A student has posted the following question on the Discussion Forum regarding the assignment:
Should we use IRAC (Issue,rule,application,conclusion) method when we do the assignment? Should we put all the relevant rules
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A student has posted the following question on the Discussion Forum regarding the assignment:
Should we use IRAC (Issue,rule,application,conclusion) method when we do the assignment? Should we put all the relevant rules/laws in rule section, or we only put some essential rules in the rule section and write other less important rules when applicate relevant law into fact? Could you please provide us some references about this IRAC format?
This is an excellent question. Just in case anyone is not aware of what is meant by the IRAC method, here is an explanation of each aspect of it.
Issue – state the legal question(s).
Rule – explain the test established by the law to resolve that legal question (you should also mention the legal source of the rule, which may be a statutory provision if is a legislative rule, or a court case if it is a general law rule).
Application – apply the facts to the rule, to work out whether this fact situation satisfies the test established by the rule.
Conclusion – Explain what can be concluded from the application of the facts to the rule.
You asked whether you should put all the relevant rules/laws in the rule section, or only put some essential rules in the rule section and write other less important rules when applying the relevant legal rules to the facts. While it would be fine to put the rules and the application in separate sections of your assignment, I think this would use up a lot of words and so I do not recommend it. Instead I recommend that you explain the rules as you apply them to the facts (that is, I recommend you put the rules and the application in the same section).
How you structure this for each rule will depend on the complexity of the rule. If the rule is a very simple one, then you can just state the source of the legal rule (statutory provision or court case) and then explain the rule by applying it to the facts.
If the rule is a more complex one, then you will need to have a more complex structure. A more complex rule is one that has a number of ‘elements’. An ‘element’ is something that must be proved before the legal test set out in the rule can be satisfied. Sometimes one or more of the elements will have a number of options, and if just one of those options is proved then that element of the test will be satisfied.
For more complex rules, I recommend that you should:
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