THE WADHAM
LAW STUDENT’S
SURVIVAL KIT
Michaelmas 2015
Contents
1
General Considerations
Reading lists
Reading and taking notes
8
A sample case brief template
10
Use of libraries
11
Essays and problem questions
17
The skills of a lawyer
17
Tutorials
18
Lectures
19
Revision
19
Monitoring progress
End of term reports
Collections
20
What is your tutor looking for
20
Balance between academic and other commitments
Time management
21
Enjoying the course
2
General Considerations
This guide is intended to assist you through your Law degree, giving you advice on study
skills and the conduct of relations with tutors. It is true that different students will have
different ways of studying, and prescriptions can be constraining. Equally, this is a joint
memo from us and we may give different emphases to different parts, but we commend it to
you as it expresses in substance our shared views. That said, what follows represents
techniques which previous generations of students (often by painful trial and error) have, in
our experience, found effective. The majority of you are aspiring professionals who at the end
of your degree courses will go into careers requiring high levels of commitment, efficiency,
personal organisation and accuracy. It is fitting that these same professional standards should
apply during your time at Oxford, and it is by these standards that you will be judged. If there
is one thing we cannot emphasise enough, it is that you will be working very hard, but also
that generations before you have managed this intense hard work alright.
Please note that for a fuller guide to learning the law, you should consult Learning the Law
by Glanville Williams. You might also find helpful Nicholas McBride, Letters to a Law
Student: a Guide to Studying Law at University.
Reading Lists
One of the most intimidating aspects of learning at Oxford, initially, is the reading list. Your
tutor should give you some guidance as to the order of priority to be observed among items,
whether they are cases, statutes, articles, or chapters from textbooks (a common form of this
guidance is the use of an asterisk to indicate items of the greatest significance). This
prioritisation does not mean however that you do not have to read everything on the list in
preparation for tutorials; always assume that you do unless instructed otherwise.
Your reading should always be active. It is perfectly possible to spend long hours in the
library but to make zero intellectual progress. This happens when you read passively; in other
words without a set of questions in your mind. To generate a set of questions (if they have not
already been provided by the tutor): think about the assignment you have been set; think
about how the case you are reading relates to others that you have read; think about
definitional and conceptual issues; and think about other essays you have covered in related
areas in that or a related paper.
Reading and Taking Notes
Effective note-taking depends to a considerable extent on how you read (see previous
section). Observing the advice which follows may seem time-consuming at first, but rest
assured that experience has shown it to be the most effective and economical method.
The worst form of note-taking is that where the student sits in the library with one finger in
the page s/he is reading, while his/her other hand faithfully replicates the contents of the
page. Equally futile is copying and pasting large extracts from online journals and case
reports. Essays adopting the same approach are doomed to collapse under the same criticism.
Photocopying (or printing or copying and pasting from online resources) is not the same as
reading. You should try to limit any photocopying to articles and, rarely, if ever, copy cases
- you must get into the habit of reading cases and taking effective notes; photocopying or
simply amassing print-outs or computer files blunts this process. If you do make copies of
articles, then at least make notes in the margin, or condense the article to one side of A4;
otherwise when you come back to read it again, it will be like reading it for the first time.
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Make sure that your notes, reading lists, and essays are kept in clearly organised files.
It is important that you realise that different types of text require different types of reading:
Textbooks
Certainly in the early stages of your legal career, you should read the relevant chapter(s) from
textbooks first, and reasonably quickly, to get an overview of the week's work, without taking
any notes. This will give you an idea as to the relative significance of the cases and statutory
materials on the list. If you have time, read the textbook again, after you have read the other
items on the list, and take brief notes (confined to analysis and structure, rather than details of
cases etc., which you should already have from your reading of them). If you do not keep
them brief then you are likely to end up virtually copying them out - this is a pointless
exercise if you have bought the book or it is easily accessible in the library.
It should not be assumed that a reading list is a comprehensive guide to all you could ever
need to know about a particular subject. Reading lists normally only cover the essential
materials to be read as the basis for tutorial discussion. Feel free to read other materials that
seem to be of relevance that you come across. (Reading more widely as part of your revision
for collections and Finals is strongly advised.) As a general rule, at this stage of your
development as a lawyer it is probably a good idea to read the relevant chapter or section on
the given topic in your chosen text and/or casebook, and then the cases and statutes in the
original. As you become more adept in understanding legal reasoning, you may wish to read
the cases first to form your own views before consulting textbooks.
Articles
There are hundreds of articles on every topic. If a tutor has put one on the reading list, it is
because s/he (or the Faculty teaching group) thinks it is important and you must read it.
Articles can, sometimes, tend to labour their point and you should seek to cultivate the skill
of skim-reading. Look out for the framework of the argument (you should be able to
summarise this in a couple of sentences), and don't allow yourself to be swamped by detail.
Remember that many law journals are now available online (see the links to SOLO and OU
e-journals at the bottom of the Law Bodleian homepage, and HeinOnline has facsimiles of
law journals in its database dating back to the early 20th-century. Some material may not be
available here, but may be put up on “LawBod4Students”, accessible through your Weblearn
account.
Cases1
Case reports are the lifeblood of the law and, consequently, the mainstay of most areas.
Don’t forget that law is not just a philosophical system; it is an authority-based philosophical
system. Even if an area is largely based on statutes (e.g. some parts of Criminal Law and
Land Law), cases will be relevant to the interpretation of the relevant sections of the statutes.
You will need to acquire the skill of reading case reports reasonably quickly and taking
effective notes. To begin with, however, this will be a slow process and you simply have to
persevere. You may wonder why you are asked to read cases in the law reports even when
they are included in your casebook. This is because the casebook is unlikely to give you a
full account of the facts. The judge's reasoning will also have been edited, and some
1
Note that our recommendations differ from with McBride's on pages 143-144! In a common law system the
facts of the case can be vitally important, and quotations from other cases should be read (even if only quickly)
to understand how the court is interpreting the precedents, and to see how the court's decision fits within those
precedents. It also helps you identify the critical passages in those precedents.
