Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
NilTeaching organisation
4 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent.Unit rationale, description and aim
Business organisations are an integral part of our daily lives. Our interactions with them necessitate the need to understand their dynamics. This unit therefore deals with the laws governing the creation, operation and regulation of companies in Australia. It examines the various structures for conducting business activities and provides insight to the legal principles regarding the internal and external operation of corporate legal entities. Emphasis is placed on ‘companies’ as they constitute one of the most important corporate business structures.
This unit aims to provide you with the basic knowledge and skills required to create, operate and regulate business organisations in Australia. Business organisations play an indispensable role in the daily lives of Australians. It is the legal structure upon which all business transactions are carried out. Lawyers have the onerous responsibility of helping to set up and regulate business organisations. As aspiring lawyers, it is important for you to understand the dynamics of business organisations. This unit therefore explores business organizational structures in Australia. It examines the merits and demerits of the different structures. It focuses on company law - the branch of the law governing the creation, operation and regulation of companies and those who operate or deal with them.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Reflect, relate, and apply the laws governing companies, partnerships and other non-corporate business structures | GC1, GC2 |
| LO2 | Analytically reason and proffer legal solutions to problems | GC4, GC7, GC8, GC11, GC12 |
| LO3 | Describe, explain and critically evaluate the powers, duties and liabilities of a company, shareholder, director and other officers of the company | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC8, GC11, GC12 |
| LO4 | Hypothesize and apply the rules to factual situations | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC8, GC11, GC12 |
Content
Topics will include:
- Unincorporated business structures i.e., sole trading, partnerships, joint ventures
- The corporate personality and incorporation process
- The internal structure, governance, administration and management of companies
- Corporate contracting and liability
- Criminal and civil liability
- Duties and liabilities of directors and officers
- Corporate finance
- Members’ remedies
- Insolvency, winding up and creditors’ remedies
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Mode: Lectures, tutorials, electronic consultation, library tasks and presentations or Online lectures and activities.
Duration: 4 hours per week over 12 weeks or equivalent. Students are expected to spend 150 hours in total for this unit.
This compulsory law unit allows students to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law to meet the requirements of accreditation.
Our strategy is to encourage students to creatively engage with unit content and to apply legal knowledge, skills and understandings to address legal problems.
The unit is designed to be delivered in intensive, weekly or online mode. We have taken a multimodal learning approach to provide accessibility and flexibility to our students and a student-focused approach that increases depth of learning and engagement through actively utilising Canvas.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment strategy is designed to assess knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law required for accreditation.
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each of the listed learning outcomes.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|
Multiple Choice Assessment/Short answer task: Requiring students to demonstrate their ability to identify and write a brief description of key terms and their meaning. | 20% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC8, GC11 |
Verbal or written presentation: Require students to demonstrate critical thinking skills. | 30% | LO2, LO4 | GC1, GC2, GC4, GC7, GC8, GC11, GC12 |
Verbal or written presentation: Require students to demonstrate critical thinking skills. | 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC8, GC11 |
Representative texts and references
Required text(s)
Anil Hargovan, Michael Adams and Catherine Brown, Australian Corporate Law: Texts and Essential Cases (LexisNexis Australia, 8th Edition, 2023)
Further references
Philip Lipton, Abe Herzberg, Michelle Welsh, Understanding Company Law (Thomson Reuters, 21st edition, 2022)
Stephen Bottomley, Kath Hall, Peta Spender, Beth Nosworthy, Contemporary Australian Corporate Law (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2021)