General feedback
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 the question 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
- relate the response to the question rather than just at the beginning
- sustain their judgements throughout the response with a clear connection to the question
- communicate ideas and information using legal terms and concepts appropriately
- refers to relevant examples such as legislation, cases, media, international instruments
- and documents, where applicable
- present a comprehensive, logical, and sustained response
- review their response to ensure that it addresses the question requirements.
Section II – Part A – Human Rights
Question 21
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate knowledge of TWO features of human rights such as universal, inalienable.
Question 22
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate their knowledge of the right to universal education
- make reference to international documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) to support their understanding of universal education.
Areas for students to improve include:
- having a clear understanding of universal education, beyond a definition
- avoiding general statements about universal education or human rights.
Question 23
In better responses, students were able to:
- make a clear relationship between the High Court and its protection of human rights in Australia
- integrate supporting evidence to illustrate the protection of human rights. For example, through case law such as Dietrich v The Queen.
Areas for students to improve include:
- expanding on the explanation of how the High Court of Australia protects human rights over time to ensure the relationship between the High Court and its’ protection of human rights is evident
- moving beyond general statements to answer the question
- using relevant terms and examples to support a clear understanding of the High Court of Australia and its protection of human rights, for example, referring to international documents, legislation or case law.
Question 24
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which legal responses protect human rights and align this with a relevant contemporary human rights issue
- recognise the importance of broader themes and issues in regard to the ways legal responses protect human rights in relation to a contemporary issue, for example the ratification of international law, the impact of state sovereignty, the responsiveness of law reform or enforceability
- provide well-supported arguments to support a judgement on how well legal responses achieve this protection, embedding relevant evidence. For example, in international law UDHR, Slavery Convention, and domestic law, the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), case law, (R v Wei Tang).
Areas for students to improve include:
- ensuring that an accurate contemporary human rights issue is used
- focusing on legal responses as opposed to non-legal responses
- using relevant terms to support an informed and thorough understanding of legal responses in protecting human rights.
Section II – Part B – Crime
Question 25
In better responses, students were able to:
- evaluate the features of specific courts such as the Drug Court and the way in which they encourage compliance with criminal law
- make a clear judgement of the extent to which courts can encourage compliance supported by a range of relevant legislation, cases, media, international instruments and documents
- propose alternatives to courts such as circle sentencing and diversionary programs and explain why they encourage compliance more effectively than courts.
Areas for students to improve include:
- sustaining the response so that a detailed exploration of a range of syllabus components is possible
- carefully justifying the assessment of extent using evidence throughout the response.
Section III - Options
Question 26(a)
In better responses, students were able to:
- refer to legal responses such as Australian Consumer Law, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and supported with case law examples
- identify product certification references including safety standards, product recalls and specific concepts such as button batteries and free-range eggs
- identify relevant marketing innovations including spam, scams, advertising and sales promotions
- support each argument with relevant examples consistent with their judgement to address the extent to which consumers are protected.
Areas for students to improve include:
- clearly stating the issues for consumers concerning product certification and marketing innovations and the way in which legal responses offer protection
- making a judgement of the protection offered to consumers.
Question 26(b)
In the better responses, students were able to:
- refer to government organisations such as ACCC, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Fair Trading and non-government organisations (NGOs) such as CHOICE, Industry ombudsman and the Financial Rights Legal Centre
- develop arguments that illustrate the achievement of justice
- refer to relevant examples, such as, cases and media articles to demonstrate the role of both government (IGOs) and non-government organisations and use these to support their judgement.
Areas for students to improve:
- making a clear and accurate distinction between government organisations and non-government organisations
- demonstrating knowledge of non-government organisations (NGOs) and distinguishing these from the inclusion of other non-legal responses such as the media.
Question 27(a)
In better responses, students were able to:
- clearly reference legal processes, for example General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) and conventions that create treaties and protocols through consensus and ratification such as the Paris Agreement, including the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
- clearly identify barriers such as state sovereignty, economic and political barriers
- integrate their argument with relevant evidence, such as the success of the Montreal Protocol or limitations of ICJ due to state sovereignty.