4
important stages in the argument may be missing. It is sometimes easier to understand a fuller
account. Another reason for using law reports is that a case may be relevant for more than
one reason. A casebook editor usually chooses a case for inclusion to illustrate a particular
point of law. This is not necessarily the only important point made in the case, and if you rely
upon the casebook extract, you may not be able to see why the case has been listed for that
particular week's reading. You will learn a lot about how lawyers construct arguments from
reading judgments in full (and much of value can be gained by scanning the summary of
counsel’s arguments which are included in the Official Law Reports, such as the Appeal
Cases). You will develop the ability to decide for yourself what is and is not important in a
case, which is an absolutely essential legal skill.
This is not the occasion for a guide to the legal system of England and Wales but, in very
simple terms, the courts are organised on three levels: the High Court, from which there is an
appeal to the Court of Appeal, from which, in turn, there is an appeal to the UK Supreme
Court, or (until October 2009) the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords. Not every case
is appealed to the Supreme Court but, where it is, needless to say, the decision of the
Supreme Court (or previously the HL) is authoritative and of the greatest significance. You
may also be asked to read cases from the UK Privy Council, which deals with devolution
issues from Scotland and Wales, and also used to be the final Court of Appeal from many
Commonwealth jurisdictions (and still is for the Caribbean).
On the reading list, you will have been given the name of the case, followed by a series of
letters and numbers, e.g. R (The Queen) v (pronounced ‘and’, not “vee” or "versus" or
“against” by British lawyers) Thornton [1992] 1 All ER 306. This indicates that the report of
the case of Thornton can be found in the series of law reports called the All England Law
Reports (All ER) for the year 1992, volume 1 at p.306. In the first decade of the 21st-century
most Commonwealth jurisdictions adopted so-called neutral citations by which all other cases
can be easily found on electronic data bases (e.g. EWCA Crim = Court of Appeal Criminal
Division, EWCA Civ = Court of Appeal Civil Division, EWHC (Admin) = Administrative
Division of the High Court, and EWHC (Comm) = the Commercial Division of the High
Court, SCC = Supreme Court of Canada, AusHC = High Court of Australia, etc).
There are numerous series of law reports and law journals and you will very quickly become
familiar with the abbreviations by which they are known. Among the most common you will
encounter in your Law Mods reading lists are:*
CLJ
= Cambridge Law Journal
AC
= Appeal Cases*
LS
= Legal Studies
All ER = All England Law Reports**
MLR
= Modern Law Review
Cr App R = Criminal Appeal Reports***
LQR
= Law Quarterly Review
QB
= Queen's Bench Division*
NLJ
= New Law Journal
WLR
= Weekly Law Reports*
OJLS
=Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
Crim LR = Criminal Law Review****
PL
= Public Law
==================================================================
* available online on Justis Electronic Law Reports
** available on Lexis
*** in full text on Westlaw from 1993 ****case commentaries on Westlaw
Most law journals are also now available online as well as in the Wadham Law Library and
of course in the Law Bodleian library.
If you cannot find the case in the series of reports given on the reading list, do not despair.
Cases are often reported in more than one series of reports. For example, if you are looking
5
for Knuller v DPP, and you find that someone really quick off the mark has taken [1973] AC
off-the-shelf, a glance at the Case Citator on a law database or at a text book will tell you that
the case is also to be found in [1972] 2 All E.R. 898 as well as [1972] 3 WLR 143 and 56 Cr
App R 633 (all being available online). Use your common sense in looking for source
material; also it is very worthwhile to explore computer law databases, through SOLO. The
Bodleian Law Library web site also has links to other Internet databases such as cases from
the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/elec-res.html. The new
Supreme Court is posting all of its judgments on the day they are pronounced, along with
very helpful press releases, and you can also watch argument before the UK Supreme Court
which is an excellent way of developing your legal analytical skills by watching the best
advocates in the country argue their cases.
In a reported case you will see the following (a case downloaded directly from the website of
the Court is only likely to have 1 and 10):
1. The level of court and the name of the judges hearing the case. You need only note the
level of the court (CA, for Court of Appeal, HL for House of Lords, UKSC for the
Supreme Court, etc.)
2. A list of keywords. Ignore this.
3. Facts and Held - collectively known as the headnote. In some lists your tutors may
indicate that this is all you need to read, but this will be a rare event.
4. A summary of the facts - this has done much of the work for you. Although it is a
summary, you should nevertheless attempt to shorten it further when noting them down.
Do not note the facts until you have, at least, read the Held (see 5) and, ideally, not until
you have also read the judgments. It is often the case that even some of the facts in the
headnote are fairly irrelevant to the point of law which the case decides - certainly this
may be true if a case decides more than one point and your reading list is really only after
one of them - , and it is an essential skill to identify the relevant facts.
5. The ‘Held’. A rather awkward term, this denotes a summary of the decision and the
reasons given by the judges for it. The latter will often only be superficially recorded in
the Held and you will need to read the judgments to understand them fully.

The Held is usually followed by a series of page/paragraph references. These tell
you where, in the judgments, you will find the passages which have been
summarised in the Held. These will sometimes help you to get to the relevant
parts of the judgments more easily than skim reading the whole thing. This tends
to be true of shorter cases. With longer cases, you are given so many page
references, that it is easier simply to skim read the whole judgment(s).

The Held will usually be followed by the names of a few cases, accompanied by
the words ‘followed’, ‘applied’, ‘distinguished’, ‘overruled’ (rare) etc. This
refers to cases, some of which you will also have read, that might have been
thought to indicate which way the decision in the particular case should have
gone.
6. Notes. Ignore this.
6
7. Cases referred to etc. Ignore this
8. Appeal (a brief history of how the case got to its present stage). You can generally
ignore this though on occasions it indicates the starting point facing an appellate court
which can be helpful. Some Chancery cases in particular are easier to understand if you
read this.
9. Arguments of Counsel are recorded in the Official Law Reports, and often can be very
helpful in identifying the issues under appeal and the opposing arguments as to the
interpretation of cases you have already read, and how counsel are asking the court to
develop or limit the previous case law.
10. The judgment(s). Thankfully, judges are increasingly using headings to divide up their
judgments and this makes it much easier to find the passages which are most relevant.
Unfortunately, older judgments are less helpful in this regard (with the honourable
exception of Lord Denning).
Most judgments will start off with a fairly detailed description of the facts and a summary
of the case to date. You can usually skip this because you already have them in
summarised form from the headnote. Occasionally, the later parts of the judgment may
seem to presume a fact(s) which did not appear in the headnote and you may have to
come back to the judge's own assessment of the facts to clear this up.
