How good to u have to be to pass law? (1 Viewer)

[~ ReNcH ~]

i don't find 1st year dry... well, not torts anyway in my opinion commerce is much drier than torts in every way imaginable. I hope later law subjects are like torts.

Just out of curiosity, in school were you the history-type person, the eco/business-type person or the science/maths-type person?

Btw. what is torts about and what makes it so interesting to you?

 

[santaslayer]

The driest subjects are the foundation ones. Once you get them over and done with, you will probably find most your core to be pretty similar. That is, a lot of reading, a lot of technical law stuff and a lot of late nights.

I can't wait for Evidence, that sounds heaps interesting.

Electives would probably be much the same. The only difference is that you CHOSE these subjects, so I would like to think that we would get even better marks for them. (hopefully )

 

[04er]

Just out of curiosity, in school were you the history-type person, the eco/business-type person or the science/maths-type person?

Btw. what is torts about and what makes it so interesting to you?

at school my subs were Chem, Bio, Physics, Maths, Maths Ext. 1 and English (adv) so i was an extreme science/maths-type of person. I have always hated history/geography/humanities. And I'm not completely enjoying the eco and business that comes with Commerce but it's beginning to grow on me.

Torts was defined (quite broadly) to us as 'the law of civil wrongs'. It involves things such as trespass to the person (assault, battery, false imprisonment), trespass to land, nuisance, negligence, defamation etc etc. I enjoy torts because it has a very clear structure that really works for me: before each class, we:
read up on a specific tort from our text book, look at some cases relevant to that tort, and extract essential principles from those cases. Then in class we discuss the important facts, principles and decisions made in each case. The process becomes really repetitive but because of that it's simple. Best of all it deals with real-life situations, some of which can be very interesting or bizarre - and it's fun to apply your knowledge to new situations.

In contrast, my commerce subjects involve memorising a shit load of rather useless information, much of which wont be used on the job anyway. For example, Information Systems (the most fucked up subject I've ever had) involves memorising an endless list of management and their related systems. The book we use is more of a dictionary than a textbook. At least Accounting and Eco involve graphs and a bit of maths.

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

That sounds ok.
So coming from the science/maths background, in your opinion has that affected the way you approach law? Do you necessarily have to be a history/english buff to find law interesting? Personally, I'm a bit of both...the only humanities that I like are those related to commerce, namely Eco and Bus (I don't really like history. I don't mind geography though). I enjoy maths as well.

Btw. what textbooks do you use for Commerce and Law in first year? I was thinking of just looking for a 1st year Law textbook and seeing what the content is like. I'm hoping it will help me gain a better understanding of the course.

One more q - what drew you towards USyd as opposed to UNSW for Com/Law? Afaik, USyd is better for Law but UNSW is better for Commerce. Nevertheless, I'm unsure as to which is better overall (if any).

 

[neo o]

A man of one million questions it seems .

Btw. what textbooks do you use for Commerce and Law in first year?

The very first law course that you'll do regardless of where you go will be foundations. Most universities use "Laying Down the Law", a new edition of which was published a few months ago, so you'll be using it next year if you buy it. Alternatively you could buy a second hand copy for $10. You should wait before buying your torts textbook though, I have friends at Usyd who hate their torts casebook (and think that the only reason that they are using it is because it was written by guys from Usyd). If you're particularly keen, the best casebook IMO to get is the Luntz and Hambly Cases and Commentary, though the Butterworths Torts Tutorial Guide may be a better buy in year 12 because it's a little easier to read.

One more q - what drew you towards USyd as opposed to UNSW for Com/Law? Afaik, USyd is better for Law but UNSW is better for Commerce.

In regards to law - probably not. They are both on equal footing. However, if you do get 99.95 (as per your sig) Usyd will offer you a scholarship.

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

Cool. Thanks neo_o
I am a man of a million questions . As you know, "ask no questions and you get no answers"...asking is the only way to find out what you want to know I guess.

