Legal Method, Skills and Reasoning

Language skills, study skills, argument skills and legal knowledge are vital to every law student, professional lawyer and academic. Legal Method, Skills and Reasoning suggests a range of 'how-to' techniques for perfecting these academic and practical skills. It explains how to work with legal texts; how to read and write about the law; how to acquire effective disciplined study techniques; and how to construct legal arguments.
Packed full of practical examples and diagrams across the range of legal skills from language and research skills to mooting and negotiation, this edition will be invaluable to law students seeking to acquire a deeper understanding of how to apply each discreet legal skill effectively.
This restructured third edition is now additionally supported by a Companion Website offering a wealth of additional resources for individual and group work for both students and lecturers.
For students, the Companion Website offers:


workbooks for each part, containing guided practical and reflective tasks
a series of ‘how-to’ exercises, which help to provide real-life legal skills examples and practice
guidance on answering legal problem and essay-style questions
self-test quizzes to consolidate learning for each individual legal skill.
For lecturers, the Companion Website hosts:


a set of PowerPoint slides of the diagrams in the text
specimen seminar plans, with supplementary notes to provide support and inspiration for teaching legal skills
sample legal skills assessment, and accompanying answers.

Sharon Hanson is Senior Lecturer in Law at Canterbury Christ Church University where she is course co-ordinator for the undergraduate legal studies programme.

Part 1: Preparing for the Journey Preparing for the Journey – Study Skills. Signposts and Landmarks. The Contexts of Law Part 2: Mapping the Territory Reading and Understanding Legislation. Reading and Understanding Law Reports. Reading Texts about Law. Part 3: Arguing the Law: The Construction of Argument The Anatomy of Argument. Legal Reasoning Part 4: Putting it all Together Writing the Law. Speaking the Law. Exam Strategies