How to write a compelling legal studies essay
Whether you are an aspiring legal practitioner, or simply just take an interest in the law, legal studies can be a rewarding, but conceptually difficult, high school elective to take. Understanding our Australian legal system is no small feat - it is an intricate web of legislation, case law, and ‘ancient’ legal doctrines. And even then, merely understanding the law will not alone attract good marks; you must also learn how to apply the law - a skill which, despite often being part of the legal studies marking criteria, is seldom taught at a school level. Needless to say, legal studies is perhaps one of the more difficult high school subjects to excel in.
How does legal studies differ from a tertiary law degree?
Pursuant to the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority’s (QCAA) Legal Studies General Senior Syllabus overview:
Legal Studies focuses on the interaction between society and the discipline of law and explores the role and development of law in response to current issues. Students study the legal system and how it regulates activities and aims to protect the rights of individuals, while balancing these with obligations and responsibilities.
Based on the current syllabus, legal studies students will learn about:
the concept of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’;
the concept of ‘balance of probabilities’;
law, governance and change; and
human rights in legal contexts.
In years gone by, including when I was at school taking legal studies (between 2016 and 2018 inclusive), high school legal studies could loosely be characterised as a taste test for students interested in taking a law degree. Among other things, we learned about basic principles of contract, tort, property, criminal law, and constitutional law. While current legal studies students will dip their toes in those principles, the new syllabus places greater emphasis on developing an understanding of the workings of our legal system, human rights, and international law. These concepts are also taught at a university level, but often through elective courses or to a lesser level of depth than what is taught in legal studies.
Accordingly, the main difference between what is taught in legal studies versus what is taught in law school really boils down to the focus being placed on understanding our legal system, human rights, and international law, as opposed to understanding (arguably more commonly applied in practice) general legal principles, and the cases and legislation governing same. That is not to say that students will not incidentally learn about, for example, criminal law in the course of their legal studies course; however, it will not be the focus of the coursework.
In any event, it remains that it is sensible to take legal studies if you aspire to a career as a:
lawyer;
paralegal or law firm receptionist;
politician or person working in politics generally, particularly given the syllabus emphasises an understanding of our Commonwealth and State legal framework; and/or
criminologist or person working in crime generally (e.g. in the police force), particularly given students learn about the concept of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
Legal studies enables you to have a baseline understanding of how to read law (e.g. reading legislation and cases) and apply law (e.g. by writing a persuasive article about your view about some law, as required by the syllabus). This puts any aspiring law, politics, or criminology university student ahead of the game in at least their first year of tertiary studies.
Structuring your legal studies essays
Headings and subheadings
Unless otherwise instructed, it is critical that students use headings and subheadings in their essays. The use of headings and subheadings is strongly encouraged in legal writing (both academically and in actual legal practice). The appropriate formatting for your headings will change depending on what referencing style the assessment stimulus asks you to adopt, but if in doubt, students can refer to page 34 of the industry-standard Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) Edition 4. AGLC is only loosely adopted in practice, however law schools expect strict compliance with AGLC from your very first university essay, so it may be good practice to get used to it during your final years of school.
Introduction, body and conclusion
Much like the vast majority of academic writing, compelling legal studies essays will generally include an introduction, body and conclusion. An introduction and conclusion should by year 10 be self-explanatory: your introductory paragraph sets out the background of your essay, and your conclusion ties together your findings, proposals and/or arguments. The length of your introduction and conclusion will depend on the subject matter of your paper and the prescribed word limit, but as a general rule of thumb, you should aim to limit your introduction and conclusion each to approximately 10% of your word count (such that, combined, they comprise approximately 20% of your word count). There are few marks to be gained in your introduction and conclusion compared to your body paragraphs.
The constituents of your body paragraphs will depend entirely on (a) what it is you are writing about, and (b) your allocated word count. By way of example, if you are writing an essay wherein you propose that some law should be reformed, your body paragraph should address:
the law in question, including where it is derived from, and its ‘elements’ (discussed below);
the problem about the law in question, supported by:
if possible, a case(s) where there was an unjust, unreasonable or illegal outcome;
statistics that suggest the law is unjust, unreasonable or illegal;
your personal view, in light of those case(s) and statistics, about the nature of the law; and
your recommendation (i.e. what you think should change).
One way that I have seen students seriously impress a marker (on multiple occasions) is by not only proposing that there be legislative change, but providing a sample amendment to the impugned section(s) of the legislation. This will only work if you are proposing legislative change, but it is a good trick to keep up your sleeve either way.
