Statutory Law

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct45% picked this

   skill in locating references to court decisions on an issue involving a particular

   Why this is right

   Because this answer is talking about finding previous cases to cite as precedent, this answer sounds more like the status quo, in which the education is focused mainly on what cases can tell us. But more importantly, we just don't have a line reference saying that an education in statutory law would speed up our ability to locate references.

   Skill tested: Application · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   45%
2. B

   Conforms3% picked this

   an understanding of the ways in which certain underlying purposes are served by an interrelated

   This matches the sense of "you can apply your understanding of the internal logic and coherence of this body of statutes to some other field you encounter in your study or practice". It reinforces language from some of the author's promises: - helps us judge whether a statute is applicable to a client, in tricky circumstances - helps us with synthesis (understand interrelations among laws) - helps us see how all laws within a legal system form a coherent whole - helps us apply / transfer this understanding to other statutory legal systems.

   3%
3. C

   Conforms17% picked this

   a knowledge of how maritime statutes

   This doesn't match any of the author's explicit promises, but the first sentence of the passage implies that if statutory law were studied more by law schools, students would develop ... a proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statutes. There is also the chance that such an education would zoom in on maritime law, as an exemplar of a statutory body of laws (3rd paragraph): the study of all the statutes of a legal system in a certain small area of the law would enable the student to see how these laws form a coherent whole. I don't love this answer, because specific knowledge about maritime statutes certainly doesn't seem like a given. The author is clearly saying that a student who receives a better statutory law education would have the capacity to understand how maritime statues are formulated, but the author isn't necessarily expecting maritime law to be covered. However, the question stem isn't saying the author expects this result, just this kind of result.

   17%
4. D

   Conforms7% picked this

   familiarity with the specific wordings of a group of laws applying to businesses in a

   The author expects that students subjected to more rigorous statutory law education would become more masterful about interpreting the language of statutes (end of P2), which is why "familiarity with specific wordings" seems like the type of educational result the author would expect. At the beginning of the final paragraph, the author anticipates an objection -- "Won't it be dumb that students are just learning the statues of a given region, given that statutes vary from region to region?" The author concedes, "Yes, statutes vary and they would only be getting knowledge of a particular region's statutory law. While the knowledge of that law wouldn't transfer to another region, the skills of how to master a new set of statutes would transfer." In other words, this answer represents an educational result of studying statutory law, even though the result the author really cares about is "how to master any set of statutes", rather than "familiarity with a particular region's". But this still conforms to the author's expectations. The question stem isn't asking for which educational results the author most highly values. Just which ones are expected.

   7%
5. E

   Conforms27% picked this

   an appreciation of the problems of wording involved in drafting

   This is a blend of (C) and (D). You have the "certain small area of the law" (maritime, environmental, antiterrorism) as well as better understanding / proficiency / appreciation / knowledge of the intricacies of that body of law (how it was formulated or drafted / what specific wordings or problems with wordings arise). Ultimately, the 4 conforming answers are just a fuzzy way of expressing, "Look this person is knowledgeable of statutes, sensitive to nuances, able to apply that knowledge to other bodies of statutes". The wrong answer is focused on, "Look this person is better able to research court cases."

   27%