Legal Studies – Australian context – Introduction to Criminal Law and navigating legal documents

A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review.

A warm up question for students to answer in paragraph form about the importance of impartiality and fairness in legal trials.

This lesson begins by defining criminal law and its purpose. It introduces the main source of laws in QLD – the Criminal Code of 1899. The categories of criminal law are explained – offences against the person; offences against property; drug crime and motor vehicle offences. The different reasons for punishment are explained – retribution; deterrence; rehabilitation; denunciation; community protection. Then students learn how to navigate legal documents and how to read the subsections. This is modelled for students using ‘Wilful Damage’ in the QLD criminal code. Students have to write a summary of what they learn (teaching synthesis skill). Following this, public order offences are explained. A list of illegal activities from the Summary Offences Act (2005) are shown in dot point form. Students then have to look up ‘public nuisance’ and write a summary of what it involves and what the punishment is. The meaning of the term penalty unit is explained. Finally, there is a viewing activity about public nuisance.

NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.