A little advice for newbies

A whole bunch of newbies will be starting in October. As a 'seasoned' OU law student (and Learner Experience Rep), I would like to share a little advice on what studying law entails… This is from my own experience of course! I will not speak for anyone else.

First, the law is not that difficult to understand. It teaches a logical and strategic thinking process even while you are learning the content. At first, probably the first four months of W101, you will be confused and find the concepts a bit difficult to understand. This is only natural. However, by the time March or April comes around in 2019, you will find that everything is falling together in place. In the beginning, what I found was that the concepts appeared to be isolated from each other. But then, when you begin to see how it all fits in together, it is far easier to understand.

Try not to put things off at the last minute, whether it is reading that unit or doing that TMA. Falling behind makes it difficult to catch up but not impossible. Your tutor is usually your first port of call. If you have difficulties contacting your tutor then, by all means, contact student support (SST). You will find the link on your student homepage. You will also find that the OU is very flexible and very willing to help you catch up if you fall behind. The most important thing is not to panic, don't feel that the task ahead is impossible, and to take it one small step at a time.

When you are starting off, try not to pay too much attention to what your peers are saying – you will find that there are often misconceptions and bad ideas promulgated on different groups! Remember that they are also new to law, and may be having the same struggles in understanding the concepts just as you do. This is why I am stressing, and I am sure the University will support me in this, please try to contact your tutor first! Your tutor is paid to help you, so do not feel guilty about contacting them.

During the course of your law studies, you will begin to learn many new things, some of which are:

learning how to learn

learning how to write academically

learning how to do proper referencing

learning how to read critically

learning how to think critically

learning how to analyse complex ideas

learning how to summarise these complex ideas

The above list is not exhaustive of course.

If this all sounds complex, don't panic. You will be gradually eased into these, and in most cases, you will never know that you are learning. 

Important:

1) Pay attention to your grammar and spelling. Law requires words, to explain and to convey ideas. Avoid complexity, by thinking that you are explaining these concepts to your grandparents or someone who is less educated than you – as will be your future clients. You can set Microsoft Word to check your grammar as well as spelling, and it will give you a "readability score" on how easy your writing is to understand.

2) Do not take tutor feedback personally. Tutor feedback is usually given in positive terms, but because it is a critique of your writing skills and thinking processes, it is difficult not to feel offended or disheartened. Keep in mind that your tutor is there to help you, not to discourage you and that if you follow their feedback, you will certainly improve – there's no question about that. By following my tutor's advice my grades jumped from the early 70s to the early 90s.

3) Begin to bookmark important legal websites. I will add some of my favourites at the end of this blog post to start you off.

4) Read as many judgements as you can. I love judgements coming out of the Supreme Court because they are written in very simple English, explains complex ideas very simply, and are very good examples of how to write for law.

5) Many law firms have part of their websites dedicated to explaining concepts of law. These are written by experienced solicitors and barristers and will offer you an opportunity to understand the concepts in a simpler format than many of the textbooks. Again, this has been my personal experience. I do not use these websites for reference, merely to understand and break down complex ideas.

I have another post in this forum on software, telling you how to get free software to assist you in your studies and give some examples of useful software that I have used over the years – I have 20+ years ICT experience. Still, you are free to choose whatever your preference is. I only recommend my personal favourites and I am not a replacement for the IT helpdesk at the OU.

Tips:

I have created a folder in my computer with many subfolders inside. The subfolders are named for each course example, W101, W102, et cetera. Inside of these subfolders, I have further subfolders for the TMAs, judgements, statutes (Acts of Parliament) et cetera. Think of your computer like a filing cabinet, and begin by arranging things neatly. You will find that this is beneficial later on for finding stuff – especially after a few years of study when you need to go back refer to previous studies.

Do try to make time to attend your local courts to see how the judicial process works. Most local courts will have volunteer opportunities as well. I appreciate that many of you will be fully employed and also busy with studies, family life et cetera, but it is well worth the sacrifice and time spent. After all, you are studying law to get into this world – hopefully.

Some of my favourite websites:

http://www.bailii.org/ – a repository for cases. You will find almost any case here, and it is an acceptable official source.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules – the Civil Procedure Rules 1998

http://e-lawresources.co.uk/Home.php – website explaining very simply and briefly important concepts with case examples

https://www.cps.gov.uk/ – homepage of the Crown Prosecution Services

https://www.jcpc.uk/ – homepage of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), the final court of many Commonwealth countries.

https://www.supremecourt.uk/ – the UK Supreme Court

https://publications.parliament.uk/ – webpage dedicated to publications arising out of the UK Parliament at Westminster.