Then there is the material part of the judgment, where the judge deals with the principles
of law which are applicable to the cases and applies them to the facts. S/he may be
considering a statute and how it applies to the facts of the case or, as here, where the
matter is governed by common law, s/he will consider what the state of the law is on the
basis of previous decisions of the courts (the doctrine of precedent).
This section may concern just one point of law or several. The skill you need to acquire
is the ability to read this part of the judgment (which can be fairly long) quickly and note
succinctly the reasons for the decision of the judge/court. Because the judges are bound
by the previous decisions (the doctrine of precedent – you will need to learn the
exceptions) you will find that a large part of the judgment is taken up with summaries of
previous relevant cases. Many of these you will have read yourself, so there is no need to
note down again what those cases were about or how they were decided. Limit your note
to the way such previous cases are interpreted by the judges in the latest case.
Once the judge has reviewed the previous cases, s/he will usually try to distil the relevant
principles and apply them to the case at hand. This is, probably, the most important part
of the judgment and you should note it carefully.
In most cases, the judges are unanimous in their decision. Sometimes there is only one
judgment given, which may be stated as being the judgment of 'the court'. This is
standard practice in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, but not in criminal cases in
the HL or UKSC. In other cases, judges will limit themselves to one sentence in which
they record their agreement with another judge. Occasionally, even if judges agree with
one another, they may still want to have their say. You will learn quite quickly to spot a
judgment which adds a different angle to a decision from one which is simply an old
7
windbag wanting to have his/her stay - needless to say you do not have to note the latter.
In some cases the judges may differ. The case will be decided by the ‘majority’ and the
‘minority’ are recorded as having dissented. In such cases it is usually just as important
to read the minority opinions as it is to read the majority's; under our common law
system dissenting speeches have a habit of becoming the law later. The most annoying
variant of this is where a majority agree on the decision but disagree on the reasoning.
this produces a serious ratio problem – see below. Avoid the common temptation
though, to treat the most colourful judgment in a three judge Court of Appeal as the
decision of the Court.
Try to make your notes of cases as succinct as possible - even with longer cases where all of
the judges give slightly different judgments, you should try to keep your note to two/three
pages. Most cases can be noted adequately in one/one and a half pages of A4.
To begin with, you will miss the point of certain cases. One way to try and avoid this is to
check the textbook reference to the case to see what its significance appears to be, before you
embark on reading it. In the traditional language of the law, you are seeking the ratio
decidendi or reason for the decision. It is this which has the binding force. In an Australian
case where the High Court wished to deviate from an opinion not forming part of the ratio by
a very distinguished former member of the court, it fell to Kirby J to explain why they were
not doing so. This is what he said:
It is fundamental to the ascertainment of the binding rule of a judicial decision that
it should be derived from
(1) the reasons of the judges agreeing in the order disposing of the proceedings;
(2) upon a matter in issue in the proceedings;
(3) upon which a decision is necessary to arrive at that order.
Thus, the opinions of judges in dissent are disregarded for this purpose, however
valuable they may otherwise be. Judicial remarks of a general character upon
tangential questions or issues not necessary to the decision are likewise discarded,
however persuasive the reasoning may appear. In this sense, the rules governing
the ascertainment of binding precedent observe principles which are at once
majoritarian and precise. Even so great a Justice of this Court as Dixon J cannot
speak for the Court unless his reasoning attracts the support, express or implied, of
a majority of the participating Justices (disregarding for this purpose any who did
not agree in the order of the Court disposing of the proceedings on the point in
question). Even then, the remarks will not be part of a binding rule unless they
relate to an issue in contention which had to be decided by the Court to reach its
order.
Garcia v National Australia Bank (High Court of Australia, 1998)
Your notes of cases should be presented in a uniform way which makes them easy to read
and allows you to go back to the case if you need to. You may find it helpful to follow this
template (the notes refer to a criminal case).
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CASE BRIEF TEMPLATE
STYLE OF CAUSE [name and citation for case, level of court(s) rendering judgment, e.g.
CA, HL;]
FACTS:
[short summary of only the relevant facts, which will be determined
largely by the issues (see below)]
ISSUES:
[list here the legal issues in the case] e.g.,
(1) Whether failure to act can give rise to criminal liability in English
law;
(2) If so, whether an unintentional act (accidental fire to mattress)
followed by an intentional omission to rectify the obvious
consequence of that act is sufficient to constitute an offence
(3) etc
HELD:
[indicate the result/ who won which issue], e.g.
(1) yes (for prosecution)
(2) yes (for prosecution)
(3) no (for defendant)
State the overall result, e.g., appeal dismissed, retrial ordered, conviction
quashed.
REASONS: [summarize the reasoning of each judge supporting his/her conclusion on
each issue] e.g.
Majority Lord Hobhouse (Lord Hoffmann concurring)
re issue (1)
re issue (2)
re issue (3)
Dissent Lord Steyn
re issue (1)
re issue (2)
re issue (3)
RATIO:
[a succinct statement of the important legal principle for which the case
stands]
COMMENTS: [include your own comments on the reasoning e.g. whether you find the
majority or the dissenting opinions most persuasive, and why.
Cross-reference other cases which have considered this case - has the
principle in the ratio been modified, expanded, or contracted? Overruled?
Rejected in other jurisdictions? Include academic commentary on the case.]
Case notes
These are, effectively, short articles (two/three pages) which comment on a particular case,
rather than a particular topic. Some tutors use them more often than others. They will
usually appear in parentheses after the reference to the case. You may find them very useful
to read before you read the case, because they will tell you what is important about the case
in more detail than a textbook, and will place the case in context with preceding cases and
critical commentary. If you do that, however, be specially wary of reading the case through
the eyes of the note-writer. One mark of growing skill as a lawyer is the desire to read the
case first. Notes from casenotes should be added at the end of your own note of the case.
Statutes
Statutes may appear extremely dull things to read, because they are simply rules. They only
come to life, as it were, when they are applied to cases and the judges have to interpret their
true intention and meaning in cases. For example, the basic definition of theft in The Theft
Act 1968 section 1(1) is:
9
‘A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to
another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.’
This short definition has spawned hundreds of appellate cases on the meaning of
‘dishonestly’, ‘appropriates’, ‘property’, ‘belonging to another’ and ‘intention permanently to
deprive’.
