Sample assessment instrument
Examination: Short response test — Criminal law
This sample has been compiled by the QCAA to help teachers plan and develop assessment instruments for individual school settings. It demonstrates the followingdimensions, which are highlighted to show where opportunities are provided in the task:
- Knowing and understanding the law
- Investigating legal issues
Assessment instrument
Comment:These questions are chosen to cover suggested subject matter in the syllabus (p. 7) and a balance of Dimension 1 cognitive verbs of define, describe and explain.
Questions 1–6 provide students with opportunities to demonstrate the following.
Knowing and understanding the law
- define and describe facts using legal terminology
- explain legal concepts and processes.
- Define‘onus of proof’ and ‘standard of proof’ in a criminal trial.
- Describe the features of Common law and Statute law.Present one example of each in your response.
- Define‘committal’ and ‘summary’ proceedings anddescribethe distinguishing features of each type of proceeding.Present one example of each to show a more detailed understanding.
- Explain the difference between norms, rules and laws. Presentone legal example of each.
- Explainthe concept of victim impact statements and how this can impact different stakeholders.
- Explainthe police processes involved when they suspect a citizen has committed a crime.Include references to the powers of police in your explanation.
Question 7 provides students with opportunities to demonstrate the following.
Investigating legal issues
- select and organise legal information from sources
- analyse legal situations to identify and examine legal issues and stakeholders’ perspectives
- apply legal concepts and processes to legal issues to determine legal outcomes.
200–250 words.
- Identifythe legal issue before the court and examine the legal issues involved.Explainhow the judge applied the law to make his decision.
- the ratio decidendi
- the obiter dictum
- any distinguished cases and why
- any precedent cases referred to and why.
The Doctrine of Precedent
CASE STUDY
Williams v R
In the hypothetical state of Melcrima, the parliament has passed legislation banning the keeping of wild animals as pets in suburban areas.Bill Williams has been convicted under the Act of keeping a wild animal as a pet, namely a Siamese cat.He has appealed against his conviction.
In upholding the appeal Mr Ben Veniamin gave the following judgment:
The facts of this case are simple.The appellant, lover of felines, bought a Siamese kitten from a friend in the country who is a breeder of Siamese cats.He brought it back to his house in the city and over a period of time trained it to be a contented pet.Problems arose for the appellant when his next-door neighbour died and a new occupant, who was a cat hater, moved into the house next door and complained to the city council that the appellant was keeping a wild animal in contravention of the Act.There is no dispute that the appellant lives in a suburban area.
The question arises as to whether the Siamese cat is a wild animal within the meaning of the Act. The Act states that a wild animal is one that is “living in a state of nature or of a species which have not been domesticated or of a sub-set of an undomesticated species.
In coming to his decision Moran L, in the lower court, relied heavily upon R v Workman (1962)MLR 15* where the court held that a common cat was a wild animal within the meaning of the Act.However, in that case the cat in question was a feral cat which came from a species of wild cats (Felis catus) which had never been domesticated.It is for this reason that the judge should have distinguished R v Workman from the appellant’s case. Counsel for the prosecution has drawn my attention to R v Gangitano (1975) JLR 38 and R v Dibra (1982) MLR 20. R v Gangitano involved an animal which had been crossed with a lynx and is not therefore appropriate in this case.In R v Dibra the judge decided that a domesticated cat was, nevertheless, a wild cat within the meaning of the Act.In doing so he said”....all cats have their origins in the wild.No matter how long they have been domesticated the wild animal within the cat cannot be eradicated...”
This court considers the position taken in R v Dibra as wrong in law.In doing so the court is mindful of R v Condello (1976) MLR 92, and a number of cases which have made a clear distinction between domesticated and wild animals.It is clear that there is a species of cat which has been domesticated over a long period of time and which has been bred for, and become dependent on, human beings.It is clear that the Siamese cat falls within this species of domesticated cat. It is bred specifically to be a companion of the human being and to be a graceful addition to the human household. R v Dibra overruled.
