Law Student Gazette

1. Preparation for Exams – Seminars for JD Students

Law exams can be intimidating, but there are specific techniques which will help you to prepare yourself and your materials. During June and July, Learning Skills Advisors at the City Chambers will be running two seminars which are targeted at helping you to relax, enjoy and conquer your open-book and take-home exams.

If you have specific concerns about your exam technique or exam schedule (such as several exams in close succession), you are welcome to make an appointment to see either Claire or Trish to discuss the best strategies for managing your approach.

Preparing for Exams 1: Start Now

Tuesday 19th June, 12 – 1 or 5:30 – 6:30
Friday 22nd June, 1 – 2

Preparing for Exams 2: Final Steps

Tuesday 24th July, 1 – 2 or 5:30 – 6:30
Friday July 27th, 1 – 2

.: End of Student Gazette 4.6.2012 :.

1. Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Outgoing Postgraduate Award

This award is for Australian postgraduate students who want to enrich their academic experience in Asia.

Applications open 1 April 2012 and close 30 June 2012: applicant guidelines.

The Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Outgoing Postgraduate Award provides financial support for Australian postgraduate students to undertake study or research in Asia towards their Australian postgraduate qualification, at Masters or PhD level either by coursework or research, in any field of study.

Award Holders will have the opportunity to enrich their academic experience through exposure to unique education systems, teaching expertise and comparative perspectives while studying in distinctive locations or undertaking collaborative research at leading universities in Asia.

There are two stages to the Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Outgoing Postgraduate Award. Stage one of the Award is the full-time study or research component for up to 12 months (one semester or 6 months minimum). Stage two of the Award is an internship component. Postgraduate Award holders will also have the opportunity to undertake an optional internship for up to 12 months (minimum of 2 months) at the completion of their study program. See the Applicant Guidelines for further information.

Applicants for the Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Outgoing Postgraduate & Undergraduate Award must be nominated by their Home University to be eligible.

For Monash University, please contact Arun Kumar, Monash Research Graduate School

Email: Arun.Kumar@monash.edu
Phone: 99052070

2. Trimester 2 2012 Census Date

The census date for Juris Doctor units in Trimester 2 2012 is Monday 4 June 2012. If a student discontinues a unit before the census date, the student will receive “Withdrawn early” for the unit, which means:

Financial – no financial penalty
Academic – withdrawn not recorded on the transcript

If a student discontinues a unit AFTER the census date but before the withdrawn fail date, the student will have ‘Withdrawn late’, which means 100% of fees will be retained and withdrawn will be recorded on the transcript.

Detailed information about unit discontinuation dates, including elective units discontinuation dates, please refer to the website.

3. Trimester 2 2012 Examination Timetable

Trimester 2 2012 examination timetable will be released by 5pm on Friday 1 June 2012.

1. FEE/HECS-HELP

Postgraduate law students who have any queries regarding FEE-HELP or HECS-HELP should now be going to www.studyassist.gov.au.

For specific queries on your HELP account, including how much your HELP debt is, should call the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on 13 28 61. You will have to advise the ATO of your tax file number (TFN) before they will disclose any personal information to you.

2. Postgraduate Consultative Committee

The recent inaugural meeting of the Postgraduate Consultative Committee was held in late March, and proved to be a very useful and productive sharing of ideas between academic and professional faculty staff and a range of student representatives. The minutes have now been published on the Law Current Students website (authcate required).

Its next meeting will be on July 17th.

3. UNSW Public Law Workshop

Please see 2012 PG Workshop Flyer for details and a call for abstracts for a postgraduate research workshop dedicated to the field of public law, being hosted by the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, UNSW on 12-13 July.

Registration for this event is free, but spaces are limited. The call for abstracts is open until 25 May.

.: End of Student Gazette 7.5.2012 :.

1. The RACS Scholarship

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is again offering the Foundation for Surgery Louis Waller Medico-Legal Scholarship in 2013.

This scholarship is open to law graduates undertaking or intending to undertake doctoral research on the topic of medico-legal risks and related law. For more information please see here.

1. Message from the JD director

The end of trimester 1 is approaching which means so it the exam period!

We have been working on arranging a separate stream of the elective, Professional Practice. We are hopeful that a pilot program will be up and running for trimester 3, 2012 and if successful to then establish the program on a more permanent basis. The initial pilot will only require a very small number of students but we hope that this will enable more JD students to chose Prof Prac as an elective in the future. More information will be sent out about this shortly.

Trimester 3 will also see our first ever streams being run on Saturdays. We are trialling this with two subjects initially and depending on levels of interest from both staff and students we will try each trimester to run streams of some core JD units on Saturdays.

The curriculum review process is progressing well and we are hoping to report back to students with further developments soon.

Just a reminder that if you have any academic issues with subjects in the elective program that you should contact Assistant Prof. Moira Paterson. She is now the director of all Graduate programs, except the JD core units, which you should still contact Rachel Chrapot about.

Please be aware that the SETU online feedback will be open to students on 26 March 2012. Please ensure that you login and give us your feedback on individual units. All SETU results in all JD Core Units are read, and your comments in particular are very important in the development of the JD program. All comments are anonymous. You should also feel free to contact Rachel Chrapot at any time during the trimester with regard to academic issues. All comments will be treated in the strictest of confidence.

