intrusion of personal privacy. Is it the same privacy for a different type of privacy? Thanks!!

[elysepopplewell]

Hi!! I was wondering if the "right to privacy" in the UDHR and ICCPR can be used for arguing against police powers and the intrusion of personal privacy. Is it the same privacy for a different type of privacy? Thanks!!

This is an interesting thing to discuss - I can't give you a direct answer. The right to privacy has been explored and in some ways, redefined, over time. The Toonen and Croome cases (regarding Tasmania and laws on sodomy) is a good example of the way a case can carve out the right to privacy. So, if a police officer/detective has a warrant to search a house - you could definitely say that it is an infringement on the right to privacy. This brings up a debate (that the atar notes lecturers actually had over dinner one time) - when you commit a crime, do you forfeit some rights? According to the UDHR, no you don't. But in reality, well, yeah you do! There's no black or white answer I can give you, because you can argue either way!