Legal Research Methodology: Major Stages and Fundamental Skills in Legal Writing

Abstract

Essentially, legal writing is what lawyers do for a living. Lawyers spend their daily life writing different types of legal documents. Writing skills are therefore fundamental to success in the legal profession. However, until the introduction of the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards in undergraduate degree programmes by the Nigerian Universities Commission, legal writing was not given prominence in the legal education curriculum. With the introduction of English for Legal Writing as a core course in the legal education curriculum for undergraduate degree programmes in Nigerian universities, there is need for standard teaching and learning material on legal writing for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The aim of this paper is to examine the major stages and fundamental skills in legal writing. It examines the writing process and the fundamental skills required to perform each step in the legal writing process.

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