Home » Posts tagged 'GDL'
Tag Archives: GDL
BPP Legal Awareness Society
About the BPP Legal Awareness Society
The BPP Legal Awareness Society was founded in January 2011 at BPP Business School, The City, London. The aim of the Society is to consider how key decisions are made in corporate strategy by corporate clients, and to consider further the importance of commercial and corporate lawyers in promoting business success.
Whilst currently based at BPP Law School in Holborn (as of January 2012), the Society continues to generate much goodwill and a good reputation across the whole of England, in part due to its very active efforts in the social media. The Society prides itself on inclusivity and accessibility, and is therefore open to all past, current, and future members of BPP, in all disciplines, across all sites.
How to contact the BPP Legal Awareness Society
To contact the Society over anything, please e-mail us at: legalaware1213@gmail. Alternatively, tweet Shibley, the Society’s current President, directly at @legalaware. We should be particularly keen if you would like to offer input into the ‘Corporate Client Strategy’ project, described below, if you, as a lawyer, are interested in how business strategy is taught at GDL/LLB(Hons) or LPC level to law students, or if you would like to take part as a guest in the podcasting project; you do not have to have trained or taught at BPP to be able to contribute.
The ‘Legal Aware’ flagship blog
Our blog contains up-to-date corporate and commercial news, as well as educational videos (http://legal-aware.org). You might find it useful in preparation for training contract interviews, inter alia.
Our meetings
The BPP Legal Awareness Society as in previous terms will be holding fortnightly meetings during term time at BPP Law School. For timetables of previous meetings which we have held please go to the following links: Jun – Dec 2011, Jan – May 2012, and May – August 2012. You will notice that our meetings consider in detail common practice areas of international commercial and corporate professional legal work, and also the online psychometric verbal reasoning tests used by the majority of City law firms in their selection process.
Activities
These provide information about how to get involved in activities of the Society:
The brand new ‘Corporate Client Strategy’ project of the BPP Legal Awareness Society
This is a brand new initiative which we are launching for the 2012/3 academic year. The aim is for students who are current members of the Society to research in detail the corporate strategy of clients of their choice using only information in the public domain (these may be firms that they may be dealing with in their training contracts, for example). Then, these students give mini-presentations on their findings, suggesting how commercial and corporate law can be used innovatively to create competitive advantage for the corporate client, thus maximising shareholder dividend. We anticipate that students who are yet to secure a training contract may seek to be involved with this new project, as evidence of ‘commercial awareness’ for the training contract application form.
Take part in blogging for Legal Aware
Blogging is an excellent mechanism of knowledge sharing, and creating networks of like-minded individuals. Our popular blog is read by people from a number of different backgrounds, including junior and senior lawyers, professionals in business, finance and economics, and current, past and future GDL/LPC/LLM students. The blog is currently updated virtually daily, and we are looking for a small team of writers to take responsibility for producing accurate, intelligent and thought-provoking articles based on the contemporary commercial and corporate news, for publication on the blog. All authors will be given their own admin credentials for the blog, and there will be minimal editorial input. All posts will necessarily conform to the current SRA Code of Conduct (LPC student edition).
Apply to be a member of the executive steering committee of the BPP Legal Awareness Society
The BPP Legal Awareness Society executive committee runs on the basis of the ‘cluster’ basis of management. These means that executive committee members tend to have defined roles, such as internal publicity across various sites, liaising with internal stakeholders, arranging meetings at Holborn, taking responsibility for podcasting (see below), but will participate in running the society according to demands of the Society within BPP. This allows flexibility according to our needs, and encourages teamwork amongst our team members. We will this year be asking students to prepare a short CV of their relevant background, education and/or experience, at the least, as we should wish all members of our committee to pull their weight and not to require prompting to do things.
Be a member of our podcasting team
In this academic year, we are especially keen to produce podcasts and widely distribute them. If this project is successful, we wish to make our Legal Aware podcasts available for free subscription on the internet through the iStore. The podcasts are produced by members of our podcast team, who research and discuss topics of their own choosing. This is our last podcast (from the last academic year) on the changing nature of legal education, in response to the ongoing ‘Legal Education and Training Review’. This initiative relies heavily on the competences of attention-to-detail, proactivity, commercial awareness and teamwork.
