Chapter 3
Organising Law
Introduction
Micro Analysis
Macro Analysis
Application
Illustration
Introduction
This chapter explains the important but often neglected skill of organising law,
a skill that is also referred to here as analysing law or structuring law. Law is
organised by references to structures that it naturally possesses. Knowing and
understanding these structures bring significant benefits when making,
interpreting, writing and reading law as well as when working with law in
litigation and transactions.
Law is organised on two levels:
§
Macro Analysis. This entails working out the relationships
between specific laws or rules that do either of two things. They make up an
area of law, for example, constitutional law or contract law, or they reside in
the same statute.
§
Micro Analysis. This entails identifying the three components of a
particular rule - elements, consequences and a conditional statement that links
elements to consequences. This division into elements, consequences and
conditional statement is the structure of most legal rules, and the exceptions
are of little importance.
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Structuring
law
creates
the
syntax
for
understanding
law. Or to utilise another
comparison, knowing how law is structured is similar to the string line used by
bricklayers. Just as the string line ensure that bricks are laid in the correct
place, understanding the structure of law guides lawyers for most tasks in
working with law. Structuring law at the macro and micro level is therefore
necessary to perform properly the major tasks in working with law, namely
using law in litigation and transactions (which include applying law to facts),
interpreting law, writing law and reading law.
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Christopher Enright Legal Reasoning Chapter 3 Analysing Legal Rules
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