Please ensure that any special consideration issues are dealt with as soon as possible. Student services can better help you if you get in touch with them as soon as you become aware of any difficulties you are having.

2. Outcome of Elections for Student Representatives

The elections for student representatives on faculty committees have now concluded. The student membership is as follows

Postgraduate Consultative Committee:
LLM representatives

Alexandra Heath
No further nominations were received by the nominations deadline

JD representatives

Alicia Chisholm
James Skerrett
Aaron Sudholz

JD Studies Sub-Committee:

Lauren Anderson
Andrew Cameron

Graduate Studies Sub-Committee:

No nominations were received by the nominations deadline

Please see our website for more details about these committees.

1. Notice of Elections

JD representatives on Postgraduate Consultative Committee:

• Three vacancies – four nominations received.
• Term of Office: one year from the date of the last meeting of the year of the Committee.

JD student representative on the JD Studies Sub-Committee:

• Two vacancies – six nominations received.
• One nomination only was received by the original deadline for nominations, therefore: Lauren Anderson was elected into one of the vacant positions.
• Five nominations are for the remaining vacancy.
• Term of Office: one year from the date of the last meeting of the year of the Sub-Committee.

All candidates have provided personal statements which can be viewed at the Monash website.

Polling hours: 9:00 am – 5.30 pm (Monday — Thursday) or 5:00 (Friday).
Voting dates: Voting ends 5:00pm, Friday, 23rd March 2012.
Eligibility to vote: All voters must be currently enrolled JD students of the Faculty of Law.
Polling Place: Student Services Counter, Level One, Monash University Law Chambers, 555 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

Ballot papers must be completed at the above polling place. Voters are asked to show their Monash student ID card at the polling place.

2. LLM(JD) – Trimester 1 2012 Examination Timetable

2012 Juris Doctor trimester 1 examination timetable is available online here.

3. LLM(JD) – Allocate+ for Trimester 2, 2012 Units

Juris Doctor Trimester 2 2012 units will be open on Allocate+ for self-allocation at 12pm on 2 April 2012.

Students are required to complete the self-allocation online by 5pm on 14 April 2012. Due to the set size of each class, once a stream is full there are no more places available unless some student comes out.

Students who fail to complete the self-allocation will be auto-allocated into any available stream by Monday 16 April 2012.

Allocate+ will then open again for students to make adjustments between 17 April – 4 May 2012.

Students who require to change stream after the adjustment period, must apply in writing to the Faculty by submitting the Changing streams application form, along with the supporting document by Friday 11 May 2012. Late applications or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

1. Australian Government – Rio Tinto NTRB Scholarships for Graduates

We are pleased to announce that Rio Tinto and The Australian Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) are again offering two scholarships to lawyers currently working, or interested in working at Native Title Representative Bodies (NTRBs) or Native Title Service Providers (NTSPs).

Successful candidates will undertake a one year Masters of Laws (LLM) in Mineral Law and Policy at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) at the University of Dundee and must commit to work within an NTRB or NTSP for a minimum period of two years upon their return.

Further information, as well as the on-line application form, can be found at here.

Information on the LLM in Mineral Law and Policy Program please see here.

Please feel free to contact the scholarships team at scholarships@auroraproject.com.au should you have any questions.

1. New Unit in 2012

Monash is proud to offer ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Law’, taught by the eminent Professor Oliver De Schutter.

This course provides an overview of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights, both in international human rights law and in a comparative law.

Prof. dr. Olivier De Schutter is the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. He is professor at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and at the College of Europe (Natolin), and a visiting professor at Columbia University and Sciences Po (Paris).

For more information on this unit, and how to enrol, please see Economic Social and Cultural Rights.

1. Volunteering at the MOLS Night Session as a Mentor

Can’t imagine your life without MOLS/FLAP? Here’s your opportunity to further develop your practical legal skills! If you are a professional practice alumni from MOLS, FLAP or SMLS or are currently enrolled in the subject then you are eligible to apply.

Come and hang out with us on Monday or Wednesday nights from 6:15pm once a fortnight with the MOLS Advice Only Program. As a mentor, you will assist younger law students in running interviews and gain exposure to a wide range of matters.

Please email Jenn at mols-volunteer@monash.edu for an application form. Applications close Friday 9 March at 5pm to start in April. There may also be opportunities to begin volunteering as soon as possible.

1. Graduate Women Victoria Scholarships

Graduate Women Victoria  is the new name for the Australian Federation of Universities Women Victoria, and are again offering annual scholarship assistance for women enrolled in universities in Victoria. The scholarships and bursaries range from $2000 to $5000, and are offered to women enrolled in 2012, in the following postgraduate courses at Victorian universities:

• Graduate Diploma of Education

• Postgraduate Coursework

• Postgraduate degree by research

Applicants are asked to demonstrate that they are or have been experiencing disadvantage in the pursuit of their studies. Full details of all these scholarships, including application forms and referee guidelines, may be found on the Graduate Women Victoria website, and further information here Graduate Women Victoria.

2. The  EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy Summer School

The  EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, a think-tank that undertakes program, project, publishing and training activities related to the European integration process, is offering its 10th year of summer school for university students in July 2012.

In July 7- 19, 2012 the summer school, entitled, “Europe At The Crossroads” will take place in Prague. You can find further details on the homepage or you can see the promotional leaflet.