Case Analysis
CASE ANALYSIS – THE GAME PLAN
INTRODUCTION
This provides you with a guide for analysing cases. It will assist you to identify the material facts, the relevant legal issues and conclusions, and the possible ratio decidendi, of a case. When using this guide, please always remember that there is no one right answer to the question “what is the ratio decidendi of this case?”:
Talk of finding the ratio decidendi of a case obscures the fact that the process of interpreting cases is not like a hunt for buried treasure, but typically involves an element of choice from a range of possibilities.1
Only by ascertaining the range of possible ratio decidendi, can you identify the arguments for the case applying (or not applying) to a factual scenario on which you’ve been asked to provide advice. Please also remember that a case may have more than one ratio decidendi – it may have rationes decidendi. Finally, please note that this guide is somewhat artificial. The guide requires you to analyse a case without considering any other cases. You would not do this in practise. A case has to be interpreted in light of how subsequent courts have treated that case. As subsequent courts lay down decisions, the range of possible interpretations of the case may change over time. This matter will be considered in subsequent workshops.
Applying this guide will enable you to recognise the “range of possibilities” inherent in a case. Why is it important to recognise the range of possibilities? Why not be content with finding one ratio decidendi? Because what a case stands for will be arguable; different lawyers and courts will reach different conclusions.
1
W Twining and D Meirs, How to Do Things with Rules (4th ed, Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, London, 2010), at 335.
OVERVIEW
The steps of this guide are as follows:
Step 1: State the material facts of the case.
Step 2: State the issue/s the Court/judges considered with respect to the material facts.
Step 3: State the
INTRODUCTION
This provides you with a guide for analysing cases. It will assist you to identify the material facts, the relevant legal issues and conclusions, and the possible ratio decidendi, of a case. When using this guide, please always remember that there is no one right answer to the question “what is the ratio decidendi of this case?”:
Talk of finding the ratio decidendi of a case obscures the fact that the process of interpreting cases is not like a hunt for buried treasure, but typically involves an element of choice from a range of possibilities.1
Only by ascertaining the range of possible ratio decidendi, can you identify the arguments for the case applying (or not applying) to a factual scenario on which you’ve been asked to provide advice. Please also remember that a case may have more than one ratio decidendi – it may have rationes decidendi. Finally, please note that this guide is somewhat artificial. The guide requires you to analyse a case without considering any other cases. You would not do this in practise. A case has to be interpreted in light of how subsequent courts have treated that case. As subsequent courts lay down decisions, the range of possible interpretations of the case may change over time. This matter will be considered in subsequent workshops.
Applying this guide will enable you to recognise the “range of possibilities” inherent in a case. Why is it important to recognise the range of possibilities? Why not be content with finding one ratio decidendi? Because what a case stands for will be arguable; different lawyers and courts will reach different conclusions.
1
W Twining and D Meirs, How to Do Things with Rules (4th ed, Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, London, 2010), at 335.
OVERVIEW
The steps of this guide are as follows:
Step 1: State the material facts of the case.
Step 2: State the issue/s the Court/judges considered with respect to the material facts.
Step 3: State the