Юридическое письмо

2026/2027

Статус: Маго-лего

Кто читает: Департамент международного права

Где читается: Факультет права

Когда читается: 3 модуль

Охват аудитории: для своего кампуса

Язык: английский

Кредиты: 3

Контактные часы: 24

Full Syllabus Ask Question

Abstract

The Legal Writing course is designed to develop the analytical skills used in legal drafting and legal research. It sets out the foundations of legal reasoning and covers basic principles of academic writing and legal analysis, including drafting memoranda, finding relevant sources, statutory interpretation and fact investigation. The course first equips students with the craft that underlies: 1) how to find and evaluate legal and academic sources, 2) how to work with legislation, case law, and doctrine, and 3) how to cite sources and build a bibliography correctly. The course then develops two parallel strands. On the academic side, students learn to formulate a research question, structure and argue a course paper and (or) a thesis, conduct a literature review, and prepare the work for defense. On the practical side, they learn to analyse a legal problem, construct a statement of facts, and draft the memoranda. The course is workshop-oriented: each topic is anchored in writing tasks, which students draft, receive structured feedback, and revise. By the end, students should be able to approach both an academic and a procedural writing task methodically and to produce clear, well-structured, properly sourced legal documents fit for their purpose.

Learning Objectives

To nourish legal writing and legal interpretation skills
To train students’ skills to maintain legal drafting and statutory interpretation in the framework of both legal theory and practical work
To foster capability of carrying out research and analytical projects built up on the ground of sophisticated legal design

Expected Learning Outcomes

To gain knowledge on the main approaches to the key principles of legal writing and legal reasoning
To investigate the structure and professional conventions regarding the core legal documents (e.g. memorials, legal opinions, judicial decisions, contracts)
To outline the scope, functions and content of the main genres and instruments of legal writing, the principals of legal analysis, drafting, interpretation, and professional communication
To analyze the theoretical foundations and principal sources of legal writing and legal reasoning, including the linguistic nature of law (open texture) and the elements of analytical jurisprudence
To develop methodology of legal research: the anatomy of judicial decisions, rule synthesis, the hierarchy of reasons, primary and secondary sources, search methods, and the responsible use of legal technology
To gain knowledge on statutory and contractual interpretation, the canons of construction, and their limits

Course Contents

Academic and Legal Writing. Genres, Readers and Purposes
The Elements of Research Design in Legal Writing
Working with the Sources. Search Strategy and Databases
Academic Standards: Citations and Bibliography in Search of an Original Paper
The Literature Review: Reading Doctrine, Building Discussion and Locating the Research Gaps
Legal Memorandum: Structure and Main Principles
Facts, Evidence and the Statement of Facts
The Architecture of Legal Reasoning in Legal Writing
Working With the Case Law
Statutory Interpretation in Practice. Reading Contracts
Judicial Writing
The Future of Legal Writing. The Final Presentation

Assessment Elements

Classroom-based work
Presentations during the seminars, participation in the peer-review procedure, and involvement in the discussions.
Critical Review
Each student receives a text produced by a generative artificial intelligence system: a legal memorandum, a legal opinion, or a section of an academic paper on a problem within the scope of the course. The texts are distributed individually and differ between students. The tasks are: 1) to review the text; 2) to rewrite it appropriately. The student submits a critical review of 2,000 to 2,500 words which: • identifies the substantive legal errors in the text and explains why each is an error; • verifies every citation against the original source and reports which sources do not exist, are misquoted, are cited for a proposition they do not support, or have been superseded; • identifies the structural, argumentative, and stylistic markers indicating that the text was not written by a human, and distinguishes reliable markers from unreliable ones; • assesses which of the defects found would be dangerous if the document were filed or submitted, and why; • proposes a corrected structure for the document, without drafting it in full. The review is defended in class: the student answers questions on the findings. The mark for this element is a blocking one. Requirements and the standard form of the citation-verification table are circulated in advance.
Written Memo
The Memorandum is an adversarial written submission prepared on a fact pattern circulated in advance. The class is divided into three groups: • the claimant team, which drafts the statement of claim and the memorandum in support; • the respondent team, which drafts the response and the memorandum in reply; • the court team, which drafts a bench memorandum analysing both positions and a draft decision on the case. Submissions are exchanged on a fixed schedule: the claimant files first, the respondent replies, and the court team delivers its analysis and draft decision at the final class. Every proposition must be supported by verified authority, the requirements for form, length, and citation are sent to the students in advance. The argumentation of each of the parties is presented throughout the Moot Court session held at the last seminar of the course (the case is to be shared in advance).
Research Project
The Research Project is the groundwork for the student’s own course paper or graduation qualification work. It is individual and consists of: • the topic and the research question, formulated so as to be answerable within the scope of the intended work; • a plan of the work, showing the function of each part; • an annotated bibliography of ten sources, each entry stating where the source was found (the system, database, or catalogue used) and what it contributes to the research question; • one written section of approximately 1,500 words, formatted in accordance with GOST R 7.0.5-2008; • a five-minute oral defense, at which the student answers three questions on the content of the submitted work. The project is built up during the course. The research question is elaborated, the bibliography is specified, and the written section is submitted to peer review.

