AS level Law

This web page is intended to help AS Level Law students following the course provided by the Adult Education Department of the Guernsey College of Further Education.

This page will be regularly updated.

Official Information and syllabus

This can be downloaded from

http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gceasa/law.html

You will see that the three modules to be studies for the AS qualification are

Law Making. The module allows us to learn how laws are created by Parliament and how the courts interpret law

Dispute Solving. This module explores the court structure, alternatives to courts, the legal profession and judges.

The Concept of Liability. Having established a sound understanding of legal structures in the first two modules we can now get down to an examination of aspects of both criminal law and law of Tort as well as sanctions and remedies in law.

This basis of law sets us up to the second year for the course where the examination leads to the full A level qualification. It will allow you to appreciate how legal decisions are made and to understand the legal reasoning.

What examinations do I take to get the AS qualification?

Each unit has a one hour examination. In the Law making and Dispute Solving papers which provide 30% of marks each , you have two questions to answer out of five.

The concept of liability which provided 40% of the total marks is examined by a number of multi part questions based on given scenarios.

Some excellent study sources

There are many excellent sources available on the Internet.

http://www.sixthform.info/law/

http://www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/academic/updates/hunt/index.html

I feel this is an excellent source of Powerpoint presentations that provide a sound basis of learning for those whose learning style is to develop outline notes that familiarise you with the subject matter and from which you can build your knowledge. The questions put at the end of each section are also comprehensive.

http://www.lawteacher.net/ELSpages/ELS05.html

https://www.kent.ac.uk/law/undergraduate/modules/criminal/study.htm

Techniques in Learning Law

In my experience students best learn law through approaching the subject by first adopting a shallow, familiarisation with the subject content. It allows the student the opportunity to see the whole of the jigsaw puzzle and whet the appetite for the deeper learning approach that follows. In most of my classes I adopt this approach. It seems to meet the needs of most of my students.

Law is about basic learning of facts, and the developing of ideas and resolve of problems that concern these facts. Knowledge, for me, is not the transmission of information. It is the developing of student skills in the understanding and enjoying of law.

Key words

Law and cases in law lend themselves to key word analysis, which derives from computer database search techniques and the belief that we see things in terms of pictures. Law students find learning cases a problem. I encourage them to take a piece of paper with three headings

Topic Name of case Key words

One case we use in contract law is Calill v Carbolic Smokeball Company Ltd 1893 (I bet those of you who have studied law smiled when you saw the case name) The first two columns are easily dealt with. The key word column is more difficult. As the student learns the case the key word could be a sentence or even a paragraph. Eventually the student will end with something like this :

Topic Name of case and Key words

Topic is Contract offer and certainty of offer. Name of case is Calill v Carbolic Smokeball Company. Key words are influenza cure that failed

We will practice setting these up in the first session of the AS course.

When the student reads the list he or she sees a mental picture of the case. You can almost see Mrs Calill go to the shop, buy the smokeball to keep away influenza, falls ill with influenza, see the advertisement that led to the case etc.

Memory maps

These are excellent ways of aiding the learning of law. They provide an interesting change from the continual reading of standard text. The memory map can be constructed in a simple or complex way. It is the ability to visualise and to transform the visual data into pictures and words that is so important. To develop the idea of memory maps see the works of Tony Buzan.

Within each of these areas developed the memory map can be built to suit your need. You can develop sub directories with cases and explanations in as simple or elaborate a way as you like.

Answering Legal Problems

This is indicative of dealing with problems. Here we look at the way of approaching a legal problem. We considered the problem :

Peter is a student of sociology. In order to encourage him to work harder his parents say that they will pay him £100 if he passes his A level in Sociology. For the same reason his employer offers a similar sum, if Peter were to pass his examination. Dennis, the sociology lecturer; also attempts to motivate Peter with an offer of £100 if he passes his examination.

