Core Part I: The Legal System
What law is, where it comes from, how it is classified and how the institutions of the Australian legal system operate.
- Basic Legal Concepts
- Sources of Law
- Classification of Law
NSW Legal Studies Stage 6 syllabus core and option structure, expressed in Dux teaching language.
Dux tracks each dot point separately, so “I did Legal Studies” becomes a list of specific things you can already do and specific things you have never been asked. Open a module for all of its dot points, written out.
What law is, where it comes from, how it is classified and how the institutions of the Australian legal system operate.
Human rights: their nature, how they are promoted and protected, and the gap between ratification and enjoyment.
The criminal justice system from investigation to sentencing, including how it treats young offenders.
Family, consumer, workplace and world order law, examined through the same effectiveness lens as the core.
A Legal Studies paper is not one question type repeated. Each command word asks for a different shape of answer, and each is worth a different number of marks.
| Command word | Question type | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| analyse | Problem solving | 4–6 |
| analyse | Short answer | 5–7 |
| apply | Multiple choice | 1 |
| apply | Problem solving | 4–6 |
| assess | Short answer | 5–7 |
| classify | Multiple choice | 1 |
| evaluate | Extended response | 8–10 |
| evaluate | Short answer | 5–7 |
| explain | Short answer | 4–6 |
| identify | Multiple choice | 1 |
| recommend | Problem solving | 4–6 |
HSC Legal Studies - Trial Paper Shape — 100 marks, 180 minutes. Practice papers in Dux are assembled to this shape rather than invented, so the timing is training too.
Diagnostic first, then questions written in the shape this course uses. Written answers come back marked against the bands, not just scored.