ILAC (or IRAC)
This applies to legal studies essays that involve making an argument or submission about the correct legal position with respect to a hypothetical scenario. It won’t be applicable to all your assessments, but insofar as it is applicable, it is perhaps the most important tip for writing a compelling legal studies essay.
The ILAC (or IRAC) method is a universally accepted method for making legal arguments/submissions. It is used not only at a school and university level, but also at a professional level. The method can be broken down as follows:
Issue: Begin by identifying and stating the legal issue or problem that needs to be addressed. Clearly articulate the question or concern that the legal analysis will focus on. For example, “The primary issue in this case is whether [state the legal question or problem]”.
Law (or Rule): Present the relevant legal principles, statutes, regulations, and/or case law that are applicable to the identified issue. Provide a clear and concise explanation of the legal rules or standards that will be used to analyse the situation. For example, “Pursuant to [cite relevant legal authority], [provide the applicable legal principle or rule]”.
Application: Apply the identified legal principles to the specific facts or circumstances of the case. Discuss how the law should be interpreted and how it relates to the facts at hand. Analyse the legal implications of the given situation. For example, “In applying the aforesaid law to the present case, it can be argued that [explain the application of the law to the facts]”.
Conclusion: Summarise the analysis and provide a clear conclusion based on the application of the law to the issue. State the likely outcome or resolution of the legal problem based on the preceding analysis. For example, “In the premises, it is likely that [state the expected outcome or resolution based on the legal analysis]”.
You should bear in mind that:
the ILAC method can be used to structure one paragraph (if your word limit is short or the problem is not complex), or it can be used across many paragraphs;
your ‘conclusion’ is not necessarily your conclusion to your entire paper; rather, it is your conclusion about the specific legal issue you are currently analysing in your paper. There will usually be multiple legal issues in a hypothetical scenario;
you should avoid making definitive statements in your conclusion (for example, “In the premises, Mr Smith has contravened section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law”). It is better to say that “…it is likely Mr Smith has contravened section 18…” or, if your essay is in the form of an advice, you might write “…our client has [reasonable or good] prospects of succeeding in persuading the Court that Mr Smith has contravened section 18…”.
Below is a condensed example of what writing in ILAC looks like:
The issue for determination is whether ABC Pty Ltd (ABC) served the Notice of Termination on XYZ Ltd (XYZ) in accordance with the contract. Pursuant to cl 9 of the contract, any notice under the contract must be served in accordance with the service requirements stipulated in s 39A(1) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld) (AIA). Relevantly, s 39A(1) of the AIA provides that service may be effected by “properly addressing, prepaying and posting the document as a letter”. Accordingly, ABC will be taken to have served the Notice of Termination if ABC:
properly addressed the notice to XYZ;
prepaid for postage of the notice; and
posted the notice as a letter.
In the matter at hand, ABC did properly address the notice to XYZ, and did post the notice as a letter, but ABC failed to prepay for postage of the notice. Accordingly, the second element of s 39A(1) of the AIA is unlikely to be satisfied, meaning service would not be effected in accordance with the requirements of same. It is therefore unlikely that the notice would be taken to have been served in accordance with cl 9 of the contract.
Blue = issue; Green = law; Red = application; Yellow = conclusion
Nailing your legal writing and referencing
A lot of the time, what separates a B from an A is a student’s legal writing style. While still (strictly) conformant with writing conventions taught in English, the style of writing legal submissions, letters, advices, and academic papers is slightly different to conventional writing. A high school student who exhibits a reasonable understanding of legal writing style will, provided the essay is correct and of high quality substantively, sit head and shoulders above the rest.
Phraseology
You can read more about legal writing by clicking here; however, for example, where appropriate, you could try and incorporate some of the following words and phrases into your essay:
accordingly - use this as a joining phrase, similar to ‘therefore’ - for example: “Accordingly, Mrs Smith contravened her obligations under s 181(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)”;
pursuant to - use this phrase as a synonym to ‘in accordance with’ - for example: “Pursuant to s 51(xxi) of the Constitution, Parliament has the power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to marriage”; and
prospects of success - use this phrase to explain how likely a person/party is to succeed in some legal action or defence - for example: “ABC Pty Ltd have poor prospects of succeeding in an action against XYZ Ltd”. Prospects are usually described as ‘poor’, ‘reasonable’ or ‘good’.