Interim Assessment

2026/2027 3rd module
0.4 * Critical Review + 0.2 * Research Project + 0.1 * Classroom-based work + 0.3 * Written Memo

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

A historical introduction to the law of obligations, Ibbetson, D. J., 2006
A theory of legal argumentation : the history of rational discourse as theory of legal justification, Alexy, R., 2010
American courts : process and policy, Baum, L., 2001
An introduction to comparative law, Zweigert, K., 2011
Argumentation schemes, Walton, D., 2008
Casebook on contract law, Poole, J., 2005
Casebook on contract law, Poole, J., 2006
Cases, materials and text on contract law, , 2019
Commentaries on European contract laws, , 2018
Comparative contract law : England, France, Germany, Marsh, P. D. V., 1996
Comparative contract law and economics, Kovac, M., 2011
Comparative law : an introduction to the comparative method of legal study and research, Gutteridge, H. C., 2015
Comparative Law in a Changing World, Cruz de, P., 1999
Constitutional courts : a comparative study, , 2009
Contract law : rules, theory, and context, Bix, B. H., 2012
Contract Law and Practice : The English System and Continental Comparisons, Whincup, M. H., 1996
Contract Law in Perspective, Tillotson, J., 1995
Deliberative democracy and the institutions of judicial review, Zurn, C. F., 2009
Educating Judges : Towards a New Model of Continuing Judicial Learning, Armytage, L., 1996
European Courts Practice and Precedents, , 1997
Foreign Law in English Courts : Pleading, Proof and Choice of Law, Fentiman, R., 1998
Foundations of legal research and writing, Bast, C. M., 2006
Fundamentals of legal argumentation : A survey of theories on the justification of judicial decisions, Feteris, E. T., 1999
Judicial law-making in English and German courts : techniques and limits of statutory interpretation, Brenncke, M., 2018
Judicial Review: Law and Procedure, Gordon, R., 1996
Judicial transformations : the rights revolution in the courts of Europe, Lasser, M. de S.-O.-L'E., 2009
Legal opinions in international transactions, Gruson, M., 1999
Legal writing and analysis, Edwards, L. H., 2019
Legal writing in plain English : a text with exercises, Garner, B. A., 2013
Legal writing, Webley, L., 2013
Mastering statutory interpretation, Jellum, L. D., 2015
Methodologies of legal research : which kind of method for what kind of discipline?, , 2013
Talking international law : legal argumentation outside the courtroom, , 2021
Towards a truly common law : Europe as a laboratory for legal pluralism, Delmas-Marty, M., 2005
Understanding the law of obligations : essays on contract, tort and restitution, Burrows, A., 1998

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Judicial review in Scotland : a practitioner's guide, O'Neill, A., 1999
Legal writing and drafting, Rylance, P., 1994
Research handbook on legal pluralism and EU law, , 2018
The classification of obligations, , 1997
The new rhetoric: a treatise on argumentation, Perelman, C., 2010
Theory and Credibility: Integrating Theoretical and Empirical Social Science, Ashworth, S., 2021

Authors

Smirnova Svetlana Anatolevna
TYULYAEV GEORGY SERGEEVICH

Course Syllabus