foundations

Foundations of Law A - Lecture 1
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The aim is to
o Contextualise, question and critique the complexities of
the way law operates in our society by
 Linking key areas of foundational knowledge with
contemportary social and political issues.
Mcbain v Victoria
o Registering it is a story about a person
o Her name is not in the whole case
o Read it from the point of view of the story
o How did this story become a legal problem
o Where are the legal arguments in the story
o It crosses many classifications of law
 Public v private
 Public = indv interacting with the
government
 Private = invd citizen against indv citizen
o Basis should have fair amount of
freedom to do whatever they like
provided they don’t criminal offence
 Eg, Contractual law
o Leldrum could have sued the doctor to
say he was discriminating against her
 Criminal v civil
 Criminal
o State act – criminal sanctions
 Civil – complaints under HREOC act
 Standing  why wasn’t meldrum allowed to bring
forward the case.
o Mcbains case 
 Politics – why did the courts let the catholic church
have a say in the case
So what is law?
o means of ordering society and resolving disputes
o collection of rules
o want harmony so create some rules
o negotiates conflicting values and social change
o we live in a society where rules and laws are controlled
by power
o law is not black and white  it is not autonomous and
authoritative
 argument in mcbain around the notion of family
 there are different version of families
need to start to understand citations and the basics
try to be objective