Legal skills and debates in Scotland
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Contents

  • Introduction and guidance
  • What is a badged course?
  • How to get a badge
  • Introduction
  • 1 What is law?
  • 2 The ideal of law
    • 2.1 The idea of law
  • 3 Thinking about law
    • 3.1 Law or morality
    • 3.2 Differences between law and morality
    • 3.3 The relationship between law and morals
  • 4 Law and justice
    • 4.1 Substantive justice
    • 4.2 Formal justice
  • 5 This week’s quiz
  • 6 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  Legislation: an introduction
  • 2  Legislation and the Scottish Parliament
    • 2.1  Within competence?
    • 2.2  Invalidity in proceedings
    • 2.3  Powers to intervene
    • 2.4  Interpretation sections
    • 2.5  Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010
    • 2.6  Section 101 of the Scotland Act 1998
  • 3  Statutory interpretation: the rules
    • 3.1  The literal rule 
    • 3.2  The golden rule
    • 3.3  The mischief rule
    • 3.4  Criticisms and reviews
    • 3.5  The purposive approach
  • 4 This week’s quiz
  • 5 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  Reasoned argument
    • 1.1  What is an argument?
    • 1.2  Identifying the argument
    • 1.3  Analysing the argument
    • 1.4  Different ways of formulating an argument
    • 1.5  The logic of the argument
    • 1.6  The importance of evidence in the argument
    • 1.7  Developing your own argument
  • 2  The Courts and precedent
    • 2.1  Precedent
    • 2.2  Ratio decidendi and obiter dictum
      • 2.2.1  Ratio decidendi
      • 2.2.2  Obiter dictum
    • 2.3  Avoiding precedent
      • 2.3.1  Overruling
      • 2.3.2  Distinguishing
  • 3 This week’s quiz
  • 4 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  Judicial decision-making and logical reasoning
    • 1.1  Three forms of logical reasoning
      • 1.1.1  Deductive reasoning
    • 1.2  Inductive reasoning and reasoning by analogy
      • 1.2.1  Inductive reasoning
      • 1.2.2  Reasoning by analogy
  • 2  Logic and the law
    • 2.1  Reasoning the law
  • 3  Parliament and the judiciary
    • 3.1  The relationship between the courts, the executive and Parliament
    • 3.2  The declaratory theory and judicial deference
      • 3.2.1  The declaratory theory of law
      • 3.2.2  Judicial deference
      • 3.2.3  Questioning parliamentary sovereignty
      • 3.2.4  The extent of judicial power
  • 4 This week’s quiz
  • 5 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  The facts
    • 1.1  Finding the ratio decidendi
    • 1.2  The judgments
    • 1.3  The reasoning
  • 2 This week’s quiz
  • 3 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  What are human rights?
    • 1.1  When does a right become a human right?
  • 2  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
  • 3  The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
    • 3.1  The background
    • 3.2  The rights in the ECHR
    • 3.3  Balancing rights
  • 4  The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998)
    • 4.1  Your human rights
  • 5  Human rights in Scotland: a leading light
  • 6 This week’s quiz
  • 7 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  Children and the law
  • 2  Capacity
    • 2.1  Historical position
    • 2.2  The present situation
    • 2.3  Capacity and the courts
  • 3  Employment of a child
  • 4 This week’s quiz
  • 5 Summary
  • Introduction
  • 1  Reflections on law
  • 2  Legal skills
    • 2.1  Problem-solving
    • 2.2  Thinking about legal writing
  • 3  Finally: is it all about justice?
  • 4 This week’s quiz
  • 5 Summary
  • Tell us what you think
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

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