Most high school students encounter law through a chapter in a civics textbook or a courtroom scene in a Netflix series. But studying it is a different thing entirely. Law courses in Australia for high school students let you dig into real case analysis, practise legal research, get familiar with constitutional frameworks, and, in many programmes, argue a position in a mock trial setting, all of which build the kind of critical thinking that carries well into university and beyond.

Picture spending a week at the University of Sydney, breaking down a landmark High Court judgment with an actual law professor, or working through a moot court exercise at ANU where you have to argue a side you don’t even agree with. These programmes sit you inside university life before you’ve had to make any of the big decisions about what comes next, and that preview is genuinely useful, both for your confidence and for your applications.

If you’re already living in Australia, there’s still a strong case for joining one of these programmes. The peer group alone tends to be different from your usual school circle, and getting a taste of how law is actually taught at the university level is something your regular curriculum just won’t give you.

Why pursue law courses in Australia as a high schooler?

Australia punches above its weight when it comes to legal education. Schools like ANU, Melbourne, UNSW, and Sydney consistently appear in global law school rankings, and the programs they offer for younger students reflect that standard. 

Depending on where you look, you could end up exploring human rights law, criminal law, international law, or constitutional law, all within a legal system that’s both rigorous and globally recognised.

To make this easier, here’s a list of 15 law courses in Australia for high school students. They’ve been picked for academic quality, with priority given to programs run by universities or government bodies, especially those that are free or selective.

For adjacent opportunities, consider the online law course and summer courses in Australia.

15 Law Courses in Australia for High School Students

Location: New South Wales, Australia
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Ongoing throughout the school year
Application Deadline: No fixed Application Deadline; workshop requests accepted on an ongoing basis
Eligibility: High school students in NSW (Years 7-12, with specific workshops suited to particular year groups); open to primary and secondary school students, teachers, and community workers; workshops tailored on request; not open to international students

In this program, you engage directly with qualified lawyers who deliver free, in-school legal education sessions covering topics directly relevant to your life. As one of the more practical law courses in Australia for high school students, it helps you explore criminal law through interactive film-based workshops like BURN and Police Powers, examine consent and cyberbullying offences through scenario-based and animated formats, and build practical knowledge of workplace rights, contracts, and money through sessions like Work Ready and Legal Life Skills.

You participate in role-play activities, quizzes, and case studies designed to translate complex legal concepts into real-world understanding. Sessions are mapped to NSW syllabus outcomes, including the HSC Legal Studies curriculum, making engagement academically meaningful alongside being practically grounded.

Why it stands out: It connects you directly with practising Legal Aid NSW lawyers who tailor curriculum-aligned workshops to specific year groups and school needs, covering areas from criminal law and police powers to consent and workplace rights.

2. Immerse Education’s Sydney Law Summer School

15 Law Courses in Australia for High School Students 1

Location: Sydney, Australia
Cost: Varies; summer school scholarship available through our bursary programme
Dates: 2 weeks during the summer
Application Deadline: Multiple summer cohorts; rolling admissions
Eligibility: Students aged 13-18 currently enrolled in middle or high school; open to international students

Immerse Education’s Law Summer School is one of the most immersive law courses in Australia for high school students, introducing you to the fundamentals of law and legal professions in Sydney. You’ll understand legal topics such as criminal justice, contract law, and constitutional law. You’ll explore careers in law and participate in seminars, critical legal analysis, and moot court exercises.

You’ll not only gain in-depth knowledge about your chosen subject, but also develop valuable skills in research, critical thinking, problem solving, and advocacy. On the successful completion of the program, you’ll earn a recognized certificate. If you’re a high school student interested in law, this program can be a good choice to learn and receive guidance from practising lawyers.

Why it stands out: You’ll study under expert academics, be guided daily by a university student mentor, complete a project you can show in future applications, and experience genuine university college life with other campuses worldwide as alternatives.

3. Supreme Court of Victoria – Courts Education Program

Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Sessions run weekly on-site throughout the school year
Application Deadline: Bookings for February sessions open in early December; March-June bookings open in late January
Eligibility: VCE Legal Studies students, year 11 and 12; open to international students

If you’re studying Legal Studies in VCE, the Courts Education Program gives you access to an actual working court. You’ll have the chance to meet a judicial officer, explore the courtrooms, and sit in the public gallery to watch real proceedings unfold.

