Yes, you got it. Land Law.
Next year, my Law Firm has told me, one of my electives must be Commercial Property. Thus to make life easier both next year and during my training contract (when I will undoubtedly be stuck on a property seat for six months) it is in my interest to do well in Land Law.
This has inspired me to consider Land Law in great detail and I have now solved the conundrum of why law students generally do not like Land Law. Why do students find it such a chore to get through it? I have heard the comment "Land Law is dull but when it evolves into Property Law, it gets better... " Why do you think that is?
I know the answer. It came to me today.
Land law isn't boring as such. It's also not hugely complicated. When you get through all the unnecessary complexities of language and monotony of lecturers the actual principles are pretty straightforward.
But there seems to be some kind of unwritten rule that by definition, land law must be made boring. Law students thus dislike Land Law not because it IS boring and complicated, but because Land Law lecturers are on a secret mission to MAKE it boring and complicated.
As an example, the seminar I had today had an interesting starting point - answering people's property-related questions - but the will to live was sucked out of the whole group by the approximately 190-year-old tutor who was unable to answer a single question posed to him without launching into a five-minute tangent about something that "isn't really relevant yet and you'll learn about this later but i'll just quickly explain..." At the end of his answer we were still none the wiser about whether he had actually understood the question and how the answer was supposed to relate to the question exactly.
The course outline text we have been given for Land Law is another example. It is written in English so complex and old-fashioned that Chaucer would be proud. The textbooks are boring and drab, and again written in a most complex manner. Why, oh why can the authors not follow the principles of other course leaders whose texts are in fact pretty straightforward and written in plain English? No. Land Law lecturers have a death wish. Not for themselves but a sadistic one for their poor students. Thus it will take you two hours to do work for Land Law that would take an hour to do for any other subject. This is because the first hour is spent translating the text you're working on to English, then the next hour actually doing the work. Going to lectures and tutorials may well be futile as it can confuse you more than help you, in which case you might not bother and just teach yourself. It is possible.
Land Law lecturers are nothing but sadistic. They are inherently boring and are out to get you, to make things as complicated as possible. I don't exactly know WHY yet, but at least I have solved the problem of why students hate Land Law.
No need to thank me. Just live happily in the knowledge that Land Law is not difficult, as long as allow more time for it than your other subjects. Problem solved.
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4 comments:
I would assume your land law material is pretty similar to a section in 1st year property classes dealing with future interests, rule against perpetuities, rule in shelley's case, statute of uses, etc, etc. It was definitely a miserable few weeks. I feel your pain.
No, believe me, Land Law is not sadistic; sadistic is our bloody European Government which is refusing to accept European Law in a figure of contituition without votings of every national society like Germans, French or Poles. Pitty and shame!
No doubt, none of the lawyers would like to agree to accept a change in the United European Perception of the Law, because it would mean a change in qualifications which they could not afford due to the ammount of time and money they have devoted to become lawyers from their own countries (England, Germany) on the first place.
Our future lies in European Union and United Law of Europeans!
Adverse possession; easements; restrictive covenants; land registration; equitable interests... Lovely stuff. If you need any help then let me know; I revised land law so hard that it's stuck in my long term memory...
I should be glad I'm doing contract then, S!
Keep at it. Great post!
Miss H
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