UNSW Faculty of Law

UNSW Faculty of Law
Established	1971
Type	Public
Dean	David Dixon
Students	3125
Location	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	University of New South Wales
Website	www.law.unsw.edu.au

The Faculty of Law of the University of New South Wales is a law school situated in Sydney, Australia. The Faculty is one of the most innovative and prestigious law schools in Australia.

The Faculty comprises the School of Law and 12 affiliated research and specialist legal centres. Currently, the Faculty teaches approximately 3000 students.

History

The Faculty opened on 1 March 1971 with 219 undergraduate students. Prior to this, only the University of Sydney offered law degrees in New South Wales. The task of establishing the new law school was given to Hal Wootten QC, who was appointed Foundation Dean in 1969. When it was first started, it was just a one-man unit in a wooden hut. Within two years of opening its doors, the Law Faculty had outgrown "The Huts" and, via other interim homes, in 1976 moved to occupy five floors of the UNSW Library Tower. In 2006 the Faculty moved to a new law building on lower campus.

New Law School building

A new law building, located on lower campus, opened to students in July 2006.^{[citation needed]} The building was officially opened on 21 September 2006 by Chief Justice of Australia Murray Gleeson.

The new building is four storeys high and was designed by Melbourne architects Lyons. Features of the new building include light-filled atria space, open staircases, landscaped courtyards and an agora running up through floors. There are 13 classrooms with 40-plus seats, two Harvard-style lecture rooms with 90 seats and a 350-seat auditorium. Other features include a new Moot Court and student lounge. The Law Library forms the symbolic and functional heart of the new building and is occupied over two levels.^{[citation needed]}

The Faculty also offers classes at its CBD Campus located in the heart of Sydney’s legal and financial district.^{[citation needed]}

Reputation

The new law building

Today, the Faculty is recognised as one of the top law schools in Australia. In the 2011 Good Universities Guide, UNSW was the only Law School in Australia to get top ratings across all criteria which include teaching quality, generic skills, overall satisfaction, and success in getting a job.

From 2006 to 2009, the Federal Government's assessment of excellence in tertiary education found UNSW leads all Australian universities for the quality of learning and teaching in law. The Faculty distinguishes itself from other Australian legal education bodies by its small and interactive classes.

In 2011, UNSW Law School was ranked as the 29th best law school in the world according to QS Top Universities based in the UK. This placed UNSW Law School above such schools as Georgetown University, Northwestern, George Washington University, and Boston University.

Student achievement

In the past seven years, five UNSW law students have won Rhodes Scholarships.

Students of the faculty have achieved notable success in international advocacy competitions. In 2003 and 2007, UNSW was the Champion of the Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition, and in 2005 UNSW reached the International Grand Final. In 2008, UNSW was Runner-Up in the International Grand Final of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, and was Champion of the Manfred Lachs Space Law International Moot Competition. In 2010, UNSW was Runner-Up in the International Chamber of Commerce International Mediation Competition. In the same year, the UNSW team competing in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot won the awards for Best Claimant Memorandum and Best Respondent Memorandum. Also in 2010, a UNSW student won the Gilbert Apollis Award for Best Speaker in the English Speaking Rounds of the Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition. In 2011, in the first year that Australian universities were invited to compete in the New Zealand Law Students' Association (NZLSA) competitions, UNSW won the NZLSA Witness Examination competition.

Faculty components and centres

Kingsford Legal Centre

Main article: Kingsford Legal Centre

The Faculty hosts the Kingsford Legal Centre which is both a teaching centre offering clinical legal education and a community legal centre which provides free legal advice and referral and ongoing assistance to the residents of the local area in relation to legal problems. The Centre takes on cases where there is no other source of assistance or where acting for the client will benefit the community by achieving change in the law or government policy. The Centre advises on matters including domestic violence, debt, criminal law, employment law, legal aid, victim's compensation, motor vehicle accidents, consumer matters and accidents and injuries. It has a state-wide specialisation in discrimination law.

Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)

Main article: Australasian Legal Information Institute

The Australasian Legal Information Institute is operated jointly by the Faculties of Law at the UTS and the UNSW. AustLII offers free access online to case law, legislation and other primary legal resources and is "Australia's largest online legal public library."

Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law

The Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law has hosted a number of projects including:

• the annual Constitutional Law Conference and Dinner (the 11th is to be held in 2012)

• the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship: Anti-Terror Laws and the Democratic Challenge Project

• the International Refugee and Migration Law Project

• the Charter of Human Rights Project

• the Referendums project

• the Electoral Law Project

• the [ Federalism Project]

The founding director was Professor George Williams and the current director is Professor Andrew Lynch.

