| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Core | SLGC2FC001 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: 1st semester of MA in Law, Politics and Society (Monsoon Semester 2017)
Course Coordinator and Team: Saumya Uma
Email of course coordinator: saumya@aud.ac.in
Pre-requisites: None
Aims: Legal Methods is one of the core courses in the law curriculum. It acts as an introductory course on law, legal institutions and processes, and serves as the foundation course for teaching students to think, read and write like a lawyer. For many students of the M.A. programme in Law, Society and Politics, this may be the first contact with law. Keeping this in mind, the Legal Methods course aims at building the capacities of the students to better understand and critically engage with law and its methods of functioning. This is particularly essential as the M.A. programme is an inter-disciplinary course, warranting a level of familiarity with laws, legal methods and processes, pre-supposing basic knowledge of various aspects of law and skills in legal research and writing.
A brief description of the Course:
The ‘Introduction to Law &Legal Methods’ course proposes to provide an impetus for a fascinating journey into the world of the dynamics of law, legal principles and concepts, legal institutions and processes, law research and writing. A study of the course will most certainly pave the way for constant brainstorming, debate, discussion, deliberations and arguments, not only on the contents of judgments, statutes and other tools of law, but also on processes that shape and influence law, and the functioning of legal systems and institutions.
The course is divided into five modules.
This is substantially a skill-based course, which will use clinical methods in the class room for hands-on experience and practice. Students will be required to participate in oral and written activities, and will be continuously evaluated with individualized feedback from the concerned faculty.
Course Objectives:
Course Description:
Legal Methods is one of the core courses in the law curriculum. It acts as an introductory course on law, legal institutions and processes, and serves as the foundation course for teaching students to think, read and write like a lawyer. For many students of the M.A. programme in Law, Society and Politics, this may be the first contact with law. Keeping this in mind, the Legal Methods course aims at building the capacities of the students to better understand and critically engage with law and its methods of functioning. This is particularly essential as the M.A. programme is an inter-disciplinary course, warranting a level of familiarity with laws, legal methods and processes, pre-supposing basic knowledge of various aspects of law and skills in legal research and writing.
INTRODUCTION TO LAW & LEGAL METHODS
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Course Aims and Objectives
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The following books provide useful overviews of the field:
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Syllabus with List of Readings
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Module 1: Encountering the Law
(Weeks 1, 2 & 3) |
Topics
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Week 1 What is law? Why do we need law? Functions of law; Sources of law
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In the first week of the course, through an activity-based class discussion followed by a lecture, we will gain clarity on what is law, the need and functions of law as well as the major sources of law.
Essential Readings
Legal method by Dr. G.P.Tripathi, Central Law Publications, 2014, pp. 1-17, pp. 87-92
How to Study Law by Anthony Bradney, Fiona Cownie, Judith Masson, Alan C Neal and David Newell, 6th edition, 2014, pp. 1-8
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Week 2: Major legal systems of the world, forms of law |
In this week, we will gain familiarity with the major legal systems of the world, particularly the differences between common law and civil law, as well as with forms, classifications, categories and branches of law.
Essential Readings
Glanville Williams: Learning the Law by ATH Smith, First South Asian Edition, 2013, pp. 1-24
Legal Method by Ian McLeod, Palgrave Macmillan Law Masters, 6th edition, 2008, pp. 23-42
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Week 3: Social context of law, general principles of law |
Law is not above and exclusive of society. Legal and social processes, aimed at achieving legal and social order, go hand in hand, and share an inter-dependent and symbiotic relationship. In this week, the focus is on understanding the intrinsic linkages between social processes and the law, as well as to familiarize students with general / foundational principles of law.
Essential Readings
Law and Society – An Introduction to Law by Phil Harris, 5th edition, Butterworths, 1997, pp. 1-25
How to Study Law by Anthony Bradney, Fiona Cownie, Judith Masson, Alan C Neal and David Newell, 6th edition, 2014, pp. 19-25
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Module 2: The Language of the Law
Weeks 4 & 5 |
Topics
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Week 4: Legal Terminology Underst-anding the Language of the Law
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In this week, we will aim at gaining familiarity with basic legal terminology, learn how to use a law dictionary, and begin getting accustomed to reading legal documents.
