Mr Domenic Carbone
Location: Room 4.16, Building: 4th floor, Ligertwood Building, Law School
Telephone: 8313 4759
Email: domenic.carbone@adelaide.edu.au
Course Website: www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au

Lecturer’s Biography
As well as lecturing in “Business Law” for the MBA program, Domenic lectures in “Income Tax Law” for the Business School’s undergraduate and masters programs, “Singapore Commercial Law” for the Business School’s masters program, and “Tax Planning” as part of the School’s Graduate Diploma in Wealth Management. He has previously lectured in “Australian Commercial Law” for the Business School’s masters program.

Domenic has also previously lectured in “Law for Practising Managers” at the Australian Graduate School of Management of the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney, as part of their MBA Program.

Background
Domenic is also a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of South Australia. He carries on a legal and tax practice on a part-time basis, and has been a consulting tax advisor to legal and accounting firms.

In addition to his academic experience, Domenic’s background includes experience in both the private and public sectors. He was previously a Tax Manager with a “Big 8” firm where he was mainly involved in the tax consulting, tax audit and indirect tax areas. Before that he had worked for several years in the Australian Tax Office where he held a number of senior positions, including that of Legal Officer and the Personal Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner.

Qualifications
Masters of Laws (Commercial), The University of Adelaide (1999)
Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, The University of South Australia (1987)
Bachelor of Laws, The University of Adelaide (1985)

Course Aims
The course aims to make managers more aware of the circumstances in which the law impacts on their business environment and their decisions as managers, and to give an awareness of how legal risks can be minimised. The technical areas of the law that are dealt with will be approached with a management emphasis. It is not the aim of the course to enable managers to make their own final legal decisions or to give legal advice to others. Rather, the course will help managers to identify potential legal problems at an early stage and recognise situations when professional legal advice should be sought.

The course is designed to provide students:
1. An understanding of the legal system and how it applies to regulate business.
2. An understanding of the application of statute law and Common Law relevant to business.
3. Knowledge of basic principles of specific topics of law and their relevance to business.
4. Experience in identifying legal business issues and risks.
5. Knowledge of how to manage legal business risks.

Textbook
Latimer P, 2014 Australian Business Law, 33rd ed CCH.

Useful reference books are:
Turner & Trone, Australian Commercial Law 29th ed, Thomson Reuter.
Miles & Dowler, A Guide to Business Law 20th ed, Thomson Reuter

Useful Websites:
www.austlii.edu.au – Australian legislation and cases.
www.comlaw.gov.au – Commonwealth legislation.
www.legislation.sa.gov.au/index.aspx – South Australian legislation
www.aph.gov.au – Commonwealth Parliament of Australia.
www.parliament.sa.gov.au – Parliament of South Australia.
www.accc.gov.au – Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
www.asic.gov.au – Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
www.ipaustralia.gov.au – IP Australia.

The Course Materials consisting of Topic Notes, the PowerPoint slides used in classes and other material for the course, such as Case Study Questions, will be made available on MyUni.

The MBA program is largely undertaken through face-to-face class sessions to facilitate interactions between the lecturing staff and fellow students. Accordingly there is an expectation that you will attend all of the scheduled classes. If work commitments, illness or other circumstances require you to be absent from some lectures, please inform your lecturer in advance by either phone or email so that you may discuss the topic(s) to be covered in the class session and the tasks you need to complete before the next session. It is your responsibility to make arrangements with the lecturer or other students to catch up on information discussed in class, however, it is unlikely that lecturers will be able to repeat a class to cover your absence.

Please note that if you have not attended at least 80% of the class sessions for a course you will forgo your right, on academic grounds, to any supplementary assessment opportunities.

Weekly classes are 3 hours long. You can expect to spend about the same amount of time preparing for each class. Assignments and exam preparation will demand additional concentrated periods of non-classroom study, on your own or with your allocated student group. As a rough indication, you could expect to spend in the order of 120 hours of study time to complete the course, of which 36 hours would be in class.

Topics

• Overview of the Australian legal system
• The law of business structures
• Contract law
• Intellectual property law
• Employment law
• Law of torts
• Consumer (& business) protection law
• Competition law
• Electronic commerce law.

In each topic, emphasis will be placed on identifying the legal duties that apply to a manager and the legal liabilities that may be attracted by their actions.


