Observational critique of FIRAC as a tool for legal analysis

Abstract

The most basic legal analysis requires students to identify the relevant principle and apply it to a set of facts.2 In simple terms, legal analysis entails effective and insightful reading and application of court decisions, legislation, academic writing, and transactional documents such as contracts. It is also the foundation for the process of learning legal writing.3 Legal analysis also requires that law students have a good command of the language of the discipline, mostly English in South Africa.4 Greenbaum submits that a poor command of the English language is fatal to students engaging with lecturers in a “critical or argumentative way”.