LLT100 | Legal Methods

The Legal Methods course is an introduction to the legal system, its institutions, processes and sources, and characteristic ways of reading or reasoning with those sources. It is oriented towards the methods of analysis or reasoning practices applicable across various branches of legal study. In this course, we will equip you with the research, analytical and critical skills required at law school to form a bridge between your previous degree and your practice as a lawyer. You are encouraged to bring in perspectives from your previous degree as well as any earlier encounters with the law in your work or other life.

 In particular, this course has four outcomes that we will aim to achieve:

 First, it will provide you with an introduction to legal education and the location of your course in NLSIU as well as within the larger landscape of legal education. Towards this end it also establishes foundational skills in academic reading, writing, and research, with a focus on legal material.

 Secondly, it will introduce to you the institutional structure of the law, with a focus on the distribution of powers amongst various institutions and their historical development, and considers the process by which these institutional structures function.

 Thirdly, it will familiarise you with sources of law and ways of reading these sources and other legal materials. In particular, we will focus on how to read statutes, secondary legislation, case law and legal commentaries.

 Finally, it will enable you to understand the dialogic nature of argumentation and of the central place of interpretation and reasoned disagreement in the legal community, and reflect on your role in this community.

 The course is divided into five modules corresponding to the objectives listed above. The first two modules are an introduction to the study of law. The next two modules are an introduction to the law, through its institutions and sources. The last module is a reflective exercise which challenges you to use the skills and knowledge you have gained through the preceding modules, as well as in your other courses, to begin conceptualising a deeper understanding of the law and your role as a law student and future lawyer.

 The foundational skills that you learn in this course will be useful to you throughout legal education and practice. You will find that the learning in this course extends to the other courses offered in the first trimester and you are encouraged to make these links explicit.