How To Study Law

9 April 2020

Hasit Seth
Motivation
• Study vs. “Analytic-Synthetic” Study
• Statute Law
• Cases & Precedents
• Gap Analysis
Different Occasions for “Study” of
Law
• Core Study – Law School
• Client advice - before a client is
taking an action, e.g. before
entering a contract
• Client advice – after a dispute or
a regulatory issue has arisen
• Transaction Documentation
Type of Lawyer Determines Study
Levels

Asks Around Never Confident Solid Basics

Makes Guesses Doubts Herself Everything Checked
Is Never Sure Lacks Basics Assimilated Latest
Study As a Systematic Activity

DEGREE

EDUCATION

STUDY
 But
OK Applying
Study
What Mind To
Is Fine Is Problem
Study?
Statute Law
“Problem” of Study
• Some 20-30 Acts
• Constitution
• Uncodified Laws – Torts, Hindu Law for ancestral property
Usual Methods of “Study”
• Read something called a ”textbook”
• Read some notes or even more adapted work
• From exams in college unto practice, there is really no study
• There is no application to mind to the material that are being studied.
• You struggle with material but never come around to engaging with it.
Engage With Legal Materials
• Be curious about what you are reading
• Be curious about the structure of a law
• Be curious about the intent of a law
• Be curious about how a law will apply to facts
• Be curious about how a law relates to world around
• Be curious of a law’s relation to Constitution
• Be curious of its links to economics, to society, to history, to politics,
etc.
Method - “Analysis-Synthesis”
• Engage with materials you study by method of “Analysis and
Synthesis”
• Analysis means study of anything by “examination of the elements or
structure of something”
• Classic example of “analysis” is Ratanlal & Dhirajlal’s book on Indian
Penal Code.
• Here each IPC section is “analyzed” into ingredients that will need to
be proved by prosecution to convict someone who committed that
crime with requisite intent
“Prima Facie”
”Analysis”

Credit A.L.Crego on Giphy.com

“Synthesis”
”Study = Analysis + Synthesis”

Credit @aap on Giphy.com

S.378 IPC - Theft
378. Theft.—Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any moveable property out of the
possession of any person without that per­son’s consent, moves that property in order
to such taking, is said to commit theft. 
Ratanlal & Dhirajlala, IPC, 19th Ed (1948)
Analysis of Contract Law’s Structure
An Agreement Enforceable By Law Is a
Creating norms for enforcing contracts
Contract, S.2(h)

Defining a system to form agreements A choreographed sequence to form

S.3-S.9 agreements

Contracts with Formative Defects

Penalty of variable enforceability
S.3-S.9

Void Agreements Penalty of total unenforceability

S.23-30
Synthesis of Contract Law’s
Structure
An Agreement Enforceable By Law Is a
Creating norms for enforcing contracts
Contract, S.2(h)

