To set up the casebook method of law study, American law
professors traditionally collect the most illustrative cases concerning a particular area of the law in special textbooks called
casebooks. Some professors heavily edit cases down to the most important paragraphs, while deleting nearly all citations and paraphrasing everything else; a few present all cases in full, and most others are in between. One common technique is to provide almost all of the entire text of a landmark case which created an important legal rule, followed by brief notes summarizing the holdings of other cases which further refined the rule. Traditionally, the casebook method is coupled with the
Socratic method in American law schools. Thus stated,
Hadley seems simple enough, but a casebook for a law school course will
never say that. Rather, the law student must deduce those principles from the somewhat archaic text of the Court of Exchequer's mid-19th-century decision. This teaching method differs in two ways from the teaching methods used in most other academic programs: (1) it requires students to work almost exclusively with primary source material, which can be written in obscure or obsolete language for older cases; and (2) a typical American law school class is supposed to be a dialogue about the meaning of a case, not a straightforward lecture. In some law schools, the casebook method is used in conjunction with lectures or other more structured forms of instruction. This is especially true in classes which are more heavily geared toward
statutory law, such as
tax law (which in the USA is governed by the
Internal Revenue Code) and certain areas of
commercial law (particularly courses dealing with the
Uniform Commercial Code). This method is also used in other
common law countries, including
Canada,
Australia and
New Zealand.
Law school outlines To facilitate the casebook method of study, "law school outlines" are used as legal topic
study aids. Typically, the outlines are created by
law school students; however, there are professional outlines also available. An outline typically provides a concise and direct statement of legal issues in a particular area of
law, organized according to the typical law school
curriculum. In some cases, outlines are organized according to specific professors or courses. Outlines often remove many legal nuances and fact specific distinctions in
case law to establish more generalized legal principles. Students must remember to be cautious before relying on outlines written by others found on online databases. They frequently come with copyright notices and may often be outdated. Many such sites also warn their users that relying on these outlines alone will not be sufficient to prepare for an exam and they should only be used as a supplement to the studying process. ==See also==