How to Write UK Law Essays and Exams: The Ultimate Guide to LLB Success

How to Write UK Law Essays and Exams: Introduction

Writing law essays and exams can be quite a challenge if you don’t have enough support and guidance.
Whether you are a first-year law student or preparing for your final LLB exams, understanding the nuances of writing law essays and exams is crucial to your success.
As a Former Law Lecturer, I'm here to help you succeed.
This guide will walk you through:

• what's the correct structure of law essays and exam answers
• how to approach writing each part of your law essays and exam answers
• critically evaluating cases and statute sections
• approaching problem-style and essay-style questions.

By the end of this article you will have a roadmap to structure any law assignment or exam answer and clear strategies for avoiding common mistakes that affect your grades.

How to write the Introduction in a UK law essay

Define the key legal concept OR restate the key facts

If you're writing an essay-style essay, then you need to start with defining the key legal concept. Key legal concept is the main concept which you will be discussing throughout your essay.

In order to identify it, you need to ask yourself: What area of public law/contract law/tort law/criminal law (etc.) is this essay about?. Introducing a key legal concept at the beginning of your essay-style assignment will improve the structure of your argument (and your grade).

Whenever you are dealing with a problem-style assignment, your first step should be to restate the key facts from the scenario. Key facts are those facts that are most relevant to the legal issues that you will be writing about.

When writing a shorter essay, you will have to select fewer key facts to mention, because you will only have space for one or two short sentences discussing them. If you are writing a longer essay, you might provide more details about the key facts from the scenario.

Introduce the central argument OR essay purpose

In an essay-style assignment, the next thing you need to write is the central argument of your essay. The central argument is the main argument you will be making throughout your essay.

It lets the reader know how you plan on approaching the discussion of the key legal concept you introduced earlier. For example, your central argument could be: This essay will evaluate the extent to which the UK parliament remains supreme.

If you're working on a problem-style essay, after the key facts it's time to introduce the essay purpose. The purpose of the essay is to provide advice to someone. You should explain to WHOM your essay will provide advice and on WHAT.

As an example, you might be advising James on whether he committed a criminal offence or Jessica on whether she entered into a legally binding contract: This essay will advise James on whether he committed a criminal offence and Jessica on whether she entered into a legally binding contract.

Present the structure

After you explain the key legal concept and introduce the central argument in your essay-style assignment, it's time to present the essay structure. Typically, this means listing your essay's headings in the order that they will appear in the main body.

For example, if you're writing an essay about parliamentary supremacy, your essay could say: The arguments will be considered in the following order: Interpretation of legislation by UK courts, Implied repeal doctrine, and Judicial review of legislation.

In short essays, you only have a sentence or two to present your structure, so you will only mention the headings. If you're writing a longer essay, you will have enough room to explain briefly what each heading includes.

Similarly, in a problem-style assignment the last part of your introduction should present the essay structure. Again, you'll need to list the headings in the order that they'll appear in your essay.

There's usually one legal issue in each heading in problem-style essays, which makes naming them easier. If you're writing a tort law essay with three legal issues, your essay might say: The legal issues in this essay will be considered in the following order: Liability for Peter’s physical injuries, Liability for Mary’s physical injuries and death as well as Liability for Jade’s financial loss.

One or two short sentences are enough to list your headings in a short essay. In longer essays, you can talk a bit about what each heading includes.

TIP: Learn more about writing first class law essay introductions from my 1st Class Law Essay Writing Course.

How to write the Main body in a UK law essay

Turn supporting arguments OR legal issues into headings

If you want to convince your readers to agree with the central argument in your essay-style assignment, then your essay should be full of supporting arguments. Typically, an essay of 2,500 words will have around 3-4 supporting arguments.

Each supporting argument should be a separate heading. It should include a detailed discussion of the relevant cases and/or statute sections. To identify your supporting arguments skim through the lecture slides and the relevant textbook chapter, and ask yourself the following question:

How can I divide the relevant parts of those lecture slides/this textbook chapter into 3-4 groups?