Defining a system to form agreements A choreographed sequence to form

S.3-S.9 agreements

Contracts with Formative Defects

Penalty of variable enforceability
S.3-S.9

Void Agreements Penalty of total unenforceability

S.23-30

Abstraction: ENFORCEABILITY
Still far away: Application of Law to
Facts

Credit @electriccyclery on Giphy.com

More Analysis & Synthesis

Credit @alboardman on Giphy.com

“Historical Analysis”
Lot’s of Other Analyses
• Historical
• Sociological
• Economic
• Interdisciplinary
Analyze a Law – Civil Procedure
Code, 1908
• Administrative structure – trial, appellate, high court & SC
• Find legal relations it creates – plaintiffs, defendants, interpleaders,
garnishees
• Find time limits in it – S.148A (Caveat), O.8,r.1 (WS)
• Find absolute bars – S.11 Res Judicata
• Find relative bars – S.11’s explanations
• Find conditional bars -
• Find interlinked sections – Which sections are linked to which orders?
• All such discoveries will lead you to appreciate the design of CPC.
Ask For Source
• Always ask for the source of any principle
• E.g., What is the statute for structure of courts in your state?
• Almost everything in India is covered by a statute or rules!
• Don’t easily conclude anything is a new situation.
• E.g., find the law that allows donation of dead body for medical
research. There is a law for it !
• E.g., how is water from irrigation canals is to be used – Bombay Canal
Rules, 1934 covers it!
Books
• Analysis-synthesis methods are to be designed and applied by you
• Books don’t help, much!
• Most books for students are diet versions of practitioner treatises
which are more or less dump of all cases under sections
• A rare exception is Mulla’s ”Key to Indian Practice” – explains civil trial
practice with progress of a trial
• Other 3 good ones on Evidence, Property & Interpretation are by
Vepa P. Sarathi
Books
• All other books by D.F.Mulla are excellent for practitioners but am not
sure reading them cover to cover is of any great learning value.
• Constitutional law books are good. It’s not our focus today.
• Rest are mostly are of doubtful value from a study point of view. So
write your own!
Judgments & Precedents
IRAC
• If you don’t know about this, please Google.
• It is a way of summarizing (“briefing”) cases.
• American law schools and their appellate briefs are based on IRAC.
• See if you can do a few IRACs a month if not a week.
• You will find enough templates about it online.
• Wish the law schools rigorously taught IRAC as foundation of legal
writing. But you can put that self-discipline.
Judgments
• Sources and electronic databases are well known.
• 4 major parts to any Indian judgment
• Narration of facts and litigation history
• Arguments of opposing counsels
• Judge’s analysis of arguments, facts and cited precedents
• Judge’s conclusion and operative part
Finding Key Precedents
• Take any topic (e.g. patent)
• Do a SCCOnline search with keyword
• From all listed cases - sort them by largest coram
• Study 5 or more judge bench cases of SC and HCs. They are long
standing precedents that are likely not overruled
• Then see 3 judge bench decisions of SC and HCs
• Then onwards the precedents tend to be chaotic.
• But above will give you a key of precedents which you can profitably
IRAC for future recall.
Weighing a Case
• If you are a student:
• You probably don’t want to know pinpoint current position of law for
immediate use. Take a longer term view of precedents.
• When required, check the holdings of stable precedents being over-ruled by
using “forward citation” searches.
• If you practice:
• You may want to study a few areas of interest and have some command over
current happenings.
• But stable and key precedents are worth studying for long-term recall.
Statute Is The King
• Very rarely courts interpret contrary to statutes (e.g., courts won’t say
a contract void as per contract act is suddenly not void).
• Courts to interpret “or” as “and” and vice-versa at times but they do
so with some reasons.
• Is it beneficial to always keep statute in mind as the material is smaller
in quantity to store and pre-organized. Compare that to remembering
1000s of precedents floating around.
Don’t Work In Reverse
• Don’t have a goal in mind and then research cases.
• Best to first see what statute says, then consider major
interpretations by the SC and HC full benches and then move to
division and single judge bench decisions.
• This “inverted funnel” of case research will make you a solid, hard-
nosed and conservative lawyer instead of a stupid one who find a
paragraph in his case’s favor and jumps out yelling “Eureka, Eureka!”.
Gap Analysis
Gap Analysis
• Ask hard questions about how much you know about a law?
• Hence, do gap analysis of your knowledge about law.
• E.g., if you practice criminal law, can you recall all evidence law sections that
allow hearsay questions if they relevant to corroborate some other
testimony?
• This Gap Analysis, if honest, will give you a roadmap to study a statute
again and with different viewpoint of engagement.
• Students or practitioners - gap analysis is a must.
• Once every month is good.
Thank You
• You can join for Q&A Session at 11pm.
• Please note:
• This is an occasional talk. I don’t have time to answer any individual legal
questions from anyone. I get paid to answer them as a lawyer! But that’s
another matter altogether!
• Particularly for students – Very respectfully and politely I say this - I have no
time to engage with anyone individually. So do not email or drop LinkedIn
messages for anything that you can Google yourself. I am NOT available for
career guidance, correcting your homework or helping you prepare for moot
courts. I have no idea where and how to find jobs or internships, so excuse me.
When you become a busy lawyer, you will say the same too. Please respect
this. I can only wish you good luck with your journey as a lawyer.
Q&A
At 11am
Best Questions
•“ “ (blank)
• ”None at present”
• “None”
• “No Question” or “No Questions”
• “NA”
• “.” and “..”
• “Compliments”
• “Nil”
• “Q”
Curious

• “Just to understand study method you are going to teach !”

