TE PIRINGA FACULTY OF LAW
Issues in Family Law: LAWS 578-13B (HAM)
2013 Outline
1. Identification of Paper
Paper: LAWS 578-13B (HAM)
This paper carries 30 points
2. Staffing
Ruth Busch
(Lecturer and Convenor)
838 4466 ext 8569
Email: rwb1@waikato.ac.nz
I am available to see students by appointment.
3. Description and Structure of Paper
(a) Description of the paper in University Calendar
The paper will provide insights into contemporary issues in Family Law and an
analysis of the current discourses of family law as expressed by judges, lawyers
and other family law related practitioners. It will also explore alternative dispute
resolution models currently in use in the family law area including mediation and
restorative justice. It will benefit practitioners and others interested in practising
in family law related areas, as well as researchers and others interested in
discourse analysis and legal theory.
(b) Structure of the Paper
General
This is a semester paper. The teaching component comprises one two-hour seminar
per week.
The seminar hours are: Tuesdays from 1 – 3pm in K.3.19
4. Learning Objectives of the Paper
The objective of this paper is to develop an understanding of contemporary issues
in family law. The paper aims to enable students to critically reflect on the
underlying social implications of current Family law statutes and practice
approaches. Primary aims of the paper are to enable students to analyse relevant
statutory provisions and to develop sophisticated approaches to legal research in
the area of family law. The objectives of the research project are to enable
students to critically analyse the socio-legal presumptions underpinning their
chosen topic and to evaluate the law’s “successes” or “failures” in dealing with
the issues raised by their chosen topic.
5. Workload
Students should expect to spend 300 hours in total on this paper. In addition to
seminar attendance, significant time will need to be spent on background and
complementary reading. Students should allow for periods of more focused research
time in the preparation of assignments.
6.
Required and Recommended Reading
All law students are required to purchase, for use in all law papers, a copy of McLay,
Murray & Orpin, New Zealand Law Style Guide, Thomson Reuters (2009). This is
available from Bennetts, at an approximate price of $18.90.
Due to the nature of the paper, there is no set text. However recommended readings
on particular topics will be made available in the course materials.
Further material may be provided on the paper site on Moodle
(http://elearn.waikato.ac.nz), the University of Waikato’s online learning system. Any
such material is provided on the following terms:
University of Waikato owns the intellectual property rights, including copyright, in
and to this site, or has acquired the necessary licenses to display the material on the
site. As a student of the Te Piringa Faculty of Law, you are granted a limited license
to use (access, display or print a single copy) the material from the papers in which
you are enrolled for the purposes of participating in the paper only, provided the
information is not modified. Materials may not under any circumstances be copied,
stored, distributed or provided in any form or method whatsoever to any third party.
Any other use of the material is prohibited. None of the material may be otherwise
reproduced, reformatted, republished or re-disseminated in any manner or form
without the prior written consent of University of Waikato. To obtain such consent,
please contact the Te Piringa Faculty of Law.
7. Online support
Online support for this paper is provided via Moodle.
8.
Assessment
a)
Requirements for assessed work
School procedures for the presentation of course work are set out in the Te Piringa
Faculty of Law Graduate and Postgraduate Handbook which is available from:
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate.
See also paragraph 12 below on referencing guidelines and plagiarism.
Assignment resources are available online at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/student/
b)
Course Work: Final Examination Ratio 1/0
Course work: 100%, no Examination
c)
Assessment Components
The paper has three forms of assessment:
1. A research proposal due on the 3rd September
2. An Oral Presentation of your research work
3. A Research Paper, due Tuesday the 22nd October
15%
25%
60%
Research Proposal:
Students will be expected to submit a research proposal on Tuesday the 3rd
of September 2013. The proposal will be approximately 6 pages in length
and include an annotated bibliography. In their research proposals, students
will set out their research question, discuss the significance of their topic, and
outline a draft of their research essay headings. The annotated bibliography
should indicate which articles and books appear to be most helpful in
answering their research question. The research proposal is a compulsory
part of the Paper and will comprise 15% of the final grade for this paper.
