LAW 2517 - Minerals and Energy Laws

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2025

This course examines law and policy relating to the ownership and development of onshore and offshore mineral, petroleum and renewable energy resources in 最新糖心Vlog. It covers the constitutional powers of the state and Commonwealth governments in relation to mining and energy law and regulation; the development of legislation with reference to the exploration and production of minerals, petroleum and renewable energy; and the enforcement of law. The course will emphasise various policy concerns underlying the legislative regimes. Topical community and social issues will be discussed, typically including the issue of access to private land (such as agricultural land) for mining; mining and First Nations; environmental controls over mining; rehabilitation of land; mining in protected areas, such as wilderness areas and national parks; and mining in the Woomera Prohibited Area. The course will also address mining beyond national jurisdictions including deep seabed mining and space mining.

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Course Details

Course Code	LAW 2517
Course	Minerals and Energy Laws
Coordinating Unit	Adelaide Law School
Term	Semester 1
Level	Undergraduate Law (LLB)
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 3 hours per week
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	LAW 1506 or LAW 1511
Restrictions	Available to LLB and B.Criminology with B.Laws and BArts Advanced with B.Laws students only
Assessment	Typically to include quiz & written work

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Dr Alex Wawryk

Rm 2.27, Ligertwood Building, North Tce
alex.wawryk@adelaide.edu.au

Please contact me by email.

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from .

Course Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1	Articulate the complex issues addressed by mining and energy law.
2	Analyse the foundational legal principles and mechanisms of mining and energy law.
3	Critique the law from a practical and policy perspective, either individually or as part of a team.
4	Conduct, analyse and present legal research, independently and collaboratively.
5	Structure and sustain concise and cohesive written and oral arguments for a legal audience.
6	Analyse the impact of mining and energy laws from policy perspectives, and in the context of social and cultural diversity.

最新糖心Vlog Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Attribute 1: Deep discipline knowledge and intellectual breadth Graduates have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their subject area, the ability to engage with different traditions of thought, and the ability to apply their knowledge in practice including in multi-disciplinary or multi-professional contexts.	1-3, 6
Attribute 2: Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving Graduates are effective problems-solvers, able to apply critical, creative and evidence-based thinking to conceive innovative responses to future challenges.	1-4
Attribute 3: Teamwork and communication skills Graduates convey ideas and information effectively to a range of audiences for a variety of purposes and contribute in a positive and collaborative manner to achieving common goals.	3, 4
Attribute 4: Professionalism and leadership readiness Graduates engage in professional behaviour and have the potential to be entrepreneurial and take leadership roles in their chosen occupations or careers and communities.	1-5
Attribute 5: Intercultural and ethical competency Graduates are responsible and effective global citizens whose personal values and practices are consistent with their roles as responsible members of society.	6

Learning & Teaching Modes

This course will be taught in a series of lectures and seminars at which students will be required to discuss, debate and defend their analysis of the relevant material set in the course readings and lectures.

One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour seminar class will be held each week. Seminar classes will generally be comprised of discussion focussed around a set of reading (and other) materials, and questions issued prior to the class. The weekly seminar guides contain a general introduction to the issues, the relevant law, set out the questions for discussion, and the materials that need to be studied before class. Other learning activities used in this course include role plays, and the use of in-class activities that do not require preparation, such as research conducted in class time, and watching videos. Also, members of the legal profession may provide guest lectures on specialised topics of mining and energy law.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

Contact time: 3 hours of class tim each week. This amounts to 36 hours of formal class time across the semester.

Preparation time: In addition to attending formal classes it is anticipated that students will do substantial independent work to prepare for classes and to complete the course assignments. The 最新糖心Vlog expects full time students (those undertaking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies.

Learning Activities Summary

Timetable*
Week 1	Introduction and course arrangements Mining in SA Stakeholders and interests in mining
Week 2	Issues of constitutional and international law
Week 3	Ownership and development of mineral resources: Mining Act 1971 (SA)
Week 4	Mining and the environment: environmental impacts of mining, and environment protection under the Mining Act
Week 5	Access to private land Critical perspectives on access to private land
Week 6	Mining and First Nations: Native Title and Aboriginal Heritage
Week 7	Mining in ‘common areas of humankind’: deep seabed mining
Week 8	Mining in ‘common areas of humankind’: space mining
Week 9	Petroleum regulation: Petroleum Act 2000 (SA) and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Cth)
Week 10	Nuclear energy and the storage of radioactive waste SA Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission
Week 11	Renewable energy and/or energy conservation and efficiency
Week 12	Electricity markets/regulation
* This is a draft timetable and is subject to change. Guest lecturers, topics and the final order of topics will be confirmed in 2023.

