Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies

Let's go through what each of these requirements means in turn.

What are 'credit points'?

• Students doing a Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies degree are able to choose to study in a wide range of subject areas - for example, Socio-Legal Studies, History, Japanese, Philosophy and Government.
• A semester-length component in a particular subject area is called a 'unit of study'.
• Each unit of study is worth a certain number of 'credit points'. Most units of study taught at the University of Sydney are worth 6 credit points each.

How do I get 144 credit points?

• Most people studying full-time take three years to complete a Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies degree.
• Full-time students usually earn their 144 credit points by taking units of study worth a total of 48 credit points per year (usually 24 credit points per semester) over the three years of their degree, that is:

48 credit points x 3 years = 144 credit points!

What are junior credit points?

• You start your degree by taking 'junior' units of study. They form a foundation for more advanced 'senior' units of study. Junior units of study are worth 6 junior credit points each. They are sometimes called 1000 level units because their unit of study codes all have the form 1XXX, eg. CHNS1101, LNGS1005 etc.

Which junior Socio-Legal units of study should I complete?

You must complete the following two junior Socio-Legal Studies units:

• SLSS1001 Introduction to Socio-Legal Studies and;
• SLSS1003 Law and Contemporary Society

What is a 'major' in the Faculty of Arts?

• To earn a major in a subject area (from Part A from the Table of Units of Study) in the Faculty of Arts, students will normally complete 36 ‘senior’ credit points in THAT subject area. Of course, you may need to have appropriate junior (1XXX) prerequisites in place before you can do these senior units of study.

What are 'senior' credit points?

• 'Senior' units of study build on the foundation of learning established by junior units. Senior units of study in the Faculty of Arts are worth 6 senior credit points each. Senior units in Arts are sometimes called 2000 or 3000 level units because their unit of study codes all have the form 2XXX or 3XXX, e.g. SPAN2601, JCTC2606.

How do I complete a Socio-Legal Studies major?

To earn a major in Socio-Legal Studies, students must complete two 'junior' core units, four 'senior' core units and two 'senior' SLSS units.

The two core ‘junior’ units available in 2008 are:

• SLSS1001 Introduction to Socio-Legal Studies; and
  SLSS1003 Law and Contemporary Society

The four core ‘senior’ units available in 2008 are:

• SCLG2601 Sociological Theory
  SCLG2615 Law and Social Theory
  PHIL2645 Philosophy of Law
  SCLG2634 Crime, Punishment and Society

To complete the remaining ‘senior’ requirements for the major, you need to complete SLSS2601 Socio-Legal Research and SLSS2603 Forensic and Medico-Legal Criminology.

What majors can I do to meet this requirement?

• You can complete a major in any subject area in Part A of the Arts Table of Units of Study.

What is Part A in the Arts Table of Units of Study?

• 'Part A' refers to the units of study that are listed in the Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Handbook, 'Table of Units of Study: Part A'. These units all come from subject areas taught within the Faculty of Arts.
• In addition to your Socio-Legal Studies major, you must have at least one Arts (Part A) major to complete your Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies degree.

In addition to your Socio-Legal Studies major, you have a choice of four senior units from a pool of related Socio-Legal Studies units from the disciplines of Sociology and Social Policy, Philosophy, History, Government and International Relations, Industrial Relations, and Political Economy. (When choosing your junior units, make sure that you have any necessary junior prerequisites for these senior units of study.)

The related Socio-Legal Studies units for 2008 are:

• SCLG2605 Social Justice, Law & Society
• SCLG2620 Sociology of Human Rights
• HSTY2652 Genocide in Historical Perspective
• PHIL2607 Indigenous Rights
• PHIL2635 Contemporary Political Philosophy
• PHIL2617 Practical Ethics
• WORK2207 Labour Law
• WORK2219 Management and Organisational Ethics
• GOVT2665 Ethics and Politics
• GOVT2111 Human Rights and Australian Politics
• GOVT2336 Gender and Human Rights
• ECOP3017 Political Economy of Human Rights

Why can I do no more than 48 junior credit points?

• While junior units give you an excellent introduction to the subject, and function as a foundation for further study, they aren't, in themselves, sufficient to provide you with substantial expertise in a subject area. Junior units of study are necessary, but not sufficient, for a Bachelor's degree!

Could I do less than 48 junior credit points?

Yes, but ... for two reasons, it's not a good idea to skimp on them!

• Firstly, remember that junior units form a foundation for further study. In some cases, this is a necessary foundation for more advanced study in a particular subject area. In all cases, junior units provide an opportunity to work at developing the skills and ways of thinking that you will need for more advanced learning at the tertiary level.
• Secondly, junior units of study offer you the chance to sample a range of subject areas and gain a variety of learning experiences, even in subjects that you may not go on to specialise in.

Do all my junior units have to come from Arts (Part A)

• No; we allow you to take a limited number of junior units of study from Part B in the Table of Units of Study.
• Part B units come from subject areas taught in the Faculties of Science, Economics & Business, and Education & Social Work. They are listed in the Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Handbook, Section 5 'Table of Units of Study: Part B'.
• Note that you may, but you do not have to, take units of study from Part B. Before you consider taking any Part B junior units, make sure that you have all the necessary junior prerequisites for the Arts (Part A) senior units of study you wish to take.

Here is an example of how you might put together the requirements for your Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies degree:

Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies Degree Overview page