Legal Studies 2020 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• read the question carefully to ensure that they do not miss important components of the question
• have a clear understanding of key words in the question and recognise the intent of the question and its requirements
• use the first page of the answer booklet for an extended response to develop a plan to assist in the logical sequencing of information
• engage with what the question is asking rather than presenting a pre-prepared response
• relate to the question throughout the response rather than just at the beginning
• sustain their judgements, where appropriate, throughout the response with a clear connection to the question
• communicate using relevant legal terms and concepts to support their response
• refer to relevant examples such as legislation, cases, media, international instruments and documents
• present a sustained, logical and cohesive response that addresses the question
• review their response to ensure that it addresses the question requirements.

Question 21

In better responses, students were able to:

• provide a clear link between the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the contribution it has made to the development of human rights with reference to the covenant’s main features
• demonstrate an understanding of the process involved in the ratification of the covenant and the enactment of domestic legislation that reflects the principles within the covenant
• identify internationally recognised rights included in the ICCPR such as suffrage, education and free speech
• comment on the importance of the ICCPR in developing a global standard for human rights development.

Areas for students to improve include:

• demonstrating an understanding of the relationship between the terms ‘contribution’ and ‘development’ in the context of the question
• using the ICCPR’s features as a demonstration of its contribution to human rights since its inception.

Question 22

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a thorough understanding of what an intergovernmental organisations (IGO) is and the role IGOs have in relation to the enforcement of human rights
• use a relevant example to support the ways in which the IGOs enforce human rights. For example, the International Criminal Court (ICC) enforces human rights by convicting perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

Areas for students to improve include:

• understanding the distinction between an IGO and a non-government organisation (NGO)
• distinguishing between ‘enforcement’ and ‘promotion’ of human rights as the question asks about enforcement
• recognising that the question asks for an explanation of the role of IGOs, not a judgement of how well they perform this role.

Question 23

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a detailed understanding of international human rights law including but not limited to the ICCPR, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICESCR), Geneva Conventions, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC) and various other treaties
• demonstrate a thorough understanding of the issues of compliance and non-compliance in international human rights law
• develop an informed judgement as to the extent of compliance with international human rights law
• provide succinct arguments using relevant examples to illustrate the challenge of compliance with international human rights law
• make reference to the issues state sovereignty presents in relation to compliance with international human rights law
• identify a variety of examples of compliance and non-compliance with international human rights law. Examples included China (Uighur Muslims), Australia (Human Trafficking/Refugees) and North Korea (Non-Proliferation Treaty)
• demonstrate an understanding of the limitations of the United Nations in enforcing international human rights law including challenges with VETO powers and states’ own interests, non-signatories and nations withdrawing from ratified treaties
• recognise the importance of ratification and/or enactment into domestic legislation to ensure compliance with international human rights law.

Areas for students to improve include:

• making informed judgements by referencing relevant examples of human rights law compliance or non-compliance
• referencing the challenge of enforcement when nations have state sovereignty
• referring to relevant human rights law beyond the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• demonstrating knowledge of the process of ratification and enactment into domestic laws
• ​including information beyond general statements or summaries of international human rights law.

Question 24

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a clear understanding of the elements within the criminal trial process, for example, charge negotiation, the provision of legal aid, the role of juries and the use of defences
• provide an integrated series of judgements on the extent to which parts of the criminal trial process reflect moral and ethical standards of society
• present a determination on ‘extent’ by qualifying how reforms, such as the partial defence of extreme provocation, reflect society’s moral and ethical standards
• demonstrate how factors such as fairness, equality and upholding the presumption of innocence provide a measure of moral and ethical standards.

Areas for students to improve include:

• ensuring the response focuses on the relevant areas of the syllabus addressed in the question, and understanding where the trial process starts and finishes
• choosing areas of content that allow in-depth exploration of the syllabus theme of moral and ethical standards in the context of the criminal trial process
• writing with integrated connections to the relevant content areas rather than at the end of each paragraph just stating that moral and ethical standards have been or not been reflected.

Question 25(a)

In the better responses, students were able to:

• accurately identify the issues that arise from technology for consumers, for example, breaches of privacy
• make balanced judgements that considered how the legal system was or was not effective in addressing issues
• justify arguments through the use of criteria, for example, explaining why the legal system was effective through responsiveness and enforceability
• demonstrate the significance of legal responses in addressing consumer issues, for example, courts, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Securities Investment Commission (ASIC) and legislation.

Areas for students to improve:

• writing responses that focus on technology or the issues arising from technology
• linking examples, such as cases, articles and legislation, to support the judgements made throughout the response rather than describing the details of the example.

