An Introduction to the Study of Law

Introduction to the Study of Law:

The analysis of facts forms the groundwork for which any legal argument can be undertaken, as it involves ascertaining the ability of evidence, whether it is physical or testimonial, to be able to determine, in the eyes of the law, provable facts upon which any legal decision must be made. Identifying the rule of law that is relevant in a given situation is vital to successful completion of a legal argument, and is far more complicated a process than one would initially imagine.

The means by which legal reporting is completed also varies not only the nature of the argument, but the means and arena which that argument will be made part of the public record.

The term “legal analysis” is one that can be applied broadly across the entire legal spectrum, but it is based off the concrete understanding that the application and use of law is based almost entirely on interpretation. Laws vary across the spectrum of criminal, civil, corporate, or political law, and vary within its many categories in complexity. A law could be a simple as a sentence or as long as a book. All laws are predicated on finding a consensus on how they are to be interpreted, and sometimes this calls for arguments to be made that support a particular interpretation, which is the process of legal argument. When a legal action has been undertaken by a party, it is based on an interpretation of the law, which has been reached at and supported by legal analysis....

Analyzing the Facts:

At the fundamental level of legal analysis, the importance lies within the facts as they pertain to legal arguments. Facts represent the groundwork that forms the concrete basis by which any legal action can be undertaken. A fact, at its simplest definition, is something real, because it is established as having actually happened, it maintains a concrete existence, or because it can be established as the finding of a concrete existence. While facts, in layman’s terms, represent something black and white, or as simple as true or false, in legal analysis, facts are something that have to be presented, both through interpretations of a law, in combination with evidence.

Identifying the Accurate Legal Rules:

Identifying the accurate legal rules of a given legal proceeding seems like an obvious element to legal analysis and argument, but it must be remembered that the legal system is a vast organism, comprising numerous categories and jurisdictions. It is always in an ongoing state of flux, due to changes in interpretation facilitated by arguments and precedents. Enacting any legal action involves an accurate identification of the rules of law applicable to a situation, because inaccurate provision of an argument on the wrong rule of law will invalidate the argument immediately, regardless of how convincing or supported the argument is. Complicating these terms further is that the legal system is broken into numerous different sections and subsections, namely between criminal and civil law, and within those into numerous subcategories and classifications...

Application of the Legal Rules:

The means by which legal rules are applied occurs through many different avenues, nearly all of which are dependent upon the nature of the applicable law. As a typically rule, the two major categories of criminal law and civil law are privy to two different forms of oversight.

Reporting Results:

The means by which the results of a legal argument are reported depend entirely on the nature of the legal analysis, or the argument that is presented. In predictive legal analysis, the results of a finding are usually published in either a scholarly or legal trade journal, one whose audience is focused entirely toward the legal community as a contribution to the public record. In the case of persuasive legal arguments, the results of the findings of the arguments are written in the form of a legal decision, which is written by the court. The form with which this is rendered is determined entirely by the nature of the legal proceedings. An important difference to note, however, is that in predictive analysis, the results are reported by the individual or group reporting the argument, while in persuasive analysis, the results are nearly always written by an individual or group that has had to be persuaded by that argument...