Observing a live court case is one of those experiences that makes abstract legal concepts land differently. You’ll also get to visit the Law Library, which gives you a sense of the research environment legal professionals work in.

Why it stands out: It gives you access to a real, active courtroom as a high school student.

4. Supreme Court Library Queensland Education Programs – Judicial Talk

Location: Brisbane, Queensland
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Year-round; subject to judicial officer availability
Application Deadline: Booking required
Eligibility: Year 11 and 12 students; open to international students

The Judicial Talks program gives you time with a judicial officer, where you’ll hear directly from someone who sits on the bench about what their role entails, how different court jurisdictions operate, and how the trial process works from the inside.

The session maps directly onto the QCAA Legal Studies General Senior Syllabus and the Certificate IV in Crime and Justice. Because sessions depend on judicial officer availability and only one school group is taken per day, it’s worth booking early.

Why it stands out:  It gives you direct access to a judicial officer before a court day starts, which is a unique opportunity not easily found.

5. Law Society of New South Wales Young Justice Program

15 Law Courses in Australia for High School Students 2

Location: University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus, Wollongong
Cost/Stipend: Not specified
Dates: One-day event in May (tentative)
Application deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Years 9 and 10 students; international student eligibility is not specified

The NSW Law Society’s Young Justice Program is an annual one-day work-and-learn experience for high school students. You will hear from practitioners, attend a career panel session led by legal professionals, and participate in a hands-on legal workshop over the course of a day.

You will also engage in discussions with university law students to learn about their experiences. The hands-on experience can help you learn about the justice system and explore paths in law.

Why it stands out: You will discuss real legal issues and pathways with legal professionals, build public speaking and problem-solving skills, and explore careers in law on a university campus.

Location: Brisbane, Queensland
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Year-round
Application Deadline: Advance booking required
Eligibility: Year 10 and 11 for the Legal Research Workshop; Year 11 and 12 for Independent Legal Research; open to international students

The Legal Research Program has two programs, designed to build on each other. The Legal Research Workshop is a one-hour interactive session where you learn how to actually find legal information, how to build a search string, identify reliable primary and secondary sources, and use advanced search tools that go well beyond a standard Google search.

The Independent Legal Research session takes things further: you spend three or more hours working through your own research in the Brisbane library space, with on-hand expert support and access to the same legal databases that legal professionals use.

Why it stands out: Legal research is a skill most students only pick up once they’re already in law school. Getting structured, librarian-led training in it during Year 10 or 11 with access to real legal databases is a practical advantage that’s hard to find elsewhere.

7. High Court of Australia – “The highest court in the land” school program

Location: Parkes Place, Parkes, Canberra
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Available on weekdays year-round
Application Deadline: No formal deadline; advance booking via Book Canberra Excursions required
Eligibility: Currently enrolled in Year 11, Year 12, or a tertiary program; studying legal studies or law; not open to international students

This guided tour program places you inside the actual courtrooms of Australia’s apex judicial institution, giving you direct, in-person exposure to the constitutional and appellate foundations of Australian law. For students comparing law courses in Australia for high school students, it offers rare access to the High Court’s constitutional role and real case examples showing how the Court functions as the nation’s final court of appeal.

During sitting weeks, you may observe barristers presenting live arguments before the Justices, encountering formal court etiquette firsthand. A Court Guide leads the session throughout, contextualising landmark decisions and explaining the separation of powers and the rule of law. 

Why it stands out: It gives Year 11 and 12 law students rare access to both courtrooms of Australia’s highest court in a single structured session, connecting constitutional theory to real appellate case examples in the exact setting where those decisions are made.

8. Parliament of Victoria’s Work Experience

Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Stipend: Minimum of $5 for each day
Dates: Sitting Program runs during Parliamentary sitting weeks; Services Program runs year-round
Application Deadline: EOIs reopen in early September each year for the following year’s terms
Eligibility: Victorian secondary school students aged 15 or older at the time of placement; not open to international students

This experience at Parliament House gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how Victoria’s state legislature actually runs. There are two tracks to choose from. The Sitting Program puts you alongside the staff who keep Parliament functioning during sitting weeks, the Clerk’s Office, which advises the Speaker and members; the Committees team researching Bills under consideration; Hansard and Broadcast, who document and live-stream proceedings; and Procedure and Table Offices, the information hub on how the Assembly operates.

There’s also a chance to meet your local Member of Parliament during the placement. The Services Program is broader; you’re placed in one of the many professional support areas of Parliament, matched to your specific interests and career goals.