Question 25(b)

In the better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a detailed understanding of compliance and how it can be difficult to achieve, for example, the inability of organisations such as the ACCC to deter the sale of unsafe products
• focus on the extent to which compliance can be difficult to achieve through the use of relevant examples such as pay day loans, Afterpay and irresponsible lending.

Areas for students to improve:

• addressing how difficult it is for the law to achieve justice rather than writing a description about how compliance works
• using examples to support the judgement rather than providing a narrative of the examples
• ensuring that any reference to non-legal measures was to support the judgements about consumer law and not an evaluation of specific non-legal measures.

Question 26(a)

In better responses, students were able to:

• identify and provide a detailed and supported commentary on the use of legal processes at both international and domestic level to address issues
• clearly identify and name threats to the global environment, such as loss of biodiversity and climate change
• integrate contemporary examples throughout the response with clear links to the content, including the use of statistics and reports
• make logical and qualified judgements on effectiveness addressing areas of effectiveness as well as ineffectiveness.

Areas for students to improve include:

• using terms specified by the question, for example, referring to legal processes not legal measures or the legal system
• using specific information related to legislation, cases and documents rather than making passing reference. For example, when referencing the Paris Agreement, identifying the goals of targets within the agreement
• providing an international perspective in relation to global environmental issues, threats and examples and what countries, other than Australia, do to combat these.

Question 26(b)

In better responses, students were able to:

• provide a range of reasons other than state sovereignty that make cooperation difficult to achieve, such as a lack of political will, economic motives, development status, stability of government and lack of enforcement
• use and integrate meaningful and contemporary examples, such as reports, to demonstrate how countries do or do not cooperate. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) 6^th assessment report.

Areas for students to improve include:

• referring to cooperation rather than compliance. Students need to determine the extent to which cooperation was or was not difficult to achieve
• clarifying the relationship between the international legal system and goals and how they are implemented or actioned domestically.

Question 27(a)

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate highly developed knowledge about the legal system’s effectiveness in the care and protection of children. For example, how effective the law is in dealing with divorce and shared parental responsibility, child maintenance and domestic violence.

Areas for students to improve include:

• understanding how specific effectiveness criteria apply to issues involving the care and protection of children, for example, Department of Community and Justice is accessible but lacks resources to achieve justice
• addressing a range of issues concerning the care and protection of children from a variety of perspectives and in different contexts
• avoiding writing everything that has been learnt about family law and including only material that is relevant to the question asked.

Question 27(b)

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a detailed understanding of how family members comply or do not comply with laws in a variety of relevant areas, for example, Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders, parenting orders and the Family Law Act
• refer to relevant examples and explicitly make a sustained judgement regarding the extent to which compliance with the law proves difficult to achieve
• demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of at least two compliance-related family law issues.

Areas for students to improve include:

• avoiding reliance on issues that do not relate to compliance. Responses that focus on less relevant issues are less likely to convincingly link to the central theme of compliance and non-compliance
• spending too much time ‘describing’ areas of the law which are readily complied with or not complied with. Rather, students need to construct informed arguments to show ‘to what extent’ compliance is achieved in family law
• supporting arguments using a variety of examples and linking these examples back to the question rather than simply referencing the statement at the end of each paragraph
• understanding the themes and challenges of the syllabus, such as non-compliance, to be able to respond to the question appropriately. 

Question 28(a)

In better responses students were able to:

• make clear, informed judgements about the effectiveness of legal processes such as the International Labour Organisation Convention 169 and domestic court decisions such as Delgamuukw v British Columbia (1997) in addressing the issues arising from the loss of indigenous peoples’ cultural rights
• support their judgements by reference to a wide range of domestic and international examples including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the New South Wales Government’s Language Nest Program
• demonstrate an extensive understanding of the breadth of the phrase ‘issues arising from cultural rights’ to include loss that relates not only to culture but also to land, natural resources and intellectual property.

Areas for students to improve:

• being familiar with a range of international case studies and examples that draw from experiences beyond those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Question 28(b)

In better responses students were able to:

• demonstrate extensive knowledge of the law in relation to indigenous peoples referring to a broad range of examples drawn from both international law, such as decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and domestic law, such as the Foreshore and Seabed Act (NZ)
• deal specifically with questions of degree, integrating the difficulty in achieving cooperation with the law
• recognise the frequent difficulties of enforcing international legal responses because of state sovereignty, drawing out the implications of those difficulties for cooperation with law. For example, limited enforcement of international law tends to result in reduced cooperation with the law for groups such as the Yanomami people in Brazil.

Areas for students to improve:

• writing more precisely about how international law documents, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, affect indigenous peoples in their own domestic contexts.

