Learning Legal Reasoning: Briefing, Analysis and Theory

by John Delaney, Anne Burgess (Illustrator)

This widely used book in many printings begins with answers to forty commonly asked questions of first-year law students. It specifies a six-step approach to briefing a case with specific guidelines for accomplishing each step. The process of briefing cases is then demonstrated with excellent and poor briefs of increasing complexity. Emphasis is placed initially on the techniques of briefing as an introduction to the learning of legal reasoning, the first priority of the first year of law school. In addition, the book also demonstrates the relevance of more advanced modes of legal reasoning, including positivist, pragmatic, policy oriented, natural-law and other perspectives applied in decoding and understanding cases. In its introduction of jurisprudential perspectives, Learning Legal Reasoning transcends the typical technical/positivist orientation of most first-year materials.

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Legal

139 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Falcon, in "Planet Law School," sets this at the top of a suggested pre-law curriculum. I mostly agree with this assessment. It is an excellent, clearly presented introduction to how to read and brief an appellate court opinion-- an activity at the core of the first year of law school, so I hear. I took a bit longer going through this text than Falcon (or perhaps Delaney himself) imagined, largely because I was putting some effort in trying to achieve results similar to what the author describes as "Excellent Beginner's Briefs." One should probably realize from the outset that his use of the word "beginner" denotes an early-career lawyer rather than someone for whom this is the first law book ever read. Delaney's "beginners" not only have a well-schooled briefing style complete with much nifty shorthand, but they also frequently bring to bear legal knowledge outside the scope of Delaney's book (e.g. of the elements of tort negligence). I interrupted my progress through Delaney with readings of some relevant chapters in the assorted Aspen subject primers, but even so I expect I will need to learn a bit more before I can write an "excellent beginnger's brief." So long as students give themselves more of a break than I did, and focus on learning as much as possible from Delaney's examples, this is a great first law book. The final chapter, which offers a pseudo-platonic dialogue between divergent judicial temperaments that may be evident in an opinion, is an appropriate and thought-provoking coda.

[Shabbir Hamid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after seeing it listed as a suggestion in Atticus Falcon's Planet Law School.
Delaney's book is incredibly succinct and practical. It teaches how to brief cases, and through briefing cases, it highlights concepts of legal reasoning for the new law student.
I highly recommend this book for anyone "prepping" for law school.

[sk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I start law school next week, so I may not be a great person to ask about the helpfulness of this book, but I can say it appears to be an amazing and insightful resource for beginners to legal reasoning! It’s clear that a lot of thought went into which cases were highlighted and which aspects of legal reasoning were discussed. I can definitely see myself coming back to reread parts (if not all) of this book while in law school. I think this book achieves its purpose of clarifying common sources of confusion and offering helpful perspectives for success in the legal field.

The downsides of this book are that it’s pretty clear that it is self-published. Also, as the book dissolves into more and more legal theory and nuanced perspectives of legal reasoning, I wish that it kept its original accessibility and explanation of legal jargon. It got pretty deep over my head at the end there simply because of all the terminology I just don’t know yet, so I feel that the book’s last couple chapters are better reserved for those with some legal knowledge already. The switch from content for beginners to content for those more advanced feels sudden.

But, all in all, this is a great resource that I recommend.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being self-published, it could use professional typesetting. That aside, the content is top notch.

[Wen · Rating 3 out of 5]

good way to prep in the summer before 1L....
learn the philosophy of briefing but don't actually do it in class!