The research assignment aims to enable students to practice, develop and demonstrate their research and legal analysis skills. These skills will become more highly tuned throughout university studies. However, it is imperative the skills are developed at an early stage of these studies.

There are two questions below to choose from. You are only required to complete ONE of the two essays:

Native Title and Property Law

Scenario:

You have been approached by a client who is worried that the indigenous people will ‘take his land' because of Native Title. Your client lives within 50 kilometres of the CBD (central business district) of your State/Territory (e.g. if you live in the NT, it is Darwin).

Question:

What is Australian law in relation to the land and property rights (e.g. water, other objects apart from land) of indigenous Australians?

You must include in your references:

a. Primary Australian legal materials (e.g. case law and legislation); AND
b. Secondary Australian materials (e.g. law journal articles, law textbooks, law reform commission papers, etc).

You must use the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) as the referencing format.

Scenario:

You work for as a junior clerk for a firm involved in representing a major sports team in the capital city of the State/Territory you live in (e.g. if you live in SA, this is Adelaide). One of your clients has just had someone release photographs of your client in a compromising situation to the media.

Question:

How does the law deal with publication of materials in the media (e.g. newspapers, news, internet etc)? What areas of law may be invoked and considered by the courts in dealing with the release of material.

You must include in your references:

c. primary legal materials (e.g. case law and legislation); AND

d. secondary materials (e.g. law journal articles, law textbooks, law reform commission papers, etc).