Tips to study law : Principles of Law and the Path to Professional Communication Skills

1. The relevant legal principles may be found in cases, statutes, text books, lecture notes and case books.
2. Obviously, it is necessary to develop an understanding of these principles. However, this should be seen as merely the first step.
3. Students should then seek to develop the skill of applying these principles so as to formulate legal arguments. If this skill is properly acquired, students will have the basis upon which to tackle all law subjects during their course.
4. The ability then to apply relevant skills plays an important the future career of accountants and other business professionals. This is irrespective whether the area concerned involves taxation, company law, contract law or any other legal area.

The Approach to Studying Law Subjects
From the above general observations, it follows that the study of law subjects cannot be successfully completed by a last-minute attempt to cover the whole course.

LECTURES
It is critical that, students should attend all lectures and tutorials. Lectures explain and supplement the text book and are designed to help students comprehend the legal principles.
Attendance at lectures should therefore facilitate effective use of time and ensure that:
- important areas covered in the exam are given proper emphasis
- students are directed to efficient study of the more important topics, rather than attempt to cover the entire detail ( some topics may be given a lower priority)
- reading texts will be more efficient rather than wading through them without guidance (Lectures may also be seen as a guide to study from the text book).

TUTORIALS
Attendance at tutorials is perhaps even more important, because it is at tutorials that legal principles are applied to problems. As previously mentioned, this is the skill which exams and assignments seek to assess.
To obtain the maximum benefits of attendance at tutorials, students should prepare themselves beforehand:
a. reading and attempting to understand the legal principles relevant to the topic
b. reading lecture notes and the applicable parts of the text book
c. reading any relevant statutes or cases
d. attempting written answers to scheduled questions.
Students should make a note of any unresolved difficulties they have had in understanding these materials and not hesitate to ask questions in tutorials or of tutors outside class time to resolve these difficulties.
The legal principles should then be applied to the tutorial questions in a written answer. This will enable the student to:

- determine whether the legal principles are properly understood
- to gain experience in applying them to a problem.
Armed with these answers to problems the student will gain the maximum benefit from the tutorials.
Tutorial participation by students and lecturer's comments will usually uncover further points so that a full understanding of the issues raised by a problem will be achieved far more easily than if the student does not attend or goes into the tutorial completely unprepared.
It is by going through the tutorial problems in detail and preparing written answers to them that the skills necessary to complete the exam and other assessment properly will be developed in the most efficient way.
Practising this technique is the most important part of studying law subjects

ORAL ASSESSMENT IN TUTORIALS.

Verbal presentations
All students are required to give at least one verbal presentation in tutorials. These presentations will comprise leading discussion on a designated tutorial problem and answering any questions put by the tutor or other members of the class.
In leading the discussion, students should ensure that they are clearly understood by the whole class. The effectiveness of the presentation may be enhanced by use of overhead transparencies which contain the main points raised during the presentation or by the distribution of a written summary of the main points.
The assessment marks given for verbal presentations will take the following considerations into account:

- the amount of research effort
- level of understanding of the relevant legal issues
- skill in formulating legal argument
- clarity and effectiveness of communication
- Ability to answer questions.