Oral Presentation
Students will be expected to make an oral presentation of their research
papers. The length of the presentation should be approximately 40 minutes,
including 10 minutes of class questions. Students are expected to provide an
overview of their research and discuss the significance of their research
questions. The presentation should demonstrate students’ command of the
subject area forming the basis of the research. They should also discuss why
they chose their topic, indeed why their topic is worthy of the commitments of
time and intellectual efforts they are making. As part of the presentation,
students should be prepared to respond to any questions raised or comments
made by fellow students or the lecturer. Depending on the size of the class,
presentations will be made during the final six weeks of classes, timetable to
be advised. The oral presentation is a compulsory part of the Paper and will
comprise 25% of the final grade for this paper.
Research Paper
For the research paper students should critically investigate their chosen topic,
demonstrate an appropriate level of expertise in the methods of research and
scholarship, demonstrate the independent development of ideas relevant to the
topic, and should preferably make a contribution to the subject area concerned.
Students may choose their own topics in consultation with the lecturer,
provided that they fall within the general scope of the subject areas covered by
the paper. The Research Paper is due on Tuesday the 22nd of October 2013,
and be approximately (i.e. within 10% of) 10,000 words in length, footnotes
and bibliography excluded. The research essay will comprise 60% of the final
grade for this paper.
d)
Handing in, marking time and collection
All assignments must be submitted electronically through Moodle
(http://elearn.waikato.ac.nz).
See Te Piringa Faculty of Law Graduate and
Postgraduate Handbook, available at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate. Where
practical, it is the policy of Te Piringa Faculty of Law to return marked work to
students within five weeks of submission.
If you require assistance with Moodle, or encounter any problems, please contact the
Help Desk. You can send a message to Help Desk by using the instant message
service in your paper’s Moodle site (from the participants list within the People
block). Alternatively, you can email them directly at help@waikato.ac.nz or call 838
4008.
e)
Measurement of Achievement
Achievement in assignments and presentations will be measured in terms of levels of
understanding and knowledge gained, in terms of the originality and the sophistication
of analysis provided, in terms of coherent and logical structure, and in terms of the
fluency and accuracy of expression and referencing.
f)
Management of assessment deadlines, process for requesting extensions and
special consideration, and for appeals
i)
Extensions
Students are required to complete and submit all internal assessment by specified
dates. The meeting of deadlines is a mark of professionalism and its enforcement is
essential for fairness to all students taking the paper. Handing in course work on or
before the due in date also facilitates the timely return of marked work by academic
staff. Students should meet requirements as to time deadlines for course work, or
make a request for an extension or special consideration in appropriate circumstances
(see Graduate Programmes Manual available from the School of Law Graduate
website http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate/.) Failure to comply with
requirements as to the time deadlines for internal assessment without having
successfully applied either for an extension or special consideration with supporting
evidence before the due date will result in deduction of 2.5 marks for each day the
work is late. Lateness of more than a week may result in the work not being marked.
No deadlines may be extended beyond two weeks after the last teaching day of the
semester(s) in which the paper is taught as final grades must go to the Board of
Examiners at this time. Unless an extension in writing has been granted, a lecturer
may refuse to accept a piece of work which is submitted after the specified date, and
automatically award it no mark, or may lower the mark as a penalty for lateness.
Applications for extension, on the form obtainable from the Resource Room, must be
submitted to the Convenor of the course. Extensions will be granted only on
evidence of illness, family bereavement, or serious personal accidents or
circumstances. Please note that too many assignments due at the same time is NOT
an acceptable reason, neither are claims that computers and/or printers have crashed).
Account will be taken of the time in which the student has had to complete the
assessment before the supervening event occurred. It will be important to consider if
the grant of the extension will give the student in question an unfair advantage over
other students. A maximum period of 14 days will be given as an extension unless
there are exceptional circumstances. In determining applications the Convenor or
lecturer of the relevant paper may consult with the Chief Examiner or nominee.
ii)
Special Consideration
The Assessment Regulations 2005 as set out in the University Calendar 2013 list in
detail the university-wide policies and procedures, which apply concerning missed
examinations, impaired performance or impaired preparation time for an examination,
and missed or impaired course work. Students are responsible for ensuring that they
comply with these regulations. Application forms for special consideration for
internal assessment are available from the Resource Room.
iii) Appeals (University Calendar 2013, Assessment Regulations 2005, Reg.
