Legal Method, Skills and Reasoning

This is a proposal for a third edition of Sharon Hanson''s textbook on legal method and reasoning.Though a third edtion, the book will be quite substantially revised to be squarely pitched at the UK student audience legal skills market. In its current guise, the book''s target market is not distinct and falls between the two stools of undergraduate skills and postgraduate method courses. The third edition is being prepared with the larger, undegraduate skills market in mind.Sharon Hanson''s book provides the student with a range of ''how to'' techniques for acquiring the intellectual, ICT, research, reasoning and communication skills that are key to the successful study of law. In concentrating on this range of skills, the book helps the student to develop those skills and facilitate an understanding of each discreet skill, the need to use each one effectively, and the way in which they interlink. The book will also help students to develop their ability to continually improve those skills as they progress through their law degree programme.Structured into three main parts, the book will help students learn how to handle and use legal texts, how to read and write about the law, how to acquire disciplined study techniques and how to construct legal arguments. It will also provide advice via the companion website on revision technique and preparing for law exams.Packed full of practical ''how-to'' examples and diagrams across the range of legal skills from language and research skills to mooting and negotiation, this new edition will be invaluable to law students who are looking to acquire and perfect the legal skill set essential to exam success.In terms of content development, we have agreed to add additional material to address skills in terms of mooting, negotiation, mediation and presentations, which will be supported by video clips on the companion website. We will include a new chapter on online study skills/exam prep that will include extensive referencing to the supporting website. We will include more detail on European Legal Method with a limited amount of analysis and include more material on precedent and statutory interpretation (this is currently an area much better covered by our competitors).What makes our book unique is that unlike the competitors, Sharon Hanson takes students byeond basic skills acquisition by enocuraging them to develop analytical and critical thinking, learning how to construct an argument and how to develop critical reasoning skils. In addition, our book addresses ADR as well as litigation whereas others focus purely on litigation and the new edition will also include a section on understanding empirical data - an area identified by the Nuffield foundation as being currently very weak.The third edition will also be supported by a ''legal skills'' companion website offering a wealth of additional examples and exercises for individual and group work for both lecturers and students. Pooled with Slapper & Kelly''s the English Legal System, the site will provide a shared open-access hub for teaching and learning legal skills. For students, video clips and exercises provide real-life examples and practice for oral skills work including mooting and negotiation; and guidance on answering legal problem and essay-style questions in order to acquire essential exam technique. For lecturers, a set of PowerPoints with accompanying teacher notes provide support and ideas for teaching legal skills; a multiple-choice question testbank provides opportunities for online assessment and discussion boards and wikis can be used to encourage group-work and discussion.The Legal Skills market is competitive and because this is predominantly a first year market, it is important that we improve the presentation and layout of the book to make it more visually appealing and accessible for the indended audience. I plan to brief a new two-colour text design (both of the main competing texts in this market are two-colour), withHanson, Sharon is the author of 'Legal Method, Skills and Reasoning' with ISBN 9780415458511 and ISBN 041545851X.