LAW5001 Principles of Criminal Law and Procedure
The Complete Exam Bible · T3 2026LAW5001 Overview
- Monash University
- T3 2026
- Postgraduate law
- Open-book final exam
LAW5001 Principles of Criminal Law and Procedure is a postgraduate Monash University unit taught in Trimester 3, 2026. It examines the purposes and scope of criminal law, the definition and proof of offences, fatal and non-fatal offences against the person, self-defence, sexual offences, property offences, attempts and selected criminal procedure.
- Assessed by Four components with a 50% final examination
- Exam conditions Hard-copy notes only under the published eExam rules
- Core method Separate conduct, fault, causation, defences and proof
- Coverage Eight topic blocks from foundations through criminal procedure
How LAW5001 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - Demonstration | 10% | Class participation across tutorials plus a short self-reflection video, due 18 November 2026 |
| 2 - Presentation | 10% | Recorded oral plea exercise with paired roles, five minutes per student; due date published on Moodle |
| 3 - Written | 30% | A 2,250-word legal problem-solving assignment on Topics 1 to 4, due 4 November 2026 |
| 4 - Examination | 50% | A 2.5-hour online, remotely invigilated, open-book problem exam with hard-copy materials only |
What LAW5001 covers
Eight Monash topics connect offence elements, defences and criminal procedure to a disciplined problem-solving method.
Criminal Law and Sentencing
Crime definition, actus reus, mens rea, proof, courts and sentencing.Criminal Law and Sentencing supplies the analytical frame reused throughout the unit. A criminal charge must be broken into its physical elements, its offence-specific fault element, any causal or timing requirement, and any defence.
- Sources of criminal law: Victorian and federal law, statute and common law
- Actus reus, voluntariness and any prohibited consequence
- Mens rea and why intention to act is not always offence fault
- Causation and contemporaneity where conduct, result and fault interact
- Proof, offence classification and the court process
- Sentencing hearings, principles and available dispositions
Non-Fatal Offences
Statutory injury and threat offences, common-law assault, consent and lawful excuse.Non-Fatal Offences compares statutory offences causing injury or serious injury, threat offences, negligent serious injury and common-law assault. The first skill is charge selection.
- Intentional and reckless injury or serious injury offences
- Circumstances of gross violence and the need to prove added statutory features
- Threats to kill, inflict serious injury or endanger life
- Negligently causing serious injury as a separate fault pathway
- Common-law assault: definitions, actus reus and mens rea
- Consent, hostility and lawful excuse in recognised contexts
Homicide and Manslaughter
Murder, voluntariness, causation, contemporaneity and manslaughter pathways.Homicide and Manslaughter follows the Reading Guide sequence from murder prerequisites through conduct, voluntariness, causation, contemporaneity and mens rea.
- Murder prerequisites and the prohibited result of death
- Conduct, voluntariness and the accused act or omission
- Causation through victim responses, medical treatment and third-party events
- Contemporaneity and transferred malice
- Murder mens rea under the assigned common-law authorities
- Unlawful-and-dangerous-act and negligent manslaughter pathways
Self-Defence
The statutory defence, evidence about perceived threats and the accused response.Self-Defence is taught through Crimes Act sections 322G to 322N and related Jury Directions Act provisions. The defence should be analysed after the prima facie offence.
- The prima facie offence before the defence
- The current statutory self-defence provisions
- Evidence about the perceived threat and accused purpose
- Assessment of the response under the governing test
- Jury directions and identification of the live defensive issue
- Separate treatment of conduct after the threat changes
Sexual Offences and Consent
Offence provisions, consent, reasonable belief, intoxication and jury directions.Sexual Offences and Consent is a statutory chapter. The Reading Guide moves from offence provisions to lack of consent, mistake or fraud, reasonable belief, intoxication and jury directions. The answer should preserve that sequence.
- Rape and related statutory offence provisions
- The current statutory meaning of consent and listed circumstances
- Mistake, fraud and their statutory significance
- Reasonable belief in consent and evidence supporting the belief
- The statutory relevance of intoxication
- Jury directions addressing injury, responses, appearance and relationships
Property Offences
Theft, deception, robbery, burglary and the elements separating each charge.Property Offences begins with theft and its elements: appropriation, property, belonging to another, intention permanently to deprive and dishonesty.
