LLM开学前你应该知道的事—总结自《LetterstoaLawStudent》
(2018-07-03 09:13:45)
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分类: 其他 |
众所周知,LLM项目只有9个月时间,我们没有JD那样有3年的时间来打磨和适应法学院的生活和学习方式,为了在最短时间内获得最大收益,我们必须掌握几个核心技能,比如如何有效的学习case,
如何高效完成reading,如何在考试中获得理想成绩等。下面内容是博主从《给法学院学生的信》中摘录和总结的内容,虽然这本书是针对在英国读法学院的学生所写,但对于去美国读LLM的同学也有很大的借鉴意义。
- 总是带着问题去读legal
material,而不是被动接受知识
- work smart.
重点学习过去考试的内容非常重要,you learn how to apply the knowledge in your
head
to concrete questions.
- 分类存档自己整理的case
notes,以及相关的text book和 article的笔记。笔记应尽量有趣生动方便记忆。
- 制定每日的时间表,organize your
life. 每天都制作一个checklist,尽力完成所有项目。
-
制作自己的outline,将知识点总结起来。
-
充分利用时间:如利用课间或午休时间读一些article, 推荐利用Kindle或ipad读文章
-
泛读第一遍:不要做笔记或highlight,读的时候不断问自己what are the key points here? what
problem
is it trying to
solve?
-
读第二遍:只highlight这两类内容,important以及你还不熟悉的内容。自己已经知道的基础知识不要管,
因为基本的知识点会在你读的其他资料里不断出现,你自然会记住
- tips:
不要太迷信教材,有的写得并不好;不要买太薄或太便宜的教材,it won't help a lot; 尽量买老师推荐
的教材,如果老师推荐很多本,则需要问问读过得前辈感觉如何
(1) 写case summary (这样你不就不用在需要时重新看这个案例):
分为4部分
Title:XXX v XXX [年份] 案件编号
Facts: 不要用appellant or respondent来称呼双方,直接用原被告名字简称。
Outcome and reasons: 简单总结判决结果和理由。看案例时可以忽略法院对其他案件的引用。
Added
value: 法官从案件中得出的若干principle
case
summary 举例:
Century Insurance v Northern Ireland Road
Transport Board [1942] AC 509 HL
The
Northern Ireland Road Transport Board entered into a contract with
a petrol company (HMD)
to
deliver HMD's petrol in its lorries. Century issued and insurance
policy to the Transport Board
(TB)
under which it would cover any liabilities to third parties
incurred by TB arising from damage
to
property caused by TB's use of its lorries. When one of TB's
lorries was being used to deliver
petrol to a garage, the driver-while transferring the petrol from
the lorry to the garage's tanks-
struck a match to light a cigarette, threw its on the floor, and
caused an explosion. TB was sued
for
the damage caused by the explosion. It sought to claim on its
insurance policy, but Century
said
it wasn't liable under the terms of the policy because TB wasn't
liable for the damage caused
by
the explosion.
XXX
Cours found that Century was liable under its insurance policy with
the Transport Board: the
Transport Board was liable for the damage caused by its driver
because (1) he was employed by
them
at the time of the explosion and (2) he was acting in the course of
his employment when he
carelessly caused the explosion.
Viscount Simon (法官姓名)
1)
key issue: who was driver employed by?
A can
be generally employed by X but because of arrangement between X and
T, A can at the time
he
was careless be held to have been T's employee, so as to make T
liable for A's carelessness.
*
Test for whether X or T was the employer at time A acted depends on
who had power to
control what A did. -> driver in this case was under TB's
control
2)
second issue: was driver acting in the course of
employment?
