Using The ILAC Method For Law Assignments

Understanding the exact legal questions.

Discovered the governing legal principles.

Applying the principles logically.

Come to an adjusted outcome.

What is ILAC’s first step? Starting with the “Issue”. Here, you need to discover the legal issue in the provided scenario. Do not skip this part, or else your answer will become unclear.

This is how you need to identify the issue:

Your issue statement will be written as a question. For example, “Is William liable for negligence for the injuries caused to Joseph?”

You can see that in this sentence, the analysis is focused. Remember to avoid any vague statements, like “This scenario includes negligence”; rather, you need to narrow it down and be particular about the legal conflict that you are presenting in your paper.

The next step is law. After you have discovered the issue, you need to state the relevant rules, statutes, or legal principles related to it. Do not list too much of too many laws or too few; that will make your paper confusing.

When you are following this stage, in the ILAC method in law, you have to include:

You should not repeat the whole law textbook. Only mention the law that is directly relevant to answer the issue.

For example, you can write “To establish negligence, the plaintiff must give evidence to the duty of care, breach, causation, and damage as established in Dongoglue vs Stevenson.”

You need to keep this part concise, accurate, and precise.

The third part is the application section, where you can let your real legal reasoning shine. You can say this is a do-or-die situation, as either you are going to gain great marks through this section or lose if it is poorly written.

In the ILAC writing method, you need to apply each of the elements of the law directly to the given facts. This means that it does not require you to restate the facts, but to briefly explain how they meet or do not meet each legal requirement.

This is how to write an effective application section.

For example, if you are applying the method regarding the break of duty, then you need to write like this:

“William failed to exercise proper care because he had ignored the wet floor warning. A sensible person in this place would have avoided the area or taken safeguards.”

See how this single line is proving your claim? The key is to avoid vague words like “William was negligent”. Rather than using these kinds of generalisations and vague sentences, you should focus on showing how the facts have satisfied the law.

After going through the previous three stages, the last step is to write a clear and justified conclusion. Your conclusion does not need to be very long; you can just keep it within 1-2 lines if needed. All you have to do is summarise the outcome based on your analysis.

For example, “Hence, William is likely to be found liable for negligence.”

You can see in this one sentence that you are stating the conclusion. When you put words like “Hence” or “Therefore” after the first three stages, you logically present the overall conclusion in an organised way that links it all to the issue, law, and application. Remember that there is no need to introduce any new arguments or loss here.

Do not mix the law and the applications section. Always keep these two sections separate. The law section is for stating the principle, whereas the application section is to describe how the facts fulfil those principles.

Avoid using long and unfocused issue statements in the ILAC writing method. Instead, keep the issues simple and frame them as questions.

One more mistake that you often make is overloading the law section. Do not include every case you remember; only choose the ones relevant to the specific scenario.

Use Headings and Subheadings: It will make your answer easy to read. Your examiners will also have an easy time confirming that you have understood the structure.

Stick To Only One Idea For Each Paragraph: There is no need to overload information. Your legal paper should not be confusing but clear and logical.

Use Signposting Words Throughout Your ILAC Writing Method: You can use words like Therefore, However, Because, or Hence to draw a conclusion and show the logical progression that ties back the whole scenario.

Review Your Past Examples: Sometimes, we get stuck and do not know how to work on it, so reviewing past examples will help you clear a similar case.