JD subjects

Melbourne Law School Clinics is the hub for clinical legal education and public interest law at Melbourne Law School. Through experiential learning opportunities such as internships and clinics, students build their legal skills and knowledge while contributing to the work of our community law partners. Learning by working with real clients to solve real legal problems.

Clinics and internships are an opportunity to experience the law in action. Informed by their work in the clinic, students consider whether existing laws, processes and institutions meet the aims of the justice system and identify and work towards needed reforms.

Handbook entry:

• Indigenous Legal Advocacy Clinic (LAWS90209)
• Legal Internship (LAWS50059)
• MLS Tax Clinic (LAWS90164)
• NDIS and Disability Benefits Clinic (LAWS90189)
• Public Interest Law Clinic (LAWS50116)
• Stateless Legal Clinic (LAWS50126)
• Street Law (LAWS50102)
• Sustainability Business Clinic (LAWS50126)

Students can self-enrol in the following subject if the quota has not been met:

• Law Apps (LAWS90033)

JD students wanting to study overseas or focus on global legal practice have access to a range of international and interstate opportunities.

Handbook entry:

• Access to Justice on Country (LAWS90257)
• Indigenous Law in Aotearoa and Australia (LAWS90214)
• Law and Legal Practice in Asia (LAWS90006)
• New Technology Law (LAWS90107)

The Executive Branch Research Lab critically examines the largest branch of the constitutional order: the executive. The Research Lab will support enrolled students to acquire the academic and practical skills needed to pursue research on and analysis of the contemporary executive branch ‘in action’.

Activities include making parliamentary and law reform submissions, writing blog entries for the Research Lab’s dedicated website, conducting interviews with present and former executive branch actors, and participating in ongoing research projects convened under the auspices of the Research Lab.

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: Executive Branch Research Lab (LAWS90258)

This subject involves five students competing as a team in the prestigious Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which has been running for more than half a century. Each team represents both the applicant and the respondent by preparing written memorials and presenting oral pleadings in a simulated case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: Jessup Moot (LAWS50042)

This subject recognises a student’s contribution to the Melbourne Journal of International Law (MJIL) as credit towards completion of their Juris Doctor. This subject is only available only to students who are Members of Melbourne Journal of International Law and are committed to a position involving a substantial intellectual contribution to MJIL during the enrolled semester.

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: Melbourne Journal of International Law (LAWS50060)

This subject recognises a student’s contribution to Melbourne University Law Review (MULR) as credit towards completion of their Juris Doctor.  This subject is available only to editors of MULR, who, as editors, are committed to making a substantial intellectual contribution to MULR during the enrolled semester. The nature of the ‘substantial intellectual contribution’ required may vary depending on the nature of their work with MULR.

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: Melbourne University Law Review (LAWS50058)

This subject is designed for second and third-year JD students who are interested in academic legal scholarship. It will expose students to current areas of research and introduce them to the process of producing scholarly work at a professional level. Students will learn how to critically and constructively assess scholarly works-in-progress, and will develop their own views about particular debates, topics, and methods of inquiry.

Students can self-enrol into this subject if the quota has not been met.

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: New Ideas in Legal Scholarship (LAWS50114)

Projects and the Environment Practicum gives students an opportunity to explore how the law works in practice, with a focus on environmental and social issues as they appear through the stages of a major project, from finance to operation.

Students will encounter and analyse these issues across multiple areas of law, including contract law, environmental law, property law, and administrative law. Students will gain familiarity with the roles and perspectives of the diverse multidisciplinary actors with whom lawyers work when developing (or challenging) a major project, including financiers, community groups, consultants, scientists, and regulators. Topics will be taught using a real-life central case study to explore relevant issues.

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: Projects and the Environment Practicum (LAWS90241)

This subject will provide students with the legal skills to advise start-up companies on the legal issues those companies are likely to face in their early years of operation. The subject will cover the substantive law relevant to the particular circumstances of a start-up, including intellectual property, privacy, structuring options, start-up funding including crowd funding and Initial Coin Offerings, regulatory restrictions applying to LegalTech start-ups, the Australian Consumer Law, employment law and the tax incentives available for start-up companies in Australia.

Students can self-enrol into this subject if the quota has not been met.

Handbook entry:

• Handbook entry: Start-Up Law (LAWS90108)