Page 8 - Manual on Teaching Methods of Law 2023

characterized as a method of teaching by Criminal Law, Intellectual Property Law,
question and answer akin to the one Corporate Law, etc. The student has to read
supposedly used by Socrates to elicit truths the cases in advance before coming to the
from his students. Socrates was a Greek class and come prepared by familiarizing
philosopher and thinker who is widely themselves with the general outline of the
regarded as the father of western philosophy. case. The decision of the Court is not simply
a judgment for the plaintiff or for the
The Method develops crucial legal analytic defendant upon a given statement of facts.
skills, to accustom the student to the lawyer's Case laws are the authoritative treatise in law
adversary style of exchange, and to provide a where the opinion of the court, as well as the
forum in which the student learns to speak in reasons for the conclusion reached, are
public. There are three very important documented. To decipher and understand
benefits of the Socratic Method: first, it gives this legal framework is an essential skill that
professors the ability to teach large bodies of every law student should possess. This
students in an active manner; second, it is method makes the students read, analyse,
instrumental in teaching cognitive skill and interpret cases themselves. And enables
development i.e.to teach students to "think the learners to decipher the Obiter Dicta and
like a lawyer"; and finally, it helps students Ratio Decidendi of the judgment. In this
to hone their verbal skills. Even though new manner they learn to reach their own
innovative pedagogies to teach law are conclusions about the meanings of the
becoming popular the Socratic Method still court's judgment. As law is an applied
persists and endures in legal education. science, the students learn to apply principles

CASE LAW METHOD in a given situation. For them then the
principle does not remain a mere abstraction
In this the students are assigned cases on a but comes alive in a concrete form. This
subject selected by the teacher with a view to develops the skill to apply the concerned
teaching the development of law therein. principles to new problems.
Cases can be from diverse fields of law like

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