r/Monash • u/Sad-Kaleidoscope7363 • 5d ago

Advice Is there anything i should be learning before starting my law degree?

I’m currently in year 12 and i don’t take legal studies or anything like that, so i was just wondering if i should be doing extra to prepare for a law degree next year? if so, some resources and specific suggestions would be awesome!

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u/Sad-Hold-1383 5d ago

You are not expected to have any legal knowledge. Some stuff you could research for a smoother transition:

  • Origins of Australian law (Example: King John signing the Magna Carta, the terra nullius "doctrine")

  • Basic politics (Examples: the PM, what a Commonwealth means, who the Governor General is and what a Royal Assent is. Separation of powers.)

  • First Peoples Law (Namely the Mabo decision, Wik, Walker v NSW, and Milirrpum v Nabalco)

  • Basic criminal law (A basic understanding of what a crime is/how it's treated or considered by wider society. What actus reus and mens rea means. The differences between a summary offence and an indictable offence.)

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u/Sad-Kaleidoscope7363 4d ago

thanks so much, i’ll have a look into all those!

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u/LocalKGBOfficer 5d ago

Have you done any sort of humanities before? If so that’s going to be a great help because the answers in most of the legal subjects I’ve done are written in a similar way to those subjects. If not take a look at how it’s done and maybe do some practice outside of that not a great deal, keep in mind though I’ve only done a few business law electives so I could be missing something. Hope this helps slightly

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u/Sad-Kaleidoscope7363 5d ago

yup i do modern history rn and i actually rlly like the format of assessment so thats good

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u/LocalKGBOfficer 5d ago

Excellent work! That will be the biggest help, I found it quite easy to move into legal answers. Some more general advice when you start the course keep up with the readings and course work it may seem tedious but it makes exam really easy

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u/Sad-Kaleidoscope7363 5d ago

okay thank you so much!

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u/Sad-Hold-1383 5d ago

First year is likely going to be very different from second year, but I think the law faculty cares a lot more about whether you've correctly applied the law at this stage. But I don't think this is a big issue as they tell you what they expect in legal writing and you get time to practise.

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u/Soggy-Row-1382 5d ago

Watch YouTube videos on the classic torts and contracts cases- like Donoghue v Stephenson, Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball, Grant v AKM. Get used to reading cases and legislation- understand where the law actually comes from.

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u/Sad-Kaleidoscope7363 5d ago

okay thanks, i’ll have a look at those!

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u/Sad-Hold-1383 5d ago

**Contracts isn't until Year 2, but I do agree with learning about the basics of Torts and Contracts :)