Verbal reasoning psychometric tests for training contract applications
The Society has also been involved in an initiative for law students to improve their performance in verbal reasoning psychometric tests for training contracts (“Legal Recruit”). This initiative is entirely separate from the teaching provided by BPP.
Educational videos
Factsheets: Please feel free to download and print for personal use, but the Legal Recruit project would be very grateful if you could observe the terms of use contained in the copyright statement at the end. These factsheets are not endorsed by BPP Careers, and they have had no input at all from BPP Careers.
Background to verbal reasoning tests
Background to situational judgement tests
Background to difficulties and online assessments
25 September 2012
What's new pussycat? Theresa May needs to do the GDL
These days, a Graduate in Diploma is a worthy course for any non-law graduate wishing to study the basics of English law, including the criminal law, law of torts, land law, the law of equity and trusts, and the law of contract.
Imagine how useful such a Diploma might be especially if your job included some component of understanding constitutional and public law (including judicial review or human rights), or even some working knowledge, you could apply, in European Union law.
Does this Diploma fetter you into a career you don’t wish to pursue? Of course not, ask any of the graduates of the Diploma (or the Legal Practice Course or Bar Vocational Training Course) who are unable to get a training contract at a firm of solicitors or a set of chambers of barristers.
But imagine if you needed this knowledge to become Home Secretary, having done a degree in geography. You would able to discuss these matters with ‘relevant stakeholders’, as your Human Resources teams will tell you. ‘Relevant stakeholders’ might not be restricted to the Conservative Party or big cash donors, but might include groups campaigning for the application of universal human rights such as Liberty, or even the European Court when discussing how to implement the law giving prisoners a right to vote proportionately. That is of course assuming you wish to obey the Rule of Law.
The gaffe about the pussycat was pretty poor. James Welch in the Guardian puts it hilariously:
“”I’m not making this up,” said the home secretary, as she regaled the Tory faithful with yet another Human Rights Act folly: an “illegal immigrant” could not be deported because he had a cat.
I’ll be charitable and accept this wasn’t a wilful misrepresentation. But if so, someone in her department evidently failed to brief her on one of its own cases (still “not fit for purpose” eh?)
I’ll start with a minor point: the man, a Bolivian, was not an “illegal immigrant”. He came to this country quite legally as a student but stayed beyond the expiration of his visa – perhaps May thought that distinction would be lost on a conference audience.
More significantly, his right to remain in this country had nothing to do with his cat. For four years before his case came before the immigration courts the man lived with a British woman. They did all those coupley things: bought crockery, went out clubbing, got a pet cat. When it came to wanting to regularise the man’s right to stay in this country – and anticipating immigration officials’ inevitable scepticism – the shared cat was one of a number of factors used by the couple as evidence their relationship was genuine.”
But that wasn’t the worst of it by any standards. In an incredible flourish, May at the weekend provided, according to Ben Quinn an equally absurd claim also in the Guardian:
“The home secretary is to ask MPs to pass a motion declaring that the right to a family life – enshrined in Article 8 of the European convention on human rights – is not absolute.”
This is of course completely laughable for most lawyers, and as if it needed confirming it is stated clearly on the relevant page of the Liberty website. The BBC then repeated the settled stand in our law:
“And civil rights group Liberty said the right to family life was already qualified, allowing “considerable latitude over immigration control and the economic well-being of the nation”.”
I think somebody should put me out-of-my-misery, and we should have a whip-round for Theresa May to do the GDL (see tweet). I know many who would happily contribute.
GDL revision sheet on principles of judicial review
You’re likely to consider the general principles of judicial review in England before going to consider in detail one or more of the arms of ‘grounds for judicial review’ such as procedural impropriety or legitimate expectation. You might find this revision sheet (Principles of judicial review) useful, but please be guided by your law school/learning provider for exact details (especially with regard to course materials, cases and texts).
Legal Aware GDL revision sheet: Implied trusts of the home
Please here to download the free Legal Aware factsheet on Implied Trusts of the Home
Implied trusts of the home is likely to be a problem question or a full essay question in the GDL.
This is the third in our series of handy revision sheets for your GDL.
A new series of LegalAware GDL revision sheets: Secret trusts (2)
This is the second series in a new initiative to help students to see ‘the big picture’ in GDL topics.
It is not a substitute for any teaching or learning that you are doing with your own legal education provider. It’s simply meant to be an added resource to help you with your revision as you go along.
This blog will be publishing one topic a week to help you.