Nevertheless, you should not ignore references to statutes on the reading list. You must
always start with the basic rule laid down in the statute, as must the courts. Photocopying
or downloading statutes [from Justis or Westlaw] is probably a good idea since you would
have to note them verbatim anyway, and you will need clean copies for collections in
College [we permit underlining, highlighting and place marking but no annotations]. In some
papers, tutors will recommend that you buy a collection of relevant statutes. We recommend
that you purchase the statute book which is permitted in the examination room, so that you
will become familiar with the layout. Not all subjects will permit you to take statutes in.
Use of libraries
Students are inclined to complain that they have been unable to get hold of books.
Remember that in Oxford you are extraordinarily privileged, as compared with students in
other universities, who only have one source of books; you have, at least, three.
Your first point of call is the College Library. Wadham has a very good Law section
containing most major series of law reports and periodicals, and our collection of
monographs and textbooks is rapidly improving thanks to the generosity of Wadham alumni
and an annual gift from Herbert Smith LLP. You can also find an evergrowing collection of
law books published by the Oxford University Press is in electronic form is in
OxfordScholarshipOnline, accessible through the Law Bodleian website. Many of you may
prefer to work in the University library (the Bodleian Law Library – ‘the Bod’ in the St.
Cross Building), but those who decide to stay in the College Library must be prepared to
share it with your colleagues. Life gets very difficult for others if you:
(i)
remove law reports and law journals from the top floor of the library;
(ii)
stockpile books at your desk - you can only read one report at a time and it is very
annoying if a book is not on the shelf, yet is not actually being read by somebody
else;
(iii) leave your files, books (or cricket boots, sports bags etc) at the desks in the library
if you are not planning to return for a long time - contrary to popular belief, you
cannot make a proprietary claim to these seats;
(iv)
talk in the library - lawyers have a particularly bad reputation in this regard;
(v)
deface the books in any shape or form.
Please do:
(i)
return books to their shelves after use - the librarians are librarians and not
shelvers and, curiously enough, the index system works better when books are at
their allotted place on the shelves, rather than randomly scattered about the
reading desks;
(ii)
make suggestions via the college librarian Tim Kirtley (library@wadh.ox.ac.uk)
or the law tutors of books or reports you think it would be helpful for us to
acquire.
You will be given a tour of the Law Bod, and an intensive programme in research skills.
There is no book which you will need during your three years as an undergraduate which the
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Law Bod does not hold - the excuse that the College Library did not have a particular book
will, therefore, get you about as far as you might imagine. The Bod is a reference-only
library. Since the Bod also contains the lecture theatres for Law, you will find that you need
to use it between lectures, even if your normal work-base is the College Library.
Finally, if you want the real ‘Oxford experience’ you might consider working in the
Codrington library in All Souls College. There is a separate reading room for Law (the Anson
Reading Room), which looks like an upturned ark. You can gain inspiration from the massive
marble statue of Blackstone, who first gathered the common law into one source in the 18th
century. Many students find it a welcome refuge from revision stress. One drawback is that it
is so warm and quiet that you might be more likely to fall asleep than to work. If you wish to
use it, you will have to fill in an application form which also must be signed by your tutor they can be collected from All Souls (inquire at the All Souls Lodge on the High, or
download from the All Souls website).
Essays & Problems
Your knowledge and understanding of the Law will be tested in two main ways - by the
writing of essays and the solving of problems (some tutors may also ask you to make oral
presentations). Some papers do not require any formal problem solving at all (e.g.
Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, and Administrative Law); others make it optional (e.g.
Roman Law), while for others it is compulsory (e.g. Criminal and Tort Law). The two
disciplines are quite different. Essays require you to analyse critically a particular area of the
law and, often, consider what the law ought to be as well as what it is. Problems require you
to apply the law as it is to a hypothetical set of facts giving rise to issues you must identify.
ESSAYS
Essay Planning
Planning is essential and you should ensure that you leave enough time to do it properly. It is,
in fact, something you should have been doing throughout the week's work. Some students
become paralysed at the point when they come to write the essay, usually because they have
not been thinking about the demands of the question while working their way through the
reading list. It is a good idea to keep a sheet of paper separate from the main body of your
notes on which you should record thoughts and ideas relevant to the essay title as they occur
to you in the course of your reading. These jottings do not need to be elaborate, but making
them will assist you in shaping an essay. This applies in the same way to weeks when you are
particularly busy with many extra-curricular fixtures such as sporting or college events. You
should not expect to be given a dispensation from essay writing just because you are
having a hectic week; don't bother asking. Plan ahead so that you do your work in advance
if necessary to avoid finding that you have no time for your essay in a particularly busy week.
Essay Writing
Essays in law subscribe to the same basic pattern as for any other type of essay.
Your guiding principle here should be clarity. Much of what we say below relates to making
your argument explicit and providing signposts to it. Aristotle helps us here: ‘A speech has
two parts. You must state your case and prove it. You cannot either state your case and omit
to prove it, or prove it, without having first stated it; since any proof must be a proof of
something, and the only use of a preliminary statement is the proof that follows it.’
11
Introductions have a number of functions. They can be used to identify the issues which the
question raises. Identify any explicit or implicit assumptions underpinning the question.
Where opinion is divided - and it almost always is - the introduction also provides an
opportunity to evaluate the arguments, albeit in a preliminary fashion (e.g. 'it will be argued
that...‘). This evaluation should help you to signpost your own approach; in other words, to
establish an analytical strategy. The type of strategy you adopt will depend on the kind of
question you are asked but it often helps to break the question down into a series of subquestions, each of which can be addressed in a separate paragraph. Be very careful about
introductions. Once the curtain goes up you are on stage. Above all, avoid the trite
introduction and conclusion -- if you can only be trite, ask yourself about the depth of your
understanding and the merits of your arguments.
Your essay should be clearly organised into paragraphs. Each paragraph should have an
argument that is somehow related to the main question; if it does not, it should be eliminated.
The argument of the paragraph (its proposition) should be announced in the first sentence of
the paragraph (the ‘topic sentence’). The sentences which follow should prove the
proposition by means of evidence. It is also legitimate to use the topic sentence to introduce
a question or state a problematic provided that:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
it is related to the main question;
the paragraph addresses that question/problematic, and sticks to it, and
your answer to the problem is clear by the end of the paragraph. You should not
drift from the subject matter announced in the topic sentence. It should be
possible for the reader to make sense of your essay by reading the first and last
sentences of each paragraph. Test for yourself.
