Law

We strongly recommend law students do not go on exchange before completing:

• Legal Process
• Criminal Law
• Contracts
• Torts
• Property
• Equity
• Constitutional Law
• Equity and Trusts

Students who have not completed these foundation core units may not have sufficiently developed their generic legal skills or substantive understanding of core legal concepts to successfully complete upper-year option units while on exchange.

To be approved for a law exchange, students are normally expected to have a weighted average of at least 65 per cent in their law units, with no fail grades on their record.

Students who do not meet the minimum academic requirements or who wish to go on exchange before completing the recommended units should contact the Faculty Adviser, Penny Carruthers, for pre-approval prior to starting the application process.

Most students go on a law exchange for one full-load semester (24 UWA points), although it is possible to go on exchange for a maximum of a full year (48 UWA points).

Students are not permitted to overload while on exchange.

Students going on exchange, particularly for a full-year, are responsible for assessing the impact of completing 48 points of their law degree in another jurisdiction on employment opportunities and eligibility for the law honours program.

Units studied on law exchange cannot be used to satisfy the core unit requirements of the UWA law degree. All core units must be completed at UWA Law School. Only units offered as part of an exchange partner’s JD or equivalent program can be credited towards the UWA law degree. The only exception is that students enrolled in the four-year undergraduate law degree are permitted to credit one non-law unit (6 points) towards their law degree and with permission these points can be earned on exchange. This exception does not apply to combined degree or graduate law students. A student on law exchange may enrol only in units which have been approved for credit to the UWA law degree.

Unit approval is given during the exchange application process. If a student wishes to enrol in units other than those approved during the application process, approval must be sought prior to the start of the exchange semesters. Students may study units with a different or similar substantive focus to units offered at UWA Law School. When a unit has a similar focus but the legal framework is different, students may choose to study the unit on exchange and also at the UWA Law School and receive credit for both units. However, if a unit deals with similar common law or statutory content, students will not receive credit for studying the unit on exchange as well as at UWA Law School, and this will be noted in the unit approval process.

Some exchange units will be taken as satisfying the UWA law degree Group B requirements. If the unit is so classified, the Faculty Advisor will indicate this during the unit approval process.

Students must enrol in a full-time load at the exchange university, equivalent to 24 UWA credit points. Students who require less than 24 UWA points to graduate should contact the Global Learning Office for approval. GLO will advise students of the full-load requirements at the various universities with which the university has exchange agreements. Students should note that a full-load at an exchange university will not necessarily be four units. Students should also be aware that the full-load requirements for some exchange partners have changed recently; that is, the load undertaken by previous exchange students at a particular university will not necessarily be an accurate guide of the current load requirements for that university.

Students completing a full-time load at the exchange university are credited with 24 UWA points per semester of study. Students may receive a maximum of 48 points in credits towards their UWA law degree on exchange.

Students must think carefully about how going on exchange will affect their course. Students should seek advice to plan their pathway for exchange. To accommodate a period on exchange, the order in which core units are taken can be rearranged, provided students conform to course rules and meet all necessary pre- and co-requisites (as specified in the Handbook). Students planning an exchange should plan a course pathway for the remainder of their studies including the exchange period. Students who would like assistance planning their course pathway, or who wish to have their plan reviewed, can speak with their Student Advising Office.

The grades received on exchange are not counted for the purposes of invitations into the honours program or for the purposes of calculating honours classifications or degrees with distinction. Prospective honours students should consult their Student Advising Office for advice on the implication of going on exchange. Prospective honours students considering an exchange should be aware that the honours program requires enrolment in Supervised Research 2, which is a 12-point unit normally completed concurrently over semesters 1 and 2 of the final full year of studies.

Units taken on exchange are recorded on your UWA academic record as ungraded passes or ungraded fails. A formal note will appear at the bottom of the academic record detailing the units studied and the grade and/or percentage marks received.

Once all is in place, you will need to add the approved exchange units to your UWA enrolment.