Students

LAWS8600 – Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Law

2025 – Session 1, Online-scheduled-weekday

General Information

Download as PDF
Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Lecturer and unit convener
Doron Goldbarsht
doron.goldbarsht@mq.edu.au
Tutor
Isabelle Nicolas
isabelle.nicolas@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Admission to MLCHRS or GCFIL or (Admission to JD and LAWS600 or LAWS8001)
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

Money laundering enables criminals to transfer illicit funds from various illegal activities such as tax evasion, fraud, corruption, drug trafficking, theft, and people smuggling into legitimate financial systems, concealing their origins. Terrorism financing poses a serious threat, as even small amounts of illegitimate funds can fund terrorist activities. Countries that allow unchecked illicit activities jeopardise national security, undermine financial institutions, and threaten the international financial system. This unit explores key provisions, obligations, and compliance requirements for financial institutions and reporting entities, including Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs), to combat money laundering and terrorism financing effectively.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Critically analyse the development of financial crime norms and theories of compliance in international and domestic contexts.
  • ULO2: Evaluate the interaction of binding and non-binding financial crime norms with legislative reforms in selected jurisdictions.
  • ULO3: Critique deviations from traditional international lawmaking processes and analyse emerging forms of governance in relation to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.
  • ULO4: Analyse and interpret hard and soft law norms in promoting financial integrity and effectively communicate these concepts to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
  • ULO5: Critically assess motives to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regimes across various jurisdictions, including Australia.

General Assessment Information

General Assessment Information

Late Assessment Submission Penalty  

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted until the seventh day (including weekends). After the seventh day, a mark of ‘0’ (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55 p.m. Students who experience a technical issue are given a one-hour grace period.    

This late penalty will apply to non-timed sensitive assessments (including essays, reports, posters, portfolios, journals, recordings, etc). Late submission of time-sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs, etc) will only be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application. Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic. 

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Research Essay 30% No 18/04/2025
Hypothetical Problems 30% No 20/06/2025, 9:00-11:00
Professional Skills 40% No Ongoing

Research Essay

Assessment Type 1: Essay
Indicative Time on Task 2: 30 hours
Due: 18/04/2025
Weighting: 30%

 

2000 words. Students will be required to write a research essay on an aspect of the course.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Critically analyse the development of financial crime norms and theories of compliance in international and domestic contexts.
  • Analyse and interpret hard and soft law norms in promoting financial integrity and effectively communicate these concepts to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
  • Critically assess motives to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regimes across various jurisdictions, including Australia.

Hypothetical Problems

Assessment Type 1: Problem set
Indicative Time on Task 2: 30 hours
Due: 20/06/2025, 9:00-11:00
Weighting: 30%

 

Students will advise a client based on the facts of the situation and the law learned in the course.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Evaluate the interaction of binding and non-binding financial crime norms with legislative reforms in selected jurisdictions.
  • Critique deviations from traditional international lawmaking processes and analyse emerging forms of governance in relation to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.
  • Analyse and interpret hard and soft law norms in promoting financial integrity and effectively communicate these concepts to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
  • Critically assess motives to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regimes across various jurisdictions, including Australia.

Professional Skills

Assessment Type 1: Practice-based task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: Ongoing
Weighting: 40%

 

Students will develop essential legal professional skills through structured classroom activities such as oral advocacy, critical reasoning, strategic problem-solving, collaborative work, team leadership, mooting, simulated client consultations, legal presentations or demonstrations, doctrinal analysis and problem solving, and/or collaborative legal research. These activities are designed to develop students’ professional capabilities including capacity to communicate legal concepts clearly and engage professionally with diverse audiences in diverse contexts.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Critically analyse the development of financial crime norms and theories of compliance in international and domestic contexts.
  • Evaluate the interaction of binding and non-binding financial crime norms with legislative reforms in selected jurisdictions.
  • Analyse and interpret hard and soft law norms in promoting financial integrity and effectively communicate these concepts to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Each week, one lecture or set of lectures will be pre-recorded and available to students on iLearn. These will take place from Week 1 to Week 12. The schedule of topics to be covered in the lectures, and notes on required readings, will be available in detail on iLearn.

A list of topics covered is provided in the Unit Schedule below.

Weekly one-hour tutorials begin in Week 2 and end in Week 13. Discussion questions for each tutorial will be available on the unit's iLearn page.

The required texts are:

Unit Schedule

Week

Topic

1

Global to local: Background to ML, TF, and FIU/AUSTRAC

2

ML and TF Offences 

3

Risk-based Approach

4

Preventive Measures: 

  • Financial Institution Secrecy Laws
  • Customer Due Diligence
  • Record Keeping

5

Preventive Measures:

  • Politically Exposed Persons
  • Correspondent Banking
  • Money or Value Transfer Services

6

Preventive Measures:

  • New Technologies
  • Wire Transfers
  • Reliance on Third Parties

7

Preventive Measures:

  • Internal Controls and Foreign Branches and Subsidiaries
  • Higher-Risk Countries
  • Reporting of Suspicious Transactions

8

DNFBPs

9

Terrorist Financing and Financing of Proliferation

10

Confiscations and Sanctions

11

International Cooperation

12

TBD

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit connect.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Academic Success

Academic Success provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via the Service Connect Portal, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2025.02 of the Handbook