Blogs I like:

http://oulawstudent.blogspot.com/ – my personal blog where I document my own study journey

http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/openjustice/ – the Open University's pro bono blog

https://howtogetafirst.wordpress.com/ – how to get a first-class honours degree in law by someone who did it

https://publiclawforeveryone.com/ – Prof Mark Elliott's blog – beautifully and simply written

http://www.thingslegal.co.uk/forum/index.php – a forum that I set up for discussing ideas about law, with a lot of resources uploaded. Members include already qualified lawyers, so the advice given is sound and based upon actual practice.

I hope that you find these tips useful. Good luck with your studies.

A free month of HP Instant Ink

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Course Notes

Note to every law student,

I have some course notes I can share on the following topics:

1. Constitutional and Administrative Law
2. Equity and Trusts
3. Tort law
4. The English Legal System

I have also, notes on critical thinking and academic writing in Plain English.

If anyone wants them, please email me. Click on my profile to access ways to contact me.

It's free. I have spent months compiling these but my view is that we are all here to learn, hence my 'offer' to share.

Saving Money

These are a few tips when it comes to students saving money:

1. Try to sign up with your student email at software vendors for free or cheap software. For example, Microsoft gives a one-year free subscription to Microsoft Office (365 online version) free when you register with your student email. RoboForm gives you a one-year license.
2. Printing can be cheap if you have an HP printer and use the Instant ink® plan, where you pay as little as £3.49 per month for 100 pages of printing per month, with a rollover service available if you have not used all your pages. There are different plans available of course. HP sends out the inks in the mail, along with a recycling plastic envelope to safely dispose of the cartridges. https://instantink.hpconnected.com/subscriptions/4704429585

How to reference your essays for law

A common problem for law students – as indeed, all students – is how to reference your work to avoid plagiarism. I’ll attempt to answer that here using appropriate examples. You can download the Open University’s Law School Undergraduate Assessment Guide here. Section 6 deals with referencing.

As an OU Law student, you will need to refer to two categories of material:

• general academic sources, such as:
  • module materials (printed or online)
  • books (printed or online)
  • encyclopaedias and dictionaries (printed or online)
  • databases
  • journal articles (printed or online)
  • websites
  • newspaper articles (printed or online)
  • audio-visual materials (original source or online)

and

• primary sources of law:
  • UK cases
  • UK statutes
  • UK secondary legislation
  • EU cases and legislation
  • the European Convention on Human Rights
  • cases from the European Court of Human Rights
  • international sources of law.

A reference to either category of material consists of two components: a citation and a full reference. A citation appears in the main body of your work, and a full reference appears in the reference list at the end of your work.

© The Open University

Online Sources:

For an online source, such as the OU module, the citation would be the author’s name, year of publication and the section or subsection you found the information you are using. So, for this example, the citation would be (The Open University, 2015a, s6.2.1). You can use a lower-case  ‘s’ for ‘section(s)' and a lowercase ‘ss’ for subsection(s). 

In my example, you will see the lowercase ‘a’ after the year – this refers to the first unit you are taking your information from. So, for example your first unit is Unit 4, then every time you refer to Unit 4 (and ONLY Unit 4), you will ALWAYS use the suffix ‘a’ after the year (which is the year you start your course). So, if I refer to Unit 4 nine times, it will always be ‘2015a’. Another unit, for example, Unit 6 in the same assignment, will be ‘2015b’ in every instance you refer to Unit 6… and so forth. Got it?

The full online reference at the end of your assignment/TMA/essay will be composed of the authors' names, the year begun, the Module’s name, where found and when accessed:

The Open University (2015a) Open University Law School Undergraduate Assessment Guide  [Online]. Available at www.learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=884473 (Accessed 16 November 2016).

Text Books:

The format for text books follow a similar ‘code’. The authors’ names first (surname, first initial), the publication date, the name of the text, edition number, where published and the publisher’s name:

Furmston, M., (2012) ‘Cheshire, Fifoot and Furmson’s Law of Contract’, 16^th Edn., Oxford, Oxford University Press.

