Peter Burdon (course coordinator)
3.28 Ligertwood Building
peter.d.burdon@adelaide.edu.au
+61 (08) 8313 4446


Paul Babie
3.05 Ligertwood Building
paul.babie@adelaide.edu.au
+61 8313 4344

Property Law covers fundamental areas of legal knowledge as required for admission into practice. These areas of knowledge are known as the 'Priestley 11' and are set out in Appendix A of the Rules of the Legal Practitioners Education and Admission Council 2004 (SA). According to the ‘Priestly 11’ Property Law must cover the following substantive areas:

1. Meaning and purposes of the concept of property.
2. Possession, seisin and title.
3. Nature and type (ie fragmentation) of proprietary interests.
4. Creation and enforceability of proprietary interests.
5. Legal and equitable remedies.
6. Statutory schemes of registration.
7. Acquisition and disposal of proprietary interests.
8. Proprietary interests in land owned by another.
9. Mortgages.


On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Determine, explain and apply the principles of Australian property law to resolve complex problems and theoretical questions. Analyse, evaluate and synthesise information from a wide variety of sources and experiences to answer complex
legal questions in a principled manner.
2. Apply property law to complex problems and critically examine its operation from a range of cultural, theoretical and social perspectives.
3. Prepare convincing written and oral arguments for a legal audience. Work cooperatively and communicate effectively as part of a team.
4. Exercise appropriate professional judgement and interact appropriately with peers in group work undertaken in an academic environment.
5. Identify and analyse cultural, theoretical and social factors impacting on property law.
6. Reflect on individual capacity to effectively undertake work as a member of a team, and use feedback to improve teamwork and other skills.



The Legal Practitioners' Education and Admissions Council (LPEAC) sets rules for the
academic requirements for admission to legal practice in South Australia.
Students must demonstrate a satisfactory level of understanding and application
of 11 core areas of legal knowledge. This course teaches the following topics
within these core areas:


PROPERTY:     
Meaning and purposes of the concept of property.     
Possession, seisin and title.      
Nature and type (ie fragmentation) of proprietary
interests.     
Creation and enforceability of proprietary
interests.      
Legal and equitable remedies.     
Statutory schemes of registration.    
Acquisition and disposal of proprietary interests.     
Concurrent ownership.     
Proprietary interests in land owned by another.   
Mortgages

The commercial leases part of ‘9. Proprietary interests in land owned by another’
is covered in LAW 1509 Commercial Transactions.

EQUITY:  
Equitable rights, titles and interests       
Equitable assignments

Students will be supplied, through MyUni, with weekly study guides that outline the material and issues to be covered in both lectures and seminars.

The prescribed textbook for the course is: The Boundaries of Australian Property Law, ed. H Esmaeili and B Grigg (Cambridge University Press, Australia, 2016).

Here are some other texts that students might wish to use for reference, in addition to the prescribed text:
1. Robert Chambers, An Introduction to Property Law in Australia (3rd ed, Law Book Co of Australasia, 2013)
2. BJ Edgeworth, CJ Rossiter, MA Stone, PA O’Conner, Sackville & Neave Australian Property Law (10th ed, Lexisnexis Butterworths Australia, 2016)
3. Anthony Moore, Scott Grattan, Lynden Griggs, Australian Real Property Law (6th ed, Thomson Reuters, 2015)
4. Adrian Bradbrook, Susan V MacCallum, Anthony P Moore and Scott Grattan, Australian Real Property Law (6th ed, Thomson Reuters, 2016)
5. Samantha Hepburn, Australian Property Law (3rd ed, Butterworths, 2014)
6. Eileen Webb & Margaret Stephenson, Land Law (24th ed, Lexis Nexis Butterworths, 2015)

During the course, you will also need to consult the following online material:
1. Law of Property Act 1936 (SA). The current version of this legislation can be found online at: http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/LAW%20OF%20PROPERTY%20ACT%201936.aspx5
2. Real Property Act 1886 (SA). The current version of this legislation can be found online at: http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/REAL%20PROPERTY%20ACT%201886.aspx6

In Property Law students are required to use their research skills to find case law. All cases can be found in hardcopy or online via the law library: http://www.law.adelaide.edu.au/library/research/.

To find cases students will also need to familiarise themselves with legal abbreviations. A guide to legal abbreviations can be found at http://guides.lib.monash.edu/legal-abbreviations/. 

With the exception of any books mentioned, all course materials will be available on MyUni or on university law databases (cases required).

