PT131.S4.P2.Q14 > Analytics

passage 2

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

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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.

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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.

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

Analysis by AlbertGauthier

14.

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Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

Recall the author’s main point: schools should provide more training in statutory law because it builds skills that students will need as practicing lawyers. So the author’s attitude toward this training is that it’s a good idea, it’s currently underemphasized, and schools should provide more of it. We’re looking for an answer choice consistent with this attitude.

While nationally oriented ███ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ████

The author would agree with the first point (nationally oriented schools should give more training in statutory law), but the second point is unsupported. The author notes that regionally oriented law schools already provide some training in statutory law. But that doesn’t mean they’re deficient in teaching case law. They might teach a good deal of both.

Training in statutory ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████

Strongly supported. The author states in P2 that one of the reasons to study statutory law is that legal questions can often be answered by referring to statutes, but that interpreting those statutes can be difficult. If he thinks this difficulty is a good reason to study statutory law, that strongly suggests he thinks such training would help make it easier.

Lawyers who are ███████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ █ ██████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ████

This says that lawyers who study statutory law are also better at analyzing individual cases. This is unsupported. The author’s support for studying statutory law is that doing so builds other important skills (namely, interpreting statutes and synthesizing laws into a coherent whole) that students don’t get just by doing case analysis. The author never suggests that the benefits of studying statutory law ever spill over into case analysis.

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Unsupported comparison. The author never compares different methods of teaching statutory law. In fact, he never brings up the option of not focusing a limited set of statutes. He simply says (in P4) that focusing on a limited set of statutes is useful training, whether you’re at a regionally oriented school or a nationally oriented one.

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Unsupported. The author suggests in P3 that studying statutory law is especially important for those who specialize. This might suggest that lawyers who don’t specialize have less need for such training, but it doesn’t suggest that they have little need altogether. Perhaps, in the author’s view, all lawyers have a significant need for training in statutory law, and those who specialize just need it the most.

PrepTest 131 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 14

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