Question 29(a)

In better responses students were able to:

• examine a variety of relevant issues relating to problems of affordability of shelter, for example, shortage of social housing, rights of boarders, discrimination when seeking shelter and homelessness
• demonstrate an informed understanding of the legal responses in addressing issues relating to shelter affordability such as policies and legally based programs.

Areas for students to improve:

• considering a range of legal responses that are directly relevant to the improvement of shelter affordability
• examining issues that relate to affordability rather than writing more generally about shelter.

Question 29(b)

In better responses students were able to:

• consider a variety of shelter types, such as leasing, aged care and residential parks, and compliance with the laws governing these
• engage with the statement throughout the response to develop an informed judgement
• demonstrate a detailed understanding of the extent of non-compliance with shelter laws, for example, the difficulty in enforcing compliance in boarding houses and aged care.

Areas for students to improve:

• focusing on the achievement of compliance rather than writing more generally about shelter laws and rights
• considering a broader range of shelter situations where compliance is necessary to protect rights, such as purchasing, leasing, strata by-laws and aged care.

Question 30(a)

In better responses students were able to:

• clearly identify relevant workplace safety issues such as work health and safety, workers’ compensation and mental health
• apply a range of examples such as preventable deaths, COVID-19 and injury management
• recognise a range of elements of the legal system such as legislation, courts, the Fair Work Commission, trade unions and SafeWork NSW
• make judgements using criteria as to whether elements of the legal system have been successful in responding to workplace safety.

Areas for students to improve:

• ensuring that the focus of the response is workplace safety rather than referring to other workplace issues
• using appropriate legal measures such as the Work Health and Safety Act (2011) Cth and SafeWork NSW to support judgement throughout the response
• drawing on a wide range of work safety issues such as workers’ compensation and injury prevention in the workplace.

Question 30(b)

In better responses students were able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of compliance and provide examples where compliance has been achieved or not achieved such as underpayment of workers, racial discrimination and workplace injuries
• evaluate the difficulties in achieving compliance through a range of mechanisms such as trade unions, courts, tribunals and statutory authorities
• provide a range of criteria, such as deficiencies in legislation such as the Anti Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) and the Work Health and Safety Act (2011) NSW, embedded cultures regarding the treatment of women or economic links to wage theft.

Areas for students to improve:

• providing a range of relevant support such as Safe Work Australia statistics, the Australian Human Rights Commission cases, the Australian Council of Trade Union media releases and the Fair Work Ombudsman investigations
• providing balanced judgements throughout the response, for example, compliance is difficult to achieve as can be seen from recent matters such as the 7-Eleven case. On the other hand, in relation to workplace safety, improvements and reforms to legislation and the strengthening of regulators such as Safe Work NSW demonstrate enhanced compliance.

Question 31(a)

​ In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a broad understanding of legal measures which may include international instruments such as the Geneva Conventions, International Humanitarian  Law and the United Nations responses used to address issues relating to the rules regarding the conduct of hostilities
• refer to a variety of relevant international responses that demonstrate the rules regarding the conduct of hostilities, for example, United Nations resolutions, International Tribunals, the International Criminal Court and domestic responses
• address specific World Order issues where there have been breaches of the rules regarding the conduct of hostilities such as Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Rwanda
• incorporate criteria to develop an informed judgement, whether implicitly or explicitly, to address the effectiveness of legal measures in addressing the conduct of hostilities.

Areas for students to improve include:

• demonstrating knowledge of specific international responses​ that address the rules regarding the conduct of hostilities
• specifically addressing the key instruments related to the conduct of hostilities and putting them in the relevant context.

Question 31(b)

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a broad understanding of the degree of difficulty in achieving cooperation with the law in relation to world order
• identify reasons why cooperation with the law is difficult, for example, the role state sovereignty plays in impeding cooperation and/or compliance
• illustrate the degree of difficulty in achieving cooperation with the law by using a variety of supporting case examples, including conflicts or potential conflicts such as Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, North Korea, Sudan and South China Sea
• refer to issues that demonstrate the difficulty of legal cooperation and or compliance such as nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, acts of aggression
• provide informative reference to measures and responses used or needed to assist cooperation, for example, the United Nations (UN), UN Security Council, UN General Assembly, UN Charter, the Responsibility to Protect treaties, conventions and political negotiation.

Areas for students to improve include:

• making more explicit judgements about the ‘extent to which’ it is difficult to achieve cooperation with the law
• clearly demonstrating understanding of the syllabus Principal Focus of world order, that is, promoting peace and resolving conflict
• avoiding over-reliance on purely human rights type examples which are less appropriate to World Order or which have not been linked to promoting peace and resolving conflict.