Week 1: Judicial Reasoning

• Explore ‘What’ the ‘Law’ should mean to you
• Legal, moral and judicial facets explained
• Why the nature of law evolves, its significance to society, and how big data drivers will drive future law-making
• Legislative interpretation
• Applied legislation for interpretation – Persons of legislative interpretations (PLIs)
• Techniques for developing and evidencing a reasoned argument • Rebuttable v. non-rebuttable presumptions
• Judicial precedent v. freedom to exercise judicial discretion: scoping and limitations
• The base for logical reasoning
• The aspects of judicial reasoning
• The relationships and roles of parliaments and courts
• Reasoning techniques to reach decisions
• The ‘neighbour’ principle as outlined by Lord Atkin
• Internal and external justification of conclusions of law – dictum justifications
• Use v. misuse of deduction
• Use v. misuse of ‘coherence-based’ arguments
• Consequential arguments
• Rhetorical analysis of legal reasoning – verbal and writing skills
• The role of human rights and the reason for their emergence
• The relevance of human rights in judicial reasoning and decision-making
• Understanding the framework for human rights in different jurisdictions
• Legal skills, problem-solving, and good writing skills
• Anatomy of the complexities in law and justice – similarities and differences
• The role of the successful judge in modern society