* driver's duty to watch petrol as it flowed from
lorry into tank, and it was while he was watching
that he lit cigarette.-> so was acting in the
course of employment: plainly negligent in discharging
duties he was employed to perform
(2) 浏览casenotes
(他人写的)
很多学者会对一些案例进行评析,能帮助我们更深刻的了解这个案子或给我们一些新的角度。因此作者
建议,对于非常重要的案例,一定要读一些casenotes。可以把casenotes中的有意义的见解加入到自己
的case
note中。作者提供了几个有效寻找casenotes的方法:
— 通过Westlaw。Home page——>
Cases——>type key words (usually select "Party names")
——>在搜索结果中找到正确的年份,找到该案例
——>click "Case analysis" underneath the
name of the case——>click
"Journal Articles" in the left hand menu
(Casenotes一般都是比较简短的对案件的评书,一般在law journal 或
quarterly review里有)
— 通过图书馆。找到law journal 或 law
review的卷册,找到案例相对应的年份,应注意不要看错
(比如你想找一审casenotes, 但最后却看了二审的casenotes)
—
通过Google。一些律师或学者有时会将案例评述写在自己的博客里
(3) 对于是否需要关注dissenting
judgments,如果是很老的案子,不用特别关注,如果是很新的案件,可以
关注一下。
(4)
如何记住cases?
Remember them in group,像项链一样用一条主线把case串起来。
如ABCD四个案例都涉及principle a,
但是每个法院的适用和对该principle的认可是不一样的,可以这个为基础进行记忆。也可以找到master
case and other cases that descended from
it.
阅读大量法律学者写的article远远比自己练习writing更重要,there is no better way of
improving your
legal essay writing
skills than to read legal articles. 文章要读两遍。
—
第一遍:理解大意,了解核心观点。不要做笔记,这会减慢你的速度并让你感到沮丧。
带着这些问题读:文章主要说了个啥?文章主要观点?为了支持该观点,作者提出了什么
arguments?
你觉得作者的argument怎么样?第一遍读完后,拿出一张A4纸,make notes:
- author,title, journal
citation
- basic point
- arguments made in favor of
the point
- my opinion (the arguments
effectively support the point?)
—
第二遍:看文章是否提到了你学过或没学过的案例。案情和判决结果如何?为什么这样判?作者对判决
结果的看法。如果提到了某个案件,你可以把观点加注在你的case note上。读完两遍后,你就
可以把文章搁在一边了不用再看了,因为你已经找到你需要的所有信息。
— 如何找其他相关article?
westlaw的journal版块;HeinOnline中的Law Journal
Library版块;SSRN post; Google
—
课堂给与的内容很有限,分配给课堂的时间和自己课后学习时间比例应为3:7。用至少60%的时间来自学。
— 需要记笔记的内容:case总结,
article总结,evaluation of law, string between cases
不需要记笔记:basic legal
rules(会在课本上反复出现),history of law
— 将课堂笔记整理入自己的case
note和study file里。因为课堂笔记一般比较乱,重新整理还可以帮助
自己重温课堂内容,评估自己的听课质量。
— 对于seminar或 small group
teaching, 一定要提前准备,在课堂上积极提问。不要担心自己的问题是否
过于简单或愚蠢,其他学生可能有相同的疑问,而且自由提问是学生的权利。
-
answer the question. 很多学生并不能有效的正确回答问题,而是花很多时间解释相关概念。
-
write clearly. 不需要用过于复杂的表达和词汇,use a "friend
test",用简短的几句话向朋友解释清楚
如果可以,则说明写的clear, 如果fail the
friend test,说的写的不清楚或over-complication.
- use
concrete examples. 通过举例生动表达你的观点。
-
write something interesting. 如果希望在exam中获得高分,最好不要让你的答案显得boring.
要写得
生动,最好的方法莫过于举例,或运用列表或图表,或围绕几个核心principle来写,不要简单重复教课
书的内容。
-
第一段非常重要,必须用简短的话表明自己的主要观点。
-
don't make your answer over-complicated, write
straightforward
-
always have in mind the sort of answer the examiner would have had
in mind when setting the
questions.
-
addressing 5 or 6 key issues
1. 在法学院学习时的几点建议
2. 如何读教材
3. 如何读case
4 如何读article
5. 如何利用课堂
6. 如何在考试中获得好成绩
(1) How to write essays
(2) How to discuss problem questions
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