A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statute

Question

A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even
formulating statutes—the actual texts of laws enacted
by legislative bodies—is a vital aspect of the practice
of law, but statutory law is often given too little
  (5)   attention by law schools. Much of legal education, with
its focus on judicial decisions and analysis of cases,
can give a law student the impression that the practice
of law consists mainly in analyzing past cases to
determine their relevance to a client’s situation and
  (10)   arriving at a speculative interpretation of the law
relevant to the client’s legal problem.

Lawyers discover fairly soon, however, that much
of their practice does not depend on the kind of
painstaking analysis of cases that is performed in law
  (15)   school. For example, a lawyer representing the owner
of a business can often find an explicit answer as to
what the client should do about a certain tax-related
issue by consulting the relevant statutes. In such a case
the facts are clear and the statutes’ relation to them
  (20)   transparent, so that the client’s question can be
answered by direct reference to the wording of the
statutes. But statutes’ meanings and their applicability
to relevant situations are not always so obvious, and that
is one reason that the ability to interpret them accurately
  (25)   is an essential skill for law students to learn.

Another skill that teaching statutory law would
improve is synthesis. Law professors work hard at
developing their students’ ability to analyze individual
cases, but in so doing they favor the ability to apply the
  (30)   law in particular cases over the ability to understand
the interrelations among laws. In contrast, the study of
all the statutes of a legal system in a certain small area
of the law would enable the student to see how these
laws form a coherent whole. Students would then be
  (35)   able to apply this ability to synthesize in other areas of
statutory law that they encounter in their study or
practice. This is especially important because most
students intend to specialize in a chosen area, or areas,
of the law.

(40)   One possible argument against including training
in statutory law as a standard part of law school curricula
is that many statutes vary from region to region within
a nation, so that the mastery of a set of statutes would
usually not be generally applicable. There is some truth
  (45)   to this objection; law schools that currently provide
some training in statutes generally intend it as a
preparation for practice in their particular region, but
for schools that are nationally oriented, this could seem
to be an inappropriate investment of time and
  (50)   resources. But while the knowledge of a particular
region’s statutory law is not generally transferable to
other regions, the skills acquired in mastering a
particular set of statutes are, making the study of
statutory law an important undertaking even for law
  (55)   schools with a national orientation.    1 
 1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) In spite of the reservations that nationally oriented law schools can be expected to have, law schools can serve the overall needs of law students better by implementing a standard national curriculum in statutory law.
(B) Since the skills promoted by the study of statutory law are ultimately more important than those promoted by case analysis, the relative emphasis that law schools place on these two areas should be reversed.
(C) Although statutes typically vary from region to region, law schools should provide training in statutory law in order to develop students’ ability to synthesize legal information and interpret individual statutes.
(D) In the theoretical world of law school training, as opposed to the actual practice of law, a proficiency in case law is often one of the most important assets that students can have.
(E) Law schools generally are deficient in their attention to statutory law training and therefore fail to impart the skills necessary for the analysis of legal information.

2 
 2. Which one of the following is cited in the passage as a reason that might be given for not including statutory law training in law school curricula?

(A) Such training would divert resources away from the far more important development of the ability to analyze cases.
(B) Such training is not essentially different from what is already provided in the core areas of law school education.
(C) The goals of such training can better be achieved by other means, most of which are more directly related to the actual practice of law.
(D) Such training would be irrelevant for those students who do not plan to specialize.
(E) The lack of geographic uniformity among statutory laws makes expertise in the statutes of any particular region generally nontransferable.

3 
 3. Which one of the following would, if true, most weaken the author’s argument as expressed in the passage?

(A) Many law school administrators recommend the inclusion of statutory law training in the curricula of their schools.
(B) Most lawyers easily and quickly develop proficiency in statutory law through their work experiences after law school.
(C) Most lawyers do not practice law in the same geographic area in which they attended law school.
(D) The curricula of many regionally oriented law schools rely primarily on analysis of cases.
(E) Most lawyers who have undergone training in statutory law are thoroughly familiar with only a narrow range of statutes.

