Learning Legal Rules: A Student's Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning

Oxford University Press, USA, 2004. Very Good+. Among the many new skills law students have to acquire, using legal method and solving legal problems are possibly the most important. Yet all too oft en these legal skills are ignored, and it is assumed that students will acq uire them as they progress through their course. The authors of Learning Le gal Rules bring together the theory, structure, and practice of legal reaso ning in a readily accessible style. The book explains how to uncover and ex ploit the mysteries of legal materials. This is then used to draw the stude nt into the techniques of legal analysis and argument and the operation of precedent and statutory interpretation. Throughout the book the authors als o examine the permeating influence of EC Law and the legal method employed by Continental legal systems. The fifth edition has been extensively rewrit ten and reorganized to ensure that it continues to fit the needs of today's law students. It contains more guidance on interpreting statutes, an exten ded introductory chapter 1 on "What is Law?", and new material on the Human Rights Act. It has also been given a new clear text design and layout that incorporates new chapter headings and paragraph headings; summaries of the key points of each chapter; boxed questions at the end of each chapter; mo re diagrams, especially in the chapters on reasoning, to aid visual learner s; and a main table of contents. It also contains a new Companion Website c ontaining key questions and guidance on how to answer them, diagrams, usefu l legal abbreviations and annotated web links.