STUDYING THE LAW; A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

1. GETTING USED TO THE TEACHING METHODS AT UNIVERSITY

One of the key delivery methods used by universities is the lecture. A lecture involves the dissemination of a body of legal knowledge. Its aim is to give an overview of the major themes and cases related to a particular legal issue e.g. offer and acceptance. Lectures may last for one, two or possibly even three hours, and each will involve you listening to the delivery of set subject content. Your techniques in listening will have a dramatic effect on the amount that you will get out of lectures. If you are unable to master the techniques of listening effectively then it will affect your understanding of the issues under discussion and the quality of your lecture notes which are a significant part of your later success in exams or in coursework. It is important that you learn to listen and not just simply to hear. Effective listening will build your understanding whilst merely hearing may well breed misunderstanding.

Different lecturers have different delivery styles. Some will give handouts at the beginning of the module or beginning of the lecture. Some may use information technology and refer to web or intranet areas. Others will give handouts at the end. Some will allow questions. Others will not tolerate interruptions. Know the individual style of your lecturers as it will help you in your preparation.

Lectures are perceived by many students to be a vehicle to gain a complete set of notes on a topic. Many students make note-taking the highest priority believing that by reviewing the notes they will be able to complete all of the other tasks above after the lecture. The danger with this is that they may fail to understand the legal issues being outlined and find the notes they have taken have gaps, which result in a difficulty in understanding the subject content. Never rely merely on lecture notes when preparing for tutorials, because your knowledge and understanding will be incomplete.

Getting the most out of lectures:

• Select an appropriate position
  Do not sit in a position where you cannot see visual aids or have difficulty hearing. This may mean you have to turn up early to get a good position.
• Pre-reading and note gathering
  Some lecturers give handouts or place their lecture notes ‘online’ or on the University intranet. Law courses are information rich; the lecture will cover many cases and issues for discussion. By skim reading the handouts or pre-available material you will gain an awareness of the issues for discussion and will improve your learning. It will also prevent you wasting time taking notes on topics that are covered in detail on the handouts or elsewhere.
• Focus on listening
  Pre-reading will assist in gaining a broad awareness of the issues/topics and this will allow you to focus on the lecture as opposed to the note taking.
• Use the lectures as guidance for your further study
  The lecture should provide a guide as to how much depth and what importance individual legal issues have. The lecture therefore is a guide to direct your subsequent research and also to highlight the importance of areas in terms of assessment.
• After the lecture
  If you have listened actively you need to make further notes to support your understanding. It is important to do this as soon as possible after the lecture has taken place. You will quickly forget the issues discussed in the lecture. Within 48 hours, 80 per cent of the information that was presented to you will be forgotten unless reviewed within that period.

2. CLASSIFYING THE LAW YOU ARE STUDYING

In order to study the law in detail you need to be able to appreciate how it can be broken up into a number of different component parts. One method of dividing the law into different categories is to classify it as substantive law or as adjectival law.

Substantive law is the term which is used to refer to the rules which govern our rights and duties under the law, for example the cases and statutes which create criminal offences, or the cases and statutes which define contractual obligations. Adjectival law prescribes how those substantive rules can be used within the legal system, for examples the rules of evidence, procedure and costs which are to be observed when bringing a case to court.

An alternative way of classifying the law is by reference to its subject matter. From the point of view of lawyers and those involved in the legal system, this is the most useful way of dividing the law into categories.

The broadest distinction which can be drawn is between international law and domestic law. International law is concerned with the external relationships between different States and is based on treaties and conventions. A good example here is the Treaty of European Union (also known as the Maastricht Treaty). Domestic law comprises the laws of a particular State, that is the cases or statute law which govern relationships within that country and can be divided into public law and private law.

Public law cases are those cases in which one of the parties to the dispute is the Crown, usually acting through a government department. Public law can be further subdivided into the areas of criminal law and civil law.

Criminal law is concerned with conduct of which society disapproves so strongly that the State must punish the wrongdoer; for example, murder, theft, and driving offences. The major objective of criminal proceedings is to punish the perpetrator of the crime, not to compensate the victim. The Crown Prosecution Service, acting on behalf of the Crown, prosecutes the accused, who will be found guilty of the offence charged if the prosecutor can convince the court beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did commit that offence. Public civil law cases, by contrast, are concerned with problems in constitutional and administrative law. For example, these cases may challenge the legality of actions carried out by central or local government, or may bring test cases on individual freedoms which have been infringed by the government, such as telephone tapping.

As mentioned above, the other branch of domestic law is private law. This involves civil law and is concerned with the rights and duties which private individuals have in relation to each other. There are many different categories of civil law, for example the law of contract, the law of torts (wrongs such as negligence or slander), and the law of property. The major objective of an action which involves private civil law is to compensate the person who has suffered the wrong, usually by payment of money (damages). A civil action is commenced by the victim, that is, the claimant, who sues the defendant in order to obtain a remedy. The claimant must prove his or her case on a balance of probabilities, in other words it must be more likely than not that the defendant harmed the claimant in the manner alleged.

3. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE SOURCES OF LAW

In the first year of your course, usually in the English Legal System module, you will find out very quickly that English law is not to be found in a single place or a single document. English law comes from many different sources and it is important that you remember these since it will help you in following different types of substantive law later on. It is also important for you to know quickly and easily where to look for the law in particular areas.

Below is a table with brief explanations of the main sources of law and some explanations of what can be found in them.