Areas for students to improve:
- explaining the legal processes that address barriers rather than simply listing and describing treaties, conventions or protocols
- explaining state sovereignty as a barrier to the protection of the global environment and supporting this with evidence
- building an informed argument supported by evidence rather than adding it to the beginning and end of each paragraph.
Question 27(b)
In better responses students were able to:
- clearly identify and explain the role of the UN and other organisations (IGOs, NGOs, media) in promoting and achieving environmental protection
- make a judgement of value regarding promotion and achievement by separating the two and providing specific evidence to support their judgement
- explain the role of state sovereignty as a limitation to achieving environmental protection and integrating this into the argument.
Areas for students to improve include:
- making a judgement of value, and supporting the judgement with relevant evidence
- maintaining a sustained judgement throughout the response, rather than adding a statement to the beginning or end of each paragraph
- integrating relevant evidence to suit the needs of the question.
Question 28(a)
In better responses, students were able to:
- engage with all components of the question with clear, informed judgements
- demonstrate depth of knowledge around family law issues, such as same-sex relationships, surrogacy, birth technologies, care and protection of children, divorce and domestic violence and successfully link these issues back to the question of the changing nature of parental responsibility
- understand the role that law reform plays in responding to society’s changing views about parental responsibility
- integrate a range of legal terms and concepts such as best interests of the child, meaningful relationships and presumption of parentage.
Areas for students to improve include:
- providing clear links between family law issues and parental responsibilities
- using a range of relevant examples such as the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) and its reforms, shared-parental responsibility legislation and the Status of Children Act 1996 (NSW)
- logically sequencing arguments to demonstrate an understanding of family law issues holistically and relating these to the changing nature of parental responsibilities.
Question 28(b)
In better responses, students were able to:
- engage with all components of the question to demonstrate an understanding of how the law protects victims of domestic violence
- provide a thorough assessment of legal measures in place to protect victims including police powers and legislation
- make an informed judgement of the legal measures, such as enforceability, accessibility and safety whilst integrating relevant examples
- explore the impact of legal reforms and changes over time considering their influence on victim protection.
Areas for students to improve include:
- engaging more holistically with the question to address how legal responses protect victims rather than simply outlining legal responses to domestic violence
- making links between the law and victim protection and providing relevant statistics and cases to illustrate
- providing judgements from a range of perspectives such as non-legal responses, the media and society about the protection for victims.
Question 29(a)
In better responses, students were able to:
- make informed judgements about the effectiveness of a range of legal processes including courts, legislation and international legal processes initiated under the direction of the United Nations in achieving recognition of rights to land and natural resources for Indigenous Peoples
- recognise constraints on the achievement to recognise the rights to land and natural resources such as funding, state sovereignty and political will
- use comparative language to demonstrate an understanding of the varied progress made by Indigenous Peoples in their struggles to achieve rights to land and natural resource rights.
Areas for students to improve include:
- explaining how international legal documents, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 impact the recognition of land and natural resource rights
- writing with clarity about the extent to which court decisions and international law processes impact upon the achievement of land and natural resources rights
- supporting judgements by integrating evidence that relates to the experiences of a range of Indigenous Peoples from different parts of the world.
Question 29(b)
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate extensive knowledge of the law in relation to Indigenous Peoples, including court decisions and international law documents such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labour Organization Convention 169
- link their knowledge about Indigenous Peoples to courts and the United Nations, incorporating contemporary evidence about the role of courts and the United Nations
- demonstrate an understanding of issues facing Indigenous Peoples globally by referring to examples from a range of jurisdictions such as Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Chile and Scandinavia.
Areas for students to improve include:
- being familiar with a range of international case studies and examples that draw from experiences beyond those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- ensuring that responses move beyond narration to make a judgement about the specific institutions and organisations such as courts and the United Nations
- drawing clear connections about the role of courts and the United Nations in achieving justice in relation to other areas including the right to practise culture and the protection of intellectual property rights.
