EBC Learning Live Online Course on Academic Legal Writing: Engaging Common Law Debates

ABOUT COURSE

Live Classes| Faculty Mentorship| 3-Year Access

Want to get published?

A major reason legal papers remain unpublished isn’t poor grammar or citation style—it’s the absence of original thought and focused argument. Many papers merely summarize existing ideas without identifying or advancing a clear position. The foundation of a strong paper however lies in thinking clearly about what you want to say. This course teaches you just that.

This course takes a distinctive approach to building that foundation. You will learn the craft of academic legal writing through engagement with major debates in the common law tradition—on rights and duties, the nature of obligation, the origins of contract, tort, restitution, property and theories such as Ernest Weinrib’s conception of corrective justice. By studying how scholars argue, critique, and build conceptual frameworks, you will learn to do the same in your own writing.

To support this process, the course is structured around the instructor’s 4-Step Critique Development & Writing Process:

1. Active Reading & Annotation – where you mark and mind-map an article or case to understand the structure of reasoning. Simultaneously trying to identify the author’s core thesis — finding the claim the author or judge is making.
2. Brainstorming Critique Points – exploring ways to challenge, improve, or expand the argument – deciding what you want to say in response. Here you arrive at your response thesis.
3. Outlining the Structure – creating a simple blueprint for your response.
4. Drafting & Refining – writing and rewriting until your idea comes through clearly and persuasively.

Throughout the course, we will read, annotate, and discuss influential works in common law scholarship—from classical texts on rights and duties to contemporary debates in private law theory. You will learn not just to understand these arguments, but to enter them—developing your own voice within the ongoing dialogue that shapes common law reasoning.

Once you have identified your own thesis, we will turn to structure and form—ensuring your writing meets the standards of academic publication. By the end of the course, you will have produced a tightly reasoned and original legal essay that could form the basis of a publishable paper.

ENROLLMENT IN THIS COURSE IS BY INVITATION ONLY

COURSE OUTLINE

• COURSE SCHEDULE
• Week 1
  • ⚑ Orientation Class
  • ▶️ 1. Welcome to the course: how this legal writing course is organised and why it works
  • ▶️ 2. Types of legal writing – purpose, audience, and form
  • ▶️ 3. Writing comments in response to legal scholarship
  • Pre-class readings - Holmes
  • ☆ Feedback
• Week 2
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment - Holmes
  • Holmes' Paper Outlines & Notes
• Week 3
  • Pre-class readings
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment
• Week 4
  • Pre-class readings
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment
• Week 5
  • Pre-class readings
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment
• Week 6
  • Pre-class readings
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment
• Week 7
  • Pre-class readings
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment
• Week 8
  • Pre-class readings
  • ⚑ Live Class [Session Number(s)] ([Date & Time])— [Topic Name]
  • ✍️ Assignment
• SELF-PACED COURSE VIDEOS
• Step 1: Introduction to critical reading
  • ▸ Reading for argument – how to identify the author’s central claim
  • ▸ Reading judgments – finding the judge’s main point and reasoning
• Step 2: Arriving at your response thesis
  • ▸ Your legal paper's core: understanding and developing thesis statements
  • ▸ How to find something worth writing about?
• Step 3: Writing for the reader: clarity, structure, and flow
  • ▸ Impersonate your reader – the skill that changes everything
  • ▸ How to actually start writing: the three draft method
  • ▸ Structure of your paper
  • ▸ Deductive and inductive reasoning
  • ▸ Effective use of quotations in legal writing
• Step 4: Editing
  • ▸ Your writing becomes clear and strong when you can no longer take away
• Best practices for improving your legal writing
  • ▸ Read from primary sources
  • ☆ Feedback