Is it necessary to have up-to-date law textbooks, seeing as law looks more at the past than the present? $10 second hand looks slightly more attractive than $200 new, if there isn't much difference between the two.

 

[neo o]

Is it necessary to have up-to-date law textbooks, seeing as law looks more at the past than the present? $10 second hand looks slightly more attractive than $200 new, if there isn't much difference between the two.

Law books aren't updated yearly, so you can usually buy them second hand. The campus second hand book store would be your first port of call. Failing that, Ebay at the start of the semester is where it's at. If you don't buy the new books, all the references in your course outline won't point at the right pages, which is a pain.

Personally, I've decided not to buy textbooks from now on unless there is a particularly good casebook. Since I live on campus it's much easier to read in the law library (and besides, you can't talk to girls in your room).

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

Up to date text books are very important for law.

I guess they would be for Commerce as well.

 

[neo o]

Up to date text books are very important for law.

It does depend though, in wanky subjects like Foundations and Ethics you could probably get away with buying older editions of Tradition and Change and Laying Down the Law.

Also if there's an updated casebook, your course may not actually use many of the new cases, so it may be easier buying an older edition and printing out three or four cases off austlii instead of buying a $120 casebook.

 

[Frigid]

rench, just come to the Yr11/12 and Parents night (it's very soon - methinks next two weeks?) and everything will be answered

 

[neo o]

rench, just come to the Yr11/12 and Parents night (it's very soon - methinks next two weeks?) and everything will be answered

I think that they already have been . So Rench, if you get the marks, will you be doing law in 2006?

 

[neo o]

Very stingy way of doing it. But yes. Or just get the latest edition out of the reserve and photocopy the relevant cases.

Photocopying never works. Those books are always so chunky that you cut off the bottom 1/4 of the page when you photocopy it and going one page at a time is too expensive .

 

[neo o]

double page...double side...shrink to 90% to fit it on the page.

I never did master photocopiers

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

rench, just come to the Yr11/12 and Parents night (it's very soon - methinks next two weeks?) and everything will be answered

I signed up for the UNSW Parent and Student Info Evening next Wednesday, so hopefully I'll found out a bit more there...

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

I think that they already have been . So Rench, if you get the marks, will you be doing law in 2006?

I'm leaning towards it. I figure that if I get the mark (fingers crossed), then I should just give it a shot. It's much easier to drop than it is to pick up halfway through the year. Maybe law won't be as bad as I think...lol

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

Well I recon those intro books are a bit of a waste of time. Unless you are totally and utterly know nothing about law. Then again if you know nothing at all I'd wonder why you are doing law in the first place.

lol. Is Year 10 Commerce and some general knowledge sufficient? I have to admit that I don't know a lot about the law and all of it's workings seeing as I didn't do Legal Studies this year or last

 

[04er]

Well then why are you doing law?

Well do you know these things

Statute law

Common law

Precedent

The court structure

The difference between Civil and Public law

etc etc extreme basics.

I didn't know those things and I'm enjoying it However I'm seriously thinking about changing from commerce to science.

 

[santaslayer]

dont really matter...

i found out i had 2 weeks advantage over people who neva did hsc legal studies. ...yayyy...

ur not going to be significantly disadvantaged....

they're supposed to teach it in a way which asssumes u have no prior knowledge anyway...

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

Well then why are you doing law?

Well do you know these things

Statute law

Common law

Precedent

The court structure

The difference between Civil and Public law

etc etc extreme basics.

Edit: to rephrase my original statement, which admittedly sounded self-righteous: Yes, I learnt about those at school but only breifly and not in a great deal of detail. Evidently, there's a lot more to each than I know, but I know about the very basic elements.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Yea, I know all of those.

You really fully understand the difference between civil & public law... the court structure, precedent, common law, and statute law... without doing any law?

I went to a brief USyd lecture about consumer law and I had a small debate with the tutor. I'm pretty sure I won, and overall the lecture was pretty interesting.

Combining this statement with the one you made above, I think it's fairly likely that you're just trying to act smart. Either that or you're a genius.