Hey! I did legal in 2022, and strongly recommend reading my tips and advice post here
In terms of what topics you should learn before commencing 3/4:
- The principles of justice: Fairness, Equality, Access. These are testable anywhere in Unit 3, so its important to link these concepts to the dot points in the study design
- Key concepts in the Victorian Criminal/Civil justice system: Burden of proof, standard of proof, presumption of innocence, distinguishing between summary/indictable offences, representative proceedings/class actions.
- Sanctions, and the purposes of sanctions: The main sanctions (imprisonment, CCOs and fines) and their purposes (punishment, protection, deterrence, denunciation, and rehabilitation)
- Remedies, and their purposes: Damages (and the types of damages), Injunctions (mandatory and restrictive), which aim to restore the plaintiff to their original position before their rights were infringed/rectify a wrong/compensate a plaintiff for their loss, etc
- Methods of dispute resolution + Institutions: Mediation, conciliation and arbitration, as well as VCAT.
- Reasons for a court hierarchy: Specialisation, Appeals, Administrative convenience, and the doctrine of precedent
- The 5 express rights + their constitutional sections
All of this is repeated again in 3/4, but considering you haven't done 1/2 I think this would be helpful 😃
