Law students have a lot to cope with during their days as students. The approach to the study of this course should be total as against taking a course and trying to memorize what is involved in it. If you want to be a total student; the focus should be on understanding the contents in a textbook and going on to ensure that you apply what you have learned to useful practical purposes.
It is a misplacement of priority when you attempt to learn the law by attempting to recite legal rules and authorities. When you learn how to treat individual legal issues as you encounter them in the textbooks; you are going to be better informed as a law student. You can go on and use what you have learned to make your flow chart or short notes.
How can you identify legal issues?
There are no law exam textbooks that address this issue. An approach is to copy & paste the problem/question into Microsoft word doc. Go on and print it out double-spaced. Go ahead and start identifying the legal issues while you cross-check them with your written note. Where you have a problem identifying the questions, it is advised that you go over the textbook again for a clearer understanding of the text.
Legal system and methods
This is a course that no longer carries marks for LLB at the University of London. We shall take a look at various aspects of the law and what is required to achieve expected results.
- Land law
In this category, the approach to answering the questions is the mindset that no singular question is limited to one single subject. No area of study should be omitted in land law if you wanted the results that mattered. Study the areas that you wanted to major in extensively. These are the areas you wanted to attempt questions and for the other parts remaining, make sure you have grasps of the key points.
- Company law
The focus of the chief examiner will determine how far you will go in this area. The problem will be compounded if the focus is different from the major textbooks that you are using. The textbook recommended by the chief examiner might not be of practical use; this again will compound the problem.
- Equity and trust
It is recommended that you use Hanbury and Martin’s Modern Equity as the primary textbook. This can be supported with the use of Penner’s textbook. Extensive reading for the goal of passing this exam might be counter-productive at the end of the day.
- Public law
Go all out to study enough jurisprudence and bring your knowledge in it into your answers. One sure bet of a textbook in this area is Constitutional and Administrative Law by Hilaire Barnett. You can add the pep to this main text through what is obtained in Neil Parpworth’s Constitution and Administrative Law. This is partly a third of what is contained in the main textbook but is going to get sure value through reading this short text.
- Criminal law
There are two recommended texts here that will lead to landing the highest marks. It is either you use Wilson’s Criminal Law or Smith and Hogan’s Criminal Law. You can add Ashworth’s Principle of Criminal Law. There is some usefulness in Jonathan Herring’s Great Debates in Criminal law but it is less useful in this course.
Criminal law is very important. It will not be out of place to purchase more than one textbook in other to achieve expected results in the study of this law.
- Tort law
There are varieties of textbooks that you can look up to if you wanted to achieve expected results through this course. You can look in the direction of the likes of Clerk and Lindsell on tort, Nick McBride’s textbook, and several others.
- Criminal and civil procedures
This is regarded as a tough course by several students. The major difficulty lies in the understanding of the concepts that this course is based on. The suggested textbooks for this course are Sprack for the criminal procedure and Sime for civil procedure.
Conclusion
When you are connected with the right textbook and you take your time to read and understand instead of memorizing; results that mattered will be achieved.
