The Priestley 11 for overseas law graduates: the subjects are national, the variation is by country — not by Australian state

The premise most people arrive with — that which Priestley 11 subjects you have to complete depends on which Australian state you apply in — is wrong, and it is worth correcting before you plan anything around it.

The eleven areas are one national list. The table of additional subjects an overseas-qualified applicant is commonly required to complete is also national, and it is organised by the country and type of your prior qualification, not by Australian jurisdiction. Queensland, which never adopted the Uniform Law, adopts the same list by an instrument signed by its Chief Justice. South Australia and Tasmania do not even run their own assessment — they send applicants to Victoria’s board.

What does vary by state is the decision-maker and the discretion it exercises. That is a real difference, and it is smaller than the one people expect.

The eleven areas

Quoted from the LACC’s Prescribed Academic Areas of Knowledge, in the document’s own order and headings, as updated 31 October 2025:

1. Criminal Law and Procedure
2. Torts
3. Contracts
4. Property
5. Equity
6. Company Law
7. Administrative Law
8. Federal and State Constitutional Law
9. Civil Dispute Resolution
10. Evidence
11. Ethics and Professional Responsibility

The document opens the substantive part with a rule that changes how you should read every course brochure you see:

“Although the topics below are grouped for convenience under the headings of particular areas of knowledge, there is no implication that a topic needs to be taught in a subject covering the area of knowledge in the heading rather than in another suitable subject.”

In other words: the areas are areas of knowledge, not eleven subject names to be matched one for one. A single university unit can cover more than one, and a unit whose name matches an area heading does not necessarily cover it.

The enabling rule, from the LACC Model Admission Rules, r 2(1):

“The academic requirement for admission is successfully completing a tertiary academic course in Australia, whether or not leading to a degree in law, which includes the equivalent of at least 3 years’ full-time study of law, is approved by the Authority, and which requires a student to acquire and demonstrate appropriate understanding of and competence in each element of the academic areas of knowledge set out in Schedule 1.”

Why this is national, and where the boundary of that claim sits

The LACC states it directly, in the preface to the Model Admission Rules: “Each jurisdiction has, however, adopted the material set out in Schedules 1, 2 and 3 which accordingly applies throughout Australia.”

Three independent confirmations:

• The Uniform Law itself covers only three states. The Legal Services Council: “The Uniform Law is applied in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia by local application Acts” — NSW and Victoria from 1 July 2015, Western Australia from 1 July 2022. Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory have not adopted it.
• Queensland adopts the identical LACC documents anyway. Admission Guidelines No. 1 of 2026, signed by the Chief Justice on 13 April 2026: “I issue the Law Admissions Consultative Committee’s Prescribed Academic Areas of Knowledge, updated on 31 October 2025 (attached) as the guidelines for approving academic qualifications pursuant to rule 9AA(1)(a) of the Supreme Court (Admission) Rules 2004.” A parallel 2019 instrument does the same for the overseas-applicant principles.
• Two states outsource the assessment entirely. The Victorian Legal Admissions Board: “Applications made through the portal include assessments for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.”

The honest limit on the claim. The list is uniform; the legal test the decision-maker applies is not identical everywhere, and NSW says so about the national guidance in its own published guideline: the Uniform Principles “is not directed to the particular legal context that applies in the Uniform Law jurisdictions. Thus, importantly, it does not take account of the significance of the criteria spelt out in s 18 of the LPUL and r 6A of the UAR”, and “It is to be recalled that the document is a guideline, not a set of rules.” So two authorities could in principle reach different outcomes on the same file. What they will not do is apply a different list of eleven areas.

What actually varies: your country of qualification

The LACC’s Uniform Principles contains a schedule headed “Common Additional Academic Requirements”, organised by country. Its default rule is the one to read first:

“Applicants relying on academic qualifications from – (a) any country not mentioned below; or (b) an institution within a country, other than an institution that is specifically identified below with respect to that country, will be required to study all Prescribed Subjects.”

That is the baseline: all eleven, unless your country and institution are specifically named.

Two named examples, quoted in full:

“An applicant with a degree in law from an English or Welsh university will be required to take Administrative Law, Federal and State Constitutional Law, Ethics and Professional Responsibility and any other Prescribed Subjects not studied during that degree.”

“[Canada] An applicant who has a Common Law degree will be required to study Administrative Law, Federal and State Constitutional Law, Property and any other Prescribed Subjects not included in that degree.”

Notice the pattern. The subjects that survive from a common-law jurisdiction are the ones that are inherently Australian: administrative law, constitutional law, Australian professional ethics, and Torrens-system property. The Uniform Principles list the areas an overseas applicant must have covered and add: “In each case, the content of the subject must be substantially equivalent to that prescribed in Schedule 1.”

New Zealand is the single carve-out: “A lawyer trained and admitted to the legal profession in New Zealand may apply to have those qualifications recognised under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act 1997 (Cth).”

