Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students, Sixth Edition

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Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students, Sixth Edition, helps international students understand and approach legal research and writing assignments the way law students and attorneys do in the United States. With a comparative perspective enhanced by her training in a bi-jural legal system and experience teaching students from all over the world, Professor Nedzel introduces the unique and important features of the American legal system and American law schools. 

Using clear instruction, examples, visual aids, and practice exercises, she teaches practical lawyering skills with sensitivity to the challenges of ESL students. The book begins with the immediate survival skills that students need to be successful, such as case briefing, creating a course outline, reading citations, and writing answers to hypothetical exam questions. The following chapters cover all the key skills, with 6 chapters on reasoning and writing and 5 on research. Citation format information is integrated into the text, allowing instructors to discuss requirements in context.

New to the Sixth Edition:

• New Chapter 12 on using generative AI in legal research and writing, discussing how AI is changing the study and practice of law.
• Updated examples and exercises throughout the text.

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Streamlined presentation that makes the material easily accessible.
• Helpful examples and exercises throughout the book that help students learn to apply skills.
• Exercises in each chapter that can be done online as well as in the law library, with either commercial or non-commercial websites.
• Well-designed examples for international students that are limited to very simple concepts in criminal law, tort, and contracts until the later chapters when subjects more of interest to LL.M. candidates are used, such as trademark and international business transactions.
• Flowcharts and checklists for visual learners.
• Three chapters on objective legal writing, including exam writing and office memo, rewriting, and scholarly articles.
• Chapter on contract drafting, oriented towards international business transactions.