These six items are set out above in their natural order. This is also their
ascending order of importance (lowest to highest). While each of these levels
is important, generally the higher the level the more important an item is; thus a
mistake at a higher level tends to be a bigger problem than a mistake at a lower
level. For example, a poor overall structure is usually much more of a problem
for a reader’s overall comprehension than a poor choice of a word.
Moreover, it is likely that an inadequate overall structure corrupts the structure
at other levels. For example, a clumsy sentence or a disjunction between two
sentences or two paragraphs can be caused by a lack of guidance from an
overall structure because it lacks a proper bearing. There may be an analogy
with bricklaying –
if the string line that is meant to create the correct overall
structure of a wall is mislaid, the individual bricks in the wall may be out of
alignment. This happens either as a direct result of the problem with the
stringline or because of a compensatory attempt to straighten out the problem.
When the preceding chapter explained the structure of a text it furnished an
outline of how the overall structure can be created. While there were a number
of ways of doing this, the central means for the purely “legal” part of legal
writing involved deploying models for working with law. There is a simple
reason for this. In its purest form, legal writing involves writing up how one
has performed some legal task. This performance is explained and described
by various models. Initially these models furnish the method for actually
performing the task. Then, they furnish the overall structure for writing up and
explaining how the task was performed. In short, the method for doing
becomes the structure for writing. The purpose of this chapter is to explain the
three basic models that provide this method and this structure – the model for
organising law, the model for forming law (which incorporates the model for
making law and the model for interpreting law) and the model for using law
(which incorporates the model for litigation and the model for transactions).
Model for Organising Law
Lawyers have wholly confounded the very essence of truth and falsehood, or
right and wrong.
116
Introduction
Organising law is also called structuring or analysing law.
117
There are two
aspects:
#
macro analysis
#
micro analysis
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116
Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels
(1726), cited in LA Landa (ed) Gulliver’s
Travels and Other Writings 1976 Oxford UP, London, p 202
117
Christopher Enright Legal Method Chapter 3 Organising Law
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