4 
 4. The author discusses the skill of synthesis in the third paragraph primarily in order to

(A) identify and describe one of the benefits that the author says would result from the change that is advocated in the passage
(B) indicate that law schools currently value certain other skills over this skill and explain why this is so
(C) argue for the greater importance of this skill as compared with certain others that are discussed earlier in the passage
(D) explain why this skill is necessary for the study of statutory law
(E) provide an example of the type of problem typically encountered in the practice of law

5 
 5. Which one of the following questions can be most clearly and directly answered by reference to information in the passage?

(A) What are some ways in which synthetic skills are strengthened or encouraged through the analysis of cases and judicial decisions?
(B) In which areas of legal practice is a proficiency in case analysis more valuable than a proficiency in statutory law?
(C) What skills are common to the study of both statutory law and judicial decisions?
(D) What are some objections that have been raised against including the study of statutes in regionally oriented law schools?
(E) What is the primary focus of the curriculum currently offered in most law schools?

6 
 6. The information in the passage suggests that the author would most likely agree with which one of the following statements regarding training in statutory law?

(A) While nationally oriented law schools have been deficient in statutory law training, most regionally oriented law schools have been equally deficient in the teaching of case law.
(B) Training in statutory law would help lawyers resolve legal questions for which the answers are not immediately apparent in the relevant statutes.
(C) Lawyers who are trained in statutory law typically also develop a higher level of efficiency in manipulating details of past cases as compared with lawyers who are not trained in this way.
(D) Courses in statutory law are less effective if they focus specifically on the statutes of a particular region or in a particular area of the law.
(E) Lawyers who do not specialize probably have little need for training in statutory law beyond a brief introduction to the subject.

7 
 7. Each of the following conforms to the kinds of educational results that the author would expect from the course of action proposed in the passage
EXCEPT:

(A) skill in locating references to court decisions on an issue involving a particular statute regarding taxation
(B) an understanding of the ways in which certain underlying purposes are served by an interrelated group of environmental laws
(C) a knowledge of how maritime statutes are formulated
(D) familiarity with the specific wordings of a group of laws applying to businesses in a particular region or locality
(E) an appreciation of the problems of wording involved in drafting antiterrorism laws

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

7. Each of the following conforms to the kinds of educational results that the author would expect from the course of action proposed in the passage EXCEPT:

Explanation

First paragraph/main point:

Understanding, applying, and formulating statutes (actual texts of laws) is important and not given enough attention in law school.

The remaining paragraphs are about the skills acquired in studying statutes:

P2 = interpretation of laws
P3 = synthesis of groups of laws
P4 = regional (some say this is a bad thing, but the author thinks regional skills can be applied nationally)

So, these are the things we'd expect to see in the four answer choices that we don't want.

(A)  seems really good at first. In fact, on my first pass, I eliminated it and didn't see its error until I eliminated all five choices and went back through them.

The problem is in  "references to court decisions."  That doesn't show up in our passage anywhere. References to court decisions  "involving statutes"  are not the same as statutes themselves, which the passage is concerned with. Tricky tricky.

(B) "understanding...interrelated laws."  Yep.

(C) "formulated."  Yep.

(D) "wording...region."  Yep.

(E) "wording."  Yep.

Answer chose  (E)  is a great trap answer choice, but totally supported by the passage, which says interpreting/formulating the actual texts is important. The wording of terrorism laws, though specific, is an example of a particular,  "actual text."

Answer: A

ap2201 · Answer

Hi,

Could anyone pls clarify Q3. I chose E instead of B.

For me, the argument fell apart in case we studied statuary law and still couldn't get the desired results.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

You need an answer choice that suggests that studying statutes would be unproductive or unnecessary and that therefore there is no need to change what students study in law school.

(E)  Most lawyers who have undergone training in statutory law are thoroughly familiar with only a narrow range of statutes.

(E)  is wrong because the author addresses this objection in the  last paragraph.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

Explanation

This passage is advocating for law schools to give more attention to the study and analysis of statutory law.

A. No.  There is no mention of a standard national curriculum in statutory law.

B. No.  The author never states that one is more important than the other, just that more emphasis should be placed on studying statutes.

C.  Yes.   This matches the overall main point, including the author’s refutation of the objection.

D. No.  This choice doesn’t mention statutes.

E. No.  This is more extreme than the author’s point; the author never claims that law schools fail to impart the necessary skills.

Answer: C

A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statute

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A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statute

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