Some students have difficulty linking their paragraphs. Much depends on whether you have
successfully identified an analytical strategy at the outset. If you have done this well, you
will already have given the reader the necessary signposts to the argument, so that s/he will
know where each unit stands in relation to the whole. But there are other devices for linking
material. One is by means of a brief summary of the argument so far, pulling the strands
together, and indicating the thus far unanswered questions. Another is by providing a
numbered sequence of points, e.g. ‘There are three reasons for this...’ then list them in
summary form...then devote a paragraph to each. Numbered sequences can also be used to
organise materials within paragraphs. Some examiners and tutors will prefer you to do your
numbering in words, not numerals, to maintain the essay form.
Another common source of difficulty lies in the use of evidence, which, in legal terms,
means cases and statutes and not the opinions of writers. It is very rare that an essay contains
too many cases but it is too often the case that there are too few. But do not cite cases you
have not read, for obvious intellectual reasons. The opinions of writers can certainly be called
upon in support of your argument but even the opinions of writers must be based on
evidence. Always cite the author to whom you were attributing an argument (i.e. don't say 'it
is said/ argued...'); that way you will avoid the perils of plagiarism2 and will demonstrate to
your tutor the breadth and depth of your reading. Also get in the habit of citing cases
properly. The Law Faculty publishes a guide called OSCOLA which you can find on the Law
Faculty intranet which explains how to cite properly cases, books, articles, etc. Get in the
2
If you are uncertain as to what constitutes plagiarism, see the current edition of the Law Faculty Handbook for
Undergraduate Students. Plagiarism is treated extremely seriously by Wadham and by the Law Faculty.
12
habit of using footnotes. When writing an essay do not fall into the trap of identifying which
area of the law the question relates to and turning it into ‘everything I know about...’- in
which you provide (no doubt accurate) summaries of the cases you have just read but no real
argument. The evidence should be made to fit the argument you have constructed before you
put pen to paper.
It may be helpful to move from weak points to strong ones and begin with the views you
intend to eliminate and end with those which you support. In other words, don't end your
essay with a whole series of qualifications, thereby undercutting your argument. If you are
dismissing a line of argument, do it at the beginning of the essay, not the end; you must end
on a positive note.
Your essay should be concise; individual tutors may give you their own guidelines but,
normally, between four and six sides should be adequate (remember you will only have 45
minutes to produce an essay in the examination, and experience shows that a very well
prepared candidate can get down about 1300 words in that period).
Your essay should be clearly presented, using your own computer or the facilities in the
College's Computer Room or in the Bod. Some tutors will ask you to bring your essay with
you to the tutorial, where you may be asked to read it. Others will ask you to submit them the
day before, either by email or in hard copy. Unless otherwise advised by your tutor, always
bring your essay with you to the tutorial printed out in hard copy (not just in soft copy on
your laptop).
If your tutor has read an essay (instead of having it read out in the tutorial), always read
his/her comments, and try to act on advice given. If you cannot read or do not understand the
comments, ask for them to be deciphered.
Some words about punctuation
Punctuation is as essential to legal writing as precision in language. It is only the combination
of precise terminology and accurate punctuation that ensures that the lawyer's meaning is
unequivocally and indisputably conveyed. In a 2006 Canadian case, insertion of a second
comma in a contract (“[The agreement] shall continue in force for a period of five years from
the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated
by one year prior notice in writing by either party”) cost one party $2.13 million when it was
interpreted as permitting cancellation of the contract within the first five-year term. For an
amusing and forceful account of the rules of punctuation, see Lynn Truss, Eats, Shoots and
Leaves. Four common errors in student essays:




confusing "its" (the possessive, as in “its arguments”) with "it's" (a contraction of "it
is")
run-on sentences, where two grammatically distinct and complete sentences are
separated by a comma rather than a full stop. Example: "In criminal law the
prosecution must prove the actus reus, it must also prove that the defendant
committed the act with the requisite mens rea."
essentially the same error, but this time using a semi-colon rather than a full stop.
essentially the same error, but using ‘however’ to join two sentences. Example: “In
criminal law the prosecution must prove the actus reus however it must also prove
that the defendant committed the act with the requisite mens rea." ‘However’ is a
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connecting adverb meaning ‘nevertheless’, or ‘in spite of that’. It cannot be used in
place of the conjunction ‘and’, and it certainly cannot be used in place of a full stop.
To avoid the last three errors, ask yourself whether the punctuation, or use of ‘however’,
separates what would be two grammatically complete (i.e. containing a subject and predicate)
sentences. If so, you must use either a full stop or a semi-colon. A semi-colon will be
appropriate instead of a full stop only where the two halves of the statement are conceptually
linked. Learning to punctuate correctly now will greatly enhance the quality and style of your
argument. It is an indispensable part of your academic, and later professional, writing.
PROBLEMS AND TEXT QUESTIONS
Problems require different skills from essays. Whereas with essays you are asked to state
what the law is and then provide some form of assessment of its rights and wrongs, problem
questions require you to state what the law is, or how it might be interpreted, by applying it to
the issues thrown up by a given set of facts.
Problem questions usually consist of a set of stated facts in relation to which you are asked
either to advise certain of the parties or discuss what offences may have been committed or
what liability incurred
The skill in answering problem questions is to spot the legal issues to which the facts give
rise and then indicate how a court is likely to resolve them on the basis of the existing law.
Needless to say, problem questions cannot be answered without a clear understanding of the
relevant areas of law. If you add to this the fact that problem questions can cut across several
different topics on a particular paper, whereas essays tend to be fairly one-dimensional, you
can begin to see why problems are viewed by many tutors and examiners as one of the best
ways of assessing whether a student has a real understanding for the law in a particular field,
though this does depend on the particular paper and topic. There is no way of acquiring the
skill other than through practice. Some tutors will give problem classes. You should obtain
copies of past examination papers for each subject you take and look closely at the type of
problems you are likely to encounter in the examination room.
When answering problems, you have to adopt a well-structured approach: use headings and
numbered paragraphs to divide up your answer into the separate issues and sub-issues which
are raised by the facts. Also, answers are rarely clear (problems tend to be set on the
borderline of legal categories) so you must explore the consequences of alternative answers.