Four rules that catch people out

A postgraduate degree usually does not count. The Uniform Principles, item 2.4: “A post-graduate Doctorate, Masters or Diploma course, taken in Australia or elsewhere, is generally not a relevant qualification for admission purposes. A Graduate Diploma in law undertaken in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and the Common Professional Examination are exceptions to this principle.” An Australian LLM will not close a Priestley gap.

Practical legal training and bar preparation do not count as academic subjects. Item 2.5: “Academic credit will rarely be given for subjects undertaken as part of a practical legal training course, or bar examination preparation, even if the subjects bear similar names to the areas of knowledge prescribed in Schedule 1.”

Not every course marketed as a Priestley bridging subject qualifies. Item 2.6 sets two conditions: the subject must be run by “a tertiary institution which is approved by an Australian Admitting Authority for the purpose of providing a full course of study in the areas of knowledge prescribed in Schedule 1”, and the faculty head must certify that it “is substantially equivalent to a subject offered as part of the course of study already accredited for admission purposes at that institution.” Ask any provider for both before you enrol.

A bare pass is not enough in the way you might assume. Item 3.1: “Credit will not be granted for a subject where a result of less than 50% was achieved.”

The assessment, and where you apply for it

You cannot self-assess, and you cannot apply for admission first. The Uniform Principles:

“Except for a lawyer trained and admitted in New Zealand, every lawyer trained outside Australia who wishes to become eligible for admission in Australia must first apply to an Admitting Authority for an assessment of whether the person’s academic and practical legal training qualifications are substantially equivalent to the qualifications required of local applicants. That assessment will set out what additional studies the applicant must undertake in Australia, and the period within which the applicant must complete those studies and apply for admission.”

Jurisdiction	Who assesses	Published detail
NSW	Legal Profession Admission Board, Academic Exemptions Sub-Committee	“you must have your qualification assessed by the LPAB’s Academic Exemptions Sub-Committee, before you apply for admission as a lawyer in NSW”; “Please allow between 10 to 12 weeks”
Victoria	Victorian Legal Admissions Board, under rule 11	two application types: “Foreign Graduate Assessment” (not admitted overseas) and “Foreign Lawyer Assessment” (admitted or entitled to practise overseas); published fees: academic only $320, PLT only $320, both $640
South Australia, Tasmania	the Victorian board, through the same portal	—
Queensland	Legal Practitioners Admissions Board	“You may need to complete additional study in order to obtain approved academic qualification and/or approved practical legal training in Queensland”; the Supreme Court (Admission) Rules 2004 (Qld) r 8(3) allows the board to require foreign qualifications “supplemented with other academic qualifications”

What the assessment produces is a direction, not a grade. NSW’s guideline describes the power: it “enables the Board to give a ‘direction’ as to whether or not the person’s academic qualifications and PLT obtained overseas are sufficient to render the person eligible for admission and, if not sufficient in whole or in part, guidance as to what additional qualifications or training the person needs to undertake.” And the test: whether the Board “is satisfied that the person has sufficient legal skills or relevant experience so as to render the person eligible for admission.” NSW puts the ultimate question in the same terms this page uses: “The ultimate question in relation to any particular subject in the Priestley 11 is whether the person has demonstrated – by reference to their study, skills or experience – that they have (or will have when applying for admission) acquired the identified academic areas of knowledge.”

One myth worth killing while we are here. The NSW board on the UK trade agreement: it “has established a Legal Services Regulatory Dialogue that, amongst other things, will consider enhancing the professional mobility of lawyers between Australia and the UK, but has not introduced mutual recognition arrangements that will immediately allow UK lawyers to be admitted as lawyers in Australia (or vice versa) without their having to undergoing the usual application for admission processes applicable in each Australian jurisdiction.”

So what should you actually do

Apply for the assessment before you enrol in anything. It is the only document that tells you which subjects you need, it costs a few hundred dollars, and every provider will ask to see it — the NSW Diploma in Law course tells overseas applicants outright: “You will need to provide a copy of your assessment letter when registering and you should refer to the below table of Priestley 11 subjects to ensure you enrol in the correct subjects.”

Then match the letter against a programme that is approved for the purpose. The options that let you take only the subjects you were directed to take, rather than a whole degree, are set out in Australian JD and graduate diploma programs that deliver the Priestley 11. And if you are weighing admission against the other routes open to a foreign-qualified lawyer, start from assessment, licence and admission are three different gates.

What this page does not do

It does not tell you which subjects you will be directed to complete — only an admitting authority can, and it will not do so informally. We have quoted the LACC’s area headings and its interpretive rule but have not reproduced the detailed topic lists under each heading; those run to many pages, they were last updated on 31 October 2025, and the authoritative copy is the LACC document itself. One source caveat: the NSW statutory instrument’s Schedule 1 was read from a 2022 consolidation because the NSW legislation site would not serve us, and while its eleven headings match the current LACC list exactly, we have not independently verified the instrument’s current version date. Nothing here is legal advice. For visa questions, go to the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent.