Core
Legal Method & Indian Legal System
How to identify law, navigate Indian legal institutions, read authorities and reason from legal materials.
7 units40 topicsLegal · 6 programmes
Syllabus outline
Unit-wise syllabus with every topic. Click any topic to get an explanation from the AI Explainer.
Unit 1 — Introduction to Law and the Legal System
0 / 5 read- Law, legal rules and other social norms
- Classification of law: public/private, substantive/procedural and civil/criminal
- Municipal law, international law and the relationship between them
- Common-law, civil-law and mixed legal traditions: introductory orientation
- Indian legal system: constitutional structure, legal pluralism and principal institutions
Unit 2 — Sources of Indian Law
0 / 6 read- The Constitution as a legal source: authority and hierarchy
- Statutes, rules, regulations, notifications and delegated legislation
- Judicial precedents as a source of law
- Custom and personal law as legal sources
- International instruments and their use in Indian legal reasoning
- Hierarchy and conflicts among legal sources
Unit 3 — Courts, Tribunals and Legal Actors
0 / 6 read- Supreme Court, High Courts and subordinate courts: structure and functions
- Civil and criminal court pathways: introductory comparison
- Tribunals and specialised forums: role and limits
- Bar, Bench and court staff: roles within adjudication
- Advocates, legal services institutions and access to justice: overview
- Alternative dispute resolution within the justice system: orientation only
Unit 4 — Reading Legislation
0 / 5 read- Anatomy of an Act: title, preamble, definitions, operative provisions and schedules
- How to locate the current text of an Act and check amendments
- Reading a section with definitions, provisos, explanations and exceptions
- Rules, regulations and notifications made under an Act
- Applying statutory text to a short fact situation
Unit 5 — Reading and Using Cases
0 / 6 read- Anatomy of a judgment: facts, issues, reasoning, holding and order
- Ratio decidendi and obiter dicta: identifying the relevant proposition
- Binding precedent in the Indian court hierarchy
- Distinguishing, following and overruling a decision
- Concurring and dissenting opinions
- Case brief: identifying material facts, legal issue, rule and outcome
Unit 6 — Legal Reasoning and Problem Solving
0 / 7 read- Deductive, inductive and analogical reasoning in legal problems
- Rule, exception, fact and conclusion in a problem answer
- Identifying legally material facts and framing issues
- Applying authorities to new facts, including analogy and distinction
- Reconciling apparently conflicting authorities
- Elementary legal argument and counterargument
- Working through a short problem by the issue–rule–application–conclusion method
Unit 7 — Legal Institutions, Remedies and Access
0 / 5 read- How a legal dispute moves from advice to forum to remedy: overview
- Writs, suits, criminal proceedings, appeals and review: orientation only
- Public interest litigation and representative access: introductory overview
- Legal aid, Lok Adalat and practical barriers to justice: orientation only
- Finding the proper forum and type of relief for a simple problem
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