Why it stands out: Getting access to the people who keep an active legislature running during a sitting week is a vantage point. For anyone serious about law, government, or public policy, this is about as real as it gets before university.

9. Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria’s Student Placements

Location: Victoria
Stipend: Minimum $5 per day
Dates: 1–2 weeks, scheduled flexibly with the school
Application Deadline: At least one month prior to the desired start date
Eligibility: Age 15+ studying at a Victorian secondary school; not open to international students

Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety offers work experience placement across its various business units covering areas that span law, policy, victim services, and justice-related administration. You’ll need to identify which part of the department you want to work in and submit a request form, which the relevant team then considers based on the nature of the work and local operating environment.

Once placed, you’ll spend one to two weeks observing and assisting with real tasks and projects, not just shadowing. The placement is designed as a learning opportunity, which means the focus is on giving you practical exposure to how a large government department handles justice-related work day to day.

Why it stands out: The Department of Justice covers one of the broadest legal and justice remits in Victoria, where you could be working alongside policy teams, legal professionals, or community-facing services, all within a government environment directly tied to the law.

10. Queensland Parliament – Education Program, Year 10 to Tertiary

Location: Parliament House, Brisbane, Australia
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: 3-hour sessions on select dates from February to November
Application Deadline: Bookings open January 23rd
Eligibility: Year 10, 11, or 12 students studying Legal Studies or Social and Community Studies; university or TAFE tertiary students; school or group excursion booking required; open to international students

The Queensland Parliament Education Program offers you a practical look at the state’s legislative operations and the legal frameworks of government. You will explore core legal concepts, including the separation of powers doctrine, responsible government, and the principles of unicameralism. Throughout the three-hour academic program, you will actively analyse the law-making process by participating in a hands-on mock bill debate or committee inquiry role-play.

When visiting on sitting days, you will observe the Legislative Assembly in action from the public gallery, watching how societal demands are shaped into actual legislation. You will also tour the historic Parliament House and may have the opportunity to engage directly with a local Member of Parliament.

Why it stands out: It allows you to contextualise theoretical legal studies by directly observing the Legislative Assembly and simulating the statutory drafting process within Queensland’s unicameral parliament.

Location: Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW; videoconference option via Teams or Zoom
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Sitting-day option: Tuesday 10:30 AM or 1:00 PM, Wednesday and Thursday 10:00 AM or 1:00 PM, 120 minutes; non-sitting-day option: weekdays from 9:00 AM, 120 minutes; videoconference: weekdays from 9:00 AM, 60-120 minutes
Application Deadline: Bookings are essential; no fixed application deadline stated; schools should enquire about available dates
Eligibility: Stage 6 Years 11/12 students; school booking required; not open to international students

In this experience, you join a Parliament of NSW academic school program built around Stage 6 Legal Studies and the Legislature. The sitting-day option gives you a workshop, visits to the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council chambers, observation of Parliament in action, and a possible meeting with your member.

On non-sitting days, you work through a seminar/case-study role play and tour the chambers, while the online option uses Teams or Zoom for an interactive program, Q&A, and case study. The legal focus is statute law, legislative process, delegated legislation, separation and division of powers, parliamentary committees, law reform, rights and responsibilities. 

Why it stands out: It gives Stage 6 Legal Studies students direct exposure to NSW parliamentary law-making through chamber visits, sitting-day observation, and syllabus-linked legal studies activities.

12. Courts Administration Authority South Australia – School Visits

Location: Adelaide, South Australia (Magistrates Court, Sir Samuel Way Building, and Supreme Court)
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Available during school terms
Application Deadline: No fixed deadline; bookings made by emailing schoolvisits@courts.sa.gov.au with preferred dates
Eligibility: School groups at any year level with a supervising teacher; booking confirmation required before attending; open to international students

In this program, you gain direct access to active court facilities across Adelaide’s legal precinct. You may visit the Magistrates Court, the Sir Samuel Way Building, and the Supreme Court, observing real courtroom environments and the physical infrastructure through which South Australian judicial power is exercised. The program supports both guided group visits arranged through the CAA booking system and self-guided visits using the CAA’s downloadable instructions document.

You build foundational law knowledge by witnessing how courts are structured, how different jurisdictions are housed within the same precinct, and how the administration of justice operates at a practical level. Groups are teacher-led, keeping the experience grounded in your school’s curriculum context.

