Managing the Legal Environment
Need a research portfolio on the unit managing legal environment.
Introduction:
Research: When undertaking legal research, or any research for that matter that involves looking at books, cases, webpages and articles, it is important to ensure the following:
- The sources to which you refer are appropriate. Webpages, blogs and newspaper articles are ok to use but these may be a statement of someone's opinion or are selfserving (such as a company's homepage). Therefore, do not assume that they are completely reliable. If possible, crosscheck against somewhere else.
- The source(s) you use are appropriate. If possible, locate and use verifiable sources. The problem with relying on the internet is that a lot of stuff on there is rubbish: unverifiable (hard to check for accuracy), inaccurate or incomplete. The ranking of verifiability is as follows (incomplete list but to give you an idea):
o Highest
- Peer reviewed articles
- Books (researched and commercially published as opposed to self-published)
- Legally tested - such as case reports and statutes
- Some materials on government websites
o Middling
- Books other than above
- Summaries of cases and statutes (such as from law firms and other professional commentators)
- Articles and notes in professional publications (such as from CPA Australia or similar)
- Company Annual Reports
- (Some) media reports and articles
- Textbooks
o Lowest
- Blogs, twitter feeds and forum postings
- Opinion pieces in/on newspapers and other media such as television and the internet
Referencing: Once you have located and used your references in your work it is imperative to acknowledge them. If you are quoting from a reference you should also provide details of exactly where your quote came from (page number if in an article or book). Fed U uses APA referencing. The Library Homepage provides information on APA.
Cases are treated slightly differently. Here is where you use a citation (ie, name, year (of reporting or hearing), location and page it begins. Note that different law reporters use different systems so it is hard to give a simple set of examples. However, here are a few.
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (note the square brackets: these law reports go by year of reporting (that may not be the year the decision was given by the court) - so if you were to look for this case on the shelves of a library you would go to the AC (Appeal Cases) and look for the volume that has "1932" on its spine).
Janesch v Coffey (1984) 155 CLR 549 (note the round brackets - these law reports go by volume number and the year designates the year it was decided - so if you were to look for this case on the shelves you would go to the Commonwealth Law Reports and look for the volume numbered "155".)
What to do in workshop:
- Identify a large company in Australia.
- Where can you find out its ABN, registered address and legal details? Go and find them. Were there any limits to the information you could discover?
- Where can you find information about its operations? Where would you look for, eg, annual report? Go and find this information. Did you have any difficulties in locating this information? What were they?
- Can you find out anything else about the company? Has it been involved in any court action or other dispute? Any media stories? Where would you look and what can you learn? How can you verify, check what you find?
Be prepared to discuss and share your findings at the research and referencing workshops.