Self-study
P1
A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statutes—the actual texts of laws enacted by legislative bodies—is a vital aspect of the practice of law, but statutory law is often given too little attention by law schools. ███
Author's perspective ·
Statutes are critical to practicing law, but not given enough attention in law school
Current law school approach ·
Focuses on judicial decisions
P2
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Benefit of changing focus ·
Much actual work is based on how statutes apply
Sometimes how statutes apply are obvious. But other times it's not, so it's important for law students to learn to interpret statutes.
P3
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Additional benefit of changing focus ·
Ability to synthesize laws
Caselaw focus doesn't do good job of helping students understand interrelations among laws. Focus on statutes helps students see how laws fit together. This can help when students encounter other areas of law.
P4
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Potential objection ·
Statutes are different from region to region
Concession ·
Specific knowledge of statutes isn't usually transferrable between regions
So a focus on statutes may not seem appropriate for nationally-oriented schools.
Response to objection ·
Skills acquired in mastering a set of statutes are transferable
Focus on statutes is still important for national-oriented schools.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
9.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
In spite of ███ ████████████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ █ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████
Descriptively inaccurate. The author doesn’t suggest a standard national curriculum—he just suggests that law schools (whether regionally or nationally focused) should teach more statutory law, whatever that curriculum looks like.
b
Since the skills ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ █████████
Unsupported comparison. The author doesn’t suggest that statutory law skills are more important—just that they’re important enough to warrant giving them more attention during law school. He also doesn’t suggest all-out reversing the amount of emphasis schools put on statutory law and case analysis. He’s not arguing that they should mainly teach statutory law and hardly look at case analysis at all.
c
Although statutes typically ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████████
This is a good summary of the problem and its solution. Studying statutory law has several benefits, but law schools aren’t providing enough training in this area. So they should provide that training. (C) also does a good job of capturing the concession made in P4 and the author’s rebuttal: even though statutes vary from region to region, studying statutory law is still a good idea, even at nationally focused schools.
d
In the theoretical █████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████ █ ███████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ █████
The author isn’t arguing about when and where case law skills are especially important. He’s arguing that statutory law skills are important in the practice of law, and more than that, he’s making a recommendation that schools should teach more statutory law than they currently do. In a Problem-Solution passage like this, that recommended solution is the main point.
e
Law schools generally ███ █████████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████████████
This ignores the author’s solution. It’s a description of what is, but the author goes on to argue for what should be: law schools should provide more training in statutory law than they currently do.