However, had the animal in question been a lynx or another member of the larger cat families, the court would have taken a different view. Appeal allowed.
* MLR: Melcrima Law Reports
Question8 provides students with opportunities to demonstrate the following.
Investigating legal issues
- select and organise legal information from sources
- analyse legal situations to identify and examine legal issues and stakeholders’ perspectives.
- Analyse the legal situations shown in the stimulus material provided, to identify features of effective law, presenting examples to support your statements. Examinehow eachfeature is important in ensuring stakeholders live in a society that is just and equitable.
Write in full sentences in a paragraph of between 200–250 words.
Stimulus ideas
Stimulus for this question could include cartoons and newspaper articles on particular laws.
The stimulus should be based on short quotations, headlines, images and/or graphs ideally on an A4 sheet.This is to balance the lengthy reading requirements in Question 7.
Features that could be identified in the stimulus include:
- comments on the length of tax laws
- lenient sentencing of celebrities for criminal or driving offences
- language barriers of legal terms or migrants
- harsher penalties for categories of offenders
- judicial decisions that are more subjective
- new laws that restrict the right to trade, freedom of speech, etc.— from a range of local, national and international examples.
Conditions
Conditions may vary according to assessment. Conditions should be stated clearly on assessment instruments and may include:
- stating time allowed (with perusal time as needed)
- using seen or unseen questions
- using sources or technologies.
Legal Studies 2013 Examination: Short response test — Criminal law Sample assessment instrument
This sample has been compiled by the QCAA to help teachers plan and develop assessment instruments for individual school settings. / Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority
August 2016
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Instrument-specific standards matrix
Standard A / Standard B / Standard C / Standard D / Standard EKnowing and understanding the law / The student work has the following characteristics:
- appropriatedefinition andcomprehensivedescription of facts usingrelevant legal terminology
- appropriatedefinition anddetaileddescription of facts usingrelevant legal terminology
- definition and description of facts using legal terminology
- partialdefinition or simple description of some facts using legal terminology
- statement of facts usingsome legal terminology
- thorough and effectiveexplanation of a comprehensive range of criminal law concepts and processes
- detailedexplanation of a range of legal concepts and processes
- explanation of legal concepts and processes
- simpleexplanation of some legal concepts and processes
- statement of aspects of legal concepts and processes
Investigating legal issues /
- discerningselection and organisation of legal information from relevantand valid sources
- purposefulselection and organisation of legal information from relevant sources
- selection and organisation of legal information from sources
- selection and organisation of aspects of legal information from some sources
- selection of obvious information
- thorough and discriminatinganalysis of legal situations to identify and examinerelevant criminal law issues and stakeholders’ perspectives
- detailed and informedanalysis of legal situations to identify and examinerelevant legal issues and stakeholders’ perspectives
- analysis of legal situations to identify and examine legal issues and stakeholders’ perspectives
- simpleanalysis of legal situations to identify and examinesome legal issues and/or stakeholder perspectives
- identification of some legal issues and/or stakeholder perspectives
- discerningapplication of legal concepts and processes to criminal law issues to determinelogical legal outcomes
- systematicapplication of legal concepts and processes to legal issues to determinelogical legal outcomes
- application of legal concepts and processes to legal issues to determineappropriate legal outcomes
- partialapplication of some legal concepts and/or processes to legal issues to determine legal outcomes
- identification of some legal concepts and/or processes relating to aspects of legal issues
This standards matrix has been made instrument-specific by specifying the context and genres and deleting any objectives not being assessed in this task.
Legal Studies 2013
Sample assessment instrument / Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority
August 2016
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Acknowledgments
The QCAA acknowledges the contribution of Ferny Grove State High School in the preparation of this document.
Legal Studies 2013Sample assessment instrument / Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority
August 2016
Page1of 5