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Wait, Robert --- "Review: Legal Research, 2nd Edn (Essential Legal Skills Series), Legal Writing (Essential Legal Skills Series)" [2001] UTSLawRw 19; (2001) 3 University of Technology Sydney Law Review 241

David Stott, Legal Research, 2nd Edn (Essential Legal Skills Series, Ed. J. Macfarlane) Cavendish, London, 1999;
Margot Costanzo, Legal Writing (Essential Legal Skills Series, Ed. J. Macfarlane) Cavendish, London, 1993

Reviewed by Rob Watt

BOTH OF THESE books are part of the well-received Essential Legal Skills series published by Cavendish. As is clearly evidenced in most of the common law world, there has been a marked shift in legal education to the direct learning of legal skills. Gone are the days when educators expected that the skills of research, writing, negotiation, interviewing and drafting would be automatically picked up while formally studying the words of the law reports or of the Acts. There are now serious, and highly successful, courses where these traditional skills are subject to intellectual rigour and the modern student is given greater insight into how the processes of learning work. Admittedly this new approach to teaching has not been limited to the teaching of skills to the student. The modern lecturer is also spending far more time thinking about questions of better teaching and quality assessment. But that is another story.

Here we have two of the texts in this series. David Stott’s Legal Research is a 183 page paperback the aim of which is to give to the student an understanding of the complex processes of legal research. And therein lies the rub. The teaching of legal research is complex and that complexity comes from a number of directions. For the new student just embarking on a legal career, the teacher is expected to impart the skill to students who have little knowledge of substantive law. It means in reality that with such students one cannot travel too far past basic criminal law, with its relatively simple core concepts, to get the student thinking about the finding and use of common and case law and the finding and updating of legislation. In the UTS Law School as the teacher of legal research I am faced with the additional problem of teaching a range of students, some who are studying the early substantive subjects of Criminal Law, Torts and Contracts, while many others are merely undertaking an introductory subject involving the basic historic development of law and its impact upon the present legal process. This means that for assessment purposes I am forced to go outside the range of what students are formally studying in order to avoid giving them some (perceived) advantage over others who are not. I raise this because many of the examples of dissecting a legal problem occur in areas that would be completely beyond students who are being introduced to law. However, it does mean that if a law school had the ability to integrate the teaching of skills like legal research throughout an undergraduate program, a book like this would be extremely useful. And indeed such a program would be clearly more beneficial to the student.

However the distinct emphasis in this work on English legal materials to the exclusion of Canadian, American, Australian and even the European Community (with the exception of a brief mention of JURIS and an even briefer one to CELEX) is a distinct disadvantage to students outside England. The overview of LEXIS while allowing some searching of these other jurisdictions appears not to be encouraged. On balance I would say that while this book has a place in any university collection, it would be difficult to recommend purchase by those studying outside of England as a way of understanding legal research techniques and practices.

Margot Costanzo’s Legal Writing on the other hand has distinct cross-jurisdiction interest and relevance. It contains a clear message about good legal writing-there is a vast difference between the style of writing required at law school and that needed in professional life. This is a message that is not always fully appreciated by teachers and this book brings considerable insight not lost on this teacher.

The author has produced a book that is clearly written, and well set out. Of particular use are the examples where ‘bad’ writing has been rewritten and the reader can see immediately theory put into action. But if I had one complaint it is the content and style of the end of chapter references and additional readings. The author has included these at the end of each chapter to provide bibliographical references to the material she has referred to in that chapter. This makes sense because there are no formal footnotes in this work. But mixed up with these references-some which are of little relevance to the general reader-are the references that would allow the interested student to delve deeper into good writing techniques and theory. There are references to the classics-for example David Mellinkoff’s Legal Writing: Sense and Nonsense (West, 1982) but there is a failure to explain the tremendous wealth of material that has been generated from the ‘plain language’ revolution that has swept the common law jurisdictions over the last few decades. Thus while Dr Richard Eagleson is referred to via the Discussion Paper he prepared for the Victorian Law Reform Commission, other more accessible writings of his, and other leading exponents of plain language, are not. Thus Michele Asprey’s Plain Language for Lawyers (Federation Press, 1996) could well be listed. Another related recent publication which is very useful is Michael Meehan and Graham Tulloch’s Grammar for Lawyers (Butterworths, 2001). This reviewer accepts that just because books of this type are not listed is not of itself a reason to condemn Legal Writing. They are merely mentioned in a hope that the future inclusion of these types of publications would be of assistance to students who really do want to go on and perfect their written style. And as all of the authors agree—what the legal profession needs are members who can effectively communicate with their clients.


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