The in-text citation will be the authors’ name, initial, year published and page number(s) – ‘p’ if one page, ‘pp’ for multiple pages:

(Furmston, M., 2012, pp123-130)

If you are using a quote from a secondary source that is used in the online material or a text book, then you must reference it in-text:

(Furmston, 2012, p. 206 cited in Open University, 2015a)

For a journal article, you follow the same format:

Gibson, K (2014) ‘What lies ahead?’, New Law Journal, vol. 164, no. 7623, p. 12. Available at http://www.newlawjournal.co.uk/nlj/content/what-lies-ahead-0 Accessed on 26.03.2016

The in-text citation would be:

(Gibson, K., 2014)

Case law:

For case law, you MUST give the full reference in the FIRST instance (London and North Eastern Railway v Berriman [1946] AC 278), thereafter you may refer to it by a short name (Berriman). The full case name also must be in your end of assignment reference list.

Full reference list:

At the end of your assignment, you need to give a full reference list in alphabetical order. You may use the words ‘References’ or ‘Reference List’ to head these. You may also list your statutes, and cases in separate but appropriately named lists eg, ‘Cases’, ‘Statutes’.

All the above except for the references at the end of your essay/assignment/TMA are included in the word count.

How to write a law essay:

You can find out more on how to write a law essay from the link.

Academic English - A little discovery

I know that students who are new to higher education struggle with writing ‘academic’ English. It can be difficult to get used to writing in this new style which requires you to acknowledge sources and reference your material appropriately. Not to mention writing introductions, conclusions and linking paragraphs back to the questions and to preceding and successive paragraphs.

The OU has a very nice 8-weeks-long course to help with this. It is called “English: Skills for learning” and it is a FREE course that I’ve found to be excellent at starting you on the skills you need to cope with an undergraduate degree, in law as well as any other.

The course has built in exercises and quizzes to aid in developing the writing skills you will need. At the end, you can download a certificate. Take a look at it.

Skills 2 – Effective Writing Skills

Effective writing skills are essential in the study of law. Keep in mind the words of Lord Denning:

The reason why words are so important is because words are the vehicle of thought. When you are working out a problem on your own – at your desk or walking home – you think in words, not in symbols or numbers. When you are advising your client – in writing or by word of mouth – you must use words. There is no other means available. To do it convincingly, do it simply and clearly. If others find it difficult to understand you, it will often be because you have not cleared your own mind upon it. Obscurity in thought inexorably leads to obscurity in language.

Clarity of thought leads to clarity of expression. To write well is not only an indication of writing skill, but also an indication of how well you understand what you are writing about. You will need to determine also who you are writing for. A good idea when doing assignments is to pretend that the person you are writing for understands nothing at all about the subject matter, but “is capable of understanding the principles and issues if they are explained clearly and accurately.”

The Open University has a number of free skills courses available, and I suggest that students take advantage of these, especially at the beginning of their studies. One of these courses is “Essay and Report Writing Skills” [click the link for access] and is a short course of 15 hours but is excellent for starting the pathway to developing great writing skills. You can also download the course as an eBook. I use Adobe Digital Editions for reading epubs (OU eBook format) as it preserves the interactive features.

Presentation Style:

When I started the W101, there were quite a few questions from students about how we should write. Most of the questions were based around the presentation of the TMAs, so I will explain how I write my TMAs and why I think it is effective. Note: You do not HAVE to copy my style as long as your TMA is clear and easy to read.

1. I created a template in Microsoft Word that has a header with my name on the left, my Personal Identifier Number (PI) in the middle and the course name eg W101, at the right hand side on one line. Under that, in the middle, I have which TMA it is, eg TMA 01. When I begin using the template, I “SAVE AS” TMA 01, TMA 02 etc., in a folder for that particular assignment (so each TMA is in its own folder) and the template itself is untouched. Only the TMA itself is amended with changes.
2. At the bottom of the page, I insert the page number which helps to arrange in order when printed.
3. I like justifying the body of my writing (as you can probably tell from my blog) as I find it looks much neater. I also use a double line space (court judgments use this style) which makes it easier to read as there is less ‘crowding’ of text on the page. It also allows the tutor to insert comments with ease.
4. DO NOT use fancy colours or headline styles. Use a plain black font, Arial size 12 is the recommended format. Use British English spelling (some users may have US English installed as the default language; this should be changed).
5. DO NOT use abbreviations unless it is an acceptable legal term! So you are not to use “shouldn’t, couldn't, they’re” etc. but you may use PACE if you define it on the first use! So you may write: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (“PACE”) and thereafter refer to PACE. Putting an abbreviation into brackets and quotation marks shows you are defining it. European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) may thereafter be written as ECJ.
6. Try to minimise the use of quotations – instead, try as far as possible to write in your own words. If you do use quotations, keep it to as few words as possible and reference the source, both in-text and in your reference list!