Citations
By properly citing your legal sources, you will convey a strong understanding of legal writing to the marker. The AGLC is the best place for you to go to learn the appropriate way of citing sources. At the very least, you should at least cite case law and legislation as follows:
case law - cases should be cited as [Plaintiff (or Applicant or Appellant)] v [Defendant (or Respondent) (Year [or Year in square brackets if unreported]) |Volume| |Report| |Starting Page|, |Pinpoint|. That probably won’t make much sense, so here are some examples: Calderbank v Calderbank [1975] 3 All ER 333; Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562; Commonwealth v Tasmania (1983) 158 CLR 1; and
legislation - references to legislation should be cited as [Legislation Name] [Year] (Jurisdiction). Examples are as follows: Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld); Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 (Qld); Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld); Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you are referencing a particular part (e.g. section, rule) of a statute, it may look like: s 300 of the Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld); s 111C of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 (Qld); r 691 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld); s 3 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
To make it easier for you and to save words, you can ‘define’ a case or statute as follows (for example):
In KDV Sport Pty Ltd v Muggeridge Constructions Pty Ltd [2019] QSC 178 (KDV v Muggeridge), the Supreme Court of Queensland found that a purported payment claim under s 17 of the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 (Qld) (BCIPA) was invalid for the purposes of the BCIPA because it failed to identify the construction work to which the purported payment claim related. …Therefore, the case at hand can be distinguished from KDV v Muggeridge.
Please note that, if you chose to follow AGLC 4 strictly, the proper way to define terms is as follows:
KDV Sport Pty Ltd v Muggeridge Constructions Pty Ltd [2019] QSC 178 (‘KDV v Muggeridge’); and
Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 (Qld) (‘BCIPA’).
Conciseness and the lean toward plainer English
In times gone by, legal writing often comprised of long wordy sentences involving quite technical looking words. The contemporary approach is to write in much plainer English using simpler sentences. That is not to say that you should never revert to technical words or complex sentences; writing about law is a technical endeavour. However, you should try to avoid including unnecessarily long and/or technical sentences and paragraphs if your point can be explained in simpler terms. A great article about the push toward plain English writing can be seen here. No one, including your marker, likes to read a 100 word paragraph that could have been explained in 50 words.
Elements
For the students I have tutored, one of the biggest ‘light-bulb’ moments when it comes to legal studies and first year law school is when they understand the concept of elements. For whatever reason, teachers tend to skip over teaching this idea, perhaps because it might seem self-explanatory on its face. Once you grasp the idea of elements, dealing with hypothetical scenarios tend to become significantly easier.
Basically any law, rule, or contractual obligation can be broken down into its fundamental elements. See the following example from one of the most widely relied upon provisions in Australian law:
Section 18(1) of the Australian Consumer Law:
A person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive.
On its face, s 18(1) looks very simple. However, to determine whether someone has contravened s 18(1), we must break the provision down into its elements:
'A person’ - for someone to contravene s 18(1), they must be a person;
‘in trade or commerce’ - for a person to contravene s 18(1), they must engage in conduct in trade or commerce;
‘engage in conduct’ - for a person to contravene s 18(1), they must have engaged in ‘conduct’; and
‘misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive’ - for a person to contravene s 18(1), the conduct they engaged in must have been misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive’.
That analysis seems simple enough, but it is critical that you break down any section you are working with into its elements to see what needs to be satiated in order for a contravention to have taken place. You must then dig further by asking:
Who is ‘a person’? Does it include corporations, or just natural persons?
What is ‘trade or commerce’?
What is ‘conduct’?
What is ‘misleading or deceptive’ conduct? What is conduct which is ‘likely to mislead or deceive’?
This is when you look to both the act itself (in this case, the Australian Consumer Law contained in sch 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2011 (Cth)), and the case law about the particular provision (in this case, s 18(1)). It might surprise you to know that in relation to s 18(1) of the Australian Consumer Law alone, there have been thousands and thousands of cases about the four (4) questions mentioned above.
Alas, even when you are dealing with legislation, it is always important to keep an eye out for any key cases that help give meaning to the legislative provision in question.
Moving forward
It would be quite natural for an article like this to leave you with more questions than when you started. There is an art to writing legal studies essays properly - an art which very few students at a high school level can master from classroom teaching alone.
We at Shield Tuition have had tremendous success with our legal studies students. By way of a recent example, Charlize, a Year 12 legal studies student, maintained a grade of 100% for all three (3) of her legal studies assessments last year after we began tutoring her. Remarkable results like this are the consequence of students gaining a strong understanding of what markers are actually looking for in legal studies assessments.
If you are interested in legal studies tutoring, please contact us to discuss how we can help you or your child!
