Law students study appellate court cases in five steps to understand legal cases. They must identify the facts, legal question, decision, and dissent, and understand the impact of the decision.
Law studies are used to help students develop the skills needed to understand legal cases. Usually, appellate court cases are used for these studies. The case is examined in five steps. Upon completion of the study, students should be able to explain facts, legal issues, decision and dissent if applicable. Also, students should understand the impact the decision has and will have in the future.
The first part of the jurisprudential studies identifies the facts of the case. Students must be able to name all parties to a lawsuit and identify the dispute or events leading up to the lawsuit. Next, students must determine if this was the first trial or if there were previous lower court rulings. If there have been previous rulings, they must be identified. All previous facts and rulings must be clear before moving on to the other elements of the case.
Students are then asked to find the legal question that the court has been asked to answer. They should be able to define and formulate arguments for both sides of the issue. In some cases, there may be more than one legal issue raised by the case. If law studies focus on appellate court cases, the original legal issues should be understood as well as the issues in any subsequent appeals. Without being able to determine the legal issues and understand each topic, students will not be able to grasp the decision or its importance.
When reviewing a case, students should be able to understand why it was decided this way. While studying law, students must be able to explain how information from previous steps contributes to the final decision. At this point students should be able to identify the legal reasons for the sentence, including any precedents. If a dissent has been written, students should understand the argument.
The last area examined by case law studies is the impact of decisions. If a ruling was made years ago, students should be able to discuss the immediate and current impact of the decision. If the case has been recently decided, students can discuss the immediate impact and predict the effects to come. Finally, students should understand the changes required by any other branches of government as a result of the decision.
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