Legal Research & Reasoning

At the conclusion of the course the successful student will be able to:

1. Explain the importance of legal research skills.
2. Explain the rationale behind the requirement that judges conform to methods of legal reasoning.
3. Identify primary sources of law and explain their use in the context of the Canadian legislative and judicial system.
4. Identify and use secondary sources of law in legal research.
5. Use electronic and print methods of finding and updating statutory and case law materials.
6. Write proper citations for all legal materials.
7. Compare and contrast main elements of Civil and Common Law systems used in Canada.
8. Explain the theory underlying the Civil and Common Law systems.
9. Explain the judicial mandate to apply the law and constraint thereon.
10. Explain the structures and rules governing judicial reasoning, including rules of statutory interpretation, the operation of precedent and stare decisis, judicial flexibility and distinguishing.
11. Identify and explain different forms of reasoning, including inductive and deductive reasoning, arguing from principle and reasoning from prior cases.
12. Describe the importance of the concepts of clarity, detail, precision, abstraction and concealed issues in reasoning.
13. Describe the importance of critical and ethical thinking to legal reasoning.
14. Research, write and analyze judicial reasoning in case studies.