Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – 10 marks out of 100 credit will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted seven days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. 

Word limits will be strictly applied and any words above the word limit will not be marked. Students may submit 10% less words than the word limit for an assessment (however, it is strongly recommended to use all the words possible as generally students who adhere to the recommended word limit perform better than students who do not).  All assessments in the unit are to be submitted electronically via the appropriate Turnitin link. Plagiarism detection software is used in this unit. Detailed marking guidelines will be made available on iLearn.

The convenor moderates all assessments. All high distinctions and fails are double marked.

Students will have the opportunity to explore complex legal questions and develop practical and theoretical understandings relevant to child and elder law. All students must be aware that this unit predominantly focuses on children and the law and is convened by Dr Holly Doel-Mackaway, whose background is in international children’s rights. The last two weeks of lectures will provide a brief introduction to elder law. However, this course will not provide students with a comprehensive overview of elder law.

In this unit we will also examine the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the law. Please see this resource produced by Walanga Muru, Macquarie University Office of Indigenous Strategy for information about Aboriginal Cultural Protocols. 

Given the current COVID situation the mode of delivery for this unit could change to 'online only' at short notice. Until that time however, tutorials will be run both online and face to face (tutorial times are available at Timetables). The online OCS for external students will run on the 13 and 14 September. The course content (lectures and other learning materials) will be delivered online, every week during weeks 1-13.

All students are required to prepare for, attend and actively participate in either weekly face-to-face or online tutorials or a 2-day online OCS.

The program for the OCS will be released in due course. Students who cannot attend both days of the OCS due to a clash with another subject should choose a different subject as all students are required to attend both days of the OCS. If a student is not able to attend the OCS due to an unforeseen circumstance they will be allocated alternative work that will require the student to undertake the same degree of preparation, pre-reading and participation (amounting to 2 full days and additional preparation time). Only students with an approved special consideration will be allocated alternative work.  

Each week students will be required to read the required readings and listen to approximately 2 hours of pre-recorded lecture or other course material that will be available on iLearn. The schedule of topics to be covered in the lectures, and required readings, will be available on iLearn and in the unit's Leganto reading list. 

Lectures being in week 1 and finish in week 12. Tutorials being in week 2 and finish in week 13.  

There is no textbook for the course rather a list of readings for each week will be posted on the unit Leganto link. 

Students require access to a computer and a secure and reliable internet provider.

Child and Elder Law Unit Schedule 

This is subject to change so keep checking this iLearn page.