Legal Writing
Cambodian ILSA Chapter 2023
Presented by: Ms. LEE Oukha
018 intake
Prepared by: ILSA Member Alumnus
Contents
1. Legal Writing 1: IRAC/CREAC
2. Legal Writing 2: Logic and Critical Thinking
What is a legal memorial?
• Legal Memorials
• Write to persuade convince, not describe
• Not pro and cons: be on your client’s side and always
• Not an opinion essays: no “I think/believe”
• Every sentence must have a citation
• Clear/Precise; Simple/Plain; Direct to the point
• Most of the times, explain why
• Professional legal writing
Content of ICA Memorial
• Cover page
• Table of contents
• Index of Abbreviations
• Index of Authorities – sources cited in the legal memorial
• Index of Cases
• Index of Arbitral Awards
• Statutes, Rules, and Treaties
• Statement of Arguments
• Jurisdiction Arguments – how does the Arbitral Tribunal has jurisdiction over the case?
• Merits Arguments – why should the Arbitral Tribunal rule in your client’s favor?
• Prayer for Relief – what do you want from the Arbitral Tribunal?
Content of ICRC Memorial
• Cover page
• Preliminary matter – Jurisdiction, Admissibility of Evidence, Nature of
Conflict
• Pleadings – why should the Court rule in your client’s favor?
• Prayer for Relief – what do you want from the Court?
Content of JESSUP Memorial
• Cover page
• Table of contents
• Index of Authorities – sources cited in the legal memorial
• Statement of Jurisdiction – the Court has jurisdiction
• Statement of Facts – what are the important facts?
• Questions Presented – what are the questions before the Court?
• Summary of Pleadings
• Pleadings – why should the Court rule in your client’s favor?
• Prayer for Relief – what do you want from the Court?
Statement of Facts 1/3
• You are required to write a summary of facts that contain:
• Important and relevant details to the legal questions or arguments
• This part is to give the readers a quick overview of the facts of the case in a
way that makes your side sounds right and the opponent seems wrong.
• BUT this part must only contain FACTS. DO NOT insert you arguments
Statement of Facts 2/3
• Facts from
• the Problem (what is it?)
• Corrections and Clarifications
• DO NOT CREATE OR INFER FACTS:
• You can infer only when the it leads to only one single conclusion.
• Missing facts are
• Factors of disputes
• intentional
• Read carefully. Every word is there for a reason.
Statement of Facts 3/3
• Chronologically or topically
• Word limit
• Omissions of important facts are strictly prohibited. (i.e. facts that do
not favor your arguments)
• Paraphrase: do not simply repeat the Compromis.
• Go with story-telling: tie the facts together.
Pleadings 1/2
• Structure:
• Main legal issue and sub legal issues. In each sub legal issues…
• You should have as many arguments as you could find for each issues (main or
sub)
• Procedural argument first before substantive argument
• Put the best first and put the rest as alternative arguments depend the
persuasiveness level of each argument.
• Effective use of numbering. Easy to understand
Pleadings 2/2
• Legal Analysis: objectively or persuasively
• Objective: unbiased and seeks to educate the readers about the legal issues
or predict out-come of an issue (NOT USED HERE)
• Persuasive: biased and seeks to persuade the reader (the court) about your
client’s position. (USED HERE)
How to structure an argument?
2. Legal Writing 1: IRAC/CREAC
• What is IRAC?
• a methodology for legal analysis
• What does each letter stand for?
• Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion
• Here we use CREAC: which stands for?
• Conclusion
• Rules
• Explanation
• Application of Law
• Conclusion
Conclusion
• The heading of your argument
• Grammatically Complete AND Argumentative sentence
• Not just a mere statement of fact or a mere statement of law
(Conclusion is sort of the combination of the two)
• Precise language
• If possible, briefly state the reasoning that supports your conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion
Rule(s)
• Rule(s) governing the issue.
• Is not a mere copy and paste of the rules
• Paraphrase the rules to be straight forward and directly apply to your facts
• If the exact words of the rules is important, use quote (not too long) (40+
word use block citation)
• General rules ->…narrow... -> Specific rules (All rules that are needed to
support your conclusion
• Ex: Define some components or key words in the general rule
• Ex: Sub-rules/Connecting rules
• If there are exceptions, mention them. Why they are applicable (or not)?
Explanation
• Explain the Rules (R): how courts and other authoritative sources apply
or interpret the rules.
• Case-based: how prior courts have resolved the same or similar
issues
• Give a discussion of critical facts, the court’s findings and
reasoning (explicit or implicit by using facts).
• Rule-based: Law or Scholar: commentaries, books, law reviews etc.
• Do not just throw cases and books in the section. Only relevant to your
case and use reflections.
• Sometimes is optional (rare): only when the rule is very clear
• Add some cases if possible to show your research skills.
Application
• Application: Facts
• R, E an A should address parallel points and share the same
theme; A should follow logically from R and E sections.
• If you use case-based in E: state facts-to-facts comparison or
distinction between your case and the relevant case cited in
E
• The same as the one who is right
• Different from the one who is wrong.
Conclusion
• At the end of each argument
• Similar to the first conclusion
• Brief
• Do not introduce any new ideas
Type of Legal Argument
• Rule establishing argument
• Rule compliance/non-compliance argument
• Counter argument
• Alternative argument
• Policy arguments, which focuses on the equitable side of justice, may work in extreme
circumstances where there is a strong debate regarding an issue in international law.
• Policy arguments generally do not have a strong citation (legal authority) => success
rate is extremely low.
• Should be used as a last resort.
3. Legal Writing 2 (Logic and Critical Thinking)
• Keep these points in mind when you write your arguments:
• Clarity
• Precision
• Accuracy
• Relevance
• Consistency
• Logic correctness
• Completeness
• Fairness
Clarity
Understandable, the meaning can be grasped
• Could you elaborate further?
• Could you give me an example?
• Could you illustrate what you mean?
Precision
Exact to the necessary level of detail
• Could you be more specific?
• Could you give me more details?
• Could you be more exact?
Ex. State A invaded State B several times.
From 2002 to 2005, State A invaded States in 5 times.
Accuracy
Free from errors or distortions, true
• How could we check on that?
• How could we find out if that is true?
• How could we verify or test that?
Relevance
Relating to the matter at hand
• How does that relate to the problem?
• How does that bear on the question?
• How does that help us with the issue?
Consistency
Logical Consistency
involves saying or believing consistent things (i.e., things that can both
or all be true) about a particular matter.
Practical Consistency
involves saying one thing and doing that one thing.
Logical
The parts make sense together, no contradictions
• Does all this make sense together?
• Does your first paragraph fit in with your last?
• Does what you say follow from the evidence?
Completeness
The completed thoughts and information are revealed.
• Do we have a complete information about the matter?
• Do we have careful and complete thinking?
Fairness
• Justifiable, not self-serving or one-sided
• Do I have any vested interest in this issue?
• Am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others?
Other advice
• Analyze one issue at a time
• Conclude only on issue analyzed
• Don’t omit law or facts that are not in favor of your client
• A good writing requires a lot of editing, re-writing and researches: the final product may
look a lot different from your first draft
• Quotation of short and strong phrases are permitted
• Only use italics for Latin phrases.
• Be mindful of the word limits. Penalties