- Appropriation and the conduct alleged in theft
- Property and the legal interest of another person
- Intention permanently to deprive and dishonesty
- Obtaining property or financial advantage by deception
- Robbery and armed robbery as theft plus added elements
- Burglary and aggravated burglary: entry, trespass and intention
Criminal Attempts
The statutory conduct threshold, intention, voluntary desistance and impossibility.Criminal Attempts examines liability where the principal offence is incomplete. The Reading Guide makes the statute paramount and separates actus reus, mens rea, voluntary desistance and impossibility.
- The statutory provisions governing attempt liability
- The boundary between preparation and attempt conduct
- The intention required for the intended principal offence
- Attempted rape and its specific statutory treatment
- Voluntary desistance after or before the threshold
- Impossibility and the accused belief about the facts
Criminal Procedure
Arrest, execution, detention and identification under statutory authority.Criminal Procedure follows a statutory sequence through arrest without warrant, arrest under warrant, execution, detention for questioning or investigation and identification procedures. The Reading Guide says the statute is paramount.
- Charter principles relevant to criminal proceedings
- Arrest without warrant under the listed Crimes Act provisions
- Arrest under warrant and its separate statutory basis
- Execution of arrest and the way the power is exercised
- Detention for questioning or investigation and applicable safeguards
- Identification procedures under dedicated statutory provisions
The unit materials place legal problem solving at the centre: identify the possible charge, state each physical and fault element, apply the facts to the element, address a defence and finish with a conclusion that matches the strength of the evidence.
The course moves quickly across eight topic blocks.
Topic 1 establishes actus reus, mens rea, voluntariness, causation, contemporaneity, proof, offence classification and sentencing. Later topics apply that architecture to statutory and common-law offences. The Reading Guide repeatedly makes the relationship between statute and case law visible. Where legislation governs, current statutory language is primary and cases illustrate its operation.
That is particularly important for sexual offences, attempts and criminal procedure.
The final examination is worth 50% and is described as problem based. It runs for 2.5 hours online under remote invigilation. It is designated open book, but the permitted materials rule is narrow: hard-copy notes and materials may be used, soft-copy notes on the examination device may not be accessed, and a second device is not allowed.
Effective preparation therefore means a compact printed index and element checklists rather than a large unsearchable archive.
The available materials do not publish the examination date, question count, section breakdown or question marks. They also do not state a hurdle. Students should use the current Moodle assessment page for any later operational instructions.
No past examination, sample paper or practice final is present in the captured unit folder, so all questions in this guide are original and are modelled only on the published problem-question format.
LAW5001 cheatsheet for the final exam
AskSia publishes a free LAW5001 cheatsheet for the final exam, a cheat sheet that follows the official permitted-materials rule for this assessment and condenses the topics in this guide.
Worked example · free
Original charge map: separate conduct, fault, causation and defence
- 2Identify the strongest offence and write its physical and fault elements separately.
- 2Apply the push, injury and intervening events to the physical element and causation.
- 1Test the offence-specific mental state without inferring it from injury alone.
- 2Apply the current statutory self-defence test to the raised bottle and the single push.
- 1Conclude conditionally and identify the factual issue that controls the result.
Key terms
- Actus reus
- The physical elements of an offence, which may include conduct, circumstances, a result, voluntariness and causation.
- Mens rea
- The fault element required by the particular offence, analysed separately from the prohibited conduct or result.
- Contemporaneity
- The requirement that the relevant physical and fault elements coincide in the legally required way.
- Causation
- The connection the prosecution must establish between the accused conduct and a prohibited result such as death or injury.
- Self-defence
- A statutory defence applied through the current Victorian provisions to the accused perception, purpose and response.
- Appropriation
- A theft element concerning the accused dealing with property in the manner defined by the governing provision.
- Dishonesty
- A distinct fault element in theft and deception offences that must be established under the current law.
- Attempt
- Liability for intended offending that satisfies the statutory conduct threshold even though the principal offence is incomplete.
- Intervening event
- A later occurrence considered when deciding whether the accused conduct remains a legally significant cause.
