Read Law Right

learn the techniques for studying law more effectively

  • 3.1 Don’t outsource your thinking: AI isn’t thinking

    Welcome to a new mini-season of Read Law Right, where we pivot from reading skills into the practical task of writing authoritative legal arguments. So it is time to address the elephant in the room that I have ignored so far – generative AI. Looking back over the first two seasons of this blog, gen-AI… Continue reading

  • 2.5 The IRAC problem style example without the headings

    When IRAC is done well, you don’t need the headings. The structure is invisible. I have removed the headings from the original post and, where appropriate, brought the text together into longer paragraphs. Compare this with the earlier post. Question Xander confronted Jonathan and was heard to say to Jonathan, “I’m going to break every… Continue reading

  • 2.4 How to get started on a judicial review problem question

    You’ve just taken a look at your problem question in public/constitutional law. You find yourself confronted with a lengthy problem scenario involving several potential clients. You are asked to advise them on potential grounds of judicial review. How do you even get started with this? Judicial review problem questions can be answered following the same… Continue reading

  • 2.3 A simple worked example of a problem-style answer to demonstrate IRAC structure

    As promised in the previous post, here is a simple example of the IRAC approach to problem-style questions with a straightforward homicide scenario. The question here is much less complicated than any you will encounter in an exam or assignment. Students very often purport to use the IRAC approach when answering problem-style questions, but their… Continue reading

  • 2.2 How to explain the elements of a legal principle

    I hope, in the previous two posts, that I have persuaded you that you should default to explaining all the elements of a criminal offence in your assignments. Here, I want to give you some guidance on how to go about that. Again I will assume criminal law here, but this transfers to other multi-element… Continue reading

  • 2.1 When to discuss all the elements of a criminal offence*

    *or other multi-part legal principle… This post follows on from the comment on the Auriol Grey case in the previous post. As a quick reminder, counsel for the prosecution, counsel for the defence, and the judge, all overlooked the need to demonstrate the elements of the unlawful act in Ms Grey’s manslaughter trial. This led… Continue reading

  • 2.0 Avoiding Assumptions in Criminal Law: Lessons from R v Auriol Grey

    The recent Court of Appeal decision in R v Auriol Grey [1] provides us with an object lesson in the importance of applying all the necessary ‘elements’ of law to the facts of the case. This necessity apparently eluded all the parties in Ms Grey’s original trial and ultimately led to her conviction being overturned.… Continue reading

  • 1.10 Summary – the 30 minute reading challenge

    Here’s the main points from this series of posts. What additional points did you pick up on? Tell me in the comments. Break the reading down into bite-sized chunks. 30 minutes is a good metric to aim for, but you can be flexible about this. Make sure you know the purpose for reading this particular… Continue reading

  • 1.9 An example of notes from reading a law report

    Your case notes will evolve over the number of sessions you are able to devote to reading a case. These sample notes follow the structure suggested in post 1.4 in this series, bearing in mind the example case has no dissents. First reading session Case note on R v Chipunza [2021] EWCA Crim 597. Case… Continue reading

  • 1.8 Building on your initial reading notes

    In the previous article, I gave you an example of initial notes following a first reading session with a new textbook chapter. The first reading session is always going to be less detailed because we focus on structure and themes, introduction and conclusion. We use these subsequent sessions to get into the detail. We will… Continue reading