Legal Method and Skills Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legal Method and Skills - Assignment Example It also helps the author maintain his or her consistency, and thus it makes it easier for the reader to follow to argument being made. The main feature of the OSCOLA system of referencing is that it uses the footnote system, rather than in-text citations2. An example of in-text citation is this: (Harvey, 2009). A footnote provides evidence for one’s claims by citing legal sources (for example, statutes, cases) as well as secondary sources (for example, books, journals, etc.) Footnotes are indicated by putting a superscript number after the relevant punctuation in the text. If a case is being cited, the name of the case must be given, the neutral citation and the volume and first page of the relevant law report. If necessary, the name of the court must be given as well. For example, in citing the case Phipps v Boardman3 the citation would be like this: [1967] 2 AC 46 (HL). Another example is this: In the case of Foss v Harbottle4, the Court sought to look into the rights of an individual shareholder against a company. The footnote would read: (1843) 2 Ha. 461. The footnotes and the punctuations should conform the underlying rules in the OSCOLA System. 2. According to a comparison made by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies5, Lexis Nexis has full text legislation and cases, and contains about 60 series of law reports. As for UK journals, it has Halbury’s Laws of England. ... It also has US material including a wide collection of US treaties, as well as material from the Commonwealth: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. On the other hand, WestLaw has the full text of legislation and cases including law reports but just 30 series. However, it gives links to journal references to these cases, unlike Lexis Nexis. It has around 50 full-text titles of journals, its legal journals index covers over 800 journals (in contrast to Lexis Nexis’s 60). It also has EU official publications, legislation, case law, international agreements, and the like. Like Lexis Nexis, it has access to international law materials, US treaties, and material for Australia and Canada (not New Zealand). Finally, Lawtel, which is another database that can be a useful resource for students, contains UK law and case reports similar to the above-mentioned databases, and provides summaries of case law, articles, parliamentary bills, statutes and statutory instruments, as well as command papers. Its interesting feature is the Lawtel Human Rights law, which provides Human Rights related judgments dating back to 1960, as well as human rights legal articles and legislation. It is also updated daily so that the law student or legal practitioner will find it to be of maximum convenience. 3. a. Round brackets are used when the year is not needed to identify the correct volume of the case. Square brackets are used when the year is needed to identify the correct volume of the case. b. The judge is Mr. Justice Griffith Williams c. William Hoskins (instructed by Greenwoods Solicitors) for the Defendant; Robert Glancy QC and Richard Cartwright (instructed by Irwin Mitchell Solicitors) for the Claimant. d. The material facts of the case are as