Memory
• “How to remember sections?”
• “The procedural laws being such comprehensive and bulky, how to go
about remembering the applications as well as the provisions.”
• “What is the best practice to study and remember/ memorise the
vast subjects?”
• “How to remember cases related to a issue?”
• “How exactly to remain updated and then memorise the ever
evolving position of law?”
Basics & Speed
• “How to study any bare Act?”
• ““Is there a speedier way to read judgements, considering tight work
timelines? If yes, how to go about it?”
• “Preferences to be given to which statutes.”
• “Since I’m a slow reader, how can I remember things in less time?”
• “How does one overcome the initial inertia to study, explore and
comprehend different and varied fields of law? In other words, how
does one break away from one's safe bubble and venture out to
understanding areas of law which he/she would not particularly be
well-versed in? “
Comprehension - 1
• “How should we go about reading judgments especially lengthy
ones?”
• “How to first acquaint ourselves with the basics of any given law?” or
“What is a proper approach to start reading law?”
• “How to develop a 360 degree view on a specific matter/case?”
Comprehension - 2
• “When we study any provision of law then, what we to keep in mind
that we have to understand that provision or we have interpreted
that provision?”
• “A vast part of studying legal subjects goes into the understanding the
law through precedents. My questions pertains to how to effectively
read a judgement as a law student? “
Comprehension - 3
• “I've always wondered how [] philosophy of law can be applied to
understanding, applying and interpreting laws.”
• “As a law student, I feel overwhelmed by the number of laws that
are taught in my college and more importantly by the number of
laws that are not taught. [some NLS and job related stuff…]. But what
about other subjects if I follow this strategy? And if I don't then
what is the strategy should I take to engage with so many of laws
with so little time.”
Comprehension - 4
• “What are the best ways to analyse dissenting opinions of the
courts?”
• “How to read files? “
• “Is reading case laws the only method to become familiar with a
subject.”
Study - 1
• “How to keep ourselves updated with the law given that there are lots of
amendments, judgements?”
• “When you are already working professional.- how to study law”
• “Also How to study law books? They are too dense and hence what should be
the method of segregating important points like imp. cases from the rest?””
• “Given the vast amount of topics and subjects that are mentioned in a 5year
LL.B. Is it enough we we study only from the point of view of exams. As
eventually we are going to forget the sections and articles. Hence, isn’t it
sufficient to study only to gain the understanding of the concepts and apply
on a regular basis when we practice?”
• “How do I get a grip on economic aspects of law?”
Study - 2
• “How to study Company Law?”
• Latest Decisions? and How to be updated?
• “Since the pedagogy at various law schools has remained static
wherein emphasis is given only on the theoretical aspect of law, what
are the different ways a student can go about while studying law?”
• “Should reading law for a client i.e. for work, be different from
reading law for self-education?”
Interpretation
• “Interpretation of statue”
• “How to interpreted provision of law in correct manner. What is basic clarity need
before judgement reading.”
• “how to deal with technical contract?”
• “What should be the difference in approach when studying substantive law and
procedural law”
• “How to interpret the various punctuation marks, like comma, semi-colon?
Implication of explanation being inserted in the section?”
• “How to [study] lengthy sections of law?”
• “Notwithstanding clauses”
• “How to understand the intersection points of several laws.”
Sources - 1
• “How to study International Laws and cases in India?” – Google It!
• “In traditional law schools many of the important subjects are not
taught until the final year of the course. Students have to study such
subjects by themselves so as to understand the current updates in the
field. How to effectively study such subjects by yourself? “
• “As a Business/IP Consultant with a non legal background, which
faculties/ courses would be apt in Law studies? I want to aim at
Trademark/ Copyright and Anti Trust/ Anti Competition Laws”
Sources – 2
• “How do you identify the complete set of reading materials when
you are looking to start your career in a new practice area?”
• “List of Books” – Denning, Mulla KTIP, Sarathi, LTL (Wiliams), Setalvad
Skills
• “What should be included when one is preparing notes”
• “Is there a particular note taking method you find easiest for Law?”
• “How to study law for litigation?”
• ““What is the best way to keep digital records of various judgments,
we read and come across on daily basis? Is there any tool / software
to keep a readyreckoner / brief summary? That is easy to search as
and when required.” (Free Microsoft OneNote)
Legal Writing
• “What role does legal writing (articles, blogs etc.) play in the
development of a person as a well-rounded lawyer? How would you
recommend going about it once one starts practice (litigation)?”
• Genuine interest in a topic you want to write about
• “…and how to improve our legal writing skills to advanced level i.e
similar to the language used by English people in drafting the
contracts.”
• Study American precedents of contracts. The world uses them now.
Miscellaneous
• “In problem questions can i use academic opinion, whats is the best
way to get A+ and how to make my evaluation /analysis strong”
• “Relevance of jurisprudence of Continental Europe and ECJ decisions
in commonwealth countries like India”
• “How do you tackle problem questions? Do you have a strategy to
make sure every part of the question is answered?”
• “The difference between a 75% (first class) essay, and an essay that
achieves 85% (high first class)? How to do extremely well on essays?”
• “How do we utilize the current scenario in developing our self
academically.”
Miscellaneous - 2
• “1.What is the most important trait in an Advocate?’
• “How do you see the application of present law in future?”
• “What are the most necessary skills that a lawyer must be adept with
before graduating law school? (Skills that are either taught in Law school or
even those that aren’t)”
• “How to solve applications based questions in exams?”
• “How to draft a pleading, a written statement, a rejoinder and a legal
opinion?”
• “Digital media and AI in Law.”
• “Career in cyberlaw”
Miscellaneous – 3
• “How to choose a particular subject for career”
• “How can one manage studies, extracurricular activities etc”
• “What modus operandi one should adopt to do a comparative study
of law from multiple jurisdictions, and how does the same contribute
to the practice of law in terms of broadening the horizon of
analytical knowledge?”