Essential Readings
Glossary of Legal Terms
Legal documents inShayaraBano vs. Union of India & Others WP (Civil) No. 118 of 2016 Source: http://www.lawyerscollective.org/updates/triple-talaq-updates
Additional Readings
Legal Vocabulary by Heikki E. S. Mattila in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law, Edited by Peter Tiersma and Lawrence Solan, OUP, March 2012
The Grammar and Structure of Legal Texts, RistoHiltunen in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law, Edited by Peter Tiersma and Lawrence Solan, OUP, March 2012
Class activity: Reading & understanding Petition, written statement & rejoinder, affidavits, written submissions – ShayaraBano vs. Union of India & Others WP (Civil) No. 118 of 2016 Source: http://www.lawyerscollective.org/updates/triple-talaq-updates
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Week 5: Understanding the Language of the Law (contd.)
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Having gained familiarity with reading selected legal documents in Week 4, in Week 5, we will focus on reading and understanding selected reports of the Law Commission of India. These reports form the backbone of law reform in India, and often provide us with a historical perspective of the law, critique of existing statutory laws and judgments, their level of implementation, and the future direction of law reform. This will be undertaken as a group activity, with class presentations followed by written assignments, both of which will be evaluated.
Essential Readings (each topic assigned to a specific group)
Source: http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/
Group Work & Class Presentation: Reading, understanding, analyzing & presenting a summary of a Law Commission report
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Module 3
Legislative Processes
Weeks 6, 7 & 8
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Topics
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Week 6: Passage of a law, classification of statutes, anatomy of a legislation |
In this week, we begin focusing on legislations / statutory law, and gain insights into the process by which a Bill is formulated and its passage into a law. We will also acquire an overall understanding of various types of statutes, and thereafter study a legislation to understand its structure / anatomy.
Essential Readings
Legal method by Dr. G.P.Tripathi, Central Law Publications, 2014, pp. 205-214
Class activity: Reading & understanding The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 through the internal aids
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Week 7: Rules of statutory interpretation
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In Week 7, building on the skill developed in the previous week in understanding the structure and anatomy of a legislation, we will understand various rules by which words / terms / phrases / provisions in a statute are to be interpreted. Thereafter, we will focus on reading and understanding selected legislations. This will be undertaken as a group activity, with class presentations followed by written assignments, both of which will be evaluated.
Essential Readings
Glanville Williams: Learning the Law by ATH Smith, First South Asian Edition, 2013, pp. 121-142
How to Study Law by Anthony Bradney, Fiona Cownie, Judith Masson, Alan C Neal and David Newell, 6th edition, 2014, pp. 106-109
Reading for Group Activity(each topic assigned to a specific group)
Group Work & Class Presentation: Understanding, analyzing & presenting the gist of a statute
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Week 8: Relationship between statutory law and case law, Finding Relevant Statutes
| In this week, we will complete the group presentations of selected statutes. We will also understand the symbiotic relationship between statutory law and case law, and try our hand at finding statutes relevant to a given hypothetical set of facts.
Class activity: Finding the relevant statute (5 hypothetical cases for finding law in a statute)
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Module 4 Judicial Processes
Weeks 9, 10& 11
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Topics
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Week 9: Structure of courts, parts of a judgment, legal reasoning in judgments
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In week 9, we begin our focus on judicial processes. We gain familiarity with the structure and classification of courts in India, become accustomed to parts of a judgment, and gain insights into legal reasoning in judgments – which will help us understand and analyze judgments. We will attempt to read and understand a judgment in class.
