Law Course

Lesson 1 • Sources of Law

Identifies primary and secondary sources that create binding legal rules. Understanding source hierarchy is essential for legal research and argument.

Lesson 2 • Basic Legal Terminology

Introduces essential Latin phrases, procedural terms, and classification concepts. Accurate terminology is required for reading cases and statutes effectively.

Lesson 3 • Structure of Legal Systems

Explains how courts, legislatures, and executive bodies interact within a legal system. Clarifies institutional roles students will encounter in practice.

Lesson 4 • Nature and Purpose of Law

Defines law, its social functions, and its relationship to justice and morality. Provides the conceptual baseline for analysing legal rules throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Legal Argument Construction

Teaches how to build deductive, analogical, and policy-based legal arguments. Students apply these structures to hypothetical problems and real cases.

Lesson 2 • Reading and Analysing Cases

Provides a systematic method for briefing cases and extracting legal principles. This skill underpins every subsequent chapter requiring case-based analysis.

Lesson 3 • Doctrine of Precedent

Explains binding and persuasive precedent, ratio decidendi, and obiter dicta. Mastery of precedent is central to common law reasoning and case analysis.

Lesson 1 • Breach and Remedies

Analyses what constitutes breach and the full range of available remedies. Students apply these principles to calculate losses and advise clients on enforcement.

Lesson 2 • Contractual Capacity and Consent

Addresses who may contract and how defects in consent affect validity. Students learn to spot vitiating factors that render agreements void or voidable.

Lesson 3 • Contract Terms and Interpretation

Distinguishes express, implied, and incorporated terms and their legal weight. Accurate term classification determines the remedies available upon breach.

Lesson 4 • Contract Formation

Examines offer, acceptance, and consideration as the building blocks of a valid contract. Establishes the threshold requirements before any other contractual issue arises.

Lesson 1 • Negligence: Duty and Breach

Establishes the duty of care test and the standard of the reasonable person. These elements form the first two stages of every negligence claim.

Lesson 2 • Introduction to Law of Delict

Defines delicts, distinguishes them from crimes and contracts, and surveys major delict categories. Provides the conceptual map for the chapter's detailed analysis.

Lesson 3 • Defences and Remedies in Delict

Examines consent, contributory negligence, and statutory defences alongside damages. Completing this section enables full analysis of any delict scenario.

Lesson 4 • Causation and Remoteness

Covers factual causation, legal causation, and remoteness of damage. Students apply these filters to determine which losses are legally recoverable.

Lesson 1 • Offences Against the Person

Covers assault, battery, homicide, and related offences with their mental elements. Applies the liability framework to the most commonly prosecuted crime categories.

Lesson 2 • Criminal Defences

Analyses complete and partial defences including self-defence, insanity, and duress. Students learn to assess which defences apply and their procedural effects.

Lesson 3 • Property and Economic Offences

Examines theft, fraud, criminal damage, and related property crimes. Extends criminal analysis to economic harm, which is prevalent in professional contexts.

Lesson 4 • Elements of a Criminal Offence

Introduces actus reus, mens rea, and the coincidence principle as the core of criminal liability. These elements must be proven before any defence is considered.

Lesson 1 • Constitutional Foundations

Explains constitutional supremacy, entrenchment, and the protection of fundamental rights. Provides the framework for evaluating the legality of all government action.

Lesson 2 • Human Rights in Public Law

Analyses how fundamental rights constrain public authority and shape legal obligations. Integrates rights-based reasoning into constitutional and administrative analysis.

Lesson 3 • Administrative Decision-Making

Examines how public bodies make decisions and the procedural safeguards required. Connects judicial review principles to the practical operation of agencies.

Lesson 4 • Separation of Powers in Practice

Analyses how legislative, executive, and judicial powers interact and constrain each other. Builds on foundational concepts to examine real institutional conflicts.

Lesson 1 • Appeals and Review

Explains grounds for appeal, appellate procedure, and the scope of appellate review. Distinguishes error correction from policy-driven review at higher courts.

Lesson 2 • Pre-Trial Procedure and Evidence

Examines disclosure, discovery, and the rules governing admissibility of evidence. Effective pre-trial preparation is critical to litigation success.

Lesson 3 • Alternative Dispute Resolution

Surveys negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and other non-litigation methods. Students evaluate when ADR is preferable to litigation and how to use it effectively.

Lesson 4 • Commencing Civil Proceedings

Covers jurisdiction, standing, limitation periods, and the mechanics of filing a claim. These threshold issues determine whether a case can proceed at all.

Lesson 1 • Legal Risk Assessment

Teaches how to evaluate legal exposure, probability of success, and cost-benefit trade-offs. Equips students to give commercially realistic advice beyond pure legal analysis.

Lesson 2 • Negotiation and Advocacy Skills

Develops persuasive oral and written advocacy and principled negotiation techniques. These skills translate legal knowledge into effective client representation.

Lesson 3 • Drafting Legal Documents

Covers principles of clear, precise legal drafting for contracts, opinions, and pleadings. Accurate drafting prevents disputes and reflects professional competence.

Lesson 4 • Multi-Issue Problem Analysis

Applies contract, delict, criminal, and public law simultaneously to complex fact patterns. Develops the ability to prioritise issues and structure comprehensive legal advice.