What does it mean to study law?

In any case, one thing is certain: Law is much more than the supposed memorization of laws. In fact, you will not have to memorize a single law, but always have your law books to hand – even for the exams. During your studies (and later in your job) it will be more important to know how you move within the law, what could be regulated where and how you can apply the relevant norms. Because your task will now be to solve exciting, curious, tricky, morally questionable, violent or in their constellation unprecedented cases and problems with the help of the law. LNAT tutor can explain you all these matters and solutions to these at LawMind. However, we explain to you how this works and what else law studies mean for you.

What the law studies in all about?

“Are you studying law? But isn’t that totally dry?” – This question may sound you like quite familiar at the beginning of your course. And at the latest at your first flat share party, you will be confronted with the prejudice that lawyers only have to learn the law by heart. Not even close.

But what is law school about then? If you realize what the duties of a lawyer actually do and what the individual areas of law are all about, then you will already recognize in the first few weeks of your studies: Law has a strong relationship to real life and regulates the structure of our everyday togetherness. As a young lawyer, you face the responsibility of finding solutions to social conflicts with the help of the law. So you will learn to read the law correctly and – to put it legally – to interpret it for the specific case. 

That can sometimes be quite tricky when you consider that most of the laws were passed over a century ago and thus come from a time that did not have an eye on today’s developments – and could not keep an eye on them. There was no internet 100 years back, no smartphones, no Facebook, no legal tenancy disputes over Airbnb, no passenger rights delays or illegal car races in the city center. But the law somehow has to cope with all these changes, since a new law cannot simply be passed for every new case. The laws are formulated in such an abstract way that they can, to a certain extent, keep pace with social change. However, you only become aware of this peculiarity of the law if you deal with it. 

A pictorial example

The hysterical ex-girlfriend kicks her ex-girlfriend in the stomach with the brand new 12 cm stilettos. This raises the question of whether the stilettos could possibly be a dangerous tool or even a weapon, after all, the heels can also be razor sharp.

When the Penal Code was decreed in 1872, the question of whether a 12 cm stiletto with a stiletto heel could represent a “weapon or a dangerous tool” was hardly considered.

And that brings us to the “everyday legal life”. In order to answer the stiletto question, you first have to know what is generally understood by a dangerous tool. You have to define the term in general, i.e. explain its exact purpose. What does “dangerous” mean? What is legally understood by a “tool”? How is such a tool different from a weapon?

With a few exceptions, such definitions are unfortunately not in the law. You will then have to know it or learn to derive it for you. Since you will not find a clear answer to whether a stiletto is to be qualified as a dangerous tool or not, the characteristics from the definition must be compared with those of a stiletto.

Case studies and expert opinion about the studies

You will research what has already been decided by the jurisprudence in similar cases (boots, shoes) and what renowned professors think on the subject. You then present your thoughts on this in the so-called expert opinion style, which we will explain to you separately. 

You may already see that the solution of the cases requires a corresponding system that needs to be learned. During the course you will learn not only the technique of case processing, but also the work on the facts, the correct handling of the case question to be dealt with, how to find the right laws and – very importantly – the just mentioned report style, which will guide you through the entire course of studies will accompany you to the state examination. Studying law is about developing a feeling for problem areas and solving them with the help of the “legal tools” you have learned. How this works and what else is important in law studies, we explain to you in our free law guide.

SUCCESSFULLY DURING YOUR 1ST SEMESTER WITH Lawmind

Lawmind is the comprehensive digital learning platform for law studies. Here you will find all of the knowledge relevant to the exam in an easily understandable video format – accessible anywhere and anytime, individually adapted to you and your pace of learning.

For your first semester you will receive from us all the learning content from civil law, criminal law and public law that you need for a successful 1st semester – free of charge for your 1st semester.

Practice cases

So that you can also optimally apply the theory you have learned in the exam, you will find numerous exercise cases with which you can try out what you have learned in the exam practice.

For each exercise you will find a detailed discussion as an explanatory video and a formulated sample solution so that you can check your results and have them explain to you what you should do even better next time.

Learning planning

You can simply tell LawMind how many hours you would like to study per week or by when you have to have completed your learning objective (e.g. the date of an exam) and LawMind will create an individual learning plan for you.

LawMind takes over your entire learning planning and always shows you your learning progress with regard to your defined goal and guides you through your course.