The 最新糖心Vlog's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Length	Redeemable	Learning Outcome
MyUni Quizzes	Individual	Throughout the semester	5%	5 quizzes with 10 questions in each quiz	No	1-2
Participation	Individual	Students will lead discussions in one seminar class during the semester	5%		No	1-3, 5-6
Issues paper	Group	2pm Friday of the first week of the mid-semester break	30%	1,500 words	No	1-5
Research Essay	Individual	Thursday 2pm Week 13	60%	3,000 words	No	1, 3-6

Assessment Detail

1. Quiz: 5%

Students will be expected to complete 5 online quizzes, released over Weeks 3-12. Each quiz will involve 10 multiple-choice questions on material and issues previously covered in classes. Each quiz may be attempted twice. Each quiz successfully completed will be worth 1% of the total mark for the course. The quizzes are available from the date of their release until Friday Week 12 at 11.59 pm.

2. Participation 5%

The rules and expectations for the class participation mark will be released and explained in Week 1. The particpation grade will be assessed on the basis of participation during one week's class. Students must read and prepare answers to seminar questions, attend the class, and actively contribute to activities conducted within the class. Students will act as a discussion leader in large and small group discussions conducted during the seminar.

3. Issues Paper: 30%

This is a short paper that will require a critical assessment of key legal issues relevant to certain topical areas of mining and energy law. Criteria for the paper will be made available on MyUni at the start of Week 1.

4. Research Essay: 60%

This assessment requires students to demonstrate their research and writing skills, and their ability to critically examine and evaluate a topic concerning mining or energy law. Students may choose their topic from a list of topics that will be made available on MyUni, or choose their own topic. Students that wish to choose their own topic must contact the course co-ordinator to discuss the selection of the topic by Friday of week 5 to ensure the topis is relevant, suitable and achievable within the word limit.

Criteria for assessment for the research essay will be made available on MyUni at the start of Week 1.

Submission

Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.

All assignments in this course are to be submitted electronically through through MyUni. Details for electronic submission through MyUni will be provided with the assignment/essay instructions.

By submitting your assignment electronically you are agreeing to the following:

I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement and reference to the work of others. I have read the Policy on Cheating in Examinations and Related Forms of Assessment. I have also read the 最新糖心Vlog's Plagiarism Policy.

All written work in the Law school is required to comply with the approved Law School style guide, The 最新糖心Vlogn Guide to Legal Citation.

Students must not submit work for an assignment that has previously been submitted for this course or any other course without prior approval from the course co-ordinator.

Extensions: Requests for extensions must be made electronically according to Law School policy Extensions will be granted only for unexpected illness, hardship or on compassionate grounds in accordance with 最新糖心Vlog policy. Work commitments, travel, holidays or sporting engagements are not unexpected circumstances.

Penalties:

Late Submission: When an assessment is submitted after the due date, without an extension, 5% of the total mark possible will be deducted for every 24 hours or part thereof that it is late, including each day on a weekend and public holidays. For example, an essay that is submitted after the due date and time but within the first 24 hour period, and that has been graded at 63%, will have 5% deducted, for a final grade of 58%. An essay that is more than 24 hours late will lose 10%, etc.

Word Length: 5% of the total mark possible for a written assessment will be deducted for every 100 words (or part thereof) by which it exceeds a stipulated time limit. For example, a 3,000 word essay graded at 63% will have 5% deducted if it is between 3,001 and 3,100 words long, for a final grade of 58%. If the essay is between 3,101 and 3,200 words long, 10% will be deducted for a final mark of 53%, etc. Word limits include all words in the text, in headings, in quotations, but exclude citations in footnotes. Any separate cover page, table of contents, bibliography or list of sources is excluded from the word limit. If the word limit is misstated, this may be regarded as academic dishonesty.

Turnaround time: Feedback on the assignment will be returned to students within 4 weeks of submission of the paper.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Finality of Assessment Grades

Students are advised that Course Coordinators will not enter into negotiations of any kind with any student regarding changes to their grades. It is irrelevant, in any given circumstance, that only a minimal number of additional marks are required to inflate a student’s grade for any individual assessment item or course as a whole. Pursuant to the 最新糖心Vlog’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policyand the Adelaide Law School Assessment Policies and Procedures, grades may only be varied through the appropriate channels for academic review (such as an official re-mark).

