Law textbooks (1 Viewer)

[pmtennis]

hi,

i am a first yr law student and i was looking for advice on law text books

what do experience law students buy in terms of law textbooks? do u buy only the prescribed or also the recommended and/or highly recommended ones as per the booklist?

 

[goan_crazy]

Re: legal text books

hi,

i am a first yr law student and i was looking for advice on law text books

what do experience law students buy in terms of law textbooks? do u buy only the prescribed or also the recommended and/or highly recommended ones as per the booklist?

Law is alot of reading
Read the prescribed ones

only refer to the recommended ones/further reading if you need more depth on something

but otherwise the precribed is fine

if you try and read everything you may find yourself overloaded

but defintely I suggest that you make a serious attempt at reading the prescribed. That in itself for some law subjects can be alot.

 

[melsc]

Re: legal text books

Buy the prescibed ones, with the recommended it is best to ask the person who teaches the unit as often the books are quiet expensive and most of us struggle with buying the prescribed ones. Unless of course it is something like a referencing guide or legal dictionary because these are something you will use throughout your course

It is best to try and read as much of the prescribed as possible, it often makes the classes and concepts easier to understand. However as you get used to studying law you will learn which reading is vital which can be skimmed or ignored if you are short on time. Recommended readings add to what you have learnt but you can get buy without them but if you have time, money or can find them in the library it is worthwhile but in reality most law students I have met don't

 

[pmtennis]

Re: legal text books

thanks, so i assume then that u arent really compromising ur studies by not getting the recommended ones and u can still get top marks by reading the presc ones closely?

but i will buy a legal dict, it will be helpful throughout my course/career i suppose.

also, with the book like - guide to law essays and exams, surviving law school etc etc, i should just get them from the library

 

[goan_crazy]

Re: legal text books

thanks, so i assume then that u arent really compromising ur studies by not getting the recommended ones and u can still get top marks by reading the presc ones closely?

but i will buy a legal dict, it will be helpful throughout my course/career i suppose.

also, with the book like - guide to law essays and exams, surviving law school etc etc, i should just get them from the library

I still need to get a legal dictionary but I have only done two law subjects so far so haven't really needed it

No you aren't really compomising your studies if you don't do further readings
you can still achieve high by reading the prescribed ones and studying

Guide to law essays was given to us by the law faculty and its also on the website
each uni has a different gude for assignments/essays

 

[uberlovesounds]

Re: legal text books

so all we need are the prescribed books and we're safe? would any of the prescribed books not be used in lectures? (or is it guarranteed that the lecturer would tell us to get it?)

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Re: legal text books

hi,

i am a first yr law student and i was looking for advice on law text books

what do experience law students buy in terms of law textbooks? do u buy only the prescribed or also the recommended and/or highly recommended ones as per the booklist?

I never used to read additional law books. But I have found in later years that using additional books that are not required can be immensely helpful. I would definitely recommend looking at extra texts. Different texts can explain things more clearly in different areas, and sometimes the prescribed texts are not very good. Sometimes you don't actually know what you're missing out on until you try something new.

For example, the criminal law textbook we use -- Brown et al -- is truly painful. Apart from being poorly formatted and made of Bible-paper, it is filled with all sorts of policy junk which should be lessened for more substantive legal commentary and black-letter law. And despite the hype about Blackshield and Williams, I prefer a proper Constitutional Law textbook without all the public law materials and with more legal analysis. In property law I always turn straight to Peter Butt's Land Law before trawling through Sackville and Neave.

There is some subjectivity in choice of books of course, so some may work for you and others may not.

But I would definitely advise having a read of some extra texts on areas which you are not clear on, or topics which are not dealt with clearly in the prescribed text. I wouldn't worry about it in first year, but come contracts, property, etc -- try it

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Re: legal text books

so all we need are the prescribed books and we're safe? would any of the prescribed books not be used in lectures? (or is it guarranteed that the lecturer would tell us to get it?)

Yes, you will be "safe".

And yes you must get the prescribed textbooks. That's why they're prescribed!

 

[melsc]

Re: legal text books

For example, the criminal law textbook we use -- Brown et al -- is truly painful. Apart from being poorly formatted and made of Bible-paper, it is filled with all sorts of policy junk which should be lessened for more substantive legal commentary and black-letter law.

