FE1 Reading Materials Checklist: Do I Have Enough Materials!!???

IT Loser

Okay, suppose one is about to do their FE's in March, April...and these are the books they have, will they be enough??


Criminal Law

Charleton/McDermott/Bulger, Crim Law, latest edition. College notes from late 90's

Contract
McDermott, Contract, latest edition.
Bob + Blanaid Clarke, Contract, Case Law and Materials {both, late 90's}
2002 Griffith/Portobello notes

European
Cases and Materials, {the big one with the European cover:D} latest edition
Law Society of Ireland, "European Law" {Cahill et al} 2006
Arnull, late 1990's

Land Law
Andrew Lyalls big blue book.

Constitutional Law
Caseys book, late 90's. {ps is his 2000 edn worth getting, or should one splash the €200 on the latest version of Kellys book??}

Tort
2002 notes from Griffith or somewhere
McMahon and Binchy book {latest edition}
Old casebook from late 1990's

Company
Fordes book, late 1990's


Equity
Delaneys book, late 1990's
Sundry notes from Grittith.Portobello, 2002
College notes, late 1990's

Other Materials
Sundry collection of past papers and solutions, by the Law Society themselves

Should more money be spent, or will what is listed suffice???

Rhonda9000

With respect, how long is a piece of string?

Some people need loads of background reading materials, others need the bare minimum to be successful. Do whatever works for you. The most important thing is knowing the core principles - wherever you learn these from is irrelevant. One thing I would be cautious of however is material 10 years old etc. - ineveitably you will not have and may not be aware of changes, amendments, recent precedents etc. and may be more likely to mis-state outdated law.

P.S Good luck
P.P.S If you are doing all 8, fair dues!

IT Loser

Rhonda9000 wrote: »

With respect, how long is a piece of string?

Some people need loads of background reading materials, others need the bare minimum to be successful. Do whatever works for you. The most important thing is knowing the core principles - wherever you learn these from is irrelevant. One thing I would be cautious of however is material 10 years old etc. - ineveitably you will not have and may not be aware of changes, amendments, recent precedents etc. and may be more likely to mis-state outdated law.

P.S Good luck
P.P.S If you are doing all 8, fair dues!

Hi, thanks for reply. Personally I feel that it would be better for me to rely on what I have, as I would probably waste more FINDING the law at this stage than would be worth it.

As a general rule, all students, irrespective of how they learn, need a basic list of materials to work off. I just wanted to see if I had enuff of a solid foundation. New books are really really expensive.

Diddlina

Get your hands on some Griffith manuals they have everything you need. I thought I'd need to get all the texts but the manuals will be more than suffient. You just need the basics of all the subjects... but that still amounts to a lot of knowledge... you've only a limited amount of time to write stuff in exam so getting detail down doesnt happen.

rorybbellows

If you're going the text book route, here's what I'd try and get:
Equity: Delaney (has the lot)
Contract:Bob Clarke's textbook (not the casebook) It's set out very well and not too long.
Criminal:Paul McDermott's book (is excellent,)
E.U.:Craig and DeBurca (Textbook only, it's massive enough)
Land: Lyall's book (fully comprehensive, particularly top notch for succession. However, bear in mind there is nothing about the new land Bill in it)
Constitutional: Casey's book (should be enough)
Tort: McMahon & Binchy (the bible, get hold of this even if you're not getting any other textbooks.)
Company: Courtney's company law, (it's really useful to tie everything together)

I know a lot of people swear by the manuals alone, but I found it handy to have some textbooks. In saying that, obviously don't trawl through the whole things,but for some topics I found them useful, either to get a broader idea of the area or to expand out certain things which were only glossed over in the notes/manuals. Rhonda 9000 is right though, it is down to whatever works for you.