There follows a guide to answering problems jointly produced some years ago by two tutors
teaching a very different range of topics and which seemed to work over a wide range of
subjects.
*****************
The purpose of what follows is to set you thinking and to suggest a possible approach. The
peremptory mode is to save time. Modify to suit your own taste.
PROBLEMS
1. Read each part all through before making notes. Do not write up a part (a) only to find
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when you look at part (b) that it contains some concealed trap you knew nothing about.
2. Obey the instruction. "Advise X" is not the same as "discuss". If the former, what does
X most want? "Advise the parties" is sometimes sloppily used where parties have hostile
interests and it is probably safe to treat this in substance (if not in form) as an invitation to
discuss. If the parties have been injured, or died, or got involved in some romantic
catastrophe, limit your advice to the law, not bereavement counselling.
3. Read the problem again. Jot down the major points of law and fact involved and the
relevant authorities.
4. Produce an outline answer in a logical order. Never start writing your answer without
some such skeleton, however brief. It will force you to think out the structure and stop you
getting lost when you start writing. If points occur to you after this stage, you can use this
outline to decide where best to insert them.
5. Begin writing with an explanation of the legal issues involved and an outline of how you
intend to tackle them. [Don't get too laborious on the latter]. You might in some
circumstances think it worth explaining why you have chosen this particular method.
If it is a very long problem, it may be worth breaking it down into parts and you could
likewise divide the explanations.
6. Begin with a statement of general legal principle for each issue and proceed through
successive refinements to the point at issue. [“Theft is a fraudulent handling etc... the
question here is whether this is a) fraudulent b) handling c) of a 'thing'”.]
Fit your authorities in at the appropriate point. They will earn more credit if so placed.
7. It is highly unlikely (though not unknown) that any problem has a simple text book
answer and you should worry for a while if you think it has. Are the facts more ambiguous
than they at first sight appear? Is there even one fact different from the ones you expected?
If so, how might that difference be legally relevant? One fact can make a world of
difference.
8. Never attempt to resolve ambiguous facts. Adopt a dilemmatic method and discuss the
two branches, being aware that this can lead you a long way from your starting point.
Always assume that the facts as given have been proved, unless directed to assume the
contrary. (We cannot remember having seen such a direction, but stranger things have
happened.)
9. You may have to combine holding alternative fact situations in your head with two or
more contenders for the legal solution to each set of facts. You will then be handling
multiple dilemmas both of fact and law. In a complex Final Honour School problem, this can
be good highwire stuff. In Roman law and Legal History problems you may have more than
one period to consider and in comparative law, more than one legal system. Examiners
usually compensate in these subjects by keeping problems relatively simple.
10. Feel free to criticise both on grounds of legal principle and of social outcome, but be
careful to tailor your comment to the instruction in the problem [see para 2 above]. Be politic
about this. Do not preach as if to the converted. Assume a healthy scepticism in the reader
even about the likes of the Ten Commandments.
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11. Present your conclusions clearly, even if you are left in a state of some doubt as to what
the right answer should be. If you are defending your decision, keep legal, social and
economic etc factors clearly separate.
12. Give reasons for everything and try to be as snappy as possible. More snappy than this
has been.
TEXTS (for Roman Law)
Always:
(i) Establish briefly the context (do not repeat the reference). Sometimes the context may be
the point of the problem.
(ii) Focus on this particular text - not the one before nor the one that follows. Why would
anyone have chosen this particular bit? Sometimes, such is the dullness of examiners that
they seem to set texts which are interchangeable with half a dozen others. Assume the
opposite until driven to this conclusion and then reorganise the answer you have in your head
to begin the discussion with the text you have been set.
(iii) Compare Gaius with Justinian and vice versa. This may be a matter of comparing your
set texts or it may simply require you to compare the law in one period with the law in
another without reference to the other text, which may not be 'set' or may not indeed exist.
Style
When writing essays or answering problems, you must underline (if handwriting) or italicise
(if typing) all case names. You do not need to cite the case in full; a reasonably identifiable
abbreviation will do, e.g. R v Home Secretary ex parte Bentley can be cited as ex p. Bentley or
Entick v Carrington as Entick.
Some abbreviations are entirely acceptable: J. for Mr or Mrs Justice, LJ for Lord or Lady
Justice. Others can be used if you indicate what they are on the first occasion they are used:
e.g. Sale of Goods Act (SGA), UCTA (Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977). You will pick up
common abbreviations very quickly.
You do not need to cite the reporter/journal reference for cases or articles unless you are
referring to a case or article which is not on that week's reading list. If chronology is
important (because one case has overruled/distinguished another) you should ensure that you
get cases in the right order.
*******************************
The Skills of a Lawyer
We are often asked what makes a good lawyer. It is not an easy question to answer but we
think six qualities are paramount:
(i)
the ability to differentiate the relevant from the irrelevant: e.g. in a set of new
facts, which of them really contain any form of legal issue;
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(ii)
the ability to work meticulously and with precision, identifying what is relevant
and paying very close attention to detail;
(iii)
the ability to make distinctions, very often fine, between sets of facts: e.g. in all
areas of law you will find a dividing line between liability and no-liability,
between guilt and innocence. Needless to say the difficult cases (and those for
which a lawyer might be consulted) fall close to this dividing line and you have to
be able to say on which side they should fall;
(iv)
common sense
(v)
curiosity;
(vi)
a sense of justice (remaining alert to the possibility that there may be more than
one); and
(vii)
a sense of the conflicting policies at play.
Despite the better efforts of one or two judges, law is still based fundamentally on common
sense, logic and good judgement - don't forget this when you become embroiled, as you will,
in the labyrinthine technicalities which infest certain areas of the law. Take a step back and
think: what is, what should the law be trying to do here?
Tutorials
The tutorial should be a mutual exploration of a topic. It is not a one-way transaction; you
are not there to be spoon-fed. If you are not already aware of the fact, it should be apparent
from the amount of contact time which tutorials provide that you are here, very largely, to
teach yourself. You have left school behind; dependency is out and independence is in.
You will quickly find that tutors will approach tutorials differently; for example some will
expect you to read out your essay in the tutorial, and others will take the essay in for reading
before or after the tutorial, and spend the hour discussing the issues in your essay and other
aspects of the week's reading. Regard this as part of the rich diversity of the Oxford tutorial
system.
