LAW4902 · Movement lawyering

Overview

This unit will explore the theory and practice of lawyering in service of social movements, drawing on case studies (e.g. the climate crisis) and critical scholarship from around the world. Topics are likely to include the history and ethics of cause lawyering; the strategies and dilemmas of working alongside grassroots movements; comparative perspectives on movement lawyering in the Global South and Global North; and the tensions between legal advocacy and broader political organizing. Students would also examine practical challenges—such as navigating institutional constraints, balancing professional duties with activist commitments, and addressing questions of accountability—to develop a nuanced understanding of law as both a tool and a site of struggle for justice as a lawyer.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate strong understanding of the role of lawyers in social movements, with attention to the legal, ethical, political, and strategic dimensions of movement lawyering.
2. Compare and contrast approaches to cause and movement lawyering across different global contexts.
3. Analyse the ways in which law and lawyers both sustains and challenges structures of inequality, including those shaped by race, class, gender, and colonialism.
4. Apply theoretical and case study insights to assess the practical challenges faced by lawyers working with social movements, including issues of accountability, professional responsibility, and collaboration with grassroots actors.
5. Communicate key ideas in a coherent and engaging fashion in both written and oral modes.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit typically comprises of a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study applicable to a 6 credit point unit. Learning activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning, and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.