Other research centres

There are a number of research centres attached to the faculty of law, including:

• Australian Human Rights Centre
• Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre
• Centre for Continuing Legal Education
• Indigenous Law Centre

Faculty publications

The UNSW Law Journal is one of Australia's leading academic legal journals and one of the few to be produced entirely by a voluntary student board. Submissions for publication are received from local and international academics, judges, and legal professionals from a wide range of practice areas. The journal has a diverse and influential readership, being distributed among Judges of the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia and Supreme Court of New South Wales, as well as subscribers including government departments, non-government organisations and law firms. More than 250 universities worldwide receive the UNSW Law Journal.

Other Faculty publications and journals include:

• Australian Indigenous Law Reporter
• Australian Journal of Human Rights
• Human Rights Defender
• Indigenous Law Bulletin

Student organisation

The UNSW Moot Court

The UNSW Law Society is the representative body for all students in the Faculty of Law. It is responsible for coordinating a variety of activities and events for law students. It is divided into seven portfolios: Activities, Careers, Competitions, Education, JD, Services, and Social Justice.

Some of the student-organised social events include: an annual Law Ball, drinks and games nights, cocktail events, an annual ski trip, first-year Law Camp, UNSW Law Revue (organised by a separate society, the UNSW Law Revue Society), the valedictory dinner, and a law student talent quest ('Lawlapalooza').

The Society organises a number of competitions: Mooting, Client Interviewing, Negotiation, Trial Advocacy (witness examination), and Paper Presentation. Students of all years compete in three different levels of internal mooting competitions, depending on the stage of their degree. The winners of these competitions are supported to compete in intervarsity competitions, such as the National Australian Law Students Association competition. Adjudicators are drawn from a large pool of senior students, graduates, members of the profession (such as solicitors and barristers), and judges. Internal mooting finals are presided over by judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. In recent years, the UNSW Law Society has dramatically increased its funding for students to compete in international competitions - with one team in 2007, two teams in 2010, and two teams in 2011.

The Law Mentoring Support Network (LawMSN) is a program organised by law students and supported by the Law Faculty which aims to bridge high school and university life through peer mentoring. First year students are encouraged to meet fellow students through social events and are assigned senior student mentors, who attempt to ease them into law school life in weekly group sessions with other students.

The Law Society attracts a variety of sponsorship from prominent national and international organisations. The Society is the first student organisation to attract sponsorship off-shore, with Allen & Overy and Linklaters becoming sponsors of the Law Society in 2001.

Notable alumni

Over a short history of less than 40 years, the Faculty has produced a considerable number of Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholarship, Lionel Murphy overseas scholarship and Goldman Sachs leadership awards winners. Notable alumni include:

Judges

• Bob Bellear, NSW District Court; Australia's first Aboriginal judge
• Annabelle Bennett, Federal Court of Australia
• Elizabeth Fullerton, NSW Supreme Court
• Andrew Haesler, NSW District Court
• Anna Katzmann, Federal Court of Australia
• Megan Latham, NSW Supreme Court
• Lucy McCallum, NSW Supreme Court (LLB 1986)
• Tony Meagher, NSW Court of Appeal
• Matthew Myers, Family Court of Australia, first Indigenous Australian Commonwealth judicial officer
• John Nicholas, Federal Court of Australia
• Pat O'Shane, Magistrate; former Chancellor of the University of New England; Australia's first Aboriginal barrister (LLB 1976)
• Barnabas Wah Fung, former Chief District Judge of Hong Kong, current Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong
• Ann Ainslie-Wallace, Family Court judge since 2010, NSW District Court judge from 1997-2010 (LLB 1978)

Lawyers

• Chris Craigie SC, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
• Stuart Littlemore QC, barrister, writer and host of ABC's Media Watch

Politicians

• Andrew Cheng, Councillor of Legislative Council of Hong Kong
• Michael Forshaw, Senator
• Peter Garrett, musician and politician, Commonwealth Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts (LLB 1977)
• Brad Hazzard, NSW Member of Parliament
• Robert McClelland, former Commonwealth Attorney General (LLB 1981)
• Melissa Parke, United Nations senior lawyer, member of the House of Representatives
• Marise Payne, Senator
• Gabrielle Upton, Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Vaucluse

Other

• Monica Attard, award-winning Australian journalist
• Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal writer
• Satyajit Das, international expert and consultant on financial derivatives, risk management and capital markets
• David Gonski, prominent businessman, Chancellor of UNSW

External links

• UNSW Law Faculty website
• UNSW Law Journal
• UNSW Law Society
• Australasian Legal Information Institute