Legal Studies

This is the open access version of LGST 249 Legal Literacy, a Legal Studies course at Athabasca University. This course is designed to help make the law and its institutions more understandable and accessible to people without professional legal education. It will help those facing legal issues to learn and assert their legal rights and to learn the rights and obligations of others. This course supports efforts to make law and legal systems responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens. Legal Literacy will assist everyone to make use of the law in pursuing their legitimate interests.

This is the open access version of LGST 489 Alternative Dispute Resolution, a Legal Studies course at Athabasca University. The course is designed to introduce the principles and processes of dispute resolution without requiring a trial in court. It supports efforts to empower ordinary citizens to be actively involved in resolving conflicts and disputes that affect them and will assist everyone to make the best use of mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and other processes.

This is the open access version of Legal Studies 551: Introduction to Legislative Drafting which is the first of five courses in a program of study leading to the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Legislative Drafting offered by Athabasca University. (The fifth course, LGST 559, consists of one major drafting project and is not available through open access.) This version of LGST 551 contains all the materials in the course except the drafting project assignments which are assessed and are only available to students who enroll for credit. It is recommended that these four courses (LGST 551, 553, 555, and 557) be studied in that order.

There is a Detailed Hyperlinked Table of Contents for all four open access courses.

Legal Studies 551: Introduction to Legislative Drafting focuses on the nature of legislation and on the steps in preparing legislation in common law jurisdictions, using legislative punctuation and grammar, and drafting legislative sentences. You will develop drafting skills and become familiar with approaches to legislative drafting that are typical in common law jurisdictions.

This is the open access version of Legal Studies 553: Legislative Structure, Style and Limits which is the second of five courses in a program of study leading to the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Legislative Drafting offered by Athabasca University. (The fifth course, LGST 559, consists of one major drafting project and is not available through open access.) This version of LGST 553 contains all the materials in the course except the drafting project assignments which are assessed and are only available to students who enroll for credit. It is recommended that the four courses (LGST 551, 553, 555, and 557) be studied in that order.

There is a Detailed Hyperlinked Table of Contents for all four open access courses.

In Legal Studies 553: Legislative Structure, Style and Limits students will continue to develop their drafting skills and familiarity with approaches to legislative drafting typical in common law jurisdictions. This course considers the structure and organization of legislative texts, good legislative style and the legal context in which legislation operates in terms of its interpretation and constitutional limits, including fundamental rights and freedoms.

This is the open access version of Legal Studies 555: Drafting Preliminary, Amending, and Final Provisions which is the third of five courses in a program of study leading to the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Legislative Drafting offered by Athabasca University. (The fifth course, LGST 559, consists of one major drafting project and is not available through open access.) This version of LGST 555 contains all the materials in the course except the drafting project assignments which are assessed and are only available to students who enroll for credit.

There is a Detailed Hyperlinked Table of Contents for all four open access courses.

It is recommended that these four courses (LGST 551, 553, 555, and 557) be studied in that order. Based on that assumption, in this course students will apply their drafting skills developed in previous courses in more complex tasks. This course will focus on provisions that appear at the beginning or end of a legislative text to perform mainly technical functions. Most of these do not contain substantive rules of law. But they play important functions in establishing the authenticity of the legislation, in supporting its operation and use and in ensuring that new legislation is compatible with existing legislation. These provisions include titles, preambles, commencement and duration provisions, interpretation provisions, purpose clauses, application provisions and schedules.

This is the open access version of Legal Studies 557: Implementation Provisions and Drafting Processes which is the fourth of five courses in a program of study leading to the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Legislative Drafting offered by Athabasca University. (The fifth course, LGST 559, consists of one major drafting project and is not available through open access.) This version of LGST 557 contains all the materials in the course except the drafting project assignments which are assessed and are only available to students who enroll for credit.

There is a Detailed Hyperlinked Table of Contents for all four of these open access courses.

It is recommended that these four courses (LGST 551, 553, 555, and 557) be studied in that order. Based on that assumption, in this course students will apply their drafting skills developed in previous courses in more complex tasks. This course will focus on the drafting of compliance and other implementation provisions; delegating powers; and subsidiary legislation. It also considers how the drafter works with clients in the legislative process.