This exercise is about writing a briefing note about the outcome of a legal 'case' (a specific court's decision, based on the full report of one or more of the hearing judges' reasoning, conclusions and orders compiled into a 'judgment'.) It is a short simple summary to help a general reader understand what the case was about, and why it might be important.
Topic: The case study briefing should be done on a selected cases from a list which will be handed out in week 3 or shortly after (link will be active on the home page). You can also suggest alternative new cases not on the list, provided you request this in writing, supported by the name, URL and year of the case judgment.
Date: Your Case Study must be submitted by the end of Week 10.
Cover sheet: Please staple a Law Faculty Undergraduate Assignment Cover Sheet to your submission. They are available from the counter on level 2, via Law web site's student page, or at this Cover Sheet link.
References? You may include a small number of complete references, with links if possible, indicating the sources you have consulted. However this exercise is not intended as a full essay: the main focus is on the text of the decision, not lots of external commentary, so you don't need to feel obliged to pursue such references just to make up quantity, only to make clear your sources.
The format is not necessarily a fully formal essay: it can include lists, tables and bullet points, although these should be sparing and used only where appropriate.It should be dense and specific, referring as appropriate to words actually said in the judgement, proper names, places, facts, times, names of other cases, sections of legislation, legal jurisdictions or other concrete features which are relevant to understanding the specific case - not just vague assertions about principles or issues.
Length: It should not be longer than about 1,000 words (2-3 dense pages). Shorter briefing notes are encouraged, so two pages is usually adequate provided you have thought about it and perhaps edited down a slightly more detailed analysis. .
Where: Submit completed case study briefing notes, plus law cover sheet, by the end of Week 10 to the Law Faculty student counter, level 2 of new Law building at F8 Lower campus, near Roundhouse.
1. Describe the case
Summarise the key facts of the case, including the parties, allegations made and the context.
2. Describe the decision (this should up to 50% or more of the briefing).
Summarise the decision, including key legal findings.
Do NOT use very lengthy quotes from the decision. However a critical disputed phrase or definition should be quoted accurately, and key sentences or paragraphs expressing the core reasoning or decision are often very helpful to quote accurately. Make sure you reference the page or paragraph number if possible.
The actual structure is up to you, but you could cover the following aspects in order to help the reader make sense of what was at stake, and what happened:
- What arguments did the two or more parties each put forward?
- What outcome or orders did they want as a result?
- What supporting facts, policies, laws or legal cases or authorities did each of the parties rely on to bolster their arguments?
- Which way did the judge(s) decide on the key issues?
- Why did they reject the alternative arguments?
- What were the crucial facts, policies, laws and legal cases that influenced their thinking on this decision?
- What orders did they make?
NB: As in many legal matters, it is often more important to identify what the real issue is, what is at stake and what the choices are, than to get the 'right' answer. Lawyers will often disagree on what the right answer is in a specific case (or they should be thinking about how the opposite argument might be framed), but will generally agree about the issues the argument is about. That should be your priority too.
3. Why is this case important?
Describe why this case is important in cyberspace law, including any significant changes to law or practice resulting from the case. (Note: your allocated case may, in fact, not be that important!)
4. Your opinion (optional)
Do you think the decision was correct? Why? - state your reasons.
Note that this is an optional, minor part of the assignment, and should be based on a good appreciation of the decision itself and why various commentators think it is important. If in doubt, you are better off to focus on presenting the core details of the decision clearly and logically, and a little on its relevance and importance, and not offer an opinion.
5. References and Links
Provide references (with links if they exist) to the case and further sources of related information. You don't need to have many references, because this is focussed on the actual text of the decision. But for those you do include, please include basic bibliographic information the full extent possible, such as author, title of the specific document, date written, publisher, where published etc to the extent it is possible to ascertain.
A bare web link/ URL/ address alone is not an adequate reference; web links should be provided only as the final component of a proper bibliographic reference to a document or source you have used.