Question 30(a)
In better responses students were able to:
- demonstrate a clear understanding of legal and government responses to discrimination and homelessness, including relevant content such as the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement and the impact of ‘no-grounds’ evictions on proving discrimination under the Residential Tenancies Act NSW 2010
- make an assessment of the extent to which the law addresses the issues, acknowledging that the law responds better in some areas than others
- support well-reasoned judgements with evidence that demonstrates the extent of legal responses to the issues of homelessness and discrimination.
Areas for students to improve include:
- moving beyond using statistics and description to outline the extent of homelessness and discrimination
- engaging with legal responses relating to shelter, as opposed to non-legal responses
- integrating cases and examples to show the operation of the law and a well-reasoned judgement.
Question 30(b)
In better responses students were able to:
- focus on relevant dispute resolution mechanisms and provide cases and content that demonstrate the operation of the law and the achievement of justice
- assess the achievement of justice for both seekers and providers of shelter including tenants and landlords, purchases and vendors
- demonstrate an understanding of the complexities in achieving just outcomes for disputing parties in individual instances, and the role of the law in balancing the needs of different stakeholders.
Areas for students to improve include:
- addressing relevant content areas related to dispute resolution mechanisms, instead of legal responses or law reform more generally
- unpacking how dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation, conciliation and arbitration operate to achieve justice with greater reasoning and analysis
- avoiding case narrative.
Question 31(a)
In better responses students were able to:
- consider how the law addresses discrimination such as legislation, courts and tribunals and law reform
- support their judgement about the extent to which workplace law addresses discrimination with a range of examples such as Fair Work Act, the Fair Work Commission, Industrial Relations Commission and the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal
- clearly and concisely address one type of discrimination such as age, gender or disability within one paragraph.
Areas for students to improve include:
- ensuring judgements are linked to the question
- using relevant cases to demonstrate how non-legal mechanisms address discrimination
- unpacking what is meant by ‘address’ in the question such as access, fairness and equality, rather than writing about effectiveness.
Question 31(b)
In better responses students were able to:
- engage in a sustained way with the role of dispute resolution mechanisms in the workplace and their ability to achieve justice
- correctly identify areas where disputes occur such as wage negotiation and payment, discrimination and enterprise agreement negotiations
- make clear judgements about the role of mechanisms such as the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman, trade unions and courts to resolve disputes and achieve justice
- integrate a range of evidence to support a judgement
- present a logical response focusing on appropriate workplace issues such as safety, discrimination, termination and dismissal.
Areas for students to improve include:
- engage closely with the role of dispute resolution
- using relevant examples to support the judgement about the role dispute resolution mechanisms play in achieving justice, such as the investigative capability of the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Question 32(a)
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate a broad understanding of legal measures such as the organs of the United Nations, international courts, IGOs and instruments that respond to regional and global situations that threaten peace and security
- confidently engage with the question and develop a clear and logical argument that led to an informed judgement
- support their judgement with the skilful use of a range of evidence such as The Nuclear Threat, War on Terrorism, China in the South China Sea and The Russia-Ukraine conflict in Eastern Europe.
Areas for students to improve include:
- providing specific knowledge on key legal measures, which could include UNSC resolutions, Responsibility to Protect2 (R2P), International Criminal Court (ICC), Non-Proliferation Treaties and Geneva Conventions.
- developing a variety of global and regional situations that threaten global peace that are sourced using a range of evidence
- avoiding references to human rights responses or environmental issues that are not relevant.
Question 32(b)
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate an extensive understanding of the role of the United Nations in promoting peace and in resolving conflict
- support judgements by skilful use of appropriate, detailed evidence
- examine in detail the role of the relevant organs of the UN in the context of promoting peace or resolving conflict including UNGA, United Nations Security Council (UNSC), ICJ and the implementation of the Doctrine of R2P.
Areas for students to improve include:
- focusing on the role of the United Nations rather than Intergovernmental Organisations such as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
- providing relevant detail about the selected conflict situation or case to support the argument being developed
- avoiding descriptive presentations of conflict situations, or reference to inappropriate issues such as whaling and climate change
- demonstrating an understanding of the difference between the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
