Legal writing and case analysis methodology

IRAC, and when to depart from it

IRAC — Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion — is a structure for answering one legal issue. State the issue precisely; state the rule with its source; apply the rule to the specific facts, engaging with the facts that cut against your conclusion; then conclude. Where a problem raises several issues, run a separate IRAC cycle for each rather than merging them.

Depart from IRAC when the question is not a problem question. An essay asking whether an area of law is coherent needs a thesis and a line of argument, not a rule-application structure. Using IRAC there signals that the question was not read.

Application is where marks are won

Most students write a strong rule section and a thin application. Markers reward the opposite. Application means taking the specific facts given and showing, fact by fact, why they satisfy or fail the elements of the rule, including the arguments available to the other side. If your application would read identically with different facts, it is not application.

Using authority

Cite the statute for the rule and the case for the interpretation. Do not cite a case for a proposition it does not decide, and do not cite a string of cases where one will do. Where a case is factually close, say why; where it is distinguishable, say why. A single well-analysed authority is worth more than five name-dropped ones.

Editing

Edit in three passes. First for structure: does each paragraph do one job, and is the order logical? Second for accuracy: is every citation correct, is every provision current, and does every quoted passage exist in the document you hold? Third for compression: remove throat-clearing, repetition and adjectives. Legal writing improves almost entirely by deletion.