24)
A student may appeal against any decision taken under these regulations.
An appeal, comprising a written statement of the circumstances of the appeal, together
with supporting evidence if available, must be submitted by the student in writing to
the Director of Student & Academic Services not more than seven days after the date
on which notification of the relevant decision is received.
Appeals under this section are considered and decided by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor
by delegated authority of the Academic Programmes Committee.
A decision by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor is notified in writing, and is final.
9.
University Calendar Regulations and Policies
Your attention is drawn to the following regulations and policies, which are published
in the University Calendar 2013.
Assessment Regulations 2005
Student Discipline Regulations 2008
Computer Systems Regulations 2005
Policy on the Use of Māori for Assessment
Student Research Regulations 2008
Ethical Conduct in Human Research and Related Activities Regulations 2008.
10.
Links to other papers
Issues in Family Law is a graduate paper that builds upon the knowledge acquired by
students in undergraduate family law-related papers. It is expected that students in
this paper will already have taken either one or both of Laws 408 (Family Law) or
Laws 472 (Property Issues in Family Law).
11.
Fees
Refer to http://calendar.waikato.ac.nz/admission/tableoffeesandcharges.html.
12.
Referencing guidelines and caution against plagiarism
(a) Referencing must be in accordance with the New Zealand Law Style Guide.
(b) All written work submitted for the purposes of assessment must be your own
work. Copying or paraphrasing all or part of another person’s work, be it published
or unpublished, without clear attribution, is plagiarism. Plagiarism is misconduct and
is dealt with under the disciplinary procedures of the University as outlined in the
Student Discipline Regulations 2008 in the University Calendar.
“Plagiarism means presenting as one’s own work the work of another, and includes
the copying or paraphrasing of another person’s work in an assessment item without
acknowledging it as the other person’s work through full and accurate referencing; it
applies to assessment presented through a written, spoken, electronic, broadcasting,
visual, performance or other medium.” See section 3, Assessment Regulations (2011
Calendar)
Unless approved otherwise by the examiners of the papers concerned, a student must
not submit as assessment material that is substantially the same as material submitted
as assessment for a different paper.
© The Te Piringa Faculty of Law's policy regarding plagiarism is contained in the Te
Piringa Faculty of Law Graduate and Post-Graduate Handbook and the Te Piringa
Faculty
of
Law
Graduate
Programmes
Manual,
available
from
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate.
13.
Health and safety
The Law School’s Health and Safety representative is Ms Alison Saunders who is in
Room Law G44 at ext 4167.
14. Class Representation
At the commencement of the semester, a class representative will be elected by the
students in Issues in Family Law. This representative is encouraged to communicate
regularly with the Convenor. Students in this paper are encouraged to liaise with their
representative to discuss issues of concern. Contact details for the Student
Representation Coordinator, Academic Services Division, are as follows: Samantha
Whittle, Student Services, ext. 6264, CHSSG.25 email: student.reps@waikato.ac.nz
15.
Complaints procedures
The brochure Student Concerns and Complaints Policy provides details of the
University’s process for handling concerns and complaints and is available from
Faculty and School Offices, The Gateway and Student Services Division and is
contained in the Calendar 2012.See also the document Student Support Structure at
Te Piringa Faculty of Law, available from the Resource Room.
Week Commencing
Programme of lecture topics
10 July (B Semester begins)
Recognition of Same Sex Family
Relationships : Framing the Issues
17 July
The Family Court Proceedings
Reform Bill: An overview of the
issues
23 July
Mandatory Mediation: Issues and
Consequences for vulnerable litigants
and children
30 July
Children’s Voices in the Family
Court: Whatever happened to
UNCROC’s promise of
participation?
6 August
Jettisoning the Bristol Amendments
vs the recent amendments to the
(Aus) Family Law Act: Which will
work better to protect children’s
safety?
13 August
New Birth Technologies: What
happens when the paradigms shift?
20 August (Teaching recess)
27 August (Teaching recess)
3 September
Class Presentions
10 September
Class Presentations
24 September
Class Presentations
1 October
Class Presentations
8 October
Class Presentations
15 October (Study week)
21 October (Examinations)
Labour Day 28 October
28 November (Examinations)
Seminar Schedule B Semester