Checked 29 September 2026 against QCAA Legal Studies General senior syllabus 2025 v1.3, January 2026 and its current subject page. Page numbers below are the printed syllabus page numbers, not PDF viewer positions.
| Official location | What the syllabus actually requires or describes | Starter evidence | Hold / next teaching |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printed pp. 4–5, course and assessment | Four units; 55 notional hours per unit including assessment. Schools make their course decisions. Across Units 1–2, develop 2–4 assessments total, at least one in each unit, with every unit objective assessed at least once. | README and two public diagnostic checks | 250 minutes is not a complete unit or school assessment program. No separate Topic 1 hour count is specified. |
| Printed p. 11, Unit 1 | Beyond reasonable doubt: Australian system, law sources, parliament/courts, just/equitable outcomes, criminal focus; objectives 1–5 comprehend, select, analyse, evaluate, communicate. | All scripts; Day 5 and 10 evidence → viewpoint → conditional recommendation | Do not infer a Unit 1 judgement from a two-week formative sample. |
| Printed p. 12, Topic 1 opening and legal terms | Legal foundations: legal/non-legal rules, jurisdiction, rule of law, statute/common/customary law, onus/standard, arms/division of power, Constitution, precedent, adversarial/inquisitorial systems. | Days 1–4 and 6–9; source cards A–H; checks | Definitions and small cases are introductions; depth, variety of criminal issues and authentic cases remain. |
| Printed p. 12, rule of law, separation, burden/standard, court hierarchy | Describe foundations and relevant contrasts. | Days 2, 3, 6, 7, 8; printable aids 1–3 | Courts and procedures are simplified teaching maps; local practitioner checks remain for real cases. |
| Printed p. 12, purpose/effective law, statute/common-law relationship, law-making and interpretation | Explain purposes, effective-law criteria, law sources, legislation process and judicial interpretation. | Days 1–4, 7–8; Card H models purpose interpretation under the real Queensland Act reference | Fictional bill and statute snippets never represent current law. Later work must analyse authentic enactments and judgments. |
| Printed p. 12, criminal issue viewpoints and customary law | Analyse nature/scope and distinct viewpoints/consequences; analyse customary law's role. | Day 9 uses a dated ALRC institutional source and explicit uncertainty; Day 10 requires a bounded comparison. | No Indigenous community-specific law, voice or endorsement is supplied. Contemporary local partnership and legal source work remain. |
| Printed pp. 13–15, Unit 1 Topics 2–4 | Criminal investigation, trial and punishment/sentencing have their own subject matter. | Day 8 anticipates burden and fairness only within Topic 1. | Not delivered here; do not treat this as a full Unit 1 coverage claim. |
| Printed pp. 28–42, Units 3–4 assessment | Specified internal and external instruments belong to senior summative assessment. | None | Our public checks are not QCAA endorsed, secure or equivalent to those instruments. |
Source precision: The Australian Constitution divides Commonwealth/state legislative authority. Do not conflate that division with the three Commonwealth arms of government. The executive and Parliament overlap under responsible government; Australian separation is not absolute. A decision of a court may create/shape common law through precedent, but statutes can override common law within constitutional limits. A Queensland bill becomes an Act after passage and assent; commencement may be later. A court reads enacted text in context; the teacher card is an invented interpretation problem, not a holding about a real offence. A presumption of innocence is not a claim that no charge can be investigated. “Beyond reasonable doubt” is the criminal standard; the prosecution generally carries the criminal burden. These distinctions are checked against PEO, Queensland Parliament, Queensland Courts and QCAA.
No nationwide mandate or fixed Queensland term-week order is claimed. A school may sequence Topic 1 differently.