There are four rules for your tutorials with us:
(1) Not showing up is not an option. If there is a problem, email the tutor as soon as
possible.
(2) Not completing the assignment to a reasonable standard is not an option.
(3) You must be thoroughly prepared (if you are not you may be shown the way to the
door, as tutorials with an underprepared student can be a waste of everyone's time,
and can also be unfair to your tutorial partner); and
(4) Subject to (3), there is no such thing as a stupid question. In other words, if you
genuinely do not understand something, ask about it!
You should expect your tutor to provide some feedback on the content and structuring of
your essay, but you should not let the initiative lie always with him/her. Many tutors will
expect you to go into the tutorial with an agenda of problems and issues you feel you would
like to discuss. This is particularly important when, as in criminal and tort law, there are
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several topics on the reading list for the week. It is often helpful if you meet with your
tutorial partner ahead of time to discuss areas you would like covered. However, you can
expect your tutor to test your knowledge of other aspects of the reading list, or to push your
understanding. Take the initiative. If you feel a little intimidated by the set-up - and some of
you may do so at first - then write down the things you want to discuss before you go in.
You should pay careful attention to the issues the tutor raises with you and the range of
alternative approaches s/he suggests. Take notes during the tutorial, as you may otherwise
find that points elude you afterwards, but don't try to write down everything, and in particular
do not take notes at the expense of your own active intellectual engagement. Take the notes
which will be helpful to you in revision. Immediately after the tutorial write down what you
have learned and how the tutorial has changed your overview of the shape of the subject.
This is hard to discipline yourself to do but it will be the most fruitful time of the week for
that subject. Make sure that your notes are clear - it is a very good habit to acquire to write
up in full those few scribbles you have made in the tutorial; very quickly they will become
meaningless.
Always listen patiently to what your tutorial partner(s) say, and be prepared to comment on
their arguments. Don't always wait on your tutor's judgment. Never dismiss another person's
point of view without arguing a case, and avoid posturing.
Lectures
Lectures are an important component of your studies -- probably more important for lawyers
than many students reading other disciplines. At the beginning of each term your tutors in
Wadham will tell you which lectures on the reading list you are expected to attend, and tutors
are entitled to assume that you have both attended and paid attention. Many of the lecturers at
Oxford can put you in touch with up to date research and materials; others will be able to
provide you with a broad interpretative framework, filling in the gaps between what can be
the isolated pools of knowledge provided by tutorials or give you a critical analysis of an
area. Not a few will be leading thinkers in that field. Some are genuinely entertaining. You
will pick up the law to a very large extent, both here and after you leave Oxford, by listening
to other lawyers talking. You have a fine opportunity here to listen to a whole variety of
different kinds of lawyers at a very high level and even by the osmotic process of sitting in
the lecture theatre you will pick up things of which you are barely conscious.
During the first two terms leading to Law Moderations, you will find lectures closely tailored
to the demands of the papers for which you are working. Thereafter, it is a feature of the
Oxford system that lectures and tutorials do not often run in tandem. You have to be willing
and able to attend lectures for some papers, before or after you have studied them in tutorials,
though this is no bad thing in many ways; once you start the Final Honour School it will keep
your mind ticking over in that paper if you're not having tutorials on it that term. It will also
help you build connections between subjects.
It is difficult to give advice on techniques for taking notes in lectures because the style of
individual lecturers varies. Make them as clear as you can; get down as much as you can (it’s
good handwriting practice which is sorely needed at exam time with the prevalence of word
processing). Always leave ample space between your notes in case you wish to amplify them
after the lecture. Some lecturers will provide handouts but very often these will just be a list
of references to the material contained in the lectures. The golden rule is: if you don’t
understand something write it down. In this way you might just understand it later.
Remembering things you don’t understand is very difficult.
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Revision
This course is not simply about passing examinations with the highest possible grades, but
this is an important objective and one which will exercise your mind the closer you get to
examinations. For every paper, to get an idea of the type of questions asked, always look at
past papers (copies available online on OXAM with a link from the Law Faculty website and
in the college library). Read examiners' reports (also in the college library and on the Law
Faculty intranet site) as they will point out the common errors made by candidates. This will
also assist you in identifying gaps in your knowledge, which you may then rectify. It is often
helpful to re-read some of the key texts on any given topic, because they may make more
sense retrospectively than they did on the occasion of your first reading. Given the advent of
core reading lists for each paper, weary examiners will be grateful to see new material in
scripts, so sharpen and deepen your understanding and your arguments by also reading
articles and cases off the reading list (in the common law subjects, cases on the same point
from the top courts in the Commonwealth are often a good idea, to gain other perspectives).
Once this has been done, you should work by means of detailed checklists, essay plans and
practising problems, tackling questions of a different kind from those you did for tutorial
assignments. Be warned that the worst thing you can do in any examination is to fail to
answer the question; you will never get more than a lower second class mark, and you run the
strong chance of a third. This is why you must gain experience in turning your mind to new
questions.
We will talk further about this nearer the time.
Monitoring Progress
Your tutor should provide feedback on essays in tutorials. If you have points in your essay
about which you would value your tutor’s opinion be sure to work it into the discussion at the
relevant point. Some tutors may provide marks on your essays, but many others do not, where
the marking standard in Finals cannot be realistically applied in your first encounter with the
material. Collections (see below), where marks will be assigned and recorded in the College
records, will be your most useful benchmark of progress.
End of Term Reports
At the end of each term you will be given a report on the term’s work by each of your tutors
that term, which will be discussed with you by your College tutors in individual meetings.
Each year you will also meet with the Warden to discuss your progress (‘Warden’s
Collections’). Note that this is a level of feedback greater than that provided in other
institutions of higher education.
Collections
Your tutors will also set you collections (college examinations) at the start of each term,
usually on the previous term's papers, and you will receive an indication of the level of your
performance with suggestions for improvement. Collections are treated very seriously at
Wadham. They provide you with an opportunity to get experience in writing to time and to
revise as you go along in the course. Tutors also use collection marks in references for
scholarships, vacation placements, mini-pupillages, future professional employment and
postgraduate applications. Collection marks are particularly important for Oxford students
because of our unique examining system, as you will be competing with candidates from
other universities which examine every year and so they will have more official exam results
than you will. Collections are marked by examiners’ standards and according to their
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conventions, eg that a missing fourth answer is marked at zero and included in the average
for the overall mark.