- Remotely invigilated exam
- An online examination supervised through the University examination system under specified device and materials rules.
LAW5001 FAQ
How is the unit assessed?
The published structure has four components: Demonstration 10%, Presentation 10%, Written 30% and Examination 50%. The handbook record and captured Moodle assessment page agree on these weights, which total 100%.
What is the final examination format?
The available T3 materials describe a 2.5-hour online, remotely invigilated, open-book problem examination worth 50%. They do not publish the question count, section structure, date or per-question marks.
What materials can I use in the open-book exam?
The captured assessment page permits hard-copy notes and materials. It prohibits accessing soft-copy notes on the device used for the eExam and says a second device is not allowed. Check Moodle for the final operational notice.
What topics are covered by the written assignment?
The legal problem-solving assignment is based on Topics 1 to 4 in the Reading Guide. It is 2,250 words and is designed to develop substantive analysis and written legal problem solving.
Are sentencing questions part of the final exam?
The Reading Guide says the sentencing part of Topic 1 is assessed only in the oral presentation and is not part of the end-of-unit examination or the written problem-solving assignment.
Are past papers included in the unit folder?
No past examination, sample paper, practice final or solutions file appears in the captured folder. This guide therefore uses newly authored problems shaped by the published problem-question format, not copied examination questions.
Questions students ask in each LAW5001 chapter
- How can I check whether liability analysis is complete?
- Match every conclusion to an offence element, a governing source and a fact supporting the required inference. Then check causation, contemporaneity and any defence separately. A missing link should become an explicit uncertainty rather than an assumed result. Chapter 01 · Criminal Law and Sentencing
- How should I compare injury and assault charges?
- Write the elements in parallel and identify which facts prove injury, apprehension, contact and offence-specific fault. The same episode may support alternatives, but the outcome, perception and mental-state questions must not be treated as interchangeable. Chapter 02 · Non-Fatal Offences
- How should alternative homicide offences be presented?
- Complete the murder route first and identify the element that remains unproved or uncertain. Then analyse each supported manslaughter pathway under its own elements. Manslaughter should follow from legal analysis, not appear as an unexplained compromise. Chapter 03 · Homicide and Manslaughter
- What evidence should be placed on a defence timeline?
- Record the threat perceived, information available to the accused, movements, distance, objects, each responsive act and any corroboration. The timeline helps show when circumstances changed and why separate phases may require different conclusions. Chapter 04 · Self-Defence
- How can I audit an answer for assumptions?
- Underline every inference drawn from injury, resistance, delay, appearance, past activity or later contact. Replace any behavioural stereotype with the relevant statutory provision or jury direction and the particular evidence bearing on the charged act. Chapter 05 · Sexual Offences and Consent
- How should overlapping property offences be organised?
- Start with separate element lists for theft, deception, robbery and burglary. Place each fact beside the offence it supports, paying attention to timing. Conclude independently before explaining why one factual sequence may raise several charges. Chapter 06 · Property Offences
- How can I practise locating the conduct threshold?
- Number the accused acts and mark the first act said to satisfy the statutory test. Defend that choice, then move the line one act earlier and later. Comparing those alternatives exposes the legal boundary more clearly. Chapter 07 · Criminal Attempts
- How should hindsight be controlled in a procedure problem?
- Create a time-stamped record of what was known at arrest, execution, detention and identification. Apply each statutory power to the information then available. Later discoveries may affect later stages but cannot simply repair an earlier deficiency. Chapter 08 · Criminal Procedure
How to study for the exam
Build a printed offence map before expanding your notes. For each chapter, keep one page with the current statutory provisions, one page with element tests and leading authorities, and one page with two original factual variations. Practise charge selection before full writing: name the possible offence, separate actus reus and mens rea, identify causation or contemporaneity where relevant, and list any defence.
During review, highlight every conclusion that rests on an unstated factual inference. For the final exam, tab the printed materials by offence family and statutory section because soft-copy notes and a second device are prohibited under the published conditions. Reserve sentencing preparation for the oral plea task and remember the Reading Guide excludes jurisdiction and charging from the criminal procedure exam content.
Confirm any later assessment update on Moodle rather than relying on an invented question pattern.
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