He completed his HSC at Penrith High School last year with an ATAR score of 93.9.

``UWS's Parramatta campus offers 45 days of practical legal experience for students,'' Mr Palangetic said.

He admitted that UWS's offer of a $20,000 scholarship was also ``good incentive'' to study there.

``But another reason I chose UWS was that all other uni law faculties were either standing still or in decline,'' Mr Palangetic.

``One of my lecturers works for the International Court of Justice and is formulating a law for space a law that doesn't yet exist.''

Mr Palangetic is passionate about the law.

``It's a system that's there to uphold society; the law is how we run things,'' he said.

Ranislav Palangetic has come a long way since the age of 10, when his family left the former Yugoslavia in 2001.

The country had fallen apart through civil war and only United Nations involvement restored some sort of order.

``My family lost everything,''

Mr Palangetic said. ``It was very hard. We were going to go to America, but my mother said we should go to Australia.

``I'm glad she did because Australia is a great country; if you want to do something with your life here, you can.''

He said studying at UWS would give him enough time to pursue his other passion basketball.

``I play for the Blacktown Storm,'' Mr Palangetic said.

``I thought of going to America to compete, but I can't now because I'm going to university.''