Class Participation

Students are required to participate in weekly class seminar discussions and reflective activities.

Criteria upon which class participation is assessed are: students’ preparation, understanding of the materials, depth of arguments, presentation skills, and legal research (detailed explanations of the assessment criteria and marking rubric are provided on the iLearn site of the Unit).

Feedback in writing will be provided to individual students in class in Week 8.

Estimated Student Workload (outside class time): on average, 3 hours per week from Week 1 to Week 13 (except Week 8).

Presentation

Students will need to make an oral presentation (with PowerPoint slides) in class on 1 October 2019 (Week 8). Students must use PowerPoint slides to assist presentations.

Each student will need to submit a research topic and an abstract of 100-150 words (for his/her presentation and Assignment) to the unit convenor via email by 12 August 2019 for approval. Students are strongly encouraged to submit the proposed topic and abstract to the unit convenor as soon as possible. Each student will be informed whether his/her proposed topic is approved so that he/she can start to conduct research and prepare a verbal presentation (with PowerPoint slides) to be made in class in Week 8. The proposed research topic must be a topic that is commercial law-related AND within any one of the topic areas listed below. If a student wishes to research outside of these topic areas, prior approval from the unit convenor is required.

1. Foreign investment
2. Consumer protection / food safety
3. Electronic commerce
4. Sustainable development in China
5. Labour/employment law
6. Anti-monopoly
7. Intellectual property
8. Company law
9. China's "One Belt, One Road" 
10. China and the World Trade Organisation

Students need to submit their PowerPoint slides (in electronic version: PPT format) to the unit convenor via email no later than 30 September 2019.  

Criteria upon which presentation is assessed are: students’ preparation, understanding of the materials, depth of arguments and critique, presentation skills, and legal research (detailed explanations of the assessment criteria and marking rubric are provided on the iLearn site of the Unit).

Marks on the Presentation will be released via Gradebook on iLearn in or before Week 9.

No extensions of time will be granted in relation to the making of the presentation. Students who have not made the presentation in class in Week 8 will be awarded a mark of 0 (ZERO) for the presentation, except for cases in which an application for special consideration is made and approved.

Feedback in writing will be provided to individual students in class in Week 9.

Estimated Student Workload (outside class time): on average, 3-3.5 hours per week from Week 1 to the date of Class Presentation in Week 8.

Assignment

Students will be required to submit an Assignment (excluding footnotes and bibliography: 3,300-3,500 words). The research topics will, as described under Presentation above, be chosen by the students (subject to the convenor's approval).

The Assignment is research based.

Criteria upon which assignment is assessed are: the contents, structure, presentation, and referencing (footnoting and bibliography) of the assignments which show the students’ understanding of the materials, the depth of arguments and critique, the thoroughness of legal research, and adequacy of referencing (detailed explanations of the assessment criteria and marking rubric are provided on the iLearn site of the Unit).

Footnotes and bibliography (in Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed) style) are required. 

Students must before 4:00 p.m. on 11 November 2019 hand in BOTH an electronic version of the Assignment via TURNITIN on the iLearn site of this unit and a hard copy of the Assignment to BESS (Business and Economics Student Services).

For both BESS and TURNITIN: The first submission is final. Do NOT submit to BESS more than once. Do NOT submit via TURNITIN more than once. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that work is submitted correctly prior to the due date. No hard copies of assessments will be accepted alone and only Turnitin records will be taken as records of submission. Multiple submissions via Turnitin are NOT POSSIBLE in this unit.

Originality reports are NOT made available to students to view and check their work. Please refer to these instructions on how to submit your assignment through Turnitin. Should you have questions about Turnitin or experience issues submitting through the system, you must inform your Unit convenor immediately. If the issue is technical in nature, you may also lodge OneHelp Ticket or refer to the IT help page. It is the responsibility of the student to retain a copy of any work submitted. Students must produce these documents upon request. Copies should be retained until the end of the grade appeal period each term. In the event that a student is asked to produce another copy of work submitted and is unable to do so, they may be awarded zero (0) for that particular assessment task.

In view of the time given to students to complete the Assignment, no extensions of time will be granted for submission of the Assignment. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 20% penalty). For example, if the Assignment is worth 50 marks, a student is 23 hours late in submission and (before penalty) this student's mark is 40, the penalty will be a deduction of 5 marks (50 marks x 10% = 5 marks) (i.e. this student will obtain 35 marks for the Assignment). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for special consideration is made and approved.