Topic Schedule

Week	Date	Topics	Textbook Reading
1	4 Feb	1. Overview of the Australian legal system	Chapter 1
2	11 Feb	2. Law of business structures	Chapters 9 & 10
3	18 Feb	3. Contract law - Formation of contract	Chapter 5
4	25 Feb	4. Contract law - Operation of the contract	Chapter 6
5	4 Mar	5. Intellectual property law	Chapters 3 & 12
6	11 Mar	6. Employment law	Misc paragraphs
7	18 Mar	Class Test
8	25 Mar	7. Law of torts	Chapter 4
9	1 Apr	8. Consumer (& business) protection law	Chapter 7
10	8 Apr	9. Competition law	Chapter 8
11	15 Apr	No class – Work on assignment
12	22 Apr	10. Electronic commerce law	Misc paragraphs
13	29 Apr	Examination

Important note

This timetable of topics may change depending on the demands of, and discussion on, each topic. A topic may straddle over more than one week. However, the dates of the Class Test and Exam will not change.

 A note of WARNING: the readings for topics 1 to 3 are VERY lengthy and demanding, as are the topics themselves.

Withdrawal Dates:<>Please note: Intensive courses scheduled mid-trimester or in between trimesters are still subject to the above census dates. 

Amendments to Enrolments for 1st Trimester 2014: 3/02/2014 – 4/04/2014
Last day to add course online	Withdraw – without incurring tuition fees	Withdraw – full forfeiture of fees
If you need to amend your enrolment it must be prior to the dates below to avoid any fees. No entry will be made on your academic transcript.	If you withdraw during the first few weeks of the trimester, between the dates shown below, you will not need to pay any fees. No entry will be made on your academic transcript.	Forfeiture of full course fees: If you amend your enrolment in between the dates shown below, a Withdraw Not Fail (WNF) will appear on your transcript and the full course fee will be payable. If you amend your enrolment after the 5th April a Withdraw Fail (WF) will be recorded on the transcript and the full course fee will be payable.
Prior to the 17th February	3rd February – 21st February	21st February – 4th April (WNF) 5th April – 2nd May (WF)

If you are withdrawing from a course please advise your lecturer and, if applicable, any fellow group members, at the earliest possible time so that disruption to group work for other students can be minimised.

Assessment	Percentage of Total Mark	Learning Objective Assessed
Class test	20%	1, 2, 3 and 4
Assignment	40%	1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Final Exam	40%	1,2,3,4 and 5

In addition to achieving a course mark of at least 50%, students need to attain an average of 50% across all the individually assessed items, considered as a whole, to pass the course.

Class Test
This is designed to test your understanding of the law covered in topics 1 to 4, and your ability to identify legal issues in a problem case study and give an answer that is supported by the law. It is also aimed at identifying for the lecturer any difficulties that students may be having with the legal concepts covered and the unique approach to answering a legal problem.

The test will be 1 hour and 50 minutes in duration (plus a further 15 minutes reading time) and will be held on 18 March. It will be “open-book” and students are allowed to use any written material except University of Adelaide Library books.

Assignment
This will be written essay of a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding footnotes) on a topic to be made available by the lecturer. It is an individual assignment and not a group one. The assignment will be due on a date to be advised.

Examination
In addition to testing your understanding of the law covered in the course and your ability to identify legal issues and give an answer to a problem that is supported by the law, the exam will also test your knowledge of how legal risks can be better managed.

The examination will be 3 hours in duration (plus a further 15 minutes reading time) and will be held on 29 April. It will be “open-book” and students are allowed to use any written material except University of Adelaide Library books.

Access to examples of previous assessment
Examples of previous assessment for the Class Test and the Final Exam will be provided on MyUni during the course and in classes. A trial non-assessable Test and Exam will be conducted in the classes before the assessable Test and Exam are held.

Presentation of Assignments
1. Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.
2. Students must attach an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’, which is signed and dated before submission.
3. All group assignments must be attached to a ‘Group Assignment Cover Sheet’, which must be signed and dated by all group members before submission. All team members are expected to contribute approximately equally to a group assignment.

Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the University’s policy on plagiarism.

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details
A copy of the Communication Skills Guide: MBA Programs will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from:

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/professions/hub/downloads/MBA-Communication-Skills-Guide.pdf

This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc.

In preparing any written piece of assessment for your postgraduate studies it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.)
The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide.

Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 3 of the Communication Skills Guide.

Late Assignment Submission
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits.

An assignment extension request based on illness or on exceptional personal circumstances must include the "Supporting Statement / Certification Form" that is part of the Supplementary Assessment application available at:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/student/exams/maca_medical_compassionate_applic_aug2012.pdf

Students applying for an extension based on medical reasons must visit their medical practitioner, with that approved University form, and have the medical practitioner complete it. A normal doctor's certificate will not be accepted.

A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.

Return of Assignments
Lecturers aim to mark and return assignments to students within two (2) weeks of the due date with written feedback. Students are responsible for collecting their marked assignments from either their tutorials or lectures. If assignments are not collected after two (2) weeks, the assignments will be available at the Student Hub for two (2) weeks. The remaining assignments will only be posted out to the students, if the correct mailing addresses are on the assignments.