Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Presentation and workshop on reading cases

Ressel, J. (2013) Presentation and workshop on reading cases. Workshop presented to: Why Bother Reading Cases! Or, How do Students Read, Interpret and Understand Judgments and Reported Legal Cases?, The University of Northampton, 26 April 2013. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Workshop)
Abstract: This conference aim was to develop an understanding of the reasons why students seem to be reluctant to engage with reading law reports. Law reports are a fundamental and primary source of English common law and are therefore central to developing an accurate and informed legal understanding. Law reports also reflect the dynamism of law recording the developments of key legal concepts. A number of reasons to explain the reluctance could be hypothesised, but two primary questions which we sought to interrogate include: • The increasing use of electronic resources and depersonalised communications technologies, predicated on instantaneous snap response rather than a reflective reply. This may mean that students no longer have the patience to develop a deeper understanding of a text. • The transformative move of a case report from a physical text to a searchable electronic virtual document. This may lead students to lose patience and in seeking to ‘save time’ they seek the 'key word' (‘nutshell understanding’) missing out on context, the living law in the case, sense and meaning. • As well as methodological approaches. We tried to identify some tentative answers to some of the question by reading a close reading of a reported case
Uncontrolled Keywords: Common law, case reports, law reports, pedagogy, contract law, reading cases, Lochner, Yam Seng
Subjects: K Law > K Law (General) > K100 Legal education
Creators: Ressel, James
Funders or Sponsors: Higher Education Academy (HEA)
Grant Reference Number: GEN319
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Business & Law > Law
Faculties > Faculty of Business & Law > Law
Date: 26 April 2013
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: Why Bother Reading Cases! Or, How do Students Read, Interpret and Understand Judgments and Reported Legal Cases?
Event Dates: 26 April 2013
Event Location: The University of Northampton
Event Type: Workshop
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
Related URLs:
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/5310

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