How the law works

So you want to learn about the law? Maybe you are about to start a third level legal course or maybe you just have an interest in learning how the law works. I’m writing this aimed at someone from Ireland who knows nothing about the law. It’s a very simplified version. I’m writing this to help the eighteen-year-old version of me who needed it (although it doesn’t include any help on talking to girls- which I would also have needed). This is aimed at Irish students but hopefully will be helpful to students from similar legal backgrounds such as England or Australia. Remember the main rule in law is that every rule has an exception (except that rule)! Questions like how the law should work I’ll leave to the philosophers.

There are two main legal traditions in the world- the common law and the civil law. The common law is the British legal system. It is mainly followed by countries which were once part of the British Empire. Ireland is part of the common law. In the common law- judgments, that is written decisions by the courts, are very important. For a long time, the main sources of law were judgments by the court and judges effectively made the law (there is a lot of philosophical debate about whether they should or shouldn’t, but for the purpose of this piece they did). Judgments would follow what judges had decided in previous cases. There is also legislation made by parliament. The other legal tradition is the civil law. This is followed in countries such as France and Germany. In the Civil Law the legislative code is much more important, and judgments are not as important as they are in the common law.

To understand how the law works here it helps to know a bit about our history. Ireland was for a long-time part of the British Empire. Our legal tradition very closely matches theirs. We are a common law country and rely on judgments. Our law is so close to theirs that we rely very heavily on judgments that the English Courts have given. English laws from before independence are still on the books here and are still the law. Other common law countries are similar. Many of our laws since independence are closely modelled on English laws, sometimes even direct copies. If you are studying law as an undergrad, you will read at least as many English cases as Irish ones, if not more. You will also read other common law cases from Australia, Canada, and other countries. Latin phrases were used a lot in the common law, but these days only the most important Latin phrases are still used- res ipsa loquitor.

When Ireland gained independence we brought in a written Constitution, which was replaced in 1937 by the Constitution which is still in force today. This is the most important Irish set of laws. Britain does not have a written Constitution the way we do, and Constitutional law isn’t as important a legal subject as it is here.  In 1973 Ireland joined the EU. The EU is a multinational group of European Countries with its own parliament and courts. EU Law is superior to the laws of all the member states, including Ireland. This means that if there is ever a conflict between Irish law and EU law, EU law must win out. This was the case even before we joined. Most of the countries in the EU are from the civil law tradition and a lot of the EU’s laws reflect this. However, many of the decisions of the European Court of Justice have shaped EU law. ECJ judgments read slightly differently to common law ones due to the civil law background. Since Brexit Ireland is now the only common law country in the EU and it may be that we move in a civil law direction because of this. Incidentally the European Convention on Human Rights has nothing to do with the EU. It is an international convention that Ireland and many other countries have signed up to. There are several international conventions but for a primer like this you don’t really need to know about them. So- because of our history the order of importance of Irish laws is as follows 1. EU law, 2. The Constitution, 3. Other Irish law such as legislation and judgments.

Studying law is not going to be like what you might expect. Similarly, the way the law works won’t be like what you might expect. This is because most of what you think you know comes from TV and movies. I’m not being patronising- its true for almost everything. Most of what I know about being a soldier comes from War movies and probably bears little resemblance to the reality of guard duty, life in the barracks or being shot at. Most films and TV shows are not written by practising lawyers, which they are better off for. If a film has a choice between legally accurate or entertaining, then the better choice is to be entertaining. Even if they are accurate, they’re mostly from America. Even though America was once part of the British Empire their legal system is very different to ours. This is probably because they left centuries before we do and have federal and state governments, which we do not.  If you think the judge is going to bang a gavel at you, you’ve been watching American TV. Judges here don’t have gavels. Incidentally the most accurate law film is My Cousin Vinny.