The new topic is secret trusts – given normally a lot of time in the equity and trusts course.
LegalAware GDL revision spotlight: Case Analysis
Whether you are attempting the case analysis test or statute analysis test, you will need to follow some essential principles systematically. IRAC (Issue, Rule, Analysis, and Conclusion) forms the fundamental building blocks of legal analysis. It is the process by which all lawyers think about any legal problem. It provides a systematic way to solving any legal problem.
The nuts-and-bolts of IRAC provide that:-
| ISSUE | What facts and circumstances brought these parties to court? |
| RULE | What is the governing law for the issue? |
| ANALYSIS | Does the rule apply to these unique facts? |
| CONCLUSION | How does the court’s holding modify the rule of law? |
Spotting the issue – The First Step
The key to issue spotting is being able to identify which facts raise which issues. The cases you read will also contain language that signals the important issue. For instance, the judge will simply state: “The case turns upon the question whether….” OR “We come then to the basic issue in the case.”
However, you need to develop issue-spotting skills on your own in order to do well on the exam and become an effective lawyer. During the exam your tutor is not going to state the issue. Ask yourself some of these questions as you read the case:
| Questions to ask when reading a case:What facts and circumstances brought these parties to court?Are there key words in the facts that suggest an issue?
Is the court deciding a question of fact – i.e. the parties are in dispute over what happened – or is it a question of law? |
Rule – What is the Law?
Simply put, the rule is the law. The rule could be common law that was developed by the courts or a law that was passed by the legislature. For every case you read, come up with the rule of law by breaking it down into its component parts. In other words, ask the question: what elements of the rule must be proven in order for the rule to hold true?
| Questions to ask when reading a case:What are the elements that prove the rule?What are the exceptions to the rule?
From what authority does it come? What’s the underlying public policy behind the rule (if any)? Are there social considerations? |
Analysis
This important area is really relatively simple. For every relevant fact, you need to ask whether the fact helps to prove or disprove the rule. If a rule requires that a certain circumstance is present in order for the rule to apply, then the absence of that circumstance helps you reach the conclusion that the rule does not apply. The biggest mistake people make in exam writing is to spot the issue and just recite the rule without doing the analysis. Most tutors assume that you can look up the law, but they want to test whether you can apply the law to a given set of circumstances. The analysis is the most important element of IRAC since this is where the real thinking happens.
| Questions to ask when reading a case:Which facts help prove which elements of the rule?Why are certain facts relevant?
How do these facts satisfy this rule? What types of facts are applied to the rule? How do these facts further the public policy underlying this rule? What’s the counter-argument for another solution? |
Conclusion – Take a Position
The conclusion is sometimes the shortest part of the analysis. It can be a simple “yes” or “no” as to whether the rule applies to a set of facts. Another common mistake is to conclude something without having a basis for the opinion. In other words, GDL students will spot the issue, state a rule, and then form a conclusion without doing the analysis. Make sure that whatever position you take has a firm grounding in the analysis. Remember that the position you take is always whether or not the rule applies.
The ratio decidendi and obiter dicta
The term ratio decidendi is a Latin phrase which means the “the reason for deciding”. In simple terms, a ratio is a ruling on a point of law. However, exactly what point of law has been decided depends on the facts of the case.
Obiter dicta is a Latin phrase meaning “things said by the way”. Obita dicta are not binding (unlike the ratio), but they may be regarded as persuasive in a future decision. The weight given to dicta usually depends on the seniority of the court and the eminence of the judge in question. Obiter dicta are judicial opinions on points of law which are not directly relevant to the case in question. They are made when a judge chooses to give some indication of how he or she would decide a case similar, but not identical, to case under consideration. These statements are often meant to clarify the legal principle which the judge proposes to apply in his or her judgement.
| Questions to ask when reading a case:What’s the ratio decidendi of the case?Has the holding modified the existing rule of law?
What is the procedural effect of the holding? Is the case overturned, upheld or remanded for retrial? Does the holding further the underlying policy of the rule? Do you agree with the outcome of the case? |
A new series of LegalAware GDL revision sheets: Easements (1)
This is a new initiative to help students to see ‘the big picture’ in GDL topics.
It is not a substitute for any teaching or learning that you are doing with your own legal education provider. It’s simply meant to be an added resource to help you with your revision as you go along.
This blog will be publishing one topic a week to help you.
