Free living map

Reading and Briefing Cases: A Living Map

A court decision is a reasoned answer to a specific dispute. To use it you read it in passes, pick the facts that mattered, state the issue as a question, find the holding and tell it from remarks that bind no one, and write a short brief in your own words. Statutes are read first and with the cases that interpret them; judgments from other legal systems are read with questions about weight and sources; in class, the Socratic method tests the brief with questions and hypotheticals; and the briefs become an outline organised by rule. Press Play to watch the map build, click an idea for its definition and the usual trap, or trace a short case. A simplified teaching map.