While these structures should properly ground and organise
the parts of the
text dealing with rules of law, the text may have other contents as well. For
example, the text may not
only describe legal rules but also examine their
operation or social context. Obviously these parts of the text require some
other structure.
General Overall Structures
Some structures are widely used. Hence they are appropriately described as
‘general’ even if they are not universal. These are discussed in this chapter
because they are used in some legal texts.
Special Structure
There may be a specific task that requires its own special structure. In these
cases the writer has to devise their own structure. Here the best guide is to
gauge what puts the best framework on the subject for achieving the writer’s
purpose. A writer needs to determine what it is that holds things together and
best makes sense of the subject, for example by highlighting relationships and
significant characteristics.
Generally it should not be difficult to devise this
structure because most subjects have something of a natural or inbuilt
structure.
Common Structures
Introduction
Overall structures that are in general use are derived and justified in a variety of
ways. Some are logic or just plain common sense. For example, to describe
how you do something you best proceed in a step-by-step way. Others are
based on observation. A famous example is the taxonomy for classifying living
organisms, which bears the name of the person who formulated it, Carl
Linnaeus (1707-1778). This taxonomy is based upon shared physical
characteristics.
One notable example of a general structure is the paradigm. A paradigm is a
pattern for thinking that becomes a framework for organising a subject. It is
typically based on accepting the truth or relevance of various facts and
relationships. For this reason it is open to challenge and dispute.
Step-by-Step
Introduction
One commonly used structure involves a step-by-step progression from a
starting point to a finishing point. This invocation of “steps” is very
appropriate because the structure is very much like using stepping stones used
to cross a brook. Just as a person crossing the brook must be able to step
from one stone to the next, the reader must be able to “step” from one idea to
the next.
To cross the brook it is necessary to place the stepping stones in a
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