This week’s topic is easements – given normally a lot of time in the land law course.
The LegalAware GDL survival guide
By the time you listen to this message, it may be too late. The ‘Graduate Diploma in Law’ may seem somewhat daunting, but it isn’t. If someone told you to learn an entire phone directly in a hurry, you would have trouble. However, if I told you to look up two phone numbers, learn them, and recite them back to me as evidence you’d been through the phone book, you’d feel a lot happier (maybe).
You should first locate the examiners’ reports section of your law school. If you’re at the College of Law, these may be on ELITE. If you’re at BPP Law School, these may be on the VLE Blackboard. If you can’t find them, you should have a look at the published exam papers. Then simply make a spreadsheet of topics as they appear by year for each subject. For some legal education providers, there are 7 questions per paper in each of the six foundation subjects, and you’ll normally get 6 or 7 problem questions in each. Possibly for a subject such as contract or tort you may get an essay question. The thing about essay questions is that they’re quite good for anyone to have a go at, especially if you’re desperate or stressed in an exam, but can be very difficult to do well in.
There might be about 5-10 issues in each question. You should then successfully identify the issues (I), and for each issue describe succinctly the law relating to the issue (R), including relevant statutes or cases, apply the law relating to your issue (A), and come up with a meaningful conclusion based on your analysis (C). This is known as IRAC. Sometimes there may even be no right answer – but examiners will wish to see that you’ve applied IRAC successfully. So, in other words, the ‘deal maker’ is not you knowing the College manual, Nutshells or Nutcases inside out, but your ability to apply IRAC successfully.
Here are some key topics for each of your six foundation subjects. Use this list at your own peril – you should know 3 or 4 in each well to do the problem questions in each paper (assuming that there are 3 problem questions) out of a choice of 7 (if that is the format of your exam, that is).
Contract
- offer and acceptance
- misrepresentation
- remedies
- promissory estoppel, consideration and duress
- anticipatory breach and frustration
- mistake
- terms
Tort
- general negligence
- professional negligence
- nuisance
- defamation
- occupiers’ liability
- vicarious liability
- pure economic loss or nervous shock
Equity and Trusts
- equitable remedies
- three certainties, formalities, constitution
- secret trusts
- private purpose trusts
- tracing and liability of strangers
- implied trusts of the home
- maintenance and advancement
Land
- leases and licences
- easements
- freehold covenants
- leasehold covenants
- enforcement of third party interests against a purchaser
- mortgages
- co-ownership
Criminal
- murder
- manslaughter
- theft and making-off-without-payment
- sexual offences/non-fatal offences against the person
- fraud
- criminal damage
- robbery and burglary
Constitutional and administrative
this is highly variable, and is likely to depend much on your legal education provider
- the rule of law
- separation of powers
- the Royal Prerogative
- human rights (articles 2, 3, 5)
- human rights (articles 8/10)
- judicial review (standing)
- judicial review (procedural impropriety, legitimate expectation)
How our statute law affects the #NOTW fallout
All law students doing the GDL have to demonstrate competence in statute analysis, so this article will be particularly interesting to them.
This article gives an account of the confluence of various statutes in UK law which are likely to affect the shutdown of the #NOTW reported on 7/8 July 2011. In a document entitled, “Ofcom guidance for the public interest test for media mergers”, clear help is given where the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Olympics and Sport (currently Jeremy Hunt) can intervene in a media merger.
Where the Secretary of State intervenes in a media merger, Ofcom has a duty to advise the Secretary of State on whether the merger is in the public interest via the application of the public interest tests under the merger control regime set out in the Enterprise Act 2002 (the Act). The Secretary of State will then decide whether to refer the merger to the Competition Commission.
John Whittingdale MP has represented Maldon in Parliament since 1992. In a comment made by John Whittingdale in the Emergency Debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday 6 July 2011, OFCOM can get involved at any time. On 14 July 2005, he became the Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. In this role he led the Committee’s 2009/2010 investigation into libel and privacy issues, including the News of the World phone hacking affair. The precise clause in the Enterprise Act is as follows,
42
Intervention by Secretary of State in certain public interest cases
(1) Subsection (2) applies where—
(a) the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds for suspecting that it is or may be the case that a relevant merger situation has been created or that arrangements are in progress or in contemplation which, if carried into effect, will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation;
(b) no reference under section 22 or 33 has been made in relation to the relevant merger situation concerned;
(c) no decision has been made not to make such a reference (other than a decision made by virtue of subsection (2)(b) of section 33 or a decision to accept undertakings under section 73 instead of making such a reference); and
(d) no reference is prevented from being made under section 22 or 33 by virtue of—
(i) section 22(3)(a) or (e) or (as the case may be) 33(3)(a) or (e); or
(ii) Community law or anything done under or in accordance with it.
