BASIC ACADEMIC TIPS ON THE STUDY OF LAW

SELF

Read. Repeat. Review. Fundamental to the study of law is the voluminous intake of legal knowledge from codals, annotated books, cases and other materials. Success or failure essentially rests on the dedication and intensity of a student on smart reading (reading with comprehension). First, know your average reading time by counting how many pages you can finish in an hour. Second, add all pages of your textbooks and other materials you need to read for the entire semester and divide it by the number of days you intend to read all of it. It would be preferable that you allocate 2 weeks before any major exam as purely review time and not taking in new information. By having these numbers, you can build a workable and calculated study plan with the minimum number of inputs you should take every day. Corollary to this is the knowledge for your high or low points of mental absorption. Ideally you must allot 3 hours for a one hour class. Base your study plan on these key personal facts.

Sleep. Never forsake a good night rest. 8 to 6 hours of sleep is essential for greater brain absorption and activity. Never compromise your health. As a general rule, late night cramming and sleepless nights barely help you during exams.  Make this a habit and take care of your body.

Memorize before you sleep, recall once you wake-up. Memorization is an essential exercise in the study of law. Though not a total requirement, memorization helps you in articulating the law itself and helps you support your arguments. There are several tips in memorization and each person has its own unique style. Try to discover yours as soon as possible and integrate it in your daily readings. Basic is breaking it down into thought chunks and repetition.  

NETWORK

Analyze and understand your teacher. Each teacher is unique and each one has a distinct method of evaluating the quality of your answers. Know what they want to find in your answers. Know what provisions of the law they consistently ask. Know the manner that they want the question to be answered. As Sun Tzu puts it; “if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles”. In the law school setting, knowing your professor will mostly lessen your chances of defeat during exams.

Establish upper-year level connections. The upper class men had been through want you are about to go through and with this come a treasure throve of wisdom. As much as possible, connect with upper year level students since they can give you a personal take of the law, the teachers, and the method. There advises are valuable for it can help you craft a study plan that anticipates the situation. You can also ask for notes, past exams, outlines and other resources that can help you prepare for the daily rigour of law school.

Peer Support. Never forget that you are not alone in the legal journey. You have friends that go through the same experiences you go through. A good support system will not only encourage you to study but will also help you check your own cracks and advances in the study of the law. It is wise to sometimes gather and ask questions to one another so you can build on each other’s legal knowledge.

TOOLS

Update yourself on latest jurisprudence. Having a stock knowledge of latest jurisprudence is an edge. You can access this bank of cases on legal blogs such as http://lexoterica.wordpress.com/. You can also make it a habit to read one latest Supreme Court decision daily published in their website. Knowledge of jurisprudence allows you to see how certain laws are applied in varying circumstances and how the Supreme Court interprets the law.

Develop personal law notes. Having your own notes with your own hand writing and your own form is a tremendous help in your absorption and memorization. Try to condense legal thoughts in one sentence and certain provisions into one word. Digest cases with key facts, main issue/s and the principle of law applied. Diagramming also helps you relate and connect the basic principles of law and help you see the greater principles behind it. By having a solid grasp of its essence or its “why”, understanding “what” the law is not so much of an effort. It can also help you generate a mental picture of the law which can aid memorization.

Watch the news and/or read newspapers. The law is a changing social institution that responds to the present context. Watching the news especially on matters of legal concern helps you link the law and reality and may lead you to better appreciate the study of the law. Moreover, make it a habit to relate laws to news reports. This is a great way to review your lessons while watching at the same time. 

Start the School Year with This End in Mind

By now you might have heard the news about a positive prospect of our economy.

HSBC has predicted that the Philippines will grow into $1.69 Trillion economy by 2050.  Business Mirror reports:

THE Philippines is seen to become the 16th largest economy in the world by 2050—larger than even neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand or even oil-producing Saudi Arabia or the Netherlands.

The British-owned global lender HSBC made the forecast in a study projecting the size of 100 economies 40 years hence, expanding the same from the original 30-country review published last year.

HSBC said the Philippine economy were to expand from the puny $112 billion at present into a leviathan capable of generating output worth $1.69 trillion or 15 times larger.

Initial reaction may be a jaw-drop or eyes wide open. The projection is a product of scientific forecast based on our present fundamentals which include current income per capita, rule of law, democracy, education levels and demographic change. The news to say the least brings a glimmer of hope in the future of this nation. For the older generation, this might be a consolation of sorts knowing that if the condition where the forecast is based stands true, then their children will reap the benefits. For us the younger generation, this is practically it. The most exciting period in Philippine macroeconomic development can happen within our lifetime. It is our generation who will lead the corporations, man the factories, and direct our government during these hopeful times. It means that we can either make or break this immensely unique opportunity for any nation. Let us be steadfast.

This brings a degree of burden in us, the younger generations since this projected growth still depends upon the quality and veracity of our people. So let us all start this academic school year with this in mind that it is in this generation, in our generation that experts predict that tremendous macroeconomic changes will occur and it is incumbent upon us to work harder to make this hopeful forecast true and meaningful to all Filipinos especially the poor and powerless. 

Thoughts on Law and Mining

So much for the myriad of mining laws and jurisprudence; what we witnessed grinding before us was the life-animation of what the laws or the lack of it has allowed. For the first time, I’ve seen an entire horizon of mountains or what was left of it produce dust clouds fuming from the scarred earth. Initial reaction would immediately convey to me that this is but necessary for a properly functioning economy which should make use of its abundant raw materials. However, just seeing the immense conversion or better yet destruction of mountains would lead a reasonable mind to think that there is something really wrong with the picture.  

As an economics graduate, I understand that a mining industry is an essential component of any economy “blessed” to have such rich mineral deposits scattered around its jurisdiction. We can make money out of it for sure and we can produce outputs for sure too. But the crux of the matter lies on how these extractions actually benefit the community around it and the nation as a whole. This should be the framework in which we try to lead discourse among ourselves. Does the present mining law which is undoubtedly liberal in favour of accommodating foreign capital indiscriminately open up our mining lands for foreign exploitation? Or would a contrary policy grip it too tight that it would choke the very industry we would like to responsibly prosper?

In my humble understanding, I would support some of the provisions of the proposed People’s Mining Bill penned by a coalition of left groups in Congress. However, this should strike a balance between the realities of short-term Filipino capital deficiencies and the long-term goal of Filipinization of the mining industry. I feel that some parts of the bill is too anchored on idealism that it would not be practicable and workable in its immediate implementation. For example, the bill gives exclusive rights to the Bureau of Mines to conduct mining exploration. I guess they might have left aside the idea that such exploration entails MILLIONS of dollars and the risk associated with it is high. Would government through the Bureau of Mines actually risk billions of tax-payer money for a high-risk endeavor? It seems to be a ridiculous choice considering our   financial limitations to say the very least. These are things that are better left with the private sector. On the positive note, the decision-making process espoused by the bill is something interesting and I would say practicable. The country will be all close to mining unless opened by these bodies composed of community stake holders. I do not wish to elaborate but the spirit of grass-roots participation in the decision-making of allowing mining in their communities is something to institutionalize and safe-guard.

These are just scattered unorganized thoughts about the mining issue that we were confronted in our summer internship. I do hope that eventually a policy will be crafted and passed as law that would side with the Filipino rather than the Foreigner and which would bring the bulk of its benefits directly to the people. 

Wonders of CARAGA Region