ARTICLE TEXT

Every year, thousands of students in Bangladesh begin a law degree with no idea how to study it. They have been told to read cases but not how. They are asked to write essays but never shown what a good one looks like. They face problem questions that seem to have no right answer. Nicholas McBride’s Letters to a Law Student was written for exactly these students, and it is the book this reviewer most often recommends to those beginning the University of London LLB.

The Format

The book is written as correspondence. A law teacher at Cambridge writes to a student, first when she is deciding whether to study law, then as she prepares for university, then through her degree, and finally as she considers what to do afterwards. The device sounds contrived but works well. It allows McBride to answer the questions students actually ask, in the order they ask them, in a tone that is direct, warm and occasionally blunt.

The fifth edition contains twenty-eight letters in five parts. Part One deals with thinking about studying law: what law is, whether it is the right choice, and the myths that surround it. Part Two covers preparation, including how to approach interviews and what to read before term begins. Part Three, the longest, is about studying law itself: reading cases and statutes, using textbooks and articles, taking notes, getting the most from lectures and tutorials, and coping with the volume of material. Part Four is on writing like a lawyer, with separate letters on essays, problem questions and exams. Part Five looks beyond the degree. A mini-dictionary of legal terms closes the book.

What Makes It Good

Three things set the book apart from the many study guides on the market. The first is that McBride is a working legal academic with an unusual gift for explanation, known for his writing on tort law. When he explains how to read a case, he is describing what he actually does, and he shows the process with real examples.

The second is its honesty about what examiners want. The letters on essays and problem questions are the best short treatment of legal writing available. McBride explains why a first-class essay takes a position and defends it, why description is not analysis, and why a problem answer that identifies every issue but reaches no conclusion will disappoint. He gives model structures without turning them into formulas.

The third is its attention to the student’s state of mind. There are letters on feeling lost, on the temptation to memorise instead of understand, and on the difference between working hard and working well. Students who feel they are the only ones struggling will find that McBride has anticipated them.

Limits for Bangladeshi Readers

The book is written for students in England, and some of its advice is local: the discussion of admissions interviews, the reading lists and the assumptions about tutorials do not all transfer. University of London external students, who study without the weekly small-group teaching that McBride takes for granted, will need to adapt his advice on how to use tutors. And the book says nothing about the particular challenge of studying English law from Dhaka, where the cases feel distant and the examinations are marked in London.

These are limits, not faults. The core of the book, on how to read, think and write, applies anywhere the common law is taught. Bangladeshi students who follow McBride’s advice on problem questions will find that it matches, almost exactly, what University of London examiners’ reports say year after year.

Verdict

Buy it before the first term, read the letters on reading cases and writing problem answers twice, and return to the letter on exams a month before the papers. For teachers, it is a useful check on our own advice: if what we tell students differs from McBride, we should be able to say why. A sixth edition is reported to be forthcoming; until then, the fifth will serve. Few books repay their cost so quickly.

Sources

1. Wildy & Sons, Letters to a Law Student, 5th edition (Pearson 2022): https://www.wildy.com/isbn/9781292375304/letters-to-a-law-student-a-guide-to-studying-law-at-university-5th-ed-paperback-pearson-education-ltd
2. University College, Oxford, reading recommendation: Letters to a Law Student: https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/book/letters-law-student/
3. Open Library, Letters to a Law Student (first edition record): https://openlibrary.org/books/OL17881428M/Letters_to_a_law_student