Assessment 2: Case note
Length: 2500 words
The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate students’ capacity to work efficiently and accurately with primary legal sources in international Law. Students will be asked to evaluate and explain legal reasoning in a dispute decided by the International Court of Justice and involving Australia. Students will be required to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of international legal procedure together with substantive international law rules and principles.
TLE0020 Public International Law Assignment Australia.
Criteria of assessment:
1.Developed knowledge and understanding of relevant legal rules, principles and international legal procedure.
2.Accurate and concise explanation of legal reasoning in the case and how the approaches and reasoning of Judges in the case align and differ.
3.Critical evaluation of the significance of the case for the development of international law jurisprudence more generally.
Case: Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan: New Zealand intervening)
Instructions for the task:
1.Go to the website of the International Court of Justice which contains the history and judgment in the case. Here is the precise url you require:
2.Read the information about the history of the case and the source of the dispute between Australia and Japan.
3.Identify the international legal sources which are critical to the resolution of the dispute (HINT: This case involved the interpretation of a Convention. Which one and which parts?)
4.Analyse the main judgment in the case and identify the reasoning of the majority. On which legal rules and principles did the Judges rely?
5.Identify those Judges who issued additional statements. In what ways did they disagree with the majority position?
TLE0020 Public International Law Assignment Australia.
6.Select ONE (1) dissenting judgment in the case and analyse this carefully. In what ways did the reasoning of this Judge differ from the majority and on what legal rules and principles of international law did the Judge rely?
7.Evaluate the legal significance of the decision for the development of international law in the area of international whaling.
8.Do NOT research secondary literature (ie books, journal articles, newspaper articles or other sources). Your case note must be a work of independent legal analysis by you alone.
9.Your object is to evaluate and not to describe.
TLE0020 Public International Law Assignment Australia.
Template for completing the case note
1.Name and appropriate citation for the case (see AGLC 4)
2.Background and origin of the dispute
3.Short summary of proceedings, including something about the intervention by New Zealand.
4.Analysis and evaluation of the reasoning in the majority judgment
5.Short explanation of the separate statements by some judges
6.Analysis of ONE dissenting judgment
7.Evaluation and explanation of the significance of the case for the development of international law jurisprudence.