That book is painful, I read the readings but in the end the class notes made in class were much more concise

 

[derek.wong]

Ironically, one of the best law students I know really liked that book.

 

[hYperTrOphY]

Did anyone who has studied Contracts use the texts, "Principles of Contract Law" and/or "Contract Cases & Materials" ?

 

[goan_crazy]

the criminal law textbook we use -- Brown et al

Is that book called "Criminal Laws"?
Thats the book we use I think
the same one USYD does

Did anyone who has studied Contracts use the texts, "Principles of Contract Law" and/or "Contract Cases & Materials" ?

I'm doing contracts this semester, sorry James, but i'll let you know what texts UTS uses when I find out.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Is that book called "Criminal Laws"?
Thats the book we use I think
the same one USYD does

Yes that's it. It's co-written by two of our Crim lecturers, Brown & Egger.

 

[hfis]

Did anyone who has studied Contracts use the texts, "Principles of Contract Law" and/or "Contract Cases & Materials" ?

Heffey et al? If so, yes. I still have them too, and never actually 'used' them, if you're interested in buying.

They have nothing on Carter and Harland's Cases and Materials on Contract Law in Australia though. I heart that thing.

 

[je2obrien]

Did anyone who has studied Contracts use the texts, "Principles of Contract Law" and/or "Contract Cases & Materials" ?

Yep, we used principles of contract. It wasn't bad i thought.

If that casebook is by ellinghaus then we used it as well. Pretty good casebook.

For more in depth contract stuff I found cheshire and firefoot's (i think, sp?) contract book pretty useuful.

 

[Demandred]

Please note, that Law Books are at times really expensive, unless you have the $$, its often better to get them second hand, or get someone to lend it to you, buy only what you have to, if you want recommended readings, just borrow them from the library ~ ala ~ Buttersworth/LexisNexis tutorial companions.

Also, I wouldn't be bothered having the latest editions, old texts should have, generally, most of your cases, you can find the newer cases from Austlii or LexisNexis and other online case databases.

Oh btw, It wasn't until I finished Crim Law that I realised how good Brown et al Criminal Law was! As for the Principles of Contract Law and Contact Cases & Materials... they usually come in a bundle. Hypertrophy, in your contract unit outline, there would be mostly be cases and no prescribed readings from your Principle of Contract Law, I really really really recommend reading Principles of Contract Law before you start on the cases.

 

[LaraB]

hi,

i am a first yr law student and i was looking for advice on law text books

what do experience law students buy in terms of law textbooks? do u buy only the prescribed or also the recommended and/or highly recommended ones as per the booklist?

It's probably not a good idea to buy "recommended" texts before semester starts because it's not worth the potential wasted money if you get to class and find that your lecturer is awesome so you don't need it, or that they tell you its not worth buying because you won't read it.

Like Demandred said, use the library copies because you may find that you only use the tute guides or other "summary style" books for assignments or on the odd occassion and they can be fairly expensive given their small size.

Definitely look at lawbooks.com.au if you want new books - they're usually another 10% cheaper than co-op and postage is free if you buy over a certain amount...

Or textbookexchange.com.au or notice boards at uni or on these forums cause kawbooks can be expensive, especially given laws change so books are superseeded, and you may never need those particular texts again... eg - i haven't toucvhed my intro to law books since the unit finished nearly 2 yrs ago lol

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Yes and yes...

Don't buy recommended texts unless (a) you've tried them and know the quality and (b) you can't get by without borrowing them from the library.

I can also vouch for Lawbooks.com.au -- cheap and convenient.

 

[melsc]

Lawbooks is good, can't do it this semester because I wont know what units I am doing until 6 days b4 uni starts

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Did anyone who has studied Contracts use the texts, "Principles of Contract Law" and/or "Contract Cases & Materials" ?

Yes, they were (and are) our prescribed Contract Law texts. For learning purposes they do the job well.

If you want to look at other texts, Cheshire & Fifoot's Law of Contract is also a good book. It is very convenient and can be quite useful, although it is a bit lacking in a few areas, such as repudiation. It is slightly outdated, the last edition being 2002, although (a) contracts texts don't age too badly and (b) a new edition is coming out at the end of the year, according to Mr Seddon.

Carter's contracts texts are always good - the guy is one of Australia's leading contracts academics.

Also basically anything written by Justice Handley (usually in relation to equitable contract principles) is excellent.