MyUni will be used to post announcements, post additional lecture materials (including slides, and where available, audio recordings of lectures) and announce assignment tasks. It will also contain electronic copies of the Course Profile, Lecture and Seminar Guides, and Course Materials. The online quizzes will be done through MyUni too.

Students are expected to check MyUni regularly to keep up to date with these materials and additional learning resources throughout the course.

In week one, the entire weekly contact will be devoted to introducing the concept of property and its use in law as well as organisational information in the seminar.

Each week there will be a two-hour lecture and a one hour seminar. Online activity will consist of optional quizzes which are used for personal revision.

All arrangements will be fully explained in week one.

The University expects full-time students (ie those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This means we expect students enrolled in Property Law to spend 12 hours per week studying this course. Students in this course are expected to attend seminars. In addition, students should allocate time to private study in the course across the 12 week semester and the period before the exam – this includes reading the material, watching the videos, attending/watching lectures, preparing for seminars and undertaking the assessment tasks.

Provisional topic guide (subject to change)

Week	Lecture	Seminar
1	Introduction to Property Rights	Course Introduction
2	Possession and Seisin	Introduction to Property Rights
3	Tenure and Estates	Possession and Seisin
4	Native Title	Tenure and Estates
5	The Origin and Nature of Equitable Interests	Native Title
6	Leases	The Origin and Nature of Equitable Interests
7	Easements, Profits a Prendre, and Co-Ownership	Leases
8	Mortgages	Easements, Profits a Prendre, and Co-Ownership
9	Indefeasibility	Mortgages
10	Exceptions to Indefeasibility	Indefeasibility
11	Priorities Between Unregistered Interests and Remedies	Exceptions to Indefeasibility
12	Course overview and exam revision	Priorities Between Unregistered Interests and Remedies

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Redeemable	Weighting	Learning Outcome
Class participation	Individual		No	10%	1, 3, 4
Case Log	Group	2pm, Friday of week 12.	No	20%	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Interim assignment	Individual	2pm, Friday of week 8.	Yes	25%	1, 2, 3, 5
Exam (invigilated)	Individual	Exam Period	No	45%/70%	1, 2, 3, 5

All assessment components are compulsory. Failure to complete any component will lead to failure of the course.

Class participation (10%) Compulsory and non-redeemable

Description: The class participation mark is comprised of attendance, level of preparation and contribution during class. Each student will have the opportunity to attend 12 seminars over the course of the semester. Students will only be marked for participating in the seminar in which they are enrolled. Students will not be allowed to attend alternative seminars except in exceptional circumstances with the prior approval of the course co-ordinator. If a student will have difficulty regularly attending the seminar in which they are enrolled, they should change their enrolment or contact the course co-ordinator at the beginning of semester.

The case log and interim assignment must be submitted electronically by the due date. The electronic copy must be submitted to a software program, Turnitin that checks your submission for plagiarism. Instructions on how to electronically submit your assignment to Turnitin will be provided with the assignment instructions.

Further instructions for the case log and interim assignment:
1. The assignment is to be presented in typed form using Times New Roman 11-point font and using single spacing. The margins of the paper (right, left, top and bottom) must be no less than 2.5cm. The paper is not to include appendices or a bibliography.
2. Citation must comply with The Australian Guide to Legal Citation (3rd ed) available at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/about/libraries/law/research/.
3. The assignment must be written in prose style (using complete sentences), adhere to grammatical rules, and use correct spelling.
4. Penalties: Late submission 5% of the total mark possible will be deducted for every 24 hours or part thereof that it is late, including each day on a weekend. For example, an essay that is submitted after the due date and time but within the first 24 hour period, and that has been graded at 63%, will have 5% deducted, for a final grade of 58%. An essay that is more than 24 hours late will lose 10%, etc.
5. Length: Assignments which exceed the allocated word length will be subject to a penalty of 5% of total marks possible per 100 words or part thereof (ie with a word limit of 2,000, an essay graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is 2001 words long, for a final grade of 58%, 10% if it is 2101 words long, etc). Words are calculated including all footnotes and headings within the text but excluding cover page information. Quotations and all referencing information are included in the word count. For the case log, material outside of the allocated two-pages for each entry will not be read or marked.
6. Marked answers will be returned to students within 3 weeks with written feedback.

Courses for which a result of conceded pass has been obtained may not be presented towards the degree requirements for the Bachelor of Laws or the Honours Degree of Bachelor of Laws programs, or any postgraduate law program, nor to satisfy prerequisite requirements within any law course.

