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Author Topic: Prop A + B with Equity + Trusts OR Consti + Admin?  (Read 5881 times)  Share 

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vashappenin

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Prop A + B with Equity + Trusts OR Consti + Admin?
« on: December 07, 2015, 09:14:28 am »
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Hi guys!

So for context, these are the remaining law units I have to do (other than electives): Property A + B, Consti, Admin, Equity, Trusts, Ethics, Civil Proc, Corps, Evidence

I'm planning to do Property A + B next year but I'm not sure what units to pair it with. I'm tossing between Equity (Sem 1) and Trusts (Sem 2) or Consti (Sem 1) and Admin (Sem 2). My other option is to do Prop A + Equity + Consti in Semester 1 and Prop B + Trusts + Admin/Law elective in Semester 2

My main concern is with equity and trusts because I've been hearing mixed opinions. Some people say that it's better to do Property A + B first before attempting Equity and Trusts because Equity and Trusts assume knowledge from property law. However, some people also say do Prop A with Equity and Prop B with Trusts because they are all similar so it's better to get them over with together because it'll be easier.

I also need to keep in mind the remaining units I'll have. I'm planning to knock out Ethics and Civil Proc during summer semesters but then I'll have remaining Evidence and Corps (plus electives) for 2017 which I've heard are also quite hard.

I really don't want to make the wrong decision and regret it later so PLEASE let me know what you think!!!

Thanks :)
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 11:51:46 am by vashappenin »
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Rohmer

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Re: Prop A + B with Equity + Trusts OR Consti + Admin?
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2015, 03:26:31 pm »
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My main concern is with equity and trusts because I've been hearing mixed opinions. Some people say that it's better to do Property A + B first before attempting Equity and Trusts because Equity and Trusts assume knowledge from property law. However, some people also say do Prop A with Equity and Prop B with Trusts because they are all similar so it's better to get them over with together because it'll be easier.

In my view there are some advantages to doing them all together, but it is better to do Property, then Equity, then Trusts. Property A is not that hard as a unit (the main difficulty is probably just the fact that it isn't open book), even though I think it is a little bit more difficult that contract/crim/torts. Property B is definitely a step up from Property A though. The good news is that even though Corps/Equity/Trusts are a bit harder than Property B, law units kinda plateau/even-out in difficulty at this point. They can, however, be difficult for different reasons. For example: Trusts is very technical, terminology and case law can be archaic, whereas with Corps the difficulty lies in the fact that there is quite a lot of legislation, pretty much all of it from the Corps Act, and some/much of it not very interesting. Quite a bit of Evidence is straightforward, but there's a lot of it too, with a 1-2 difficult topics. And then there's just the fact that some subjects just make sense to some people, while others struggle to get their head around it.

Anyway, I think there's a real disadvantage to doing Equity before Property B.  Although the subjects are different in content, Prop B actually introduces you to a number of principles from Equity. Whereas Prop A is mostly concerned with introducing you to the notion of property and land law systems and how rights are transferred, Prop B is where the conflict comes into the scenarios. There are some complicated disputes over who owns what, and some of them are solved by equity (Constructive Trusts, Resulting Trusts etc.), in the same kinda way that equitable principles appear in Contract A/B (e.g. doctrine of part performance, specific performance as a remedy). There will be people doing Equity without doing Prop B, but I think they are generally firmly in the minority. It's not that Equity is that much harder than Property B, because it isn't (although Equity is closed book [assuming it hasn't changed]), but I do think Equity kinda follows Prop B, even if it's not quite to the same degree that Property comes after Contract.

Equity and Trusts are probably a bit more open to being done at the same time. There is actually a bit of direct content overlap in there. People doing them at the same time will likely be in the minority, but not to the same extent as Equity/Prop A. It's more of a borderline call on this one. The two could actually be taught as one big yearlong subject (they probably were at one point). Trusts is really just a big area in Equity - e.g. in Equity you'll learn about fiduciary relationships, the trustee/beneficiary relationship is just one of those. The two units also overlap largely in the remedies section, although from my memory Trusts goes a bit further. Studying them in the same semester will obviously have that benefit, but then again, if you just do Trusts the semester after Equity, you'll still have your Equity notes which you can easily refresh from anyway. Personally I think it's better to go with Equity before Trusts and get a view of how the former leads into the latter, but the two are definitely doable at the same time, and there will be a little bit of overlap benefit, even though it's not that much. Trusts is a little bit harder than Equity [I would rank Trusts as the hardest core unit, although like I said before, once you've done Property B the difficulty thing doesn't change drastically], but some of that is made up for by the fact that it's open book.

In terms of subject choices, I would favour the Prop A/Consti (S1) and then Prop B (Admin) option. Then Equity S1 the following year, Trusts in S2. Evidence/Corps could go alongside either Equity or Trusts. They are of around the same difficulty. Corps has a lot of fiduciary stuff in it which relates to Directors Duties, some of it does overlap with Equity, although it doesn't go into as much depth on equitable principles. Could do them together or Corps after Equity, I don't think there's much difference. I just did Evidence, will do a review on that later.

Sorry for the long post  :P
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 03:34:08 pm by Rohmer »

vashappenin

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Re: Prop A + B with Equity + Trusts OR Consti + Admin?
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2015, 10:40:33 am »
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Thanks Rohmer! I think I'll stick to Prop A + Consti in Sem 1 and Prop B + Admin in Sem 2. I'll leave Equity and Trusts for the year after :) What would be better to do with Prop A + Consti though - Evidence or Corps? I'll only be doing 3 units in Semester 1 and it'll probably have to be one of those.

Look forward to reading your reviews by the way :)
2013: English, Maths Methods, Further Maths, Legal Studies, HHD, Psychology
2014-present: Bachelor of Laws @ Monash University

Tutoring VCE English, Psych, Legal Studies and HHD in 2016! Tutoring via Skype too. PM me if you're interested :)