Because the University's policy stipulates that "all assessments worth 20% or more must be archived" and the Assignment is the last assessment task, all the Assignments will be retained by the University. For viewing of the marked Assignments after the University has released the final results, please make arrangement with the administrative staff of the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance. Feedback is provided on each of the marked Assignments.

Estimated Student Workload (outside class time): on average, 5.5 hours per week from Week 1 to 11 November 2019.

Classes

The unit is comprised of one 3 hour seminar per week.

The timetable for classes can be found on the University website at: https://timetables.mq.edu.au/2019/.

Attendance at the seminar is required and a roll will be taken each week. Students are advised to prepare in advance for the seminar. The week-by-week list of the topics to be covered is set out below. All material inclusive of lecture notes, work to be undertaken in class (reflective activities and discussion forum), videos, reports and/or newspaper reports will be posted on iLearn.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

Required Texts and Materials:

• Textbook: Patricia Blazey and Kay-Wah Chan, Commercial Law of the People’s Republic of China (Sydney, Thomson Lawbook, 2012). It can be purchased from the Macquarie University Coop Bookshop.
• Materials that students are required to bring to classes (as specified in the Seminar Instructions on the iLearn site). These materials are available on the Internet or through database(s) subscribed by the Macquarie University Library (details to be specified in the Seminar Instructions on the iLearn site).

Recommended Texts and/or Materials:

• Patricia Blazey and Kay-Wah Chan (ed), The Chinese Commercial Legal System (Sydney, Thomson Lawbook, 2008). It can be purchased from the Macquarie University Co-op Bookshop.
• Recommended (not mandatory) readings as described in the Seminar Instructions (on the iLearn site).

Technology Used and Required

Technology used: learning management system (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/index.php).

Students have to frequently access this Unit's iLearn site (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/index.php) for Notes, Class Activity Instructions, announcements and detailed information regarding the Unit.

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be found on iLearn. The site contains notes and links to useful sites (if any). 

Teaching and Learning Strategy

The weekly class is a 3-hour seminar. As assessment includes class participation, students will be expected to complete the required reading prior to class and to contribute to class discussions. Detailed seminar instructions are available on this Unit's iLearn site.

Seminars

As compared with the offering in 2018, the main change(s) are:

1. "The importance of guanxi" has been removed/deleted from the learning outcome "Explain the importance of guanxi and business culture as it operates in China".
2. The order/sequence of the topics to be covered has been adjusted.
3. The topic "Understanding China" has been added.
4. The topic "China-Australia Free Trade Agreement" has replaced "Australia China Trade Agreement".
5. The following topics have been removed/deleted: "Guanxi", "Chinese Culture", "Property Law", "Land Law" and "Civil Procedure Law".
6. There are changes in the topic areas that students can choose for their Presentations and Assignments.
7. The word length requirement of the Assignment has been changed from 3800-4000 words to become 3300-3500 words.
8. An Essay Writing Workshop will be held in Week 7.

Research and Practice

1. This unit uses research by Macquarie University researchers:

• Kay-Wah Chan, "The Global Financial Crisis and Labor Law in China" (2012) The Chinese Economy 45(3): 24-41.
• Patricia Blazey and Kay-Wah Chan, Commercial Law of the People's Republic of China (Sydney, Thomson Reuters, 2012).
• Patricia Blazey and Kay-Wah Chan (ed), The Chinese Commercial Legal System (Sydney, Thomson Lawbook, 2008).
• Kay-Wah Chan, "China’s Labour Law in Transition" in John Garrick (ed) Law Wealth and Power in China: Commercial Law Reforms in Context (Routledge, 2011) 163-181.

2. This unit uses research from external sources:

See the Required Reading List above and Class Activity Instructions.

Global and Sustainability

This unit addresses global and sustainability issues as direct areas of study and/or as necessary implications arising from the materials, assessment and academic discussion and debate in classes. We promote sustainability by developing ability in students to research and locate information within the Chinese law discipline. We aim to provide students with an opportunity to obtain skills which will benefit them throughout their career. The global contexts of this unit are found in the contents of the unit (as it is a Chinese Trade and Investment Law unit), including the contents of the seminars and its assessments tasks.