Source	Illumination
Custom	Not a very important source in modern times. Early law before the creation of the common law system was generally based on local custom. Because of the saying ‘custom hardens into right’ some custom survives. Public rights of way and the modern byelaw are examples of custom being incorporated into law.
Case law	Case law is the law that is developed by judges in reaching decisions in actual cases.The law developed by judges is important in two particular contexts:§ The doctrine of precedent Judges develop the law by applying existing principles of law to the cases in front of them. If the material facts of the case differ from those from which the existing principle was found then the judges will have to produce an extension of the principle to cover those facts. If no principle can be found which might cover the facts then the judges create what is known as ‘original’ precedent.Judicial precedent is important in many areas of law. The Law of Torts for instance is almost exclusively found in the case law, so you should be prepared to learn many cases when you undertake that module.§ Statutory interpretationJudges can have a major impact on the application of statute law when they are called on to interpret words contained in a specific part of an Act when the meaning of those words is in dispute in a case before them. Because the judges have so many quite different rules and aids to help them interpret the words of an Act there can be some very surprising results. Judges also play a major role in developing or even restricting the development of law when they reach so-called ‘policy’ decisions. An example of this is the imposition of restrictive controls on the ability to make a claim of a ‘secondary victim’ who suffers ‘nervous shock’ (psychiatric damage) resulting from a single traumatic event caused by another person’s negligence. These can be found in the leading case of Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1992] 1 AC 310.Judges can also have quite an impact on the law when they take a particular moral stance. For instance in the case of Shaw v DPP [1962] AC 220, the House of Lords (the highest court in the country) decided that the publisher of a contact magazine (giving contact details for prostitutes) was guilty of an offence of ‘conspiracy to corrupt public morals’ even though no such offence existed in law. When the judges were criticised for this they defended themselves by saying that they had a residual right to protect public morality.
Equity	Equity basically means fairness. Originally equity was a separate system of law administered in separate courts and providing some relief for people who had been treated unfairly by the common law system.Equity is no longer a separate system of law but it is still an important concept.It was responsible for developing a number of remedies that were more useful to a claimant in an action than the standard damages (money compensation) allowed under common law. Examples include:§ Injunctions § Specific performance § Rescission Equity was responsible for developing enforceable interests that had more flexibility than common law ones including:§ The trust § The mortgage
Legislation	Legislation is in two forms:§ Acts of ParliamentParliament is said to be the supreme law maker – it can make or unmake any law, and the validity of Acts cannot be challenged by any court Much modern law comes in statutory form and many areas of law are said to be mainly statutory e.g. Criminal Law, Company Law etc.§ Delegated legislationThis is subject to the control of Parliament and also can be challenged in the courts if it is ultra vires (beyond the powers given to the body making it) or offends the rules of natural justice.Delegated means that Parliament has given power to the body to make specific laws for specific purposes or in specific circumstances.Delegated legislation can be one of three types:§ Statutory instruments § Orders in Council § Byelaws
EU law	The United Kingdom has been a member state of the EU (originally the EC) since 1st January 1973 after signing the Treaties and passing the European Communities Act 1972, incorporating the Treaties into English law.On matters where EU law is relevant, the UK is bound absolutely by that law because the EU has supremacy on those issues, so the UK Parliament cannot make laws that conflict with EU law.Citizens can also enforce EU law in member states through the process known as ‘direct effect’.EU law is an important feature of English law, mostly at the moment in economic areas. It is vital to Contract Law, Consumer Law, Employment Law, Company Law and some other areas.
Human Rights	The UK is also a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights and citizens, once they have exhausted their national rights of action can make an application to the European Court of Human Rights.The Convention includes many very basic rights such as the right to life and the right not to be tortured, as well as freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.In 1998 the Human Rights Act gave effect to the main provisions of the Convention into English law. Now a judge in a case can consider whether or not a provision of the Convention has been infringed. Judges may also declare that new legislation is incompatible with a Convention right, although it is only Parliament that can then alter the legislation.

 

4. RESEARCHING THE LAW

What are Primary Sources?
Primary sources fall into two categories: legislation and case law. What defines these as primary sources is the fact that they contain the actual text of the law – i.e. the text of an Act of Parliament or the judgment of the court. You may find reading primary sources heavy going at first as the language used can be very legalistic, but you should persevere as there is no real substitute for reading the primary source. A case summary or an article about an Act may present a particular point of view, but only by reading the primary sources can you get the full picture and begin to form your own opinions.

What are Secondary Sources?
Secondary sources provide background information to supplement the primary sources and include journal articles, legal encyclopaedias and textbooks. In conjunction with primary sources, secondary sources can help you become better informed about a topic.

The Law Librarian
If you have the opportunity to attend any training sessions run by the Law Librarian or other library staff, then you would be strongly advised to do so. Most Law Librarians offer training sessions not because they like the sound of their own voice, but because they want to help students get the most out of the library resources. As you’ve probably realised by now, law can be a confusing and challenging subject with lots of different resources (in print and electronic formats) to consult. Knowing which resource to choose is a skill in itself, as is knowing how to get to the information you’re looking for when you’ve chosen your resource. Any library training sessions that will help you navigate your way through this vast array of information should be seized with both hands.

Library training sessions are often run on a voluntary rather than compulsory basis (that is to say they are not a timetabled lecture or tutorial slot) but this doesn’t mean that they are any less valuable. By attending these sessions, you’ll be investing in your future success and equipping yourself with the skills you need to become an independent learner.