Studying Land Law - Textbooks and revision plan

To tell you the truth, my previous three degrees in two different majors (engineering and business), I bought many textbooks but never really read it.  Yup I am not ashamed to admit it.

I read here and there.  But never really read any.

But studying law is different.  I think having the textbook that fits the way you think and learn is very important.

I find learning the UK land law is like learning a new language and I know as an ESL (now I claim to be bilingual) how difficult it is.  When the first term started, in the lecture and in the supervision, I was recommended to get Gray and Gray: the Elements of Land Law.  Yes it is an alright book.  With 1000+ pages.  You can use it as a pillow.  To me, it was too long and too... indirect.  I would read a passage and would still be confused.  So I bought a case book by McFarlane but still it was too much.  And I found Land Law by Elizabeth Cooke in the library and started reading it.  It made it sense but it was for an introductory level - also very thin definitely not enough info is packed in.  And then I found Modern Land Law by Dixon.  And that is the book that I have been using for revision.  It's written in a clear manner and is well organised and it's not that big. 

I am sure the more you know, the better you will be in the exams but I think it is more important to know the foundations clear than just knowing many things at a superficial level.  I don't know but that's the strategy I am taking.

So for land law revision I am :

1. Reviewing class notes
2. Reviewing supervision notes and questions
3. Reviewing comments received on my essay submissions
4. Outlining the course
5. Building a list of all the cases that I need to know - mainly based on supervision sheets
6. Writing some flashcards for key cases and concepts
7. Topic diagrams / flowcharts

Yup it is a lot to do.  I better get on it.

What I wish I had known before starting my school - Note Taking

Frankly, it hasn't been a year.  Cambridge has a tri-term system and I am currently on the Easter break that comes after the second (Lent term).

No doubt it is difficult but there are a few random things that I wish I did better.

Note Taking
Obviously, you want to take good notes.  The best way you can.  This was one of more difficult things for me as I am not good at listening and writing / typing at the same time.  Thus, my notes sometimes appear that I have only caught 2/3 of the material.  You can always ask the lecturer for permission to record but frankly, I am not sure how many of those students have time to go back and listen to the recorded lectures.

So here is some tips:
1. pick a method and stick with it - obviously unless you try a few different methods, you won't know what you would like.  For me, I prefer typing (And so does 90% of my class).  Easy to modify later and insert comments and questions, highlight and change colors etc. 

2. know what today's topic is. - I don't know about other schools (and I assume it will be similar), the lecturer usually uploads on the faculty website the word version of the handout in advance.  I would spend some time, even if it is for a few min to read over and understand the structure.  Yup, I mean the structure.  Not necessarily the details of each case that will be lectured but what is the topic and subtopics.  One way to do it is to draw out a flow chart or a bubble diagram.  Or in a word document, you can use different heading levels.  It gives a good visual representation of the structure of each topic which can be later used for outlines during revision time. Yeah it is easier said than done as it takes time.  But for my final year, I am going to try anyhow.

3. Color code things - I know I haven't done this for a long time but it does help.  Because you will end up with hundreds of pages of notes and sometimes, you want to look for a case, or an applicable section of a statute or whatever.  First, for words, I leave the lecturer's original note in black.  And insert my note in blue, so it would be easier to spot what is right (the black part) and what has a possibility of being wrong (as I may not have understood the lecturer correctly).  Also I highlight my notes in different color.  I use yellow highlights for important bits, use green highlights for case names, and blue highlight for clauses of statutes.

My supervision notes are also color coded - original information remains in black, I insert my preparation notes in blue.  If I have another source on same topics, I use green to note that it is basically the same information but summarised in a different way possibly.  Also when I go into a supervision, and the supervisor allows use of laptop, then I insert my supervision notes in red.  I know it is complicated but I know now that it makes a difference as my earlier notes don't have a structured color coding system and it is not as easy to review notes as ones from later.

Also reading the textbooks, I use similar system.  Yellow for important texts, green for case names, blue for clauses of statutes, and orange for KEY CONCEPT WORDs. 

Ok I think that's enough for note taking.  I might have more thoughts on it later but for now I am good.

Should I type the notes? or Write it?

So I had about three hours of official lectures last week.  Somehow at Cambridge each week starts on Thursday?  Yup.. not Sunday or Monday... but Thursday.  Yes... I raised my eyebrow.  But a wise man keeps telling me "resistance is futile..." so I accept it and don't question it.

The first lecture was on Land Law.  5 past the hour, the lecturer starts to lecture (obviously) and you could hear about 200 people madly typing away.  It was weird.  I guess it's because I haven't sit in a lecture with this many students for a long long time.  My last time there were this many students in one room was... 1996?? And way back then, no one had a laptop in a class.  Unfortunately, I was one of them but I couldn't not type everything like some of these kids.  They must be machine.  I wonder if they are actually digesting the material at all or typing the lecture word by word.

Last Saturday, I attended an introductory lecture on "Studying Law", where the professor suggested hand writing the notes instead of typing.  So I think I may try that tomorrow?  But then I will want a set of typed notes eventually.  But I just can't type everything.  What to do what to do.

K

Introductory Course - Day 1

So all the new students to the faculty of law at Cambridge is required (but not sure how they enforce it) to take the three day introductory course.  There are two sets - one for normal first year law students and one for rest of them.  I fall into the rest of them as I am doing two year BA as an affiliated student.  I heard so much about how difficult it would be.  Hmmm... are they just trying to scare me? or is it REALLY going to be that challenging?  Don't get me wrong - I don't think it will be a stroll in the park but for now I really don't know what to expect.

