Thinking Critically About Law: A Student's Guide

You arrive at university to embark upon your journey to ‘think like a lawyer’, but is simply knowing the law enough to gain you the best marks? What do you need to do, exactly, to achieve a first-class law degree and promising professional career? For top marks, what do your lecturers mean when they say you need to deepen your ‘critical analysis’ to answer assessment questions? When should you put your own viewpoints forward? When, and how, should you draw upon the work of others? What do your examiners mean when they give you feedback saying that your work is ‘too descriptive’? This book explores what it means to think critically and offers practical tips and advice for students to develop the process, skill and ability of thinking critically while studying law, as well as beyond that in the workplace.

The second edition of Thinking Critically About Law utilises art, music, poetry and prose to explore essential questions about studying law and what it means to think critically, offering practical tips and advice for students looking to develop critical thinking skills in relation to law. Updates reflect seismic changes that have taken place both in law teaching and in society more generally. These include the Covid-19 pandemic, social movements sparked by the murders of Sarah Everard and George Floyd, moves to decolonise the law curriculum and the introduction of the SQE qualification. There is also an innovative foreword by Professor Russell Sandberg, a new chapter on the topic of how to think critically during discussions, a new section on Thinking Critically About Law in the Future as well as a renewed emphasis on the health and well-being of students. Other student-focused resources will be available as support materials.

Thinking Critically about Law is a crucial companion for those studying law at A-Level and undergraduate level, as well as being relevant to postgraduate students, newly qualified lawyers and tutors of law.

Amy R Codling has over two decades of experience studying and teaching law at the Universities of Cardiff, Leeds, Reading and Sussex and is currently a lecturer at York Law School. She was proud to be the recipient of the University of York Student Union’s (YUSU) ‘Most Inspirational’ award in 2022.