translation studies. retrospective and prospective views

VI. Reasoning
The reasoning, or rationale, is the chain of argument which led the
judges in either a majority or a dissenting opinion to rule as they did. This
should be outlined point by point in numbered sentences or paragraphs.
VII. Analysis
Here the student should evaluate the significance of the case, its
relationship to other cases, its place in history, and what is shows about the
Court, its members, its decision-making processes, or the impact it has on
litigants, government, or society. It is here that the implicit assumptions
and values of the Justices should be probed, the “rightness” of the decision
debated, and the logic of the reasoning considered.
Briefing is the first step in learning how to outline. The brief should
distill a case down to its elements, which allows the student to immediately
understand the principal legal issues at a glance.
Case briefs are an important tool, but it's also important to keep briefs
in perspective. Students shall labor intensively over case briefs by creating
forms and making sure that the wording is perfect.
A brief, in our opinion, is the perfect tool that helps the student
accomplish three things – build comprehension, answer questions in class
and complete an outline – combining and balancing both legal and
linguistic knowledge. Rewriting the material leads to better comprehension,
creates a cheat sheet for questions in class, and serves as a starting point for
outlining. First, it helps tremendously in getting the student to think like a
lawyer. Afterwards, he or she remembers the rules better by restating it in his
or her own words. It is very helpful for acquiring new vocabulary and
memorizing the material by rewriting and reorganizing it.
It also helps in managing to budget time and length of the brief.
When it is done in legal studies purposes there is no use spending time on
stylistic niceties that don't accomplish of the three goals mentioned above,
but, when used in Legal English class, spending double time, due to
language use, becomes an aim. There are plenty of web resources of
briefings; we start with simple ones in class, working in pairs – one make
the research the other organize the main stages of the briefing – than the
same techniques is applied on indigene jurisprudence, thus the lawyer to
be learn to speak about his or her legal system in English. Guiding
questions that a teacher may ask in a class when analyzing a case are:
Who are the parties?
What are the facts of the case?
Which court is this?
How did this case get to this court?
How did the lower court rule?
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