Planning out the main body of your essay will be much easier in case of a problem-style question. Here, each legal issue should be a separate heading in your essay.

If your problem scenario relates to one person, the only thing you have to do is identify the legal issues related to the events that happened to that person. If there are several people that you will have to advise in the scenario, then each heading can be devoted to the legal issue(s) related to one person.

Briefly explain each supporting argument OR key facts and legal issues

In an essay-style assignment, at the beginning of each heading you need to briefly introduce the supporting argument that you will be arguing in that heading. This part shouldn't be longer than 1-2 short sentences.

For example:
The difference between the court's approach to establishing leases before and after the decision in Street v Mountford is becomes clear when examining non-commercial agreements. Courts traditionally considered the parties' intentions in determining whether an agreement was a lease. Since Street, however, intention is typically only considered in light of the three requirements set out in the case.

At this point, details or evaluations are not required. Since this is the beginning of the heading, you only want to set the scene for the evaluation that will take place further down.

If you’re working on a problem-style assignment, then the beginning of each heading should do two things: (1) explain the key facts from the scenario that are relevant to that heading and (2) restate the legal issues you identified based on those facts.

Yes, you did mention the key facts in the "Introduction" part of your essay. But back then the facts were more generic. Here, you will focus on facts related to this particular heading. Then, you will explain in one or two short sentences what is the legal issue or issues you will be dealing with in the heading.

Critically evaluate cases and statute sections

The main bulk of each heading of your assignment should include a critical evaluation of the right cases and statute sections. This applies to both essay-style and problem-style assignments.

Simply stating the legal rules in your law essay will not bring you any closer to getting a first. If you are dealing with an essay-style assignment, then you need to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the cases and statute sections you selected for your supporting argument.

For example:

• Do the legal rules established by those cases or statute sections fulfil their purpose?
• Do they have any unintended negative consequences? What are they?
• Could they be improved in any way? How?

In the case of a problem-style assignment your critical evaluation should focus on what each case or statute section tells us about the legal issue under your heading.

For example:

• Does the rule established in the case or statute section apply to the legal issue? Why? In what way?
• Does it make the contract more likely to be considered valid by the court? Why?
• Does it make it more likely that the person mentioned in the scenario committed a crime? Why?

Using this approach, you will make the main body of your essay evaluative rather than descriptive. And that’s where the high marks come from.

TIP: The Law Essay Generator will help you make your essays more evaluative.

How to write the Conclusion in a UK law essay

How to write a conclusion in an essay-style UK law essay

Writing a conclusion in an essay-style assignment is fairly simple: restate your final opinion about the central argument and give a few reasons why you argued that opinion. The main body of your essay has plenty of those reasons.

If you remember, in the previous section of this guide we called them "supporting arguments". Each of the headings in your main body contains one supporting argument. In the conclusion your task is to write a brief summary of each supporting argument (i.e. each heading).

Let's say your essay is 1,500 words long and has three headings. You should include four sentences in your conclusion: one restating your main argument and one summarising each heading. Easy, right?

How to write a conclusion in a problem-style UK law essay

It's also really easy to write a conclusion in a problem-style essay. Start by explaining what conclusion you reached in relation to each legal issue that your essay dealt with. In other words, what advice did you give in relation to each legal issue?

For example: As illustrated above, Chris is likely to have committed an assault by hitting Jack on the head with a bottle, whereas Daniel...". This part should be around 1-3 sentences, depending on the length of your essay.

The next step is easy too. Just restate the key reason why you reached each of your conclusions. You can easily get this information from the headings of your essay. Think about how you would explain in a few words what the reason for each advice you gave was.

Use between 1 and 3 sentences to explain those key reasons, depending on how long your essay is. For instance, in a 1,500-word essay your conclusion will have a 1 sentence referring to the legal issues discussed in the essay, and three short sentences - one discussing each key reason. Easy, right?

