Special Topic A (LAWS5182)

Course overview

Legal context of some issues confronting contemporary society. Possible changes available to enable law to deal more adequately with novel problems. Topics vary from year to year.

The topic in Semester 1, 2025 is: Law and Literature

Course Aims:

This subject addresses the intersection of law and popular culture, exploring the extent to which latter – film, television, fiction – provides a way to read, understand and rethink the former: namely, law, legal process and, above all, jurisprudence. Its topics include, for example, the legal significance and/or subtext of such popular culture figures as alien invaders, living dolls, Norse gods, ghostly apparitions, zombie hordes, telekinetic psychics, undead lovers, dystopian gamers, dark lords and daimonic companions. All of which are analysed through the interpretive jurisprudential lens of, variously, rights, duties, justice, law’s morality, the laws of nature and legal critique. In reading these figures of law ‘jurisprudentially’, Speculative Legalism draws extensively upon the hermeneutical resources of canonical and critical legal theory, as well as a range of other theoretical perspectives and positions current in the humanities and social sciences: to name a few, psychoanalysis, feminism, race theory, post-colonialism and semiotics.

This subject has as its principal aims:

• To introduce students to the cultural representation of the law in a range of speculative genres: science fiction, fantasy and horror.

• To broaden students’ notion of law by examining, not only law’s socio-legal representation in a range of speculative fictions (e.g., the role of the lawyer, the nature of the trial, etc…), but law’s jurisprudential subtexts (e.g., the notion of a higher justice, the idea of rights, etc…) in those texts.

• To foster students’ critical capacities by examining the myriad ways in which speculative legal fictions put the law on trial, or judge jurisprudence and find it wanting. 

• To enable students to grow as independent legal thinkers who can not only critique the law but construct alternatives by using speculative fictions to reimagine law and jurisprudence along fairer, more just lines. 

Course requirements

Prerequisites

You'll need to complete the following courses before enrolling in this one:

All Level 1 & 2 LAWS courses

Incompatible

You can't enrol in this course if you've already completed the following:

LAWS7182 or 7382

Restrictions

Restricted to enrolments in LLB(Hons)(#64), LLB(Hons)(#48), LLB, LLB (Graduate Entry), LLB(Hons) duals and LLB dual programs.

Course contact

Course staff

Timetable

The timetable for this course is available on the UQ Public Timetable.

Aims and outcomes

Teaching Mission Statement

The mission of the TC Beirne School of Law is to educate students in and about the law. We seek to assist you to think critically about the law and to investigate its structures, principles, policies, and values. This is achieved by engaging with you as fellow investigators in a range of critical and intellectual conversations about the law and its place in society. Our role is thus to guide you in your own intellectual journey in the law and to equip you with the necessary skills that will enable you to continue that journey long after you have left the School.

Course Aims:

Speculative Legalism: Law in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (aka LAWS5182 Special Topic A, Law and Literature) addresses a range of popular fictions – in print and on screen – because, by means of plot, characterisation, setting and theme, these texts interrogate in unique and innovative ways the abiding questions of legal theory. To name but a few: what is the connection between law and morality? Law and power? Law and rights? Law and justice? By examining how the speculative fictions of science fiction, horror and fantasy pose and repose such questions, this course invites students to critique and reimagine notions of, for example, the legal subject, legal things, legal processes, legal origins and ends. Enabling this critical legal act of reimagination will be popular culture’s textual, televisual and cinematic tropes of dying deities and death-dealing aliens, vampire slayers and zombie hordes, white wizards and dark lords, ghostbusters and ‘battle royale’ gamers, living dolls and telekinetic psychics. In short, the gods and monsters, freaks and geeks of Speculative Legalism invites us to speculate, otherwise, on the very nature of law itself.

Learning outcomes

After successfully completing this course you should be able to:

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment details

Research Essay

• Online

Mode

Written

Category

Essay/ Critique

Weight

50%

Due date

28/04/2025 2:00 pm

Task description

Submission guidelines

Assignments must be submitted electronically via the submission link on the course Blackboard site.

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Extension to Assessment Due Date

Where an extension for an assessment item due within the teaching period in which the course is offered is available, any extension is limited to one week (7 days). In exceptional circumstances, extensions may be granted for more than one week, but in no case will an extension exceed four weeks (28 days) in total. Where a student is incapacitated for a period exceeding four weeks of the teaching period, they should apply for removal of course.

A student may apply for an extension to assessment due date if they are unable to meet an assessment deadline due to extenuating circumstances. Please refer to the Applying for an extension page on my.UQ for further details on acceptable reasons for an extension and for instructions on how to apply. Additional information on extensions can be found within the Assessment Procedure.

Spoken or written notification of difficulties with assessment deadlines to a course coordinator or the School does not constitute an authorised extension.

Applications to be submitted before the due date: Applications for extension (whether they be medical or exceptional circumstances) shall be made by the due date and time for the assessment. Requests for extensions received after the assessment item submission due date and time, must include evidence of the reason for the late request, and will require the decision maker listed in the Student Grievance Resolution Procedure to accept the request for consideration.

Late submission

A penalty of 10% of the maximum possible mark will be deducted per 24 hours from time submission is due for up to 7 days. After 7 days, you will receive a mark of 0.

Penalties for Late Submission

The following penalties apply to late submission of an assessment item, assuming that an extension has not been approved, and that late submission is academically possible (e.g., it does not delay feedback to a cohort, or interfere with course delivery).

First 7 periods of 24 hours (or part thereof) - 10% per 24 hours of the maximum possible mark for the assessment item. For example, a report worth a maximum of 40 marks, submitted 28 hours late will attract a penalty of 8 marks, calculated as 2 periods of 24 hours x 10% x 40 marks.

More than 7 periods of 24 hours - 100%.

Final Exam (Central)

• In-person

Mode

Written

Category

Examination

Weight

50%

Due date

End of Semester Exam Period

7/06/2025 - 21/06/2025

Task description

Exam details

Submission guidelines

Deferral or extension

You may be able to defer this exam.

Course grading

Full criteria for each grade is available in the Assessment Procedure.

Supplementary assessment

Supplementary assessment is available for this course.

Learning resources

You'll need the following resources to successfully complete the course. We've indicated below if you need a personal copy of the reading materials or your own item.

Library resources

Library resources are available on the UQ Library website.

Learning activities

The learning activities for this course are outlined below. Learn more about the learning outcomes that apply to this course.

Policies and procedures

University policies and procedures apply to all aspects of student life. As a UQ student, you must comply with University-wide and program-specific requirements, including the:

• Student Code of Conduct Policy
• Student Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Procedure
• Assessment Procedure
• Examinations Procedure
• Reasonable Adjustments - Students Policy and Procedure

Learn more about UQ policies on my.UQ and the Policy and Procedure Library.

School guidelines

Your school has additional guidelines you'll need to follow for this course:

• Law School Announcements and Policies