Legal Studies News

Legal Studies Visits the Courts

On Friday the 8th of March the VCE Legal Studies classes made their way down to the Melbourne law courts. We arrived there and were split into two groups. One went to the Supreme and the other went to the County Court. I went to the Supreme Court and first up got to talk to Justice Tim Ginnane. He explained to us his career journey through law and how he came to be a judge. We also had the opportunity to ask him any interesting questions we had about his current job as a judge or about the justice system. We then got to sit in on a trial, the accused was Lawrence Duca and he had been accused of murdering dressmaker Phong Vuong. We listened to this case for two hours and got to hear both the accused and co-accused testify in the witness box. We also got a tour of the Supreme Court library. After the Supreme Court, we made our way over to the County Court for a jury education session. We got to participate in a jury empanelment process and use the court for a role play. On this excursion, I learnt so much about the court system and how it works. It was a really interesting and informative experience and was really beneficial personally as a Units 1 and 2 student who is new to Legal Studies, to see everything we have been learning about in its actual form.

Bridie Hansen (11R)