Formality:

Legal writing is relatively formal and uses language in an accurate and precise way. However, it is important to resist the temptation to be too formal. It is not necessary to copy the rather archaic language in the older law reports; words such as ‘aforesaid’, ‘pursuant to’, and ‘hereafter’ should be avoided. Avoid being pompous or pretentious.

There is a move towards the plain use of English in law: it is important not to complicate your language unnecessarily for effect when a simple word or explanation will do.

Avoid:

• the use of slang and colloquialisms, such as ‘he was nicked by the old bill’, or ‘when she was off her head she set fire to the house’
• ‘text speak’ – the language of text messages
• lists and bullet points.

© The Open University

To be continued…

W101 Skills 1 – Reading and Understanding Case Law

© The Open University

Note that the person bringing a claim in civil court is now called the “claimant”; before 1999 the person was called the “plaintiff”. The person defending the claim is now called the “respondent”. A person appealing a decision of a lower court is called the “appellant”. See the Supreme Court’s decisions webpage for examples.

Remember too, the case is known by the names of the parties e.g. Smith v Jones which is read as Smith and Jones. NOT Smith versus Jones. In a criminal case, the case R v Jones is read as R against Jones (where R signifies the Crown – Rex if the Monarch is male and Regina if the Monarch is female).

W101 Skills – 1: How to read legislation

© The Open University

Remember that legislation is also known as statute or written law or Acts of Parliament. There is a standard format used in presenting Acts of Parliament, as shown in the picture above. Most statutes show:

• parts – each part deals with a different aspect. Each part is divided into:
  • sections – abbreviated as s (singular) and ss (plural). Sections lay out the actual provisions of the Act and are further sub-divided into:
    • sub-sections – abbreviated as sub-s (singular) and sub-ss (plural) and further sub-divided into:
      • paragraphs – abbreviated as para (singular) or paras (plural) and further sub-divided into:
        • subparagraphs – abbreviated as sub-para (singular) or sub-paras (plural).

At the end of the statute there will often be schedules and these are numerically divided. They relate to the sections of the Act and usually deal with the detail referred to from the sections. They cannot create anything new that is not contained in the main body of the Act.

© The Open University

A great resource for lawyers and law students is the Parliament webpage (upcoming and new legislation) and the Government’s official legislation webpage, where one can find most of the statutes that are in effect (and all from 1988).

Here is a PDF file with more details on how to read statutes, from the Georgetown University Law Centre. You can also view a video here from Oxford University Press which explains Acts of Parliament and also how to read them.

W101 Skills – 1

The online Open University law module W101 has some skills lessons built in, interspersed at intervals to aid the student in recognising and developing the necessary skills that are so important, both as a student and future lawyer. Some of the skills may seem obvious, some not so much. For example, the learning outcomes for Skills 1 are:

Learning outcomes

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• review your progress so far
• develop the skills of reading, note-taking and summarising
• know how to find your way around a statute
• know how to find your way around a case.

© The Open University

So, reading, note-taking and summarising may seem to be very obvious skills… but, these are not just the pleasurable, ‘normal’ way we might read the latest John Grisham novel, or the daily newspaper. For academic purposes, these skills have to be developed and used in an effective manner. They are part of your cognitive development. You, the student, need to learn how to identify what is relevant, what is not, how to identify facts and apply principles to those facts.

About the hardest part of your development (at least it was for me) is the self-analysis, the idea of being totally honest with yourself, and avoid making excuses. Did you use your time effectively? Were you able to do more hours of study than you actually did? Did you really have to eat that last muffin? Okay, I threw that in to see if you were paying attention.

Activity 1:

This activity gets you to think about the first weeks of study on W101 and ask yourself some questions. You may wish to make some notes as you respond to these questions:

• What did you find to be the easiest aspect of your study so far?
• What did you find to be the hardest aspect of your study so far?
• Which aspects of your study did you do well at?
• Which aspects of your study need improving?
• What can you do to improve and develop your learning?
• Was your time management efficient and can you do anything to improve it for the future?

© The Open University

An average person is ready to be honest about their strengths, but can you face up to your weaknesses? You will encounter a lot of this when you have to give feedback on your assignments and it will be uncomfortable, to say the least. Can you be completely honest with yourself, and your tutor, in answering the above questions? You can do a personal SWOT Analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities (for improvement) and threats (to your improvement).

Reading Skills:

There are different ways to read. The type of reading we do depends on the material we are reading and the purpose for which we are reading.