Peter responds a works hard. His initial reward is a pass at the highest grade in his “A” level. His delight at passing the examination is tempered by the fact that his parents, employer and Dennis all refuse to pay him the £100

Your task is to advise Peter if he is likely to obtain the various monies.

I suggest that the problem is approached in this manner.

1 We need to establish what areas of law are involved. First it is contract law with an
emphasis on intent to create legal relations.

2 Having established the area of law, and having satisfied ourselves, by re-reading the question that we are in the right area we must recall the precedents which we need to consider. These precedents are usually case law which sometimes supports or is supported by statute.

3 The cases we need to consider are Balfour v Balfour 1919, Merritt v Merritt 1970, Simpkin v Pays 1955, Ford v AUEW 1969.

4 These cases and the stories that accompany them will give us some rich illustrations to test the general rules of law relating to intent to create legal relations. These rules are :

Domestic or social agreements are not usually legally binding. Business agreements are legally binding unless it is stated that the agreement will not be legally binding as in Ford v AUEW 1969. Kleinwort Benson v MMM 1989

5 We now should have the legal principles and cases to analyse each of the three situations in turn.

6 In relation to the promise from the parent, the rule of law that a domestic or social agreement is not usually binding and a look at Balfour, Merritt and Simpkin will provide us with much evidence to suggest that the parent promise was not intended to be legally binding. Judges attempt to discover intent from the evidence given by both sides as we shall see later in Jones v Padavatton 1969.

7 We can now look at the position of the employer and whether that promise is binding. The rule of law is clear. A business arrangement is legally binding unless a clause or statement to the opposite is made. An employment contract is a business agreement. We can now look at the precedents. Merritt and Simpkin help even though they are exceptions to the rule that domestic or social agreements are not normally legally binding. Ford is probably a stronger precedent. As we have no evidence that Peters employer ever made a statement denying legal liability when the agreement was made it seems clear that in this instance there was a presumption to create legal relations.

8 Dennis is the problem. The issues here are most uncertain and therefore most interesting. We can test the water by looking at the precedents such as Balfour, Merritt, Simpkin and Ford. On these cases alone we could go either way - for Peter or for Dennis. We need to dig deeper and look at the law to see what precedents we can find concerning the state of mind at the time the agreement was made.

9 Jones v Padavatton 1969 is a good starting point. We need to look at the circumstances of this case where a mother offered her daughter a monthly payment in order to study law. After considering the facts in Jones we may feel that they do not particularly help us.

10 We can now look at Coward v Motor Insurers Bureau 1962 where a motor cyclist and his pillion passenger were killed in an accident. In attempting to determine whether there was intent Upjohn LJ said :

If the question had been posed to Coward or Cole (the motor cyclist and passenger) Did you intend to enter into a legal relationship? Each would probably have answered I never gave it a thought.

11 In Coward the Court of Appeal felt that there needed to be a contract before intent could be assumed. This was rejected by a majority in Albert v Motor Insurers’s Bureau 1971 HL. In this case the court had to decide if there was a legal intent where a man regularly gave neighbours and others a lift to work, sometimes for payment in money or in kind. The importance of this case was that the majority in the Lords felt that there need not be a prior contract for there to be legal intent.

12 What an examination of these precedents show is that one must look to the circumstances and what was in the mind of Peter and Dennis when the agreement was struck. Was it a social agreement or a legal agreement.

13 As the facts are stated a court could go either way. We can find good precedent for both arguments. In all probability this case would depend on the relationship between Dennis and Peter and the class. Was it social act of encouragement? or one that was of legal intent? All we can do is state the facts, the precedents, our reasons for selecting certain precedents over others etc.

14 This problem shows the learning value of what seems a simple problem. It shows the value of going over the problem and our initial answers with a good law text. The same retrospective analysis can be made to many of the problems we have considered. This approach will provide you with a deeper understanding of the law concerning that topic. It will also allow you to consider and discuss alternatives and to demonstrate to the examiner a sound understanding of the law. It can only help prepare for the examination.

Stephen John

Updated 10 July 2004