To many new law students, reading about the law can feel like staring into a chasm of confusion. The volume of legislation, precedent, commentary, and case law can be daunting, and students often don’t know where to begin. Unlike some other fields of undergraduate study, law study demands precision, transparency, and the ability to engage critically with both primary and secondary source material. So students soon discover that it’s not just a matter of memorizing all the laws; the skill is to take the laws and make the most compelling case you can around them.

This time in your academic life may feel scary, but it shouldn’t feel overwhelming. Following a series of step-by-step instructions and prompts that are fun and accessible, and using easily available materials, activities, and principles of sustainable living, this book will guide readers towards super-fun games, arts and craft projects, and all the inspiration they need to recycle and repurpose in a creative and engaging way. By tackling it head-on, the unmanageable task of legal research becomes your scholarship for your future legal academic career.

Why Legal Research Is So Much

The biggest challenge faced by Most law students is the unfamiliar language of the law and the abundance of legal literature. The insights behind cases and statutes are not searched for in textbook-like reading. That’s where services like Law coursework help UK students are useful, more so for international students new to a British University or College experience. As students are taught the organization of legal databases and how to develop a good search strategy, they may be able to reduce the sometimes overwhelming sense of being under a deluge of unidentified information.

Legal Research & Writing: How to Treat and Tame Them

Law is not just information retrieval; it’s about finding the right information and applying it properly. Inexperienced students often don’t know what cases are most relevant, how to analogize to them, how much reliance on them is too much reliance, or when they should give up on statutes and turn to commentaries.

Some even search for `I need someone to write my law essay for me, as they question if they’d be in a position to spot a strong enough reason to analyze law. But the point isn’t to view research as a drudgery and, instead, as a passage: at this step, with practice, it improves. As students’ source analysis thickens, so does the legal research journey feel less insurmountable (BAW, 2022).

Why Case Law Seems Harder to Read Than in Other Classes

Why is legal research so hard? is a question that gets asked pretty much by every student. The answer is like law as interpretation. This ain’t Physics or Math, so there are no answers, no solutions, which are beyond dispute, because the law has everything to do with ongoing interpretation about how statutes also fit, or do not fit, into the current moment. Precedents can contradict each other, and what seems like a sound answer in theory can muddy up in an actual case. And the legal language in which legal documents are written is hard, so it’s time-consuming to mine the good bits. If students can learn that challenge is part of the process and not a sign that the game is over, they can gather their courage and start research, knowing it’s a process that takes time and work.

Legal Research in Six Little Bites

Organization is everything for a real researcher. When the question is from the students, What are the six basic steps of legal research? They are, in effect, looking for trust in a medium. These steps include:

• The question of law in this case is whether there existed any contract between the parties

• Gathering background information

• Discovering the Law (a) Legislation and case law

• Using secondary sources for clarification

• Pertinence of the findings to the issue

• Updating research to ensure accuracy

When you go about it systematically, the whole thing suddenly seems a lot less frightening. As they spend less time combing through the nematode databases, they gain additional time for their research and their sanity!

Building Research Confidence Through Practice

Legal confidence does not come overnight. It’s a skill that you acquire if you’re surrounded by legal process. And the more you’re around a legal process, the more you get the hang of it. The longer students spend with the legal databases and running their eyes back and forth over cases, the easier it is to discern these patterns of interpretation. The brain adopts these foreign expressions and slowly makes them second nature. What tends to work best is to devote a set number of hours of practice time in the week — reading judgments, summarising cases, and reading commentaries — to the subject area. It’s an amazing antidote to the anxiety provoked by late-night studying in preparation for tasks.

Conclusion

Legal research will always be hard, but it doesn’t have to feel impossible. For students without a background in the law, the important thing is that research is an organized system and not a quest in the dark (LexisNexis, 2022). Students can feel a bit less overwhelmed by utilizing online resources, figuring out a system for their notes, and tapping into their peers and, when necessary, mentors, who will help them get through the slog of high volume. Support.

Repeated often enough, what had seemed like a labyrinth of statute and precedent assumes a life of its own as a journey of exploration. Research does not have to be a student’s albatross; the chance exists to bolster students’ ability to see research as something that is fundamentally integrated with their legal education and careers. And after all, the goal of becoming an expert legal researcher isn’t to take the challenge out of the game, it’s to discover the ways to confront the challenge that are doable, enlightening, and ultimately empowering.