Legal Research Assignment: Tasks 1-3

Task 1

You are required to submit full written arguments for the attached mooting problem and the ground of appeal by the appellant; these must be word processed.

You should follow the guidance below for information about the preparation of a skeleton argument and the form in which it should be presented.

You should submit in writing the submissions that would have been presented on behalf of the appellant;

• Written submissions should be presented in the form of a skeleton legal argument (see guidance below)

Task 2

You are required to present your research strategy, i.e. a brief explanation of your approach to the research – how, why, where. You should be able to explain your lines of inquiry and your use of materials (not simply “I looked for case law and found a case”) in terms of the strategy you employed. For example, you would be able to describe how you went about identifying the issues in your argument and how and why the primary and secondary materials were determined by you to support your ideas. You will be able to describe the contribution made by your research materials, e.g. cases, articles etc., which are referred to in your written legal argument in task one. A full bibliography of sources must be provided. (These materials DO NOT form part of the word count). OSCOLA protocols apply.

Task 3

You are required to submit a written reflection on your production of this assignment.  This should:

• explain what you have learnt from carrying out this assignment, and
• contain an evaluation of how successful you think you were in developing the skills indicated in the marking scheme at the end of the assignment, and
• identify the need for future skills development.  

Guidance on Task 1 & 2

Your written submission for Task 1 must be presented in the form of a skeleton argument.

A skeleton argument is a summary of the main points of your legal argument and includes full and accurate citations for any cases that you use as authority.

Content and Structure

• contain details of the court in which the moot is being heard, the names of the parties and their representatives
• set out at the start of the skeleton argument the remedy you are claiming, and/or the order you are asking the court to make
• briefly identify and outline the relevant facts of the case relevant to your argument
• summarise each of your legal arguments or submissions
• contain full and accurate references and citations for any primary sources (i.e. legislation or case law) which you rely on in your legal arguments
• Your research strategy for Task 2 should detail how you approached the problem, how you identified what the relevant issues were.
• How you identified relevant materials for your argument and how you went about finding them.
• You should include a description of how and why you treated the material as you did.

An example of a skeleton argument (Task 1) is available from the Learning Materials in Blackboard (Unit 2) and you should study these materials carefully.

• be concise and easy to read, using short sentences to provide a clear and unambiguous summary of each one of your arguments
• be set out in consecutive numbered paragraphs, under appropriate sub-headings