Why it stands out: It gives you rare direct access to three distinct live court venues within Adelaide’s central legal precinct, including the Magistrates Court, Sir Samuel Way Building, and Supreme Court, through a free, flexibly scheduled program run by the independent government authority that administers South Australia’s entire court system.

13. Magistrates’ Court of Victoria – School Visits / Education Program

Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: Available during school terms
Application Deadline: December 10th (for February sessions) and January 27th (for March–June sessions)
Eligibility: VCE Legal Studies classes; bookings required by a school teacher; adherence to courtroom behavioural and dress standards expected; not open to international students

The Magistrates’ Court of Victoria Education Program immerses you in the daily realities of the Australian criminal and civil justice systems. As a VCE Legal Studies student, you step out of the classroom and directly into the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to witness the law in action. You will meet directly with magistrates and judicial officers to discuss sentencing, pre-trial procedures, and the specific roles of court personnel.

Throughout the visit, you will explore active courtrooms and observe live courtroom proceedings, seeing firsthand how legal theory applies to real-world cases. By engaging with these official court environments, you gain a practical understanding of legal workflows, courtroom etiquette, and the complexities of the Victorian justice system.

Why it stands out: It provides high school legal studies students with unfiltered access to live judicial proceedings and direct discussions with sitting magistrates within an active courthouse.

Location: Legislative Assembly Chamber, Parliament House, Brisbane City, QLD
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: May 15th
Application Deadline: Participant detail and photo consent forms: March 30th; guest free-ticket booking: April 30th
Eligibility: Year 11 or 12 students; currently enrolled and studying QCAA Legal Studies; nominated through a Queensland-based school, with up to 4 nominees per school; not open to international students

In this program, you take part in a one-day academic civic-learning experience run by Queensland Parliament. Inside the Legislative Assembly Chamber, you experience law-making by preparing and delivering a short speech, debating a mock Bill, giving a Private Members’ Statement, or speaking in an Adjournment Debate. The schedule includes registration, a student briefing, Leaders’ Statements, First and Second Reading stages, Consideration in Detail, Third Reading, and official photographs.

You practice parliamentary etiquette, respectful interjections, speech structure, and role-specific responsibilities such as Youth Attorney-General, Youth Shadow Attorney-General, Youth Minister, or Youth Member. The law emphasis is practical: you apply legal-studies concepts to Queensland jurisdiction, legislative procedure, debate, amendments, and community issues.

Why it stands out: It gives Legal Studies students a rare chance to practise Queensland law-making inside the Legislative Assembly Chamber through mock Bill debate, parliamentary roles, speeches, and Chamber procedure.

15. Bond University National High School Mooting Competition

15 Law Courses in Australia for High School Students 3

Location: Online + Bond University campus, Gold Coast, Queensland
Cost/Stipend: Not specified
Dates: Mooting Masterclass (online): March 17th; Preliminary rounds (online): May 18-22; Finals (on campus): June 13th
Application deadline: Rolling; first-come, first-served enrollment (check details here)
Eligibility: Year 11 and 12 high school students in Australia; teams of two to three students accompanied by a teacher (Year 10 students allowed as third members, taking on the role of Instructing Solicitor)

Bond University National High School Mooting Competition gives this list of law courses in Australia for high school students a strong advocacy-focused option. You will participate as a lawyer, taking on the role of a Senior Counsel or a Junior Counsel in simulated court proceedings, engage in legal arguments, and answer the questions raised by the moot court judges. The opportunity can help you apply legal principles and learn how to deliver clear and persuasive arguments.

You will be judged based on your advocacy skills, including the confidence and clarity of communication, and the effective construction of persuasive arguments. While not a typical summer job, the experience involves hands-on legal work in a simulated court environment. 

Why it stands out: You will learn how to argue court cases as a lawyer, respond to the questions of judges, and build advocacy and persuasive speaking skills.

From Courtroom Experience to Campus Decisions

Courtroom experiences can show you how law works beyond textbooks, from advocacy and research to public decision-making, legal responsibility, and real academic direction early confidence.

Law courses in Australia for high school students help you test that interest early, giving you clearer insight into university-level legal study and careers ahead.

Use each workshop, moot court, or court visit to notice which legal questions excite you, and which skills you want to keep developing next year.

Ready to connect your legal interests with future campus choices? Explore our Ultimate Guide to University of Sydney for practical next-step guidance before applying confidently.