Here are my notes taken for today's classes.  I must say both lecturers were so good and I was totally into the lectures... even with a bad headache.  :)

Disclaimer - this is written by me and I could have misheard or mistyped or misinterpreted the contents. After all, I don't speak the same English as the people giving me the talks.

Introduction to Cambridge and to Faculty of Law (GrahamVirgo)

Who does what?

-       colleges and faculty – how are the responsibilities split?

-       University – responsible for formal teaching (including exams andgiving degree – I will end up with a BA, previously LLB was LLM yup it isconfusing)

-       Colleges – small group teaching and supervisions will be provided bycollege for BA but with LLM, all teachings are done by faculty)

-       Faculty of Law – lectures are provided at the faculty

o  Lectures are starting at 5 pastand finish at 5 to every hour (each lecture is 50min)

o  LG – lower ground, B – basement

o  Library 1 to 3^rdlevel

o  Admin – Receptionist (Norma –she will have answers to most questions if not she can point to the rightperson, Laura Smethurst – Secretary of Faculty – we will get many emails fromher)

o  Limited financial supportavailable for hardship

o  You can be a practicing lawyerin the UK with one year of academic studying of law.

o   Debate of legitimacy of law as an academic subject - the Feb 27 in LG19

o  Need to learn how to think andwrite like a lawyer

o  Critical engagement – not onlyto criticize the law but also suggest improvements

o  Develop other legal skills

o  Mooting – form of debatingabout law and the application of particular problems (participate mootingcompetitions)

Practical issues (Steve Burdett)

-       Computing – http://www.law.cam.ac.uk

o  Internet based legal resources– westlaw uk / lexis library / justcite etc

o  Lapwing and Eduroam (Eduroam  - just need to be authenticated once)

o  Free McAfee –http//www-tus.csx.ac.uk/virus (Mac/PC)

o  www.microsoft.com/security_essenctials

o  www.malwarebytes.org

-       Mailing lists – http//lists.cam.ac.uk – Raven authenticated

-       Check that you are a member – computer.office@law.cam.ac.uk

Introduction to Law and Sources of Law (Mrs. Padfield)

Recently there has been much focus onprocedural justice – which will not be our focus at the moment.

Common law vs. Equity Law

-       common law tradition – Romans never had influenced on the legalsystem in the UK

-       Writs

-       Lord chancellors – legal advisors

-       Common law courts and equity courts were running in parallelhowever, it is important to distinguish.

-       Bleak House – Charles Dickens ß read

-       1873 – 1875 – time of enormous arrogance, time of radical legalreform

-       Since then, you can go to any court and ask for common law or equitylaw remedies

-       In contract – common law court only developed common law remediesand equity courts – different

-       Magna carta – highlight to understand – some sort of human rightsdocument

-       1485 – Welsh took over all power of this country

-       when speaking about English legal system it means English and Welshsystem – Scottish system is very different

-       1605 – Scotland and England joined

-       there is no one written constitutions – bits and pieces due tocomplicated legal history

Sources of Law – acts of parliaments

-       acts of parliaments – before they become acts, they are bills

-       Common Law systems – we put more weight on cases

-       Judges

o  Status of judges different fromEnglish system to others (lawyers become judges)

o  We needed judges to make law –codification of law may not require judges to make laws (i.e. in France) –judges made law

o  The court of appeal (there isonly one in this country) – can set precedents

-       cases remain as an important source of the law

o  Martin (if only one name thentypically criminal case, neutral citation code is EWCA Crim 2245)

o  Reeves v Commissioner (But readReeves and Commissioners) - tort – Ms Reeves partner got caught and hunghimself.  Ms Reeves sued the police.

o  Ms Reeves was awarded 8600 GBP à then appealed, then got awarded 4300 because both parties wereaware of Mr Reeves mental instability

o  A v S of S for Home Dept – read to understand how to read cases

o  R (Purdy) – judicial reviewcases, right to die cases (Mrs. Purdy would like for her husband to be allowedto kill her)

-       You don’t have an innate ability to appeal – unless you prove thatthe court was unsafe(?) that the conviction was unsafe.

Structure of the Courts

Civil Courts

-       magistrates’ courts (unpaid and unqualified) – mainly family lawbusiness, can’t divorce people but can set terms of separations etc

-       county courts – not much interesting for visitors, busy for all lowlevels – relatively small - civil disputes, contract à cheaper than high courts

-       you get higher quality judges at high courts

-       high courts – more substantive cases

o  wills, trusts, injunctions –chancery division at high courts

o  queen’s bench division – expertcourts within this division, includes commercial court

o  divisions are much moreflexible now so even if you are not in the quite right division, less likely toget thrown out

o  family divisions

-       Court of Appeal (CA) – Civil divison

-       Supreme courts – used to be called house of lords (changed in 2005)(à look up carpets at Supreme courts) à Supreme Court is for UK

-       Tax matters – high court to Supreme Court

Criminal Courts

-       serious cases are dealt at Crown Courts

-       Judge can have a trial without a jury but very exceptional cases

-       Summarying, indictable, tribal

-       Magistrates court can convict much less amount – if guilty, pleadguilty magistrates court if pleading not guilty, go for a jury for much higheracquittal rate.

-       Divisional court –

-       Mr Fagen’s case – innocently parked on policeman’s foot but did notmove it right away but had a laugh.  Didhe assault the policeman?

Cricket Field at Fenner's