Moderation

In accordance with the 最新糖心Vlog’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, course coordinators ‘ensure that appropriate marking guidelines and cross-marking moderation processes across markers are in place’ in each course. Procedures adopted by Adelaide Law School to ensure consistency of marking in courses with multiple markers include:

assurance of the qualifications of markers, and their knowledge of the content covered in each course;
detailed marking guidelines and assessment rubrics to assist in the marking of items of assessment;
sharing of example marked assessments at various grade bands across markers;
reviewing of selected marked assessments from each marker by the course coordinator;
comparison of the marks and their distribution across markers;
automatic double-marking of all interim assessment receiving a fail grade, and of final assessments where a student’s overall result is a fail grade;
the availability of re-marking of assessments in accordance with Adelaide Law School’s Assessment Policies and Procedures.

Approval of Results by Board of Examiners

Students are reminded that all assessment results are subject to approval (and possible moderation/change) by the Law School’s Board of Examiners. Assessment results at the 最新糖心Vlog are not scaled. Under the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, students are assessed ‘by reference to their performance against pre-determined criteria and standards … and not by ranking against the performance of the student cohort in the course’. However, under that same policy, the Board of Examiners (as the relevant Assessment Review Committee for courses at Adelaide Law School) is required to ‘ensure comparability of standards and consistency’ in assessment. On occasions, the Board of Examiners will form the view that some moderation is required to ensure the comparability of standards and consistency across courses and years, and accordingly provide fairness to all law students. All assessment results are therefore subject to approval (and possible change) until confirmed by the Board of Examiners and posted on Access Adelaide at the end of each semester.

Final results for this course will be made available through .

Student Feedback

The 最新糖心Vlog places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the 最新糖心Vlog to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.

Student feedback The course is constantly being updated and revised to reflect the evolution of the law, to respond to student feedback, and to engage with the latest teaching practices. Student feedback is collected each time the course is run, including through SELT reports. Previous SELT reports, and staff feedback on them, are posted on the course MyUni site for students to view and consider.
Student Support
The 最新糖心Vlog Writing Centre provides academic learning and language development services and resources for local, international, undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled at the 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide.

The centre offers practical advice and strategies for students to master reading, writing, note-taking, time management, oral presentation skills, referencing techniques and exam preparation for success at university through seminars, workshops and individual consultations.

For more information please check out the Writing Centre website at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/

Lex Salus Program

Lex Salus (law and wellbeing) is an initiative of the Adelaide Law School aimed at destigmatising mental health
issues; promoting physical, mental and emotional wellness; building a strong community of staff and students; and celebrating diversity within the school. It also seeks to promote wellness within the legal profession, through the involvement of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South 最新糖心Vlog, the Honourable Chris Kourakis, as the official Patron of the program. Students can
participate in the Lex Salus program by attending barbecue lunches, pancake breakfasts, knitting and crochet circles, seminars, guest speakers, conferences and other activities. Our FaceBook page at , our website at
https://law.adelaide.edu.au/lex-salus/ and regular allstudent emails promote upcoming events, and have tips and information on wellness. Our Lex Salus Youtube channel at also includes videos on topics like managing stress, and interviews with LGBTQ lawyers and their supporters which celebrate diversity and individuality.
Students who commit to 10 hours of volunteering with Lex Salus in one year can
have their service recognised on their academic transcript and through a thank
you morning tea with the Chief Justice and law school staff.

Counselling Service

The 最新糖心Vlog Counselling Service provides a free and confidential service to all enrolled students. We encourage you to contact the Counselling service on 8313 5663 to make an appointment to deal with any issues that may be affecting your study and life. More information is available at /counselling_centre/.
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Further information regarding the Law School Policies and Procedures in relation to Supplementary Assessment, Extensions, and Remarks etc can be found at:

Plagiarism and other forms of cheating

Plagiarism is a serious act of academic misconduct. All students must be familiar with the Adelaide Law School Enrolment Guide and should note in particular the sections relating to plagiarism, grievance procedures and academic conduct within the Law School and the 最新糖心Vlog.

Plagiarism is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the 最新糖心Vlog. Please be aware that “academic dishonesty” (which goes beyond plagiarism) can be a ground for a refusal by the Supreme Court of South 最新糖心Vlog to refuse to admit a person to practice as a legal practitioner in South 最新糖心Vlog.

Academic honesty is an essential aspect of ethical and honest behaviour, which is central to the practice of the law and an understanding of what it is to be a lawyer.

Academic Honesty
Academic dishonesty is a serious act of academic misconduct. All students must be familiar with the 最新糖心Vlog’s Academic Honesty Policy.

Academic dishonesty is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the 最新糖心Vlog. Academic dishonesty (which goes beyond plagiarism) can be a ground for a refusal by the Supreme Court of South 最新糖心Vlog to admit a person to practice as a legal practitioner in South 最新糖心Vlog.

Academic honesty is an essential aspect of ethical and honest behaviour, which is central to the practice of the law and an understanding of what it is to be a lawyer.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student鈥檚 disciplinary procedures.

The 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator

最新糖心Vlog