• Reading for gist – if we are reading to understand what the text is about, or to see if it is relevant for our needs, we may skim read, and this applies to a newspaper, a report or an academic article. We may also scan the text to get the general idea and to identify exactly what we need to know.

• Reading to gain a full understanding – if we are reading in order to gain a full understanding of something technical or complex, we tend to take our time. We may read the text through once quickly, to get the general idea, and then go back over it more carefully. We may take notes of the things we find difficult to understand, which we think are important, which we need to clarify later, or which we disagree with.

• Reading to reformulate – this type of reading aims to identify the main points of a text to enable you to make your own notes. This is important as it enables you to condense a lot of material.

© The Open University

A useful strategy in reading is known as SQ3R… Survey-Question-Read-Recite (or Recall)-Review. Click on the link for a PDF summary and description.

Effective Note-taking:

A person reading for academic study is advised to take notes, not only to help in digesting the material, but also to help summarise and clarify the ideas. “Taking notes forces you to think about the ideas in the text as you read it, because you have to decide what to write down and how to phrase it. As you write down the notes you are pressed into finding some sense in the words in the text. If you read without taking notes, no matter how good your memory is, you will find that the ideas gradually drift away from you.” It also helps if you rewrite in your own words so that avoiding plagiarism becomes automatic.

There are several different techniques for note-taking:

• Marking or annotating the text was signalled as a key activity when reading and it forms the beginning of note-taking – it highlights the relevant sections so that they are easier to find.
• Linear notes: this is the most common form of note-taking. It involves writing in sequence the points that you want to note. The aim is to pick out the relevant points.
• Mind maps: when making a mind map, you generally put the central topic in the middle of the page and then arrange the different aspects of the topic around it. However, you can give free rein to your creativity with mind maps. There are no hard and fast rules. Mind maps give you a clear visual representation of the relationship between points or ideas and many people find that the effort that they put into constructing a mind map is enough to fix the information in their memory.

© The Open University

One mistake students make when making annotations is to underline or mark almost everything on the page. However, the OU has a nifty little guide here on note-taking. It’s part of an on-going skills section on the OU website. Learning to identify and annotate what is important and necessary is an essential skill.

To be continued…

How statute is interpreted and applied

Unit 5 of W101 deals with how statute is interpreted and applied, and readers may want to go back to the 4 rules of interpretation prior to continuing:

• The Literal Rule
• The Golden Rule
• The Mischief Rule
• The Purposive Approach to interpretation

Learning outcomes

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• understand the need for statutory interpretation
• understand the role of judges in applying the law
• understand the rules of statutory interpretation
• be aware of the internal and external aids to interpretation
• understand how the judges apply the different rules of interpretation.

© The Open University

Statutes are drafted by specialist government lawyers called Parliamentary Counsels. They have to choose words with care when drafting legislation, for a number of reasons. Let’s consider some ways statutes may have some problems in interpretation:

• While passing through Parliament, the statute may have been subject to changes, and as a result, some of the wording has changed so that original clarity was lost.
• Due to the number of Bills passing through Parliament (greatly increased in recent years), Parliamentary scrutiny may be less than rigorous due to lack of time. Errors may slip through.
• All languages have ‘an inbuilt imprecision’, leaving words open to ambiguity:
• Words can have different meanings, depending on the context in which they are used.
• The meaning of a word can change over time.
• Unforeseen events or developments (such as in technology) may occur.
• Statutes are drafted in a general way that cannot cover every circumstance, but might need a court to resolve a specific situation.

The relationship of the rules of interpretation

There is no hierarchy in the use of the rules of interpretation. The position has been aptly explained by Lord Reid:

They are not rules in the ordinary sense of having some binding force. They are our servants, not our masters. They are aids to construction, presumptions or pointers. Not infrequently one ‘rule’ points in one direction, another in a different direction. In each case we must look at all relevant circumstances and decide as a matter of judgment what weight to attach to any particular ‘rule’. (Maunsell v Olins [1975] AC 373)

© The Open University

Aside from the rules of interpretation, judges may use a number of different internal and external aids to help them.

Internal aids are found within the statute, such as explanatory notes, presumptions and rules of language.

Explanatory Notes:

“A judge may look for guidance on the meaning of the Act itself in any definitions sections, headings, side or margin notes etc. Older statutes usually have a ‘Preamble’ at the beginning which sets out Parliament’s purpose in enacting the Act.” Keep in mind that this is for guidance only, as these are not actually part of the statute.