Finality of Assessment Grades

Students are advised that Course Coordinators will not enter into negotiations of any kind with any student regarding changes to their grades. It is irrelevant, in any given circumstance, that only a minimal number of additional marks are required to inflate a student’s grade for any individual assessment item or course as a whole. Pursuant to the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policyand the Adelaide Law School Assessment Policies and Procedures, grades may only be varied through the appropriate channels for academic review (such as an official re-mark).

Moderation

In accordance with the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, course coordinators ‘ensure that appropriate marking guidelines and cross-marking moderation processes across markers are in place’ in each course. Procedures adopted by Adelaide Law School to ensure consistency of marking in courses with multiple markers include:

• assurance of the qualifications of markers, and their knowledge of the content covered in each course;
• detailed marking guidelines and assessment rubrics to assist in the marking of items of assessment;
• sharing of example marked assessments at various grade bands across markers;
• reviewing of selected marked assessments from each marker by the course coordinator;
• comparison of the marks and their distribution across markers;
• automatic double-marking of all interim assessment receiving a fail grade, and of final assessments where a student’s overall result is a fail grade;
• the availability of re-marking of assessments in accordance with Adelaide Law School’s Assessment Policies and Procedures.

Approval of Results by Board of Examiners

Students are reminded that all assessment results are subject to approval (and possible moderation/change) by the Law School’s Board of Examiners. Assessment results at the University are not scaled. Under the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, students are assessed ‘by reference to their performance against pre-determined criteria and standards … and not by ranking against the performance of the student cohort in the course’. However, under that same policy, the Board of Examiners (as the relevant Assessment Review Committee for courses at Adelaide Law School) is required to ‘ensure comparability of standards and consistency’ in assessment. On occasions, the Board of Examiners will form the view that some moderation is required to ensure the comparability of standards and consistency across courses and years, and accordingly provide fairness to all law students. All assessment results are therefore subject to approval (and possible change) until confirmed by the Board of Examiners and posted on Access Adelaide at the end of each semester.

Approval of Results by Board of Examiners

Students are reminded that all assessment results are subject to approval (and possible  moderation/change) by the Law School’s Board of Examiners. Assessment  results at the University are not scaled. Under the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, students are assessed ‘by reference to their performance against pre-determined criteria and standards … and not by ranking against the performance of the student cohort in the course’. However, under that same policy, the Board of Examiners (as the relevant Assessment Review Committee for courses at Adelaide Law School) is  required to ‘ensure comparability of standards and consistency’ in assessment. On occasions, the Board of Examiners will form the view that some moderation is required to ensure the comparability of standards and consistency across courses and years, and accordingly provide fairness to all law students. All assessment results are therefore subject to approval (and possible change) until confirmed by the Board of Examiners and posted on Acess Adelaide at the end of each semester.

The University Writing Centre provides academic learning and language development services and resources for local, international, undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled at the University of Adelaide.

The centre offers practical advice and strategies for students to master reading, writing, note-taking, time management, oral presentation skills, referencing techniques and exam preparation for success at university through seminars, workshops and individual consultations.

Lex Salus Program

Lex Salus (law and wellbeing) is an initiative of the Adelaide Law School aimed at destigmatising mental health issues; promoting physical, mental and emotional wellness; building a strong community of staff and students; and celebrating diversity within the school. It also seeks to promote wellness within the legal profession, through the involvement of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, the Honourable Chris Kourakis, as the official Patron of the program.

Students can participate in the Lex Salus program by attending barbecue lunches, pancake breakfasts, knitting and crochet circles, seminars, guest speakers, conferences and other activities. Our Facebook page, website and regular all-student emails promote upcoming events, and have tips and information on wellness.

Our Lex Salus YouTube channel also includes videos on topics like managing stress, and interviews with LGBTQ lawyers and their supporters which celebrate diversity and individuality. Students who commit to 10 hours of volunteering with Lex Salus in one year can have their service recognised on their academic transcript and through a thank you morning tea with the Chief Justice and law school staff.

Student Life Counselling Support

The University’s Student Life Counselling Support service provides free and confidential service to all enrolled students. We encourage you to contact the Student Life Counselling Support service on 8313 5663 to make an appointment to deal with any issues that may be affecting your study and life.

Academic Honesty

Academic dishonesty is a serious act of academic misconduct. All students must be familiar with the University’s Academic Honesty Policy.

Academic dishonesty is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the University. Academic dishonesty (which goes beyond plagiarism) can be a ground for a refusal by the Supreme Court of South Australia to admit a person to practice as a legal practitioner in South Australia.

Academic honesty is an essential aspect of ethical and honest behaviour, which is central to the practice of the law and an understanding of what it is to be a lawyer.