Criminal Law

This unit together with Criminal Investigation Procedure and Sentencing satisfies the prescribed area of knowledge for Criminal Law and Procedure as set out in Schedule 1 Legal Profession Uniform Admission Rules 2015.



Criminal Law is a core law subject for the LLB degree. It covers substantive criminal law. Substantive criminal law refers to the law that creates criminal offences. Offences can generally be categorised into offences against the person (homicide offences, assault, sexual offences), property offences (burglary, theft, obtaining financial advantage or property by deception), inchoate offences (conspiracy, incitement or attempt in relation to an existing offence) and complicity (the extent to which a person can be held liable for the actions of another person). Of course, an understanding of criminal liability also requires an understanding of defences.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Critically review the general principles of criminal liability derived both from common law and statute, in particular, the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), in problem solving and decision making;
2. Critically review the central elements of traditional crimes, the case law affecting their operation and how they apply to hypothetical problems;
3. Adapt and apply the doctrine of precedent and the rules of statutory interpretation to contemporary hypothetical criminal law problems using inductive and deductive thought processes;
4. Justify the solutions to problems using case and statute law as authority with creativity and intellectual independence.