BLO5540 – Business and Company Law

Semester One, 2012

Law report case study

Students are required to complete a law report case study of Junker v Hepburn [2010] NSWSC 88

Introduction:
In this subject you will often consider common law cases and how they interpret and apply common law principles as well as how they interpret and apply statute law in the study of company law.

In doing this case study you will observe the judges legal reasoning and the application of the doctrine of precedent that you would have studied in Business Law. In addition to this you would have studied terms like “ratio decidendi” and “obiter dictum” and again you may observe the judgement applying these principles.

‘Ratio decidendi’ means literally ‘the reason for the thing having been decided.’ This is generally said to be the reason why a case was decided.
‘Obiter dictum’, this means literally ‘a thing said by the way’. ‘Obiter’ is Latin for ‘by the way’ or ‘incidentally.’ A ‘dictum’ is something which has been said. This refers to other observations which are made by the judge in deciding the case but which were not necessary to decide it
In completing this case study task you will see how statements of law are applied to the facts of the case you are asked to consider. This case study task requires critical and analytical thinking as you need to sift through the different aspects of cases and locate they key elements in them.
In completing this case study task you will learn to apply critical and analytical thinking skills that you need to apply to your study of this subject and to various problem situations you will be asked to consider in research assignments, problem tutorial questions and exams.
In reading the designated case you will also acquire knowledge of certain legal terms and in some instances some key phrases – some legal jargon – and knowledge of what they mean.

Things to do before completing the Case Study:

Before completing the case…