Electives at Monash Law
Queena Huang
You can find the full list of undergraduate (LLB) electives here: https://www.monash.edu/law/current-students/undergraduate/undergraduate-law-elective-list-2026
LAW4122 Public International Law (PIL)
Public International Law (PIL) is the system of legal rules and principles that govern the relationships and conduct of sovereign states.
PIL covers:
Theory of international law
This touches on the philosophical, moral, and structural basis for why sovereign states obey rules in a decentralised global system.
States: rights, obligations, status, jurisdiction
This touches on state responsibilities, sovereign immunity and cross-border disputes.
Australia's implementation
This touches on constitutional law (external affairs power), implementing treaties and how we adhere to them.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
Government legal/policy officer
International arbitration lawyer
Trade and sanctions lawyer
Animal Law examines the ways in which Australian law defines and regulates the relationship between human and non-human animals.
Animal Law covers
Historical status & philosophical theories of animals in law
Underpins competing philosophical theories and stakeholder interests that motivate the evolution of law in respect of animals.
Scientific experimentation regulation
This touches on biotechnology and pharmacy regulatory compliance, as well as animal ethics committee advisory work.
Sport and entertainment regulation
This touches on a racing bodies (horse/greyhound racing) and entertainment industry regulators.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
Animal welfare regulator/enforcement officer – Working for RSPCA Victoria, the Department of Agriculture, or state-based animal welfare bodies investigating and prosecuting breaches.
Agribusiness/live export compliance lawyer
Government policy/legal officer – Working for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (federal) or the equivalent state department, working on welfare standards, live export policy, or agricultural regulation reform.
LAW4312 Legal Issues In Medicine
This elective feeds into legal and ethical dilemmas that arise in medicine and law. These topics will include consideration of the adult, child and disabled patient.
This elective covers:
Regulation of medical practice & allied health professionals (Vic)
Touches on professional discipline and registration work before AHPRA/health boards, regulatory advisory for hospitals and health services.
Doctors' legal and ethical duties to patients
This touches on medical negligence litigation, consent and refusal of medical treatment.
Evolving areas of medical law
This touches on abortion and wrongful birth, pregnancy and life claims and active and passive euthanasia.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
Health service in-house counsel – hospitals and health networks need lawyers advising on consent, capacity, and clinical risk day to day.
Medical negligence lawyer
Bioethicist/academic – if the ethical dilemmas side interests you more than litigation, this feeds into hospital ethics committees.
LAW4552 Gender and the Criminal Justice System
This unit critically examines how gender, as a social and legal construct, shapes the operation, outcomes, and institutional design of the criminal justice system.
This elective covers:
Gendered nature of criminal offending and victimisation
This touches on the broader ways in which gender norms influence legal reasoning, evidentiary standards, institutional responses, and access to justice.
Gender identity
This touches on how masculinity, femininity, and non-binary gender identities are constructed, regulated, and disciplined through criminal law.
Criminal offences within the partner and family dynamic
This touches on coercive control, sexual offences and the role of consent, intimate image abuse, homicide in the context of intimate partner violence, infanticide, and the sentencing of offenders with parenting or caregiving responsibilities.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
Criminal prosecutor or defence lawyer – Particularly in sexual offences and family violence lists, where specialist gendered-violence knowledge is increasingly expected (OPP, Victoria Legal Aid, criminal defence firms).
Family violence lawyer – At community legal centres or specialist services (e.g. Women's Legal Service Victoria), doing intervention order work, safety planning, and related criminal matters.
Victim/survivor support and advocacy lawyer
LAW4542 AI, Technology and the Law
The focus of this unit is on what the law and lawyers can do to make AI conform to the Rule of Law.
This elective covers:
AI and the Rule of Law
This touches on how AI can be regulated in accordance with the rule of law: that every person is subject to the same laws and court jurisdictions, regardless of their social rank, wealth, or political power.
Legal implications of AI misuse
This touches on AI’s potential for bias, injustice and disruption, as well as opportunities it may provide if properly regulated.
The future of the law and technology
This touches on a range of real-world contexts and topics, such as algorithms and their decision making; privacy in a world of online user analysis and facial recognition; democracy and electioneering; concepts of legal personhood and; how all of this might be regulated and controlled.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
AI governance/regulatory counsel
Administrative lawyer
Legal tech/innovation roles – working within firms or legal-tech companies on how AI tools are deployed in legal practice itself.
LAW4671 Private Investment Law
This unit discusses the nature and operation of private investment law in Australia.
This elective covers:
Start-up companies
This touches on the role start-up companies and venture capital investment plays in a country's innovation system, as well as the role of Australia's employee share scheme regime in supporting these start-ups.
Making and exiting investments
This touches on IPOs, trade sales, management buyouts, leveraged buyouts and share buybacks.
Government programs aimed at encouraging venture capital and private equity investment
This explores the Pooled Development Funds, Venture Capital Limited Partnership, Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership and Innovation Investment Fund programs.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
Venture capital (VC)/private equity (PE) lawyer – transactional practice at firms with dedicated VC/PE groups, working on fund formation, investment rounds, and exits (this is one of the more lucrative and competitive corporate specialisations).
M&A lawyer
Tax lawyer specialising in funds/investment structuring
LAW4687 Human Trafficking, Modern Slavery and the Law
This unit examines and evaluates the evolution of the international law response to the global problems of human trafficking and modern slavery.
This elective covers:
Slavery and slavery-like practices
This touches on the historical and modern-day conceptions of human trafficking, modern slavery, forced labour and servitude, as well as exploring the development of litigation and advocacy in this area.
Competing social, political and legal agendas
This touches on the human rights implications surrounding the competing influences of criminal justice, gender, human rights, labour, migration, and race.
Development of international human rights law
This touches on the various treaties, conventions and legislative instruments which have evolved throughout history to abolish and prohibit slavery.
A few career paths where this elective may be especially helpful:
Migration lawyer specialising in trafficking visas – helping trafficking survivors access the Human Trafficking Visa Framework, at community legal centres or specialist migration practices.
Human rights/NGO lawyer – organisations like the Salvation Army's Freedom Partnership, Anti-Slavery Australia, or international bodies (UNODC, ILO) doing advocacy and direct client work.
Academic/researcher – if the theoretical intersections (gender, race, labour, migration) interest you most, this feeds into socio-legal and human rights scholarship.