Presumptions:

“The courts have developed certain presumptions when interpreting statutes. The courts assume that certain points are implied in the legislation unless they are rebutted by the words in the statute which indicate something to the contrary.”

Some common presumptions are:

• Statutes do not apply retrospectively. It’s presumed that it is unfair to punish someone for  something that was not a crime when it happened, but later became a crime. It is important for people to know the legal implications of their actions. However, there are some cases where statute will apply retrospectively, but in cases like these, it will be stated in the statute itself. An example is the Adoption Act 1976 was brought into force on 1 January 1988 but replaces an earlier Act retrospectively from 1 January 1976.
• There is a presumption that a mental element (blameworthiness or intention – the mens rea) is required for criminal offences. For crimes that do not require intention (strict liability), the statute will reflect this.

• Statutes do not alter the common law – unless a statute expressly states that the common law has been changed it will remain as it is.

• Statutes do not affect the Crown – unless the statute contains a clear statement to the contrary it is presumed not to apply to the Crown.

• Statutes do not intend to deprive a person of their liberty – unless it explicitly makes provision for this form of punishment.

• Statutes do not intend to conflict with the country’s international law obligations, and so where possible statutes should be interpreted to give effect to existing international legal obligations.

• Statutes are ‘always speaking’ – this means that they need to be interpreted in the modern legal context rather than being fixed with the meaning that they had when they were created.

Rules of Language:

Rules of language are expressed in Latin terms, so students should familiarise themselves in recognising the expressions.

• “Ejusdem generis – this means the same type. If there is a list of specific words followed by general words then the general words are limited to the same kind of items as the specific words. So, for instance, if an Act stated that it applied to ‘dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters and other animals’, then the words ‘other animals’ would be taken to mean animals of a similar type to the preceding list, so it would not include wild animals such as badgers.”
• “Noscitur a sociis – a word is known by the company it keeps. This means that the words in the statute must be looked at in context and interpreted accordingly. The other words in the same section or sections of the Act should be considered. It is wider than ejusdem generis, which only applies to general words at the end of a list of specific words.”
• “Expressio unius est exclusion alterius – this means that the mention of one thing excludes the others. Where specific words are used and not followed by any general words then the Act applies only to the specific words.”

© The Open University

“Some external aids have long been used to provide helpful guidance on the meaning of the words in a statute – these include:

• Other Acts of Parliament on the same topic have been used when applying the mischief rule.
• Dictionaries may be consulted to find the meaning of a word.

• The Interpretation Act 1978 – this Act sounds more promising than it is, but it does provide a number of standard meanings which can be applied to Acts of Parliament. For instance, the word ‘land’ includes land, buildings and other structures. Section 6 is particularly well-used:

  Section 6 of the Interpretation Act 1978 provides:

  In any Act, unless the contrary intention appears, —

  • (a) words importing the masculine gender include the feminine;
  • (b) words importing the feminine gender include the masculine;
  • (c) words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular.
• Textbooks/academic commentary on the relevant legal issue may be consulted.
• International treaties and conventions can be given national effect and are incorporated into an Act of Parliament. The courts may consult the wording of the original treaty or convention to ensure that they give effect to its true meaning.

Other external aids have been more controversial in their use by the courts. The courts have traditionally taken a restricted approach to what can be considered when interpreting a statute. However, this attitude has been considerably relaxed with the increased use of the purposive approach and judges will now consider the following:

• Reports – legislation is often preceded by a report highlighting issues of concern. These reports may be the work of ad hoc committees or commissions set up to consider a particular issue. Alternatively, they may be the work of one of the permanent law reform bodies such as the Law Commission. Its reports do on occasion lead to legislation. For instance, the Law Commission consultation paper Reforming Bribery (2008) formed the basis for the Bribery Act 2010 which updated the laws on bribery and corruption.
• Pre-parliamentary materials – Green and White Papers are prepared by government departments in preparation for new legislation.

• Hansard – contains the official daily ad verbatim report of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It provides a record of what was said as the legislation was in the process of being approved by Parliament.”

© The Open University

Q79–Bachelor of Laws (Honours)

I thought I’d post the overall learning outcomes for this degree as stated by the OU:

Bachelor of Laws (Honours) - Learning Outcomes

Educational aims

The law degree aims to provide learners of all backgrounds and abilities with the opportunity to explore and develop their interest in the law and legal system of England and Wales. Your studies will: provide you with the opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of the legal system of England and Wales, provide you with an opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of the role and function of law in an increasingly globalised world, enable you to become independent learners, and to develop other associated and transferable skills and attributes, provide those who wish to continue their legal education and progress on to the vocational stage of training with the intellectual and practical skills necessary to do this effectively.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

• in-depth knowledge of a substantial range of the concepts, values, rules and principles of the foundation subjects of law, and of the legal system of England and Wales
• an understanding of legal methodology
• an understanding of the social, political, economic, historical and ethical dimensions of law
• an understanding of the principles and methods of legal research.