(2) The Secretary of State may give a notice to the OFT (in this Part “an intervention notice”) if he believes that it is or may be the case that one or more than one public interest consideration is relevant to a consideration of the relevant merger situation concerned.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2003 could also be helpful in establishing the criminal liability of directors, if RIPA does indeed apply to the specific issue of phone hacking in the #NOTW affair.
79 Criminal liability of directors etc.
(1) Where an offence under any provision of this Act other than a provision of Part III is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of—
(a) a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or
(b) any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he (as well as the body corporate) shall be guilty of that offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(2) Where an offence under any provision of this Act other than a provision of Part III—
(a) is committed by a Scottish firm, and
(b) is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, a partner of the firm, he (as well as the firm) shall be guilty of that offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(3) In this section “director”, in relation to a body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, means a member of the body corporate.
The issue of phone hacking could be a possible avenue for a legitimate public enquiry. The involvement of the individuals within the Police, concerning the allegations of acquisition of confidential data, may be further investigated through analysis of Prevention of Corruption Act 1916. The Inquiries Act 2005 may then kick in at this point, which gives guidance on the power to establish an inquiry.
1 Power to establish inquiry
(1) A Minister may cause an inquiry to be held under this Act in relation to a case where it appears to him that—
(a) particular events have caused, or are capable of causing, public concern, or
(b) there is public concern that particular events may have occurred.
(2) In this Act “Minister” means—
(a) a United Kingdom Minister
(b) the Scottish Ministers;
(c) a Northern Ireland Minister;
and references to a Minister also include references to the National Assembly for Wales.
(3) References in this Act to an inquiry, except where the context requires otherwise, are to an inquiry under this Act.
According to s. 3, the inquiry panel, an inquiry is to be undertaken either— (a) by a chairman alone, or (b) by a chairman with one or more other members. According to a recent report in the Telegraph, there is an increasing sentiment that this panel should be ‘judge-led’.
Thank you
Many thanks to those people who responded to our advert below (here is the link to the original site). We’re pleased report that we now have appointed quite a few additional writers, as requested, but please feel to contact me on Twitter should you be interested in writing with us.
Hi
Applications are now open for occasional article writers to a blog on corporate law. There will be no fixed demand for articles. If you’re generally interested in law, and like to read relevant media such as the BBC Business page, the Times Law Reports, Legal Week, The Lawyer, or Lawyer2be, this might genuinely interest you.
We are looking above all for good communicators.
The blog has just been launched, but posts are regularly advertised on Twitter to our 560 followers. Followers include law firms and legal journalists.
The blog is here: http://legal-aware.org/
Whilst this blog is the official site of the independent Legal Awareness Society run by student members at BPP for all members of BPP, we welcome applications from law students at other schools.
This is a student-run society of BPP. BPP is one of the leading legal education providers in England. Our blog emphasises core strengths of BPP education, including law, finance, business and extra-curricular activities such as pro bono.
The aim of the blog is to raise awareness of commercial law issues to a business community and to law students themselves.
Immediate start.
Applicants are welcome from any law student, particularly those doing the GDL or LPC, or LLM.
If you’re interested, please provide us with an email address with a brief description of your motivation and educational background ; we’d be grateful if you could make any applications as soon as possible. Please also don’t hesitate to contact us if you should like to make an informal enquiry.
It would be helpful if you could state whether you have any preference for writing on any of the following topics:
general law news
arbitration
climate change and the law
competition
corporate social responsibility
debt finance
e-commerce
employment and pensions
insurance
intellectual property
IPOs and rights issues
Islamic finance
joint ventures
share aquisitions
technology and the media
We are particularly keen to involve law students who wish to demonstrate commercial awareness and/or teamwork skills in corporate law training contract applications this year. However, please do contact us also if you’d rather be a barrister than a solicitor, or if you have a stronger interest in other areas of law. For example, we regularly post on privacy, so an interest in human rights would be desirable by us.
Thank you.