What is your tutor looking for?
Initiative: How hard have you tried in seeking out materials? E.g. if a case is not available in
one series of reports, have you tried to find it in another?
Intellectual curiosity: Have you asked questions in your written work and tutorials?
Argumentative flair: Have you structured your essays well? Have you shown an interest in
conceptual issues?
Fluency: What is the standard of your written English? How wide is your vocabulary and
how appropriately do you use it?
Responsiveness: Have you made an effort to implement any advice your tutor may have
given to you? Do you make an effort in tutorials? Do you engage with the work of your
tutorial partners?
Originality: Have you made a real effort to engage with the contents of what you have read?
Have you thought critically about the arguments of the judges and writers?
Professionalism: Have you been punctual for tutorials and meetings? Have you responded
promptly to tutors' requests for information? Have you respected the additional calls on your
tutors' time?
Efficiency: How well have you managed the balance between academic and other
commitments? Have your assignments been completed on time?
Team-work: Have you contributed constructively in classes and seminars?
This may seem like a tall order, but these are precisely the range of qualities on which we are
regularly required to comment to prospective employers in references. Do not expect us to
perjure ourselves, or to over-gild the lily, or to overlook persistent failures to live up to your
obligations to your tutors or the College community. We don't.
Balance between academic and other commitments
The first call on your time must be your work, but we encourage you to become involved
with the Wadham College Law Society and the Oxford University Law Society, and to
engage in other activities (sport, drama, music, College and University Societies). But you
must learn to organise your timetable so that your work does not suffer. Some hints on
time management are offered below. But one important point to be emphasised is that before
undertaking any particularly time consuming activity (e.g. holding a College or University
office, including the Oxford University Law Society) you should discuss the matter with your
tutor. Unless you are prepared to get very organised with your work you should avoid such
commitments in your final year. Some people find extracurricular activities increase their
work efficiency, and it is a real life skill to be able to handle many things at once, but it needs
working on.
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Time management
In many ways this is the biggest challenge of your time at Oxford. For much of your
previous academic career you have been bound by timetables imposed by external agencies.
It is also worth emphasising that most future careers will also impose demanding schedules.
While at Oxford, however, you are given a considerable degree of freedom to manage your
own time.
(i)
The most important point is to make sure that you work steadily. Do not leave your
work until the last minute, but allocate a set number of hours each day to your work -and be prepared to work longer if, as is very common, you underestimate the time
required.
(ii)
One source of problems is the fortnightly cycle which you will encounter in some
terms, whereby students do one set of assignments weekly and another concurrent set
of assignments fortnightly. This means that in some weeks one essay has to be
completed, in others two. It is tempting to take things easier in the ‘lighter’ weeks,
but this is foolish as it piles up work for the following week. Create a timetable for
each week which allocates time for both assignments.
(iii)
Another common fallacy is that while you have to work hard for Mods in the first two
terms, you can take things easy in Trinity of the first year and in the second year and
turn things on in the third year. This is the single biggest cause of underachievement
at Oxford. The standards expected of candidates in Finals are much higher than those
in Mods. Students who switch off in the second year are very unlikely to realise their
full potential.
(iv)
Your vacations are not simply a holiday - achieve an appropriate balance between
academic work and other activities - paid work, work experience, travel etc.
(v)
Keep your financial affairs in good order, because disentangling them will take up a
lot of your time. Settle your battels and other bills promptly, ensure that you have the
funds to meet your obligations, and apply for grants and loans at the start of the year.
Failure in this area is not balanced by academic success so far as the College is
concerned.
Enjoying the Course
Oxford can be a vibrant and stimulating intellectual and cultural environment. How much
you benefit from this will be the real test of your time here, because the fulfilment of your
intellectual and cultural potential depends on the choices you make. Many of those choices
are outlined above, but note the following tips to increase your enjoyment.
(i)
Be prepared to talk about legal topics with your peers. Law is a dynamic and highprofile subject upon which many non-lawyers also have opinions.
(ii)
Seek out some of the special lectures, particularly those given by visiting academics.
They will broaden your horizons.
(iii)
Keep up to date with recent developments in the law generally. You can subscribe
through the Law Bodleian website to daily alerts, through update services such as
Lawtel and LexisNexis Butterworths.
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(iv)
Take the opportunity to put your legal skills into practice - the Oxford University Law
Society runs mooting competitions, and the Wadham College Law Society also has a
mooting programme. The law firm of Herbert Smith LLP provides an annual prize for
a moot challenge by Wadham against another College, for second and third year
students. In Trinity Term of your first year you will be expected to participate in the
Law Faculty compulsory moot for first year students as part of the Legal Research
Skills Programme. Traditionally, Wadham lawyers engage in the tort law section of
this moot. At the beginning of Michaelmas term of your second year you will have the
opportunity to engage in a moot within Wadham. This moot is likely to cover contract
law, and possibly also aspects of tort law again, as those are the subjects in which you
will be involved at that stage in your studies. The Herbert Smith moot takes place in
early Trinity of your second year and will most likely revolve around a land and/or
trusts problem. Finally, you will have the possibility to engage in an EU law moot at
the beginning of Hilary of your third year. The Wadham moots will give you an
opportunity to develop legal arguments and counterarguments on behalf of a party,
and to try out your advocacy skills before a friendly and sympathetic audience. The
Wadham Moot Coordinator for 2013-14 is Oliver Cutbill who will be pleased to give
you advice about the procedures and advocacy -- but not about the substance of your
arguments.
Finally...
Oxford is a friendly place and your tutors will make a point of being hospitable, supportive
and approachable. Your year tutor will be your first port of call for such matters as references
(be sure to seek permission before naming anyone as a referee). If you are concerned or
anxious about anything, be it academic or personal, do not hesitate to get in touch with any of
us.
But it is also remember that this is also perhaps the first professional relationship you have
had in the adult world and try to treat it as such.
We hope you enjoy the challenge of becoming lawyers (even if you eventually choose not to
qualify as a professional lawyer).
Tarun Khaitan, Sandy Steel and Eveline Ramaekers
Michaelmas 20153
3
With thanks to Keble and Merton Colleges on whose guides the first edition of this survival kit, several years
ago, was based.
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