Cognitive Skills

• apply legal principles and authority in a logical and coherent way
• organise and assimilate legal and factual material and express a reasoned personal view about that material
• identify the relative merits of different legal and policy arguments as articulated in case law and legal scholarship
• present and make a reasoned choice between alternative opinions and solutions
• explore and apply exceptions to legal rules and principles

Key Skills

• communicate effectively and accurately (using appropriate legal terminology)
• organise information and illustrate its relevance to the intended audience
• appreciate the requirements of intended audiences and select an appropriate mode of presentation and style
• appreciate and demonstrate the techniques of legal argument
• read and discuss legal materials (whether statutes, cases or academic commentary) which are written in technical and complex language
• comprehend and use basic numerical information
• use basic keyboard skills and perform basic computer tasks
• use the internet, WWW and some dedicated electronic information retrieval systems to access legal information
• work with a group to find agreed solutions to set problems
• negotiate the performance of (and accepting responsibility for performing) an aspect of a team task.
• reflect critically on your own performance with the assistance of feedback
• take steps to improve your learning and performance with the assistance of feedback
• assess your own progress, identify issues on which assistance is needed and obtain such assistance.

Practical and/or Professional Skills

• identify legal issues in relation to material facts (both real and hypothetical)
• apply legal principles to resolve identified issues
• present arguable and reasoned conclusions
• access, comprehend, interrogate and use legal materials (both primary and secondary sources) using electronic and hard copy methods

© The Open University

Exam techniques

Tomorrow is the big day. Exam for W102, a real, live, sit-down exam. First exam I’m having in approximately 30 years. The last exam I did was in electrical engineering and that was in another country altogether.

So I'm as nervous as a mouse in a roomful of cats. I have so many questions in my mind, for example, will the exam be in the same format or similar as I knew in my past experiences? Still, I think I am fully prepared, and having answered the sample papers, reviewed my TMA's, and checked and rechecked my planning and my strategies, I am off now to pack my bag.

Yes you heard me right. I am packing my bag with: pens, pencils, identification, notification of examination allocation (absolutely necessary to enter the exam room), a drink and a couple of energy bars. Oh, and some headache pills. If I begin to get a headache in the exam room, I want to stop it in its tracks.

In preparation for the exam, I have been revising for the past several weeks. The OU has many different ways to support students for examinations and revision: http://www2.open.ac.uk/students/help/topic/study-skills/

The advice and guidance are great and I strongly recommend that students use these skills in conjunction with their study modules.

Some more advice:

• Listen to your tutor and pay attention to the feedback you were given. Also, redo the activities from your face-to-face tutorials.

• Pay attention to your TMA's; they were designed to help you answer the exam questions

• Try to do the sample paper; answer all the questions as this will give you the experience to answer a greater number of options in the exam room

• Read the examination guidelines carefully – my own is 25 pages long!

• Plan to get there at least half an hour before the examination begins to give yourself time to find your seat and relax.

• It's okay to speak to other students but try to avoid speaking about the exam or any module topics – this may create doubts in your mind if someone mentions something you think you did not study properly and cause you to feel unprepared.

• Give yourself time to read the exam paper carefully before beginning to write.

• Make sure you understand what the questions are asking. Pay attention to the wording so that you do not begin to answer incorrectly down the wrong path. For example, one sample question asked what year was the legal age for homosexual relationships made the same as that for heterosexual relationships. Note carefully what it was asking. It is NOT asking what year homosexual relationships was made legal.

• Make a plan regarding time strategy with respect to the total time of your exam. Balance it in terms of how many marks you will be able to obtain in comparison to the length of the entire exam. For example, in a three-hour exam, the recommended time of 20 multiple-choice questions worth 20 marks total, is 40 minutes. It is recommended to spend one hour (60 minutes) each on sections 2 and 3 which are worth 40 marks each. This is total for the number of questions so you need to break down what you will spend on each question within each section.

• Stick to your plan! If you have a question that is not fully answered,  and the time is up, move on!! If you have time at the end you may return to it. It is better to partially answer a question, and obtain some marks rather than to spend a lot of time on it to gain just a few more marks. In the end, you may miss more marks by not having the time to answer another question.

