The New Lawyer, 3rd Edition

Preface vii About the authors viii Part 1 Knowing 1 Chapter 1 The life of a lawyer 2 1.1 Being a lawyer: myths and realities 3 1.2 A diversity of career options 9 1.3 Your legal education 19 1.4 Developing a professional identity 32 Chapter 2 Fundamental legal concepts 39 2.1 Law 40 2.2 Law and extrinsic standards 51 2.3 Law and liberal values 59 Chapter 3 A history of Australian law 79 3.1 First Nations Australians and the law 81 3.2 The development of British law 86 3.3 The development of Australian law 92 3.4 The law today 96 Chapter 4 The Australian legal system 107 4.1 Seven key characteristics 108 4.2 The Australian Constitution 115 4.3 The State constitutions 125 4.4 Executive government in Australia 128 Chapter 5 The sources of law in Australia 139 5.1 Legislation 141 5.2 The structure of parliament 142 5.3 Case law 155 Part 2 Doing 183 Chapter 6 Thinking skills 184 6.1 Legal reasoning 185 6.2 Critical thinking 203 6.3 Creative thinking 216 Chapter 7 Legal research skills 223 7.1 Adopt a systematic approach 226 7.2 Know where to look 232 7.3 Access good-quality information 240 7.4 Read actively and efficiently 246 7.5 Apply your research 251 Chapter 8 Interpretation and application skills 257 8.1 Reading the law 259 8.2 Interpreting the law 272 8.3 Interpretation in practice 294 Chapter 9 Communication and collaboration skills 315 9.1 Communication skills 316 9.2 Communicating effectively 325 9.3 Collaboration skills 342 Chapter 10 Self-management skills 351 10.1 The importance of self-management 352 Part 3 Being 375 Chapter 11 Being realistic 376 11.1 Formalism vs realism 377 11.2 Law and power 386 Chapter 12 Being committed to justice 405 12.1 The nature of justice 406 12.2 Access to justice 414 Chapter 13 Being ethical 429 13.1 Ethics 431 13.2 Professional ethics 448 Chapter 14 Being future-ready 461 14.1 Disruption and transformation 463 14.2 Preparing for the future 469 Key terms 489 Exercises 490 Acknowledgements 490 Index 493