How to write the Introduction in a UK law exam answer

Answering problem questions, general essay questions, specific essay questions, or quotation essay questions requires different introductions. In general, your exam answer introduction should follow this format.

Introduce the background OR key facts

In this section, you'll include a sentence with basic information about your exam answer. Background is important in an essay-style exam answer because it helps the reader understand the context of the question you'll be answering. In problem-style exam answers, just restate the key facts from the scenario that pertain to the legal issues you'll discuss.

State the central argument OR outline legal issues

If you're writing an essay-style exam answer, you should start by identifying the central argument. This is your main opinion about the area or law you'll discuss in your exam answer. As an introduction to a problem-style exam question, instead of a central argument, you'll outline the legal issues you'll discuss.

Outline the exam answer structure

End your introduction with an outline of your exam answer. The outline should include your exam answer headings. You can just list them here to let the reader know which arguments you're going to discuss.

How to write the Main body in a UK law exam answer

Make a list of key arguments OR identify legal issues

You already know that an essay-style law exam answer's central argument is its main point. In your exam answer, you need to back up your central argument with supporting arguments. Your exam answer is likely to be around 1,000 words with 2 to 3 supporting arguments, each in a separate paragraph. In each paragraph you will discuss cases and/or statute sections supporting each argument.

It's even easier to plan out the main body of your exam answer when dealing with a problem-style question. All you have to do is identify 2 to 4 legal issues you will discuss in your answer and devote one paragraph to each. If you advise multiple people in your law exam answer, give them each a paragraph.

Organise the key arguments OR legal issues

Organise your key arguments so they best support your central argument in your exam answer. Your exam answer should persuade the reader to agree with your central argument. Think about which supporting argument should come first, second and third to achieve this. If you are dealing with a problem-style exam question, you should arrange your legal issues in the order they appear in the scenario.

Evaluate the cases and statute sections

Each paragraph in your main body should include cases and statute sections. This is true for essay-style and problem-based assignments. As with writing law essays, you won't get a first if you merely state the legal rules. If you are writing an answer to an essay-style exam question, you need to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant cases and statute sections. For example:

• Are the legal rules established by those cases or statute sections effective?
• Is there any negative impact they have unintentionally?
• Is there any way they could be improved?

For problem-style assignments, you should evaluate each case or section of statute according to what it tells you about the legal issue. For example:

• Does the case or statute section increase the likelihood of the contract being considered valid by the court? Why?
• Does it increase the chances that the person in the scenario committed a crime? Why?

This approach will allow you to make your essay more evaluative than descriptive. It's from there those high marks are earned.

TIP: For more advice on writing UK law exam answers check out my 1st Class Law Exam Revision Course.

How to write the Conclusion in a UK law exam answer

Restate the central argument OR final opinion about legal issues

Essentially, the conclusion summarises what was discussed in the main body of your exam answer. That's why your essay-style law exam answer conclusion should not introduce any additional supporting arguments. It should begin by restating your central argument - just like you did in the introduction. This usually takes 1 to 2 short sentences.

In a problem-style exam answer, your first sentence or two should state what conclusion you reached regarding each legal issue discussed. For example: Is Jack likely to be convicted of murder? Was the hospital negligent in treating Jane? This will give the reader a clear view of what your essay should have convinced them about.

Restate key supporting arguments OR examples from main body

After restating the central argument in your essay-style exam answer, the remaining 2 to 3 sentences of your law exam answer should be devoted to briefly describing the 2 to 3 supporting arguments that you discussed in the main body of your answer. Remember, you shouldn't repeat the arguments word by word. Your task is to summarise them in a succinct way.

In a problem-style exam question, after introducing the conclusion you reached on each legal issue, you'll use the next 2 to 3 sentences to explain why you came to these specific conclusions. Again, don't just write word by word what you wrote in the main body of the answer. Instead, briefly summarise the key point with regards to each legal issue.