LEGAL RESEARCH & THESIS WRITING

SYLLABUS

Law 022M Section G03

Professor Jinkee De Ocampo Bantug
1st Semester SY 2015-2016
Saturdays 3:00 pm 5:00pm (2 units)
j-bantug@onu.edu

Research, according to the MacCrate Report, is a fundamental lawyering skill. 1 Law students
first learn on how to frame a legal issue from a given set of facts and explore legal doctrine
within the factual context of the problem through the legal research process. 2 For first year law
students this is quite a daunting task. This course will introduce you to the fundamentals of legal
research and teach you the application of the elements of these fundamentals in the research
process with the end view of guiding and assisting you in performing a research assignment.
These fundamentals include research design, resource identification, and searching for relevant
materials; legal referencing and citation skills. And since this course has incorporated thesis
writing, you will learn effective legal writing skills to prepare you in the preparation of your
thesis.

Required Textbook

The required textbook is Legal Research and Legal Citations for the Philippines by Milagros
Santos-Ong (2013 ed.). I use the following book as my reference (and I may have to require you
to study certain topics from this book on several occasions-but you are not required to purchase
this reference book): Legal Research and Bibliography by Peter P. Ng, Philipp U. Po and Pepito
Po (2007 ed.)

Every class takes its own pace, so it is difficult to tell in advance how many sessions we will
spend on each topic. But I have structured below a working schedule to guide us on the topics we
would be taking for each session but of course, this would have to be modified as we go along.

Grading and Class Participation

1
ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, Legal Education and Professional
Development: an Educational Continuum, (1992).
2
Ian Gallacher, Forty-Two: The Hitchhikers Guide to Teaching Legal Research to the Google
Generation, available at http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3849&context=expresso.
20% .. Class participation (recitations and quizzes)
20%....................................... Exercises
50%....................................... Research Project ***
10%........................................Attendance

*** I will describe the details of this Research Project shortly.

Course Content

I. Introduction to legal principles and authorities and the research process

A.
1) Legal research v. legal analysis
2) Legal research v. research in other contexts

B. Purpose of legal research

C. Types of legal authorities

1.) Primary legal authorities

2.) Secondary legal authorities
3.) Mandatory or binding authority v. persuasive authority
4.) Mandatory case laws

D. Sources of authorities
E. Forms of legal information
1) Primary sources
2) Secondary sources
F. Legal research process
G. Overview of the Philippine legal system
H. Sources of laws

II. Legal research and analysis process

A. Case Law
B. Case Law Analysis
C. Case Brief and Memorandum
D. Secondary authority and other research sources
E. Computer and internet research
F. Legal citation

III. The research process for effective legal research

IV. Legal bibliography

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