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Theory paper

English — Paper I

Examined on Set texts — Shakespeare, Dickens, Eliot, Fielding, Speeches and essays — Bacon, Plato, Ambedkar, Bennett, A Time to Kill. The Merchant of Venice, The Pickwick Papers, Adam Bede and Joseph Andrews, read for the passages where law actually operates on a character — a bond enforced to the letter, a court that ruins the man who wins, a trial that turns on character rather than proof. This is a literature paper, and the examiner wants close reading, not case law.

This page is the map of the paper: every syllabus unit, the leading cases with full summaries, and the exam questions the paper actually sets.

Units

  1. Unit 1 · Law and Literature: the Set TextsModule I — the prescribed literary texts read for their treatment of law, trial and judgment: the courtroom of The Merchant of Venice, Bardell v. Pickwick, the trial in Adam Bede, and the justices of Joseph Andrews
  2. Unit 2 · Speeches and EssaysModule II — Bacon on judicature, the Apology of Socrates, and Ambedkar’s speeches, read for argument, structure and the language of public reason
  3. Unit 3 · Analytical Skill and Oral CommunicationModule III — comprehension, precis and analysis; and the elements of oral communication for the lawyer
  4. Unit 4 · Language EnhancementModule IV — grammar and usage, vocabulary, and the conventions of legal and official writing