Read Law Right

The principle for reading journal articles builds on what we’ve learned in recent posts on textbooks and case law. Aim first to establish the purpose of reading this article. Then within the article establish that it is indeed relevant for you right now. Then establish its structure so that you can identify the most important parts to focus your attention on.

Particularly for longer articles, we need to break the reading down for time management. For shorter articles, we will still break it down so that we don’t waste time reading an article that turns out not to be relevant for us right now.

The answer to the question of relevance may not be obvious at first glance but is the first thing you should be looking for. Some journals provide an abstract – a short summary of the article – and you should of course start with this. Otherwise, skim the first few paragraphs and final few paragraphs. This should provide you with the gist of the author’s argument(s) or findings.

It’s worth pausing here to note that journal articles will likely fall into one of two classes of research:  ‘doctrinal’ and ’empirical’. Doctrinal research describes the sort of article that analyses, for example, the legal reasoning in a particular judgment or line of judgments – is the reasoning right or wrong. Empirical research might aim to quantify the effect of a particular legal development on wider society – has the law had a positive or negative effect. It is possible for a journal article to bridge the gap and discuss both. You will also come across case notes and book reviews, but these are less likely to be found in your reading lists. I had doctrinal research in mind when writing this blog.

Assuming the article proves to be relevant, go ahead and make a note of the author’s main argument(s) or findings as described in the abstract or introduction and conclusion. If you only have five minutes this is still a useful discovery to record – you can return to the article with confidence later when researching an assignment.

Next, aim to establish the structure of the article by skimming any headings or reading just the first sentence of each paragraph. The purpose here is to confirm how the author builds their arguments. Here are the main sections you are likely to encounter in an article:

• Introduction – summarising the main argument the author will be advancing
• Legal/social/historical context – explaining the background/importance of the topic
• Recent literature on the topic – explaining the existing academic arguments
• Author’s own arguments – the main focus for your reading
• Conclusion/Next steps – wrapping up the arguments and context, suggesting where subsequent research should develop

If you are already familiar and comfortable with the area of research you might be happy to skip the introduction and contextual background. Otherwise, they may provide you with an accessible introduction to the area of research, a different explanation that supports your understanding, or useful revision of the topic.

The author is very likely to discuss recent literature on the topic. If it is an active area of academic discussion there will be different lines of argument to tease out. For example, in an article on the rule of law, the author may take some time to locate their argument in the broader discussion of the formal and substantive approaches to the rule of law.

Ultimately, somewhere rather deep in the article, you will find the author’s central argument(s). If you know the purpose for reading this particular article, you will be confident to engage with the relevant line of argument and ignore the rest. Identify where the relevant argument is made out and where the author interacts with and integrates the existing literature.

Finally, you will find a conclusion that hopefully wraps up the argument(s). There shouldn’t be anything new in the conclusion, at least on the substantive arguments (there’s a tip here for your own essay-writing). If there is anything new in the conclusion it is likely to be suggestions for next steps in this line of research.

Having made your notes on the structure of the article, you can identify the parts most worthy of your focused reading. Feel free to go ahead and read and make notes on those parts. Your purpose should be to identify the reasoning the author provides for the view they are advancing, and your own thoughts on how persuasive their argument is and why you think that.

These are the key elements you need to integrate this reading into your own writing, so ensure that you record the page or paragraph numbers so that you can construct footnotes later.