Focus area 1: Sources of law

In their response to selected big questions, students consider the competing tensions. Teachers may choose to develop alternative big questions to frame the units of work, discussion, and inquiry.

Big questions

• How adequately do laws provide for future generations? (Consider: competing rights and responsibilities)
• Are the institutions of government fair and efficient? (Consider: fairness and efficiency)
• Is a power imbalance between a government and its people necessary for a democratic government to be effective and functional? (Consider: the empowered and the disempowered)
• Are laws responsive to change? (Consider: certainty and flexibility)
• To what extent does case law and legislation adequately compensate for the lack of explicit human rights in the Constitution? (Consider: certainty and flexibility)
• Do judges have too much power? (Consider: the empowered and the disempowered)
• How do courts balance the need to facilitate predictability, certainty and fairness, while also re-examining established legal principles to ensure a progressive society? (Consider: certainty and flexibility)
• Is the law fair if it is subject to interpretation? (Consider: fairness and efficiency)
• Are traditions worth maintaining?
• How adequately does the Australian legal system achieve the rule of law?
• Do the institutions of government, and its laws, adequately reflect the people?
• Do people influence laws, or do laws influence people?
• Should Australia have a complete separation of powers?
• How effective are the mechanisms for supervising the exercise of power by government institutions?
• What is the distinction between rule of law and rule by law?
• Should judges make law?
• Does the court hierarchy facilitate just outcomes?

Inquiry questions

Students use inquiry questions to focus research, and investigate and analyse some key principles and institutions that form the foundation of the legal system. The answers to the inquiry questions form a basis for knowing and understanding the context (for example the focus or optional area) and provide the foundation for a response to big questions.

The suggested inquiry questions are not compulsory but provide a guide for research.

• Why are the following underlying principles of the Australian legal system important?
  • rule of law
  • separation of powers
  • responsible government
  • representative government
  • judicial independence
• What is the structure, composition, and role of the Commonwealth parliament, and one state or territory parliament? 
• What is the structure and purpose of one state or territory court hierarchy? 
• How and why are laws made by Commonwealth parliament, and one state or territory parliament, and delegated bodies?
• How and why are laws made by the Commonwealth courts, and one state or territory court, including the High Court? 
• What is the relationship between the three arms of government, and the laws they make?
• How and why are laws supervised?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of different law-making processes and the laws that result?
• How do the institutions of government protect the rights of groups and individuals in the Australian community, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders?