Nine Tips on How to Write First-Class Law Essays
Here are my top nine tips on how to write first-class law essays.
These golden nuggets of advice are taken from the contributions of top legal experts to my book (“How to Write Excellent Law Essays”), which you can purchase here.
1) Baron Neuberger, former President of the UK Supreme Court: “Write for your audience!”
According to Baron Neuberger, you should remember who you are writing for or speaking to:
“When writing (or speaking) about the law, do not forget that you are communicating with others, rather than addressing yourself. You must remember that you are writing (or speaking) in order to inform, educate or convince other people. You are not writing (or speaking) to yourself. You should therefore think yourself into the mind of your reader or listener. The questions which should constantly be in your mind is: how do I make myself clear to my audience? How do I convince my audience?”
2) Oxford Law Professor Nick Barber: “The Rule of Three”
According to Professor Nick Barber, there are lots of good ways of structuring an essay, or arguments within an essay, but, “if you are in doubt, three-stage arguments are often helpful. Here are a couple of examples. Some law essays work well as: (1) problem; (2) flawed proposed solutions; (3) my solution. The author sets up a legal difficulty, discusses how others have sought to resolve the problem, but have failed, and concludes by providing a solution that builds on the successes and failures of the second stage.
Or how about: (1) the present state of the law with its problems; (2) the causes of these problems; (3) the remedying of these problems, drawing on the causal analysis made in the second stage. This also works for more abstract essays: (1) argument; (2) counter-argument; (3) synthesis. The author sets out an argument, presents the critiques of that argument, and then concludes by defending, or (better still) modifying the initial argument in the face of those critiques. The three-stage model is not the only way to structure things, and might not always be appropriate, but it is a handy tool to have when you are writing an essay and groping for a structure. I suppose it is satisfying because there is: (1) the setting up of the problem; (2) engagement with the problem that fails to bring closure; (3) closure.”
3) Cambridge Law Professor Mark Elliott: “Remember to Argue!”
According to Professor Mark Elliott, “there are at least three reasons for making an argument part of your essay. First, the question will often call for this, whether explicitly or implicitly, such that you wouldn’t be answering the question if you didn’t set out and develop an argument. Second, if you don’t impose on yourself the discipline of articulating and defending an argument, you risk underselling yourself by writing something that is descriptive and meandering rather than purposefully constructed. Third, setting out and developing an argument involves taking ownership of the material. By that, I mean using the material in way that serves the purposes of your argument, showing that you are in command of it and that it is not in command of you. This, in turn, provides an opportunity to demonstrate a level of understanding that it would be hard to show in a descriptive essay that simply wandered from point to point.”
4) Professor Alison Young, the Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge: “The reader must be able to follow your argument”
According to Professor Alison Young, “it is important that the reader can follow your argument. Structure is crucially important. As is signposting, indicating to your reader why you are referring to a case, or an article, or a blog post, to help make your argument. Your introduction sets out the argument you are going to make. Each paragraph develops that argument. Your conclusion relates your argument to the wider context. What does your argument tell us about this area of the law more generally, or about the relationship between law and morality, or between law and politics? The more you write, the more you begin to develop your own style, often from reading articles that do - or do not - provide good examples of how to make an argument and using them to help you structure your own arguments and find your own voice.”
5) Professor David Kershaw, Dean of the Law School of the London School of Economics: “Finding your own voice in your essays”
According to Professor David Kershaw, “what is particularly difficult in this process is finding the right relationship between the evidence from legal sources and arguments made by commentators, on the one hand, and your own voice on the other. Too much voice and opinion and it can feel like the evidence is being moulded and even distorted by opinion and political preference. And yet, your voice is essential to a good essay. We want to hear why you think the statement, or a part thereof, is right or wrong or a mixture of the two. Just make sure that your strong voice is built on the arguments and evidence that you deploy.”
6) Professor Joanne van der Leun, former Dean of the Leiden Law School: “Get inspired!”
According to Professor Joanne van der Leun, there are many styles of academic writing:
“Developing your own style in writing legal (or criminological or any other) essays can be difficult. Yet, you don’t always have to find your own path by digging into your own soul or by patiently waiting till you suddenly invent the wheel. Regularly spending time in the library and online to be inspired by examples you like has proven to be very helpful. When I started to write in English (whereas Dutch is my first language) I kept a little journal in which I noted sentences I liked and thought I could use later on. Not to copy them, but to make them my own and to expand my vocabulary. When I wrote my PhD dissertation, I consciously studied the structure of dozens of other theses, in order to find out what I liked and what did not appeal to me.”
7) Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of European & Employment Law at the University of Cambridge and British Academy Fellow: “Write for your audience!”
According to Cambridge Law Professor Catherine Barnard, some general points you should remember when writing law essays are as follows:
“Some general points:
Write simple, clear English (if you don’t think you write well, read The Economist for a while)
Use sub-headings
Underline case names
Have evidence/source/citation for each point made
Cite academic literature where appropriate
And remember that examiners are human beings – probably tired ones – so if the exam answer is done by hand, try to make it as legible as you possibly can.”
8) Professor Stephen Weatherill, Jacques Delors Professor of European Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Oxford from January 1998 until September 2021: “Answer the question!”
According to Oxford Law Professor Stephen Weatherill, who was also my PhD supervisor and a brilliant academic and now dear friend, you should always answer the question:
“Think about it from the perspective of the person(s) who set the examination paper. We don’t knock these out in ten minutes just before the Champions League anthem booms forth while waiting for the pizza to come bubbling out of the oven. Setting an exam paper is not exactly a source of joy but it is a matter of professional pride, and hours are invested by a team of people to ensure the paper is fair, balanced, accurate and appropriately challenging. Each question is crafted like Meissen porcelain. And if we have – after careful reflection and judicious choice – directed you to discuss a quote criticising the Court’s unwillingness to entertain preliminary references submitted by arbitral tribunals we really do not want to read your thoughts on the modern status of the CILFIT guidelines. No matter how brilliant your insights on that issue might be.
So … answer the question.”
9) Assistant Professor Dimitrios Kyriazis, Ass. Professor of European Union Law at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (also know as…me!): “Rewrite until you get it right!”
When Hemingway was asked how much rewriting he did, his reply was: "It depends. I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.” When asked what took him so long, he laconically retorted: "Getting the words right”.
If even a literary giant like Hemingway had trouble writing, mere mortals should not be surprised when hitting a roadblock. All we need to remember is his last piece of advice: “Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
So, don’t be ashamed to write, delete, edit and rewrite until you are ready! There is no shortcut here: only hard work.
I sincerely hope this advice was helpful!
Happy writing and … best of luck with your exams!
P.S.
For more advice on how to excel as a law student and how to write first-class law essays, you can grab a copy of my book here.