Bachelor of Laws

Give legal advice, perform legal work and appear in court as a legal practitioner. An undergraduate degree in law is the first qualification you need to practise as a lawyer in Australia.

Curtin's Bachelor of Laws offers a rich and professionally relevant foundation in legal knowledge. You'll learn core skills essential to effective legal practice and build a strong commercial awareness. From early on in your studies, you'll start to recognise the importance of respecting the rule of law along with the responsibilities and ethics of legal practice.

You can also choose from optional units that focus on topics such as forensic advocacy, employment law, family law, law and technology, human rights law and native title law and policy. This range of optional units enables you to tailor your degree to your interests.

You'll complete most of your course at Curtin Law School in the heart of Perth's legal precinct. You can gain practical experience by undertaking simulated legal proceedings in our high-tech moot court, working on real cases at the John Curtin Law Clinic, and participating in our Legal Internships Program.

The first year of this course is delivered in semesters at Curtin Perth, with the second and third years delivered in trimesters at Curtin Law School in Perth city. This accelerated format enables you to complete the equivalent study load of a four-year degree, in just three years of full-time study.

Through the Legal Internships Program, you can experience working in a legal environment such as a court, law firm or community legal centre, with an organisation's in-house legal team or with a barrister. These experiences will develop your practical legal skills and help you identify the area of law in which you'd like to practise. Curtin Law School has developed relationships with a range of organisations to offer legal internship placements to our students through this optional unit.

Complete your entire pathway to legal practice through Curtin. After gaining your Bachelor of Laws, you can complete our Practical Legal Training (PLT) course, the Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice. Recognised by the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia, this course is the first specialised PLT program to be directly delivered by a WA university. Together, the two qualifications satisfy the academic and practical legal training requirements to qualify for admission to the legal profession in WA.

• apply knowledge of the Australian legal system, statutory rules and case law principles in both the fundamental areas of legal knowledge and a range of elective fields to the resolution of legal problems
• critically and creatively analyse legal problems to articulate the issues involved and apply legal reasoning to make a considered choice between competing solutions
• identify, access, assess and synthesise relevant information from primary legal sources such as cases and legislation and secondary sources such as journal articles and commentaries (including electronic versions of these sources) and gather relevant oral and documentary evidence
• communicate the outcomes of legal research and analysis effectively, appropriately and persuasively to colleagues, to clients and to other professionals and the broader community
• use appropriate electronic legal databases for research purposes and be able to communicate effectively in electronic forms
• maintain intellectual curiosity as to justice and its practical application in the legal system, be able to identify areas where their legal knowledge and skills require further development, and to critically reflect on their own performance as legal professionals, making use of feedback as appropriate
• articulate the similarities and differences between local and other jurisdictions, including interstate and overseas ones, and be aware of the principles of public and private international law
• articulate distinct concepts of law, justice and human rights, with an awareness of different legal traditions and cultures, particularly indigenous cultures; identify how and where indigenous persons and other identifiable social groups are differentially impacted by the legal system.
• work independently, as well as collaboratively, with a developing sense of the ethical issues that arise in legal practice and how these may be resolved