Law each paragraph:
1. Explain legal issue- how to identify the issue
2. Use the related law – can look at which seminar questions are related to coursework
3. Application- explain that why I will use this law, where take the law & the apply to the fact
4. Conclusion
5. Use the referencing is required to give intellectual credit to your source, helps the marker recover your source easily and avoids you being accused of plagiarism. Students must reference sources using the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA). Details of this can be found on pages 23 – 25 Students should ensure all sources are fully cited in footnotes and in their bibliography in accordance with OSCOLA and that indentation or quotation marks (as appropriate) are used when quoting.
6. Approaching legal problem questions
What is a problem question?
A legal problem question/case study describes a fictitious scenario then asks you to advise one or more of the parties in it about their legal rights, or possible liabilities. This is what a solicitor does when advising a client in their office. You are the legal advisor and the party/parties you are asked to advise in the question are your clients.
How should you structure your answer to such a question?
Only think about this once you have read the problem question carefully (several times) and identified the key facts (e.g. key characters, events, and dates).
When you are ready to think about your answer the marker will be expecting you to structure it following the ILAC method.
This should result in it having a clear and logical structure enabling the
marker to see where you are heading.
What does ILAC stand for?
Introduction
Law
Application
Conclusion
What to put in an Introduction
Begin your answer with an introduction. It should tell the marker:-
About each legal issue you have identified in the question which your client faces;
What area (or areas) of law relate to each issue,
Why the issue(s) are significant to your client; and
The order in which you plan to deal with each of them in turn.
This helps the marker to understand what you are trying to do and they can then follow the structure of your answer more easily.
For example, in a problem question on contract formation involving an advertisement made by a shop offering a free gift to anyone who spends over £50 in the store on a particular day, the first issue might be to determine the legal status of the advertisement (is it an offer or an invitation to treat?).
Once you have identified each issue, it is useful to explain its significance
to the outcome of the problem. Why does it matter? How and why will it
affect the ultimate advice/outcome for your client?
If there are several issues, you should deal with each one in turn
What to put in the Law section
Following the introduction comes an explanation of the legal principles relating to each issue mentioned in the introduction. This will include cases and if appropriate sections from relevant statutes, as they after all are the law and your client wants legal advice not simply your opinion!
Try to resist the temptation to jump to a conclusion straight away – you will gain credit for explaining the reasoning behind your conclusion, not for getting to the right answer without referring to any supporting
authority.
For example, if we are still dealing with the example given above, the relevant
legal principle would be that Partridge v Crittenden held that generally
speaking advertisements are invitations to treat but that it is clear from the
Court of Appeal decision in Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co that if they
satisfy certain requirements, advertisements can be classed as unilateral
offers – then explain what a unilateral offer is and set out the defining
qualities of a unilateral offer (in other words the requirements that would
have to be satisfied to bring an advertisement within the definition of a
unilateral offer).
At this stage, you are simply setting out the law rather than worrying about
the specific facts of the problem question.
What to put in the Application section
Having explained the legal principles, you must now explain how they will impact on your client’s issue. Again cases, and if relevant, sections from statutes will be needed here. Your client will want to know about the impact as that will determine their legal rights, or possible liabilities.
Taking the example used above, you would need to apply the various qualities/requirements of a unilateral offer and see whether they are satisfied by the wording of the advertisement in the problem question.
What we will be looking for in a Conclusion
In it you will predict the outcome for your client – what legal rights/remedies they have or what liabilities they face based on the application of the legal principles you have just explained.
For example, your conclusion might be that the wording of the
advertisement in the question satisfies the requirements of a unilateral offer and therefore the shop has made an offer to the world as was the case in Carlill .
What to do if you are asked to advise more than one person in the question?
If you are asked to advise several characters in a question have one Introduction covering all of them but then have separate Law and Application parts for each one followed by a mini Conclusion and then at the very end of your answer have an overall Conclusion which draws every mini conclusion together and provides the final advice to your clients.
What if the question involves numerous issues?
In a nutshell work through them one by one following ILAC. Firstly explain all the issues in an Introduction, then move on to explain the law which relates to each individual issue, apply it to that issue and draw a mini conclusion before going on to the next issue and repeating this process. The final part of your answer will be a paragraph pulling all the mini conclusions together.
For example using the issue already mentioned of unilateral offers, having established a unilateral offer has been made by the shop the next issue is to consider how and when a unilateral offer can be accepted and revoked and whether the offer was revoked before acceptance in the question that you are working on.
Please to attention:
· Moodle show the last term coursework feedback
· Students do not spend too much time simply reciting the facts of each problem – no marks were gained from simply reciting the facts set out in the question
· In the Law text book P 723- 734 teach student how to write the problem questions and case studies
First questions:
1.1 in issue part, identify two parties first, who is claimant, who is defendant. Explain that what is contract for two parties? Does it disagree or agree the contract for their two parts?
1.2 No spend long time to explain each issue
1.3 The coursework questions focus on week 5 to week 11 (contract, misrepresentation, discharging a contract & remedies for breach of contract, tort and negligence)
Second questions:
· Identify the claimant & defendant
· Do they agree or disagree the contract law?
· LOOK AT THE CONTRACT LAW
· Focus on week 5 to week 11
References:
· Can use our law text book
· Can use the contract law book
· Can use the tort book