Wondering whether studying a Law degree at Monash is right for you?
You’ve come to the right place as we’ll give you the run-down on everything you need to know about the degree, including the subjects, assessments, culture, staff and more.
Let’s get into it!
What is a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash University?
Core Units for this Degree
How to Get into Law at Monash University
What’s the Teaching Format?
What’s the Faculty and Culture Like?
What is a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash?
A Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash is a 4-year degree which focusses on theoretical knowledge and practical skills to provide you with the legal expertise to confidently enter the workforce. This degree sets you up with industry-focussed legal training through opportunities like clinical placement internships, professional practice experience and international study in Monash’s Prato campus in Italy.
Whether you’re interested in Media Law, Corporations Law, Family Law or even Animal Law, Monash provides you with the foundations for a strong legal career and the flexibility to fine-tune your degree to your interests.
Who should study Law at Monash?
This degree is well suited to students interested in the legal system, passionate about reading and who are always up for a debate. If you’re studying Legal Studies, Business Management or History, a Law (Honours) degree could be the one for you!
Can you study it with another degree?
Law at Monash can be studied on its own or paired with another degree. If you wish to expand your career options and explore different avenues, Monash offers 11 double degree options to combine with the Bachelor of Laws (Honours):
- Bachelor of Arts
- Bachelor of Biomedical Science
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
- Bachelor of Global Studies
- Bachelor of Music
- Bachelor of Science
- Bachelor of Information Technology
- Bachelor of Computer Science
- Bachelor of Criminology
- Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics
There’s an option for everyone!
Career Paths
A Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree will always enhance your resume and allows you to venture into a variety of different career paths. While most students typically go on to become lawyers, there are numerous avenues your law degree can take you in the private and public sector, including areas of government, media, education and academia.
Some of the many career choices that you can explore include:
- Solicitor
- Barrister
- In-house counsel
- Policy adviser
- Magistrate
- Judge’s associate
- Legal academic
Core Units for this Degree
What are the Core Units?
Students studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash are required to complete 204 credit points throughout their degree, with 102 credit points comprising compulsory core law units.
Core units cover baseline, fundamental legal knowledge and are designed for students to cover a variety of law areas that are required for admission to practise. These core units include:
- Foundations of Law
- Criminal Law 1
- Constitutional Law
- Property Law
- Corporations Law
- Torts
“In my first semester as a Law student, I began with Foundations of law, which is centred on the historical foundations of the law involving legal terminology and court hierarchy, and Criminal Law, which is definitely one of the areas that most students imagine Law to be like.” — Claire Tucker-Morrison, Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Global Studies V at Monash University
Placements
Students also have numerous opportunities to gain practical experience in the legal industry, such as by undertaking a clinical placement unit and a professional practice unit.
Clinical Placement enables students to develop a practical understanding of various legal duties through a placement with a host organisation, while Professional Practice allows students to respond to legal problems and advise clients under supervision at a community legal centre.
“The Clinical placement unit can be either university-sourced or self-sourced, and it’s basically a 3-month internship program where you are immersed in the organisation and work as an unpaid intern, but you do receive subject credit points. I think that’s an amazing feature of Monash Law, and it certainly gives you an advantage in the workforce.” — Claire Tucker-Morrison
Are there any majors or specialisations?
Due to the high concentration of core units that you will have to do, students studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) don’t have the option to choose a major.
However, students have 102 credit points reserved for electives, for which they must complete between 13 to 17 law electives. Although chosen electives must include one commercial law elective and one law research elective, students are given lots of flexibility to choose from a broad range of electives to meet their interests and career goals.
In contrast to core units, there is a vast selection of electives on offer that allows students to pursue their passions and fine-tune their Law specialisation. Experimenting with different electives is a great opportunity to see which area of Law fits you best and advance your legal skills.
Law of Employment is a commercial law elective that examines what rights and duties arise under the contract of employment, while Vis Arbitration Moot is a research law elective that develops your oral advocacy and research skills for the chance to represent Monash in an international arbitration moot competition in Vienna or Hong Kong!
How to Get into Law at Monash University
The ATAR for guaranteed entry into a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash is 94.
Prerequisites
The only prerequisite subject for entry into a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash is English — for units 3 and 4, you’ll need a score of at least 35 in English (EAL) or at least 30 in English other than EAL.
Pathway Programs
As it’s a highly competitive degree, students who have no formal secondary or tertiary qualifications are not eligible to apply for this course. Additionally, a VET qualification by itself will not be enough for admittance as a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash looks at your entire academic record for selection consideration.
However, even if you don’t meet the entrance requirements, you’ll be able to gain entry into Bachelor of Laws (Honours) by transferring from a recognised undergraduate course at Monash or from another university with high marks.
Monash also offers the Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS) to support students facing disadvantage and hardship that have impacted their secondary scheme. The scheme adjusts the number of your ATAR depending on the severity of your circumstances, helping students to receive entry into their preferred course even if their ATAR is below the lowest selection rank.
What scholarships are available?
With scholarships available for domestic and international students, the Monash Law Faculty provides numerous scholarships to support students with the financial pressure of their Law degrees and help boost their personal and professional development.
