LAW118 Understanding Law Learning Diary

WEEK 2:

TASK 1:

In the workbook this week you completed four research exercises:


Exercise 1: Identify which are primary and secondary
sources on the Contract Reading List?
The primary sources on the contract reading list are courts decisions and
contracts wills and other legal documents. The cases brought by decisions of the
courts and the specific point of laws which are established through it.

The secondary sources on the contract reading list are the books about law and
articles about law. E.g; Mckendrick Textbook.

Exercise 2: Finding the primary sources identified in Exercise 1 in Western Bank
Library. The statute books which are available at the library which are mainly
legislation and books on case law.

Exercise 3: Finding the secondary sources identified in Exercise 1 in the IC. It
was easily accessible, books on law.

Exercise 4: Finding primary sources identified in Exercise 1 using an online
database. Western law is a very convenient source to find case law and provides
the full judgements of the case.

You should now write a paragraph (300 words maximum) reflecting on your
research experiences. Your reflection should include the following:

example of a successful research strategy you used this week



difficult

lls which you are going to need to
work on/practice in the coming weeks.

I read my text book on case law and understood the development of the law. It
provided me with greater insight into the reasoning of the judges in making their
decisions and how it was justified. This improved my understanding and
furthermore, I developed a sense of interest in reading the judgements which
would be essential in my time studying law.

I tried searching for case law summaries to help expedite my studying time and
give me a simple understanding of certain cases, however it proved futile in a
sense I did not get the whole gist of the case and just provided short and
insufficient information and it added to my confusion on certain point of laws.

I found that reading through full case judgements tends to be very lengthy and
caused me to lose interest and also develop a sense of perplexity which made me
very confused. However persevering through it had benefited me in a sense to
understand the specific ratio decidendi and obiter dicta of the judges. This
developed my skill in understanding what is actually binding and what is of just
mere opinion. The rationale of the judges in determining cases where they take
sides and provide assenting and dissenting arguments to reach a verdict of
utmost justification.

I would need to be able to start reading more case laws and reading the text
books and trying to find online sources and journals to further enhanced my
knowledge of the law so that I could establish good arguments in my essays to
come.

NB: You must bring this AND your answers to all four exercises to your
Colloquium next week (Week 3).