• For the multiple-choice, if you do not know the answer, guess. You have a one in four chance to get it right but your instinct may actually help you to get the answer correct. It is better than having an unanswered question which would bring you zero marks.

• Remember to prepare your answers properly. By this I mean, if you have an essay type question, remember your introduction, body and conclusion. You are not required to put a reference list at the end.

• Develop your techniques to help you remember case law with regard to legal principles, rather than situations.

• Get a good night’s sleep before the exam day, go to bed early and do not try to cram.

• Do not panic! You have been preparing for this for the past year.

Critical Thinking, Academic Writing and Advice

Today I am writing about a couple of areas of different but related studies, which I have found helpful in my studies of law. The first is critical thinking and the second is academic writing.

(Note that as I do this, I am also doing some self-reflection in preparation for my W102 final exam so if I appear to be a bit disjointed, it’s because I am trying to focus on the topics/links and on being helpful in a brief but comprehensive way, rather than structure of the blog post.)

Critical thinking plays an important role in the study of law, as well as in every other area of life. Everyone has probably heard of ‘critical thinking’ , or ‘critical analysis’, but few readily understand what it is and apply the principles to their thinking.

“Fundamentally, critical thinking is about using your ability to reason. It's about being active (as opposed to passive) in your learning. It means that when you approach an idea, you do so with scepticism and doubt, rather than with unquestioning acceptance.” [University of Sussex]

The Open University has a ‘guide’ to critical thinking. It explains in detail what critical thinking is, how to read, analyse and understand what is an argument, how to spot flawed arguments etc. I highly recommend this as a starting point, and you may want to – in any spare time you have – continue reading other books and materials on critical thinking. I have found this website especially helpful [http://www.austhink.com/critical/] as a one-stop resource on critical thinking.

Academic writing is also an important skill to learn. Not only do you need to up your game on grammar, spelling, punctuation, (please, for Heaven’s sake, no text speak!!!), you also need to be able to reference your work to indicate the evidence you are using to make your arguments. You will learn the Harvard method of citation for both in-text and bibliographies/referencing at the end of your paper. For law, students are advised to use the “guidance provided in their module materials” and The OU Law School Guide to Legal Citations and References.

What is academic writing?

“Main features of academic English

• is usually formal in tone and impersonal in style
• avoids contractions or shortened forms of verbs, such as won't, doesn't or it's
• avoids using a linking word such as 'and' or 'but' at the beginning of a sentence
• avoids personal pronouns such as I, me, you, your
• may use the passive form of verbs
• avoids verbs that are composed of multiple words, such as 'give up', 'put up with'
• tends to employ a cautious way of explaining findings, using expressions such as 'may', 'it is possible that...', 'could'
• may use specialised vocabulary.”

[The Open University, 2016]

The Skills for OU Study webpage is also a very helpful place to start, especially for beginners.  I am also a fan of the Plain English Campaign and recommend writing plainly as possible.

A word of caution.

I have often seen new students posting on forums that that they are buying/already bought books and other reading material related to their course. In my experience, this is a waste of time and money for a number of reasons. The OU provides ALL the material you need, and has readily accessible resources to make your study a success. Please include your tutor as a resource, as s/he is being paid to answer your questions/aid you.

Secondly, you definitely will not have much time to read widely outside of the OU material, especially if you are also working and have a family/children. It later becomes problematic when you read something and cannot reference the source in a TMA or exam.

Then too, there are the ‘know-it-all’ students who, just like you, are starting the same course, but… they boast widely (and wildly) on the forums (and Facebook) about this book/author/case/principle that they peeked in their books and ‘appear’ to be really bright and knowledgeable. You can identify them quickly – they often use ‘big words’ out of context, write very often and long discourses on the forums, usually unintelligible drivel, followed by asking the moderator, “What do you think?” as if seeking validation of their nonsense. It is often a mistake to follow these fools blindly. [As you can see, I ‘evidence’ my blog with links, so it’s not just my ‘opinion’ I present].

As to Facebook forums, I’m not recommending them, and neither does the OU nor the tutors. Aside from not being monitored, many erroneous ideas are spread, and a misunderstanding of a legal principle can quickly be perpetuated among members of a FB group. Especially by the ‘know-it-alls’ who easily impresses the less knowledgeable.

Remember, this blog is not only about the pursuit of an LLB, but also to document my learning, hence these non-legal posts.