The Faculty of Law Robert French Equity Scholarship, valued up to $30,000, and the Leonie Thompson, Ray Finkelstein and Arnold Bloch Leibler Law Scholarship, valued up to $44,000, are two scholarships that support high achieving Law students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
What’s the Teaching Format?
A Bachelor of Laws (Honours) Monash is delivered across two semesters per year:
- Semester 1: Early March to early June
- Semester 2: Early August to early November
Class Structure
At Monash, Law core units are taught through lectures and tutorials, while electives are primarily delivered through lectures.
Lectures
For core units, lectures generally run for 1.5 hours twice a week and usually consist of around 100 people in attendance. For electives, there are 2×2-hour lectures or sometimes 2×1-hour lectures per week, and class attendance is a lot lower with typically 30 students attending.
Lectures are designed to introduce and summarise the course content, with readings intending to provide students with a more in-depth knowledge of the subject matter.
Tutorials
For core units, tutorials are typically held once every fortnight, so you should generally expect to have 6 tutorials per semester. Tutorials are generally 1 hour long and the number of students in attendance is usually between 15 to 20 people.
Entering your tutorials, you can expect to work in groups and contribute to class discussions by answering a range of problem-solving questions concerning legal scenarios. This typically involves having to work out criminal charges and justifying your answer. As such, you’re expected to do your pre-readings prior to class so you know what you’re talking about!
How much time do you spend on campus?
If you study a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash, you’ll usually take about 3-4 subjects per semester. Law students typically take 3 units at the beginning of their degree as the course load can be difficult to adjust to at first.
For a student taking 2 core units and 1 elective, you would be looking at about 10-12 contact hours per week.
However, a large bulk of a Law degree consists of pre-readings in preparation for your tutorials, as well as post-reading to ensure you’re up to date with your content. That’s usually what takes up the most of your time, so you’ll definitely have to factor in those extra hours!
What are the assessments like?
While the assessments are varied depending on what subject you’re doing, students studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash can expect to complete a number of exams, essays, individual and group assignments throughout their degree.
Exams are a major part of a Law degree and are a feature of every core unit, usually accounting for approximately 60% of your grade and running for 2.5 hours. Final exams usually consist of problem-solving and essay questions to evaluate your written communication, critical analysis and statutory interpretation skills.
As well as exams, many of your Law subjects involve collaborating in groups or working individually to research and complete a written assignment. Written assessments typically account for 30% of your grade, and come in the forms of essays, statutory interpretation and problem tasks.
Tutorial participation also accounts for 10-15% your final mark in your core units and is designed to assess whether you are contributing to class discussions. This usually involves 5 marks for attendance and 5 marks for participation, which involves putting up your hand and engaging with the problem questions.
What skills do you develop?
A Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at Monash prepares you with theoretical knowledge of the legal system and the practical skills of advocacy, negotiation, drafting and interviewing for a successful law career.
“You really do realise how much lLw permeates society. When I watch the news or read an article, the number of legal themes that flow through it is definitely something that I’ve been able to identify a lot more clearly now at the pointy end of my degree.” — Claire Tucker-Morrison
What’s the Faculty and Culture Like?
Faculty
The Law faculty at Monash have a reputation of being exceptionally helpful and mindful to the diversity of students’ experiences. The Law faculty are accommodating in providing helpful course advice and run a lot of career initiatives in collaboration with the Monash Law Students’ Society (LSS).
Culture
As one of Australia’s leading universities, Monash’s position in the Group of Eight only adds to the competitiveness of studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honours).
Boasting difficult ATAR entry requirements, a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) contains many of the best and brightest high school students and can be quite a daunting environment to enter. However, the degree is entirely what you make of it and can allow for many great opportunities to collaborate and connect with other like-minded students.
“I got involved in the Monash LSS early in my degree as I thought I should really make the most of garnering a really strong student network and fostering that social aspect of my degree, and that’s what I managed to achieve through my society roles.” — Claire Tucker-Morrison
The Monash LSS is Australia’s largest Law Students’ Society and runs a number of fantastic social, academic and professional initiatives to support students through their Law degree while studying at Monash. To support first-years with their transition to university, the Peer Mentor Program matches older Law students with first years in their local area to help guide them through all the highs and lows of a law degree.
“I took part in the program when I was a first-year, and I really loved it. I had two amazing mentors who I still speak to, and they were exceptionally helpful.” — Claire Tucker-Morrison
Exchange Opportunities
If you’re wishing to travel overseas and gain an international perspective, Monash provides you with a number of exchange opportunities to take your Law degree abroad.
Law students can complete a number of elective subjects overseas in either the Monash Prato Centre in Italy or the Monash Malaysia campus in Kuala Lumpur, as well as at a number of affiliated universities worldwide. However, while you’re more than welcome to travel during your exchange, you do need to be mindful that you get marked and graded on these units, which will reflect on your academic transcript.
Ashley Sullivan is a Content Writer for Art of Smart Education and is currently undertaking a double degree in Communications (Journalism) and a Bachelor of Laws at UTS. Ashley’s articles have been published in The Comma and Central News. She is a film, fashion and fiction enthusiast who enjoys learning about philosophy, psychology and unsolved mysteries in her spare time.
