Ethics, Social Responsibility and the Law
Undergraduate
TAS-LAW181 2025Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Enrol today with instant approval and no entry requirements
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 16 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Price from
- $2,142
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Ethics, Social Responsibility and the Law
About this subject
Upon completion of this subject, the student should be able to:
- Describe and explain ethical issues in decision making and distinguish ethical norms from legal, prudential or religious considerations.
- Critically evaluate competing normative ethical theories and be able to weigh their relative advantages and disadvantages as guides for ethical decision making.
- Apply normative ethical theories and soft legal rules in a range of different professional contexts to arrive at rationally-defensible decisions.
- Work independently and collaboratively, and embrace and respect a diversity of perspectives.
- Introduction and Academic Integrity
- Frameworks for ethical decision making: moral reasons, utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics.
- Role of the Law
- Professions and professional ethics - lawyers
- Medical ethics
- Corporate social responsibility
- Situational crime prevention
- When things go wrong: Banking Royal Commission
Become better prepared to understand concepts of ethics, social responsibility and the law and how these shape individual and collective behaviour in modern society. Sustainable inspirational leadership can only evolve from a legitimate, ethical and socially responsible base. Equally, reputations can be damaged as a result of conduct that is unethical or unlawful and which may have come about as a result of poor judgment and lack of insight and reflection.
This subject will challenge your current thinking and ask you to explore different perspectives around ethics, social responsibility and the law and their interconnections. It will equip you to navigate complex professional ethical dilemmas and make positive choices that are individually affirming and socially responsible. Social responsibility is also explored at the collective level and how this is shaping the modern corporate world with growing expectations on companies to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.
You will learn theoretical philosophical principles that encompass ethical decision-making and explore how ethical frameworks can assist a person to make appropriate, rationally defensible decisions within a range of settings: professional ethics, with a particular focus on how ethics influences the life of a legal professional; medical ethics and the contemporary research environment; business ethics and the ethical expectations underpinning corporate social responsibility; and the context of policy settings to minimise criminal behaviour.
The subject will equip you to navigate complex professional ethical dilemmas and make positive choices that are individually affirming and socially responsible. Social responsibility is also explored at the collective level and how this is shaping the modern corporate world with growing expectations on companies to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.
- Multiple Choice Test (online) on Moral Theories (20%)
- Weekly Online Quizzes Weeks 6-12 (best 6 of 7 - 6.66% each) (40%)
- Reflective Essay (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
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What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Undergraduate
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