Essential readings
Legal Method by Ian McLeod, Palgrave Macmillan Law Masters, 6th edition, 2008, pp. 148-1162, 208-222
R.Gandhi& Others vs. Union of India & Another AIR 1989 Mad 205
Additional readings
Learning Legal Rules: A Students’ Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning, by James Holland and Julian Webb, 8th edition, July 2013, pp. 181-228
Glanville Williams: Learning the Law by ATH Smith, First South Asian Edition, 2013, pp. 93-120
Legal method by Dr. G.P.Tripathi, Central Law Publications, 2014, pp. 177-204
Class activity: Reading & understanding R.Gandhi& Others vs. Union of India & Another AIR 1989 Mad 205
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Week 10: Reading judgments, majority, concurring & dissenting opinions
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In Week 10, we strengthen our skills in reading judgments. We will have a group activity in reading and understanding judgments, with class presentations followed by written assignments, both of which will be evaluated. We will also study and appreciate the differences between majority, concurring and dissenting opinions through selected judgments.
Essential Readings(each judgment assigned to a specific group)
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Week 11: Judicial law making, law reports & their citations
| This week, we will develop our critical perspectives on what is judicial law making, and the arguments for and against judicial law making. Law reports, digests and commentaries are tools for law research. For this reason, we will also gain a familiarity to how these are structured, their uses and how they can be accessed. We will also learn the citations of major law reports.
Essential Reading
Legal Method by Ian McLeod, Palgrave Macmillan Law Masters, 6th edition, 2008, pp. 208-222
Class Activity:
Understanding the structure of law reports and familiarization with their citations
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Module 5 Law Research & Writing
Weeks 12, 13 & 14 | Topics
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Week 12: Basics of research, Types of legal research, tools for empirical legal research
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In this week, we will discuss and understand the basics of research, and identify key aspects of research in law, particularly socio-legal research and historical and archival research in law. Students will also be introduced to various tools used for data collection in empirical legal research, and practically apply what they learn by formulating a questionnaire for a socio-legal research.
Essential Readings
Legal method by Dr. G.P.Tripathi, Central Law Publications, 2014, pp. 552-582
Types of Legal Research Needed for Law Reform, by Sanjeyvignesh Jhttps://www.academia.edu/7146989/TYPES_OF_LEGAL_RESEARCH_NEEDED_FOR_LAW_REFORM
Additional Readings
Legal Research Methods – Teaching Material, by KhushalVibhute&FiliposAynalem, 2009, pp. 8-60
Methods in Social Research, by William J Goode & Paul K Hatt, Mc Graw Hill Book Company, 1952, pp. 119-208
Class Activity: Formulating a questionnaire
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Week 13: Tools for empirical legal research, data analysis & report writing, research ethics
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In Week 13, we will continue to discuss and apply various tools used for data collection in empirical legal research, particularly the observation and interview methods. We would also get a glimpse of how to analyze the data and prepare a report. A discussion on research ethics would be built into the discussion on tools for data collection.
Essential Reading
Guidelines for Writing a Research Proposal, School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
Class Activities:drafting questions for an interview, conducting an interview
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Week 14: New terrains of research, electronic research, legal data bases, legal writing
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In the final week of the course, we would gain exposure to new terrains of research, electronic research, become familiar with legal data bases and basics of legal writing.
Essential readings
Good Legal Writing: Of Orwell and Window Panes, by Pamela Samuelson, 46 University of Pittsburgh Law Review, 149 (1984)
Glass Activity: Surfing through legal data bases, and acquiring familiarity with electronic research
Group work & class presentation: legal data bases
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1. Assessment Methodology:
Continuous evaluation through oral presentations in class, written assignments linked to class presentations, and other shorter assignments.
A tentative break up is as follows:
| Oral Presentation (group) | Written assignment (individual) | Total |
Assignment 1: Law Commission report | 15% | 15% | 30% |
Assignment 2: Legislation | 15% | 15% | 30% |
Assignment 3: Judgment | 15% | 15% | 30% |
Assignment 4: Legal databases | 10% | - | 10% |
Total | 55% | 45% | 100% |
2. No. of students to be admitted:42
3. Special needs in terms of special expertise of faculty, facilities, requirements in terms of studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom and others instructional space, linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, hospital) etc.:
Note:
