LAWS301 - Competition Law

Year

2023

Credit points

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit

Prerequisites

LAWS104 Foundations of Law and Legal Research AND LAWS105 Contract Law

Teaching organisation

4 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent.

Unit rationale, description and aim

Competition law deals with the law’s response to anti-competitive conduct, that is, conduct on the part of firms designed to reduce, eliminate or prevent competition in the economy, or which has this effect. It proceeds on the basis that, as a general rule, competition produces economic, social and political benefits for society as a whole and that, therefore, anti-competitive conduct should be prohibited or regulated. The unit will examine the common law and various statutory treatments of this area.

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.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Appreciate and articulate the economic, social and political rationale advanced for prohibiting anti-competitive conduct (GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8,)

LO2 - Understand and apply the economic concepts used in competition law (GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8)

LO3 - Describe and critically evaluate the competition law provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9,)

LO4 - Apply the law to factual situations and thereby advise clients and others of their obligations in those situations (GA3, GA4, GA6, GA7, GA8)

LO5 - Compare and contrast Australian competition law with that in certain other jurisdictions and evaluate its effectiveness (GA3, GA4, GA6, GA8,).

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media

Content

Topics will include:

The goals of competition law
The economics of competition law
Cartels and other anti-competitive agreements
Exclusive dealing
Misuse of market power
Resale price maintenance
Mergers and acquisition
Authorisation and notification
Enforcement, penalties and remedies
Overview of competition law in selected overseas jurisdictions

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Mode: Lectures, tutorials, electronic consultation, library tasks and presentations or Online lectures and activities.

Duration:3 hours per week over 12 weeks or equivalent. Students are expected to spend 150 hours in total for this unit.

This level three elective unit allows students to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law building on knowledge developed in the compulsory law units.

Our strategy is to encourage students to creatively engage with unit content and to apply knowledge, skills and understanding developed in the compulsory areas of law to a specialist area of law.

The unit is designed to be delivered in intensive, weekly mode or online mode. We have taken a blended 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 LEO.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy is designed to assess knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law, and to apply knowledge developed in the compulsotry law units to a specialist area of law.

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each of the learning outcomes listed.

Overview of assessments

Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks	Weighting	Learning Outcomes	Graduate Attributes
Online Quizzes Periodic, timed online quizzes with questions drawn from course materials for each topic. To encourage continued student engagement with the course content and materials.	20%	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5	GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA7, GA8, GA9
Research assignment Selecting a research topic, or developing one with approval of the LIC Conducting a literature review. Synthesising multiple viewpoints into a cohesive and persuasive piece of work	40%	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5	GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9
Final exam Problem based question/s Time pressured, requiring technical legal analysis and application	40%	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4	GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9

Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks

Weighting

Learning Outcomes

Graduate Attributes

Online Quizzes

Periodic, timed online quizzes with questions drawn from course materials for each topic.
To encourage continued student engagement with the course content and materials.

20%

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA7, GA8, GA9

Research assignment