In America Law school is a postgrad course. There you’ll learn how to become a lawyer. A law degree here is a good step towards becoming a lawyer, but you won’t be told how to object to evidence or how to cross examine. That left me very disappointed when my first month of law had passed and I still didn’t know how to object. I’d been watching too much legally blond. If you do want to learn these there are professional courses which teach you these things. Incidentally most Americans have an undergraduate degree under their belt when they go to law school too and are that bit older than people studying law here. What an undergraduate law course here will teach you is the academic subject of law. Once you have that under your belt you can go off and become a lawyer, legal philosopher, or anything you else you fancy. That being said, law is not a particularly difficult subject. A lot of it is common sense made into rules. Someone once told me that the hardest part of studying law is getting into the course. If you've bought or sold something you probably already have a decent notion how contract law works.

Law books are aimed both at lawyers and law students but can be very expensive. There are also nutshells type books which are more simplified and aimed at helping law students learn. Maybe hold off on buying expensive law books until you’re sure you need them and use your college library instead. I’ve written a few law text books and you definitely need them- as do all your friends and relatives, so you should buy them all at least three copies each. They might not thank you, but my bank balance will.

Cases make up a large amount of what you will learn in law, so it helps to learn how to read a case. Many of the ones you will learn may have been picked because they have interesting facts- every law student learns Donoghue v Stevenson which involved a snail in a bottle of ginger beer. Other cases you will learn will involve explosions, knives and sailors eating each other. The person taking a case is known as a plaintiff and the person who it is taken against is defendant. Sometimes they are known as applicant and respondent. If a case is appealed the person appealing is appellant and the other person is the respondent. The person who originally took the case’s name is the first one. So, Ms Donoghue was the woman who sued over the snail. Cases can be unreported or reported. An unreported case is as it was given down by the judge and might either be waiting to be reported or may never have been written up in reports. Reports are written up versions of the cases organised in such a way as to be helpful to lawyers. They’re organised by year and will have a citation so you can find the case.

When you read over a case it’ll start with the title, then there’ll be key words which have all the important elements of the case. Then there’ll be a summary of what the judges found. Then you’ll get the main text of the judgment. This bit is all you get in an unreported judgment. The Judge will usually start by summarising the facts of the case, then any procedural legal history. They’ll then say what the law was that applies to the case. Often this involves quoting from other judgments. I found this confusing at first- the first case I ever read was an English one, which halfway through spend ages talking about another case involving a Canadian railway disaster. You will get used to the way cases are quoted but just be careful in case you are thrown at first. Then the judge will make their finding and say who they are finding for and why. If you need to read a judgment quickly either just read the summary or the very end where the ruling is given.

You may also need to read legislation. Legislation is often more important in legal practise than cases. Irish legislation can be found online at https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/acts.html. Often legislation will be amended and updated by legislation which came afterwards, which makes it quite difficult to track. You can find a consolidated version of a lot of legislation on the law reform commissions website here https://revisedacts.lawreform.ie/revacts/alpha. Another great legal resource is Citizens information or (whisper it) Wikipedia.

By the time you are sitting exams you are hopefully long past needing any help from this piece. There are two main types of law exam question- essay questions and problem questions. Essay Questions are straightforward essays. Problem questions are where you’ll be given a set of facts involving someone and you’ll be asked to advise them. Problem questions are answered using the ILAC method. That’s nothing to do with the ILAC shopping centre- it stands for Issue, Law, Application, Conclusion. It’s a very similar format to the one used by judges in judgment. Maybe read a few judgments to get to grips with it. In law exams the golden rule is always do problem questions over essay questions. They tend to be marked easier whereas essay questions can be harder work. You’ll notice that problem questions are often based on cases you’ll have studied.

Outside of this the best advice I can give is to make as many friends as possible during your studies. You’ll enjoy it a lot more and they’ll help in a future career. Don’t let it get to your head that you are a law student. At the end of the day it’s a course like any other. When I was studying a bunch of students went to the cinema and asked the usher what film they should watch. When she started to make a suggestion one of them asked “Why should I care what you think, I’m a law student.” I wasn’t there, and its almost two decades since it happened, yet I still cringe at the thought.