UK Law Assignments: A Complete Guide for LLB Students

An LLB (Bachelor of Laws) is assessed through several distinct assignment types, and each rewards a slightly different skill. Knowing which one you are facing is the first step, because it decides how you structure your answer.

• Legal essays — you argue a position on a legal question, using cases, legislation and academic commentary as evidence.
• Legal problem questions — you are given a fictional factual scenario and asked to advise a party by applying the law to the facts.
• Case notes and case comments — you summarise and critically evaluate a single judgment: its facts, reasoning, ratio and significance.
• Statutory-interpretation tasks — you work out what a provision means using the rules and approaches to interpretation.
• Legal research assignments — you locate the relevant primary and secondary authorities on a point and present your findings.
• Dissertations, moots and reflective work — longer or skills-based assessments in later years.

This guide is general educational information about UK law study, not legal advice. If you need help understanding what UK markers expect from a specific brief, our law assignment help page explains the criteria in plain terms.

Marks are lost before a word is written when students answer the question they expected instead of the one on the page. Start by reading the command word, because it tells you what kind of thinking is required. "Describe" or "outline" asks mainly for explanation; "critically evaluate", "analyse", "discuss" and "to what extent" demand judgement, weighing competing arguments and reaching a reasoned view.

Next, identify the legal issue. In an essay, the issue is the debate the question raises; in a problem question, there are usually several issues buried in the facts, each signalled by a legally significant detail. Underline the parties, the events and the words that trigger a legal rule, then turn each into a precise legal question. A structured way to start is to break the brief down into exactly what is being asked before you plan your answer.

Legal authority comes in two layers. Primary sources are the law itself — legislation (Acts of Parliament and statutory instruments) and case law (judgments). Secondary sources — textbooks, journal articles and practitioner works such as Halsbury's Laws — explain and analyse the primary law but are not themselves binding. Good assignments are built on primary authority, with secondary sources used to support argument and critique.

Read the full statute or judgment rather than relying on a summary. Free, authoritative primary sources include legislation.gov.uk for statutes, BAILII and the National Archives' Find Case Law service for judgments, and the UK Supreme Court website for the most senior decisions. For where to search and how to evaluate what you find, your own university law library guides and the Oxford Law Faculty's OSCOLA resources are reliable starting points.

To use a case properly you must separate its ratio decidendi — the binding legal reason for the decision — from obiter dicta, the judges' remarks "by the way" that are only persuasive. A large part of legal skill is stating the ratio of a case accurately and then arguing how far it applies to your facts.

Weigh authorities rather than listing them. Under the doctrine of binding precedent (stare decisis), a case's force depends on the court hierarchy: decisions of the UK Supreme Court (which replaced the House of Lords as the final court in 2009) bind the courts below, while first-instance decisions carry less weight. Note whether a case is binding or merely persuasive, whether it has been distinguished, followed or overruled, and how later courts have treated it. Reading widely makes this manageable — our guide to the hardest courses in law school covers the study habits that help.

Problem questions reward a disciplined method. IRAC stands for Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion; the closely related ILAC uses Issue, Law, Application, Conclusion. Either way you work through the scenario issue by issue: identify the legal issue, state the relevant rule and authority, apply the law to the specific facts, and reach a reasoned conclusion. The application step is where marks are won — never simply write everything you know about a topic.

A short fictional example. Sam buys a sealed soft drink from a café. The bottle was sealed by the manufacturer, so Sam cannot inspect the contents. After drinking some, Sam discovers a foreign object inside and becomes unwell. Sam has no contract with the manufacturer. Advise Sam.

• Issue — does the manufacturer owe Sam a duty of care in negligence, despite there being no contract between them?
• Rule / law — a manufacturer can owe a duty of care to the ultimate consumer of a product supplied in a form that leaves no reasonable possibility of intermediate examination.
• Authority — this principle derives from Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562, where Lord Atkin set out the "neighbour" principle.
• Application — Sam is the ultimate consumer of a sealed product with no chance of inspection, so the facts fall squarely within that principle.
• Conclusion — a court could find that a duty of care is owed; whether Sam succeeds still depends on proving breach, causation and damage on the full facts and evidence.

This example is illustrative only. Never reproduce or submit a live assessed question, and keep your own analysis your own work.

An essay argues a position rather than applying law to facts. Set out a clear thesis in your introduction, then build each paragraph around a single point supported by an authority you explain, apply and critically evaluate — not merely describe. Use a consistent paragraph shape (point, authority, analysis, link) so each paragraph advances the argument, and deal honestly with counterarguments and competing academic views before responding to them. Distinguishing critical legal analysis from description is the single biggest driver of higher marks.

Support your argument with both primary authorities (cases and statutes) and secondary authorities (academic commentary), and make clear which is which. For the full method, see our step-by-step guide to writing a UK law essay, and for a worked example in a demanding module, Mastering Equity and Trusts shows how to apply these principles to trusts problems and essays.

Law schools take authorship seriously, and legal study depends on being able to trust that an argument is your own. Reference every case, statute and secondary source you rely on, quote accurately and sparingly, and make clear where an idea comes from someone else. Paraphrasing still needs a citation. Keep a note of your sources as you research so your OSCOLA footnotes are complete and honest.

Using study tools responsibly means using them to understand and review your own work, not to produce it. Our academic integrity page explains where that line sits and how to stay on the right side of it. The research, analysis and writing in your assignment should always remain your own.

Most lost marks come from a handful of avoidable errors:

• Describing the law instead of applying it to the specific facts or question.
• Missing issues in a problem question, or answering an essay question you were not asked.
• Citing cases without stating the ratio or explaining why the authority fits.
• Confusing ratio and obiter, or treating a persuasive decision as binding.
• Relying on textbook summaries rather than reading the statute or judgment itself.
• Weak or inconsistent OSCOLA referencing, which loses easy marks.
• No critical analysis — presenting information without evaluation, counterargument or judgement.