superficies

Generally I think that manuals compbined with journal articles and textbooks are really the only way to go - the manuals never have enough to score really highly with more. I think your list of materials is pretty good but for criminal I'd go with Hanly (more recent; less practitioner focused), mcdermott for contract is a bit old as well but is really good - the manuals you have are way too old though. try to get your hands on something more recent like Clarke or Enright just to update your mcdermott (although enright is pretty basic in some respects); same is true for property with the new bill Lyall is just too out of date - supplement it with LRC consultation papers, Mee's articles on the Bill and deLondras new property book; I wouldnt bother splahing out on new kelly - casey with articles should be enough; for torts Healy is very good and recent and so is that new journal on tort (anyone know what it's called? - think it's a blueish cover); Courtney is the only job for company and same with craig and de burca for EU (there's a new edition)

i think that basically you sjould prob update your materials throygh library loans etc - have you a password for westlaw? you should be able to do pretty good updating from journals through that. Or try to get reading lists from people in college now?
Good luck with them! Are you doing all 8?

dK1NG

Annual Review of Irish Law ftw!

IT Loser

dK1NG wrote: »

Annual Review of Irish Law ftw!

?? Where do I get this??

I was in Easons there the other day and I got Cahills Law Soc Manual on EU law- seeing as Cahill sets the paper I figured it might be worth a read.:D if you catch my drfit.

Also...€70 for a glorified handbook on Constl Law, €120 for Caseys new book, and €212~ for JM Kellys latest offering, hardback of course.

Too much!! Plus Kellys book is 1200 pages. :eek:

superficies

Library - Annual Review is very expensive
Some colleges never check ID in library - especially Griffith. I'd just wander in with a few photocopying cards and copy whatever I need
Also healy, enright and delondras all under 100euro for substantial books (over 400 pages)

IT Loser

superficies wrote: »

Library - Annual Review is very expensive
Some colleges never check ID in library - especially Griffith. I'd just wander in with a few photocopying cards and copy whatever I need
Also healy, enright and delondras all under 100euro for substantial books (over 400 pages)

Yeah thanks for that, do you know anywhere I can just sit down and study in Dublin, I used to be in UCD but not anymore. They have a good library, any way I could get in there. Thanks.

tombren

you're gonna have way too much info if u study all those books, u probably wont get thru them all and even if u do you're gonna have aload of irrelevent material,
even if u use the griffith manuals you're still gonna have to condense them down further to your own notes
you should really try and get griffith notes or at least get yourself the nutshell books instead of the big textbooks, there only about 20euro each

you could study in griffith library, they dont check id's, there's usually other fe-1 er's there aswell, always good to talk to others about the subject, exams etc

IT Loser

tombren wrote: »

you're gonna have way too much info if u study all those books, u probably wont get thru them all and even if u do you're gonna have aload of irrelevent material,
even if u use the griffith manuals you're still gonna have to condense them down further to your own notes
you should really try and get griffith notes or at least get yourself the nutshell books instead of the big textbooks, there only about 20euro each

you could study in griffith library, they dont check id's, there's usually other fe-1 er's there aswell, always good to talk to others about the subject, exams etc

it would be embarassing to get caught!!!!!!:p:p

thanks for the tips...ps isn't griffith up near DCU?...kinda outta my way thanks again:cool:

tombren

u wouldnt get caught, coz they dont check!

griffith's the other side of the city, it's on south circular road, beside the national stadium, or near haroldls cross if u know that

Rhonda9000

IT Loser wrote: »

Hi, thanks for reply. Personally I feel that it would be better for me to rely on what I have, as I would probably waste more FINDING the law at this stage than would be worth it.

As a general rule, all students, irrespective of how they learn, need a basic list of materials to work off. I just wanted to see if I had enuff of a solid foundation. New books are really really expensive.

Agree with everything above. Modes of learning vary between everyone as I'm sure you are aware. Personally I consult personal notes first, then books / articles to verify correctness, and then exam Q practice to solidify and refine it all. I would still be careful of out of date materials as quantity is meaningless if you are working off of the wrong law. Recent nutshells, griff manuals etc. are probably the most efficient and cost effective way to go alright ... particularly if you have the principles bedded down from previous years and just need to get up to speed again. All the best!