Course Objectives:
After successfully completing the tests and assignments for course, you will know:
- How to conduct manual legal research
- How to conduct electronic legal research
- How to find, interpret and use various types of legal authorities
- How to shepardize legal authorities
- How to write a legal analysis
- How to draft a Memorandum of Law
- How to brief case opinions
- How to engage in various types of legal writing
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course is designed to give students an understanding of the purposes and processes of legal research and reasoning. Students will learn basic legal research skills using predominantly electronic resources. The course will cover the elements of legal analysis and reasoning in common law systems. Through a case review approach, students will look at various substantive law problems to develop an understanding of legal reasoning as one form of analytical thinking.
OUTLINE
- Introduction and Overview
- Purpose of legal research and reasoning
- Rationale for developing legal research skills
- Rationale for understanding the requirement that judges conform to prescribed modes of reasoning.
- Sources of Law
- Primary sources
- bills, statutes, regulations, by-laws
- judicial decisions
- structure of Canada’s court system and hierarchy
- the doctrines of precedent and stare decisis
- briefing cases
- Secondary sources and their use in legal research
- texts, journals, encyclopaedias, digests
- electronic sources
- Legal Research
- Electronic methods of finding and updating legislation
- Citation of legislation
- Electronic methods of finding and updating case law
- Citation of case law.
- Legal Reasoning in the Common Law System
- The judicial mandate to interpret and apply the law
- The complexity of, and constraints on, judicial reasoning
- Structure and rules that govern judicial reasoning: interpretation of legislation; precedent and stare decisis
- Judicial flexibility and distinguishing
- Methods of Reasoning
- Inductive and deductive reasoning
- Arguing from principle
- Reasoning from prior cases
- The concepts of clarity, detail, precision and abstraction
- Concealed issues
- Critical thinking and the law:
- legal thinking
- points of view
- interpretation and influence
- assumptions
- consequences
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Certificates
A Certificate of Completion will be issued to those who attend & successfully complete the programme.
Schedule
08:30 – 10:15 First Session
10:15 – 10:30 Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:15 Second Session
12:15 – 12:30 Coffee Break
12:30 – 14:00 Third Session
14:00 – 15:00 Lunch
Fees
The Fee for the seminar, including instruction materials, documentation, lunch, coffee/tea breaks & snack is: