8.4 What is a law reform submission as an assessment task in law school?

A common form of assessment in law school is writing a law reform submission to a law reform commission, a parliamentary committee or similar official body or office-holder, such as the Attorney-General. It might be that there is an actual inquiry or review being conducted at the time the assessment is set, but most often the task is fictional. Your teacher might pretend, for example, that the Victorian Law Reform Commission is conducting an inquiry into drug decriminalisation and ask you to make a submission to that fictional review. The task thus involves a ‘role-playing’ writing exercise, modelled on real-world writing tasks. This can put the issues you are studying into more concrete, practical contexts. It is a good form of assessment because it allows you to practice a lot of lawyerly skills all at once: researching the issues, identifying the important points and delivering a clear argument either way. It does not require you to come to a ‘correct answer’. The document is simply presenting, and arguing for, a particular position.