Law and Criminology Honours

Program Duration: The Honours Program will now span two terms.

Enrolment Options:

• Terms 1 and 2: Students can enrol in Term 1 and complete the program over Terms 1 and 2. 

• Terms 2 and 3: Students can enrol in Term 2 and complete the program over Terms 2 and 3.

Students completing Honours will now enrol in two Honours courses over the two terms: LAWS3900 Introduction to Law Honours Research and Writing (0 UOC) and then LAWS3901 Law Honours Research Thesis (6 UOC) in the following term.

To enrol in Honours, LLB students will need to have:

1. Completed a minimum of 96 UOC of LLB courses
2. Completed at least 84 UOC of core LLB courses
3. A minimum 75 WAM in core LLB courses
4. At least 6 UOC remaining in the LLB program. 

There are FOUR criteria relevant for awarding Honours:

• Completion of a mandatory Research Methods Workshop. This will run in O-Week of the first term you undertake Honours  
• Completion of a supervised 6 UOC ‘Honours Research Thesis’. The research thesis will be of 10,000 words, including footnotes.  To complete the thesis, students will be enrolled in LAWS3901 Honours Research Thesis, opens in a new window
• Completion of all remaining LLB compulsory and elective courses necessary for graduation
• Attainment of the Honours Weighted Average Mark (WAM) in Law

Honours WAM will be calculated using the WAM from all non-Honours, graded LLB courses taken at UNSW as 75% of the Honours WAM, and the WAM from the Honours Research Thesis as 25% of the Honours WAM. 

The Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree will be awarded as follows:

• Honours Class 1: Honours WAM of 80.00 or greater 
• Honours Class 2: Honours WAM between 75.00 and 79.99

Honours Class 3: Honours WAM below 75.00

1. Students will need to find a supervisor for their Honours project before applying. Students should submit a 1-page outline to their proposed supervisor outlining their research topic. A list of academic staff and their research interests can be found on the Faculty of Law & Justice website., opens in a new window
2. Once students have found a supervisor, please complete the Honours application form and include the email approval from your supervisor.
3. Once approved, students will receive confirmation from the Nucleus and will be enrolled in LAWS3900 Introduction to Law Honours Research & Writing.

Applications for Term 1 2025 will have now closed.

Applications for Term 2 2025 will open from Monday 3 February and close on Sunday 23 March.

Apply here!

To assist you in your academic journey, the faculty has developed an informative YouTube video which has been designed to support your work on the Honours Thesis and will be accessible throughout the program.

School of Law, Society and Criminology

• Strands of Self: Unravelling the use of ancestry DNA testing to foster belonging through identity and the resulting legal, ethic. The Homogeneity of Australian Legislation: Identifying Cognate Statutory Provisions in Commonwealth, State and Territory Law.

• Trade Unions, Lawyers and Class Position: Identifying Possibilities for Radical Legal Struggle.

• Is criminalising coercive control detrimental to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victim-survivors?

• Lawyers, legal ethics, and class actions: the way forward and the criticality of reform.

• Cracking the Code: An Analysis of the Treatment and Risks of Opinion Evidence about Argot, Jargon, and Coded Language

School of Global and Public Law

• The limitations of tax information exchange agreements: how Australia fails to identify global tax schemes.

• Hidden Truths, Imputations of Illegal Conduct and the Expanded Civil Proceeding.

• Tread Carefully: Future Humanitarian Intervention in Afghanistan and Third World Approaches to International Law. 

• Reading the Tea Leaves left by NZYQ: Assessing how the High Court protects its legitimacy.

• Yunupingu v Commonwealth: Heralding the next wave of native title post Mabo and Timber Creek.

School of Private and Commercial Law

• The Robot Lawyer: An Investigation of the Regulatory Position of the Provision of Legal Advice Created by AI.

• Corporate misconduct in Australia: tolerated or impermissible?

• The Regulation of Corporate Culture By Australia’s ‘Private Attorney General’: The Class Action.

• Assessing the suitability of the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2023 in the Context of Generative AI.

• Tensions in Tax: Revealing the Effect of Taxation Law on Economic Participation by Indigenous Business 

Finding an appropriate supervisor is up to you. This is a list of academics that have supervised honours projects in recent years. There are, however, many academics across the faculty with an interest, and experience, in research supervision. 

You should try and identify a supervisor that matches your research interests. However, they do not need to be an expert on the particular topic that you are investigating, but rather, have knowledge in the broad field of study that is relevant to your project.

Program Duration 

The Bachelor of Criminology & Criminal Justice (Honours) is a one-year equivalent advanced undergraduate degree for high achieving students, which may be taken upon completion of an undergraduate degree in Criminology & Criminal Justice, or other Level 7 qualification with a major in a stream offered in the program. Part-time options may also be available, and students are encouraged to discuss study options with the Honours Coordinator. 

The program comprises of:

18 uoc Core Courses: 

• ARTS4266 (12 uoc) is taught as a multi-term course at 6 uoc over Terms 1 and 2. 
• ARTS4268 (6 uoc) completed in either Term 1 or Term 2. 

30 uoc Thesis Courses: 

• CRIM4001 (6 uoc) available in all three Terms
• CRIM4002 (12 uoc) available in all three Term
• CRIM4003 (18 uoc) available in all three Terms

1. Students must have completed the UNSW Bachelor of Criminology & Criminal Justice or other recognised Level 7 qualification with a major in a stream offered in the program. 

2. Students in a dual degree must have completed 144 uoc including all requirements for the Criminology & Criminal Justice component. 

3. A minimum WAM of 70. 

    

   Please note that entry is also subject to available supervision.

Honours Classes 

The Honours mark for the awarding of the class of Honours is based on all components of the program. It will be determined from the student's weighted average mark for all of the courses (coursework and thesis/research project). 

Honours will be awarded in the following classes, based on the student's WAM rounded to the nearest whole number: 

• Class 1: WAM of 85 and above  

• Class 2 Division 1: WAM of 75 to 84 

• Class 2 Division 2: WAM of 65 to 74 

• Class 3: WAM of 50 to 64 

1. Students intending to apply to the Honours program must first discuss their eligibility and project proposal with the Honours Coordinator, opens in a new window.  

2. All applicants (including current UNSW students) are to submit an online application via Apply Online, opens in a new window and upload a copy of their project proposal, opens in a new window to their online application.