saying that there needs to be one item of foodstuff of a second kind and so on
through the remaining ingredients. In a similar way, Element 1 is saying that
there needs to be a fact of a certain kind for the rule to apply, Element 2 is
saying that there needs to be a fact of a second kind and so on through the
remaining elements. When the facts required by each of the elements in the
range Elements 1-n are present in a set of facts, the rule applies that set of
facts.
Consequences
While elements identify the part of the world that the rule seeks to change, the
way in which the rule directly and legally changes the world is through the
consequences it imposes on the parties when it applies to a set of facts.
Therefore, a legal rule must also state the consequences it visits upon the
parties. Consequences are labelled Consequences or Consequences 1-n (when
it is necessary to indicate or emphasise that there are multiple consequences or
a single consequence with several parts).
Conditional Statement
So far the legal rule has two components, elements that identify the facts to
which it applies and consequences that prescribe how it will change the
position of the parties to a case when the rule applies to them. To ensure the
operation of the rule, something has to impose these consequences on the
facts. Legislators do this by framing the rule as a conditional statement. It
takes the following form: if facts occur that fall within the classes of facts
delineated by the elements, the consequences designated by the rule apply to
those facts.
Comparison
Organising law in these two ways can be compared to learning the way around
a city. One would start by learning the major roads. This greatly helps
understanding because once the major roads are known one can learn other
streets in relation to these. This is macro analysis. In working with law, macro
analysis presents an overview of a subject - it shows how it hangs together and
thus provides a frame of reference for the specific rules in the subject, which
are subjected to micro analysis
Having learnt the major roads, one learns the ordinary streets, which is like
micro analysis. So just as one looks at specific streets to become more
familiar with a strange city, in micro analysis one works with the specific legal
rules that constitute an area of law.
Philosopher’s Stone
Even if it is a little exaggerated it is still not inappropriate to refer to the
techniques for organising law as the legal equivalent of the philosopher’s
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