Online Book Sale and Book Reviews! ? NUS Law Orientation 2011

ATTENTION TO ALL FRESHIES WHO WANT TO BUY BOOKS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD!!!!

If you feel lost and confused about the different textbooks and casebooks available to you, WE UNDERSTAND because we have been there before!

Before you buy your books from your seniors on the ONLINE PORTAL or from the Co-op, do read the two reviews written by two kind seniors Vinna Vip and Tan Yuan Kheng!? It will give you a better idea of the differences between the various textbooks and casebooks to equip you to make an informed decision in choosing your set of books!

PS: These are just two opinions so you may eventually feel differently about the books after buying them
PPS: Here?s a quick link to the BOOK SALE PAGE for a complete book list and instructions

Tort Law Textbooks

McBride, Nicholas J., Tort Law W.V.H. Rogers, Winfield and Jolowicz on Tort
Vinna says:	Yuan Kheng says:
Between the two textbooks (and any other textbook that is relevant), the most popular book is McBride?s Tort Law?it?s more concise and straightforward, plus the lecturers tend to refer to McBride over the other two books more frequently during lectures.	Most people rely on either of the two. For most people that i know, they liked McBride better because Winfield is too?confusing but I didn?t rely on any, because I thought that the cases themselves were more important. For Tort Law, the Law in UK and Singapore is very different. Most of the time, reading the entire Singapore case would have solved all your problems

Tort Law Casebook

Richard Kidner, Casebook on Torts
Vinna says:	Yuan Kheng says:
The casebook is essentially a companion to the textbook?not absolutely necessary, but a life-saver for some, because it includes important case facts and summaries, which, as the Year 1s will learn over time, is a godsend when one runs out of time. It generally takes magic to keep up reading all the cases, so a casebook is always useful to have readily available.	Personally, it?s a must-have for me because they essentially extracted the most important part of the case that you need to know (which means the rest are not-so-important) *NOTE: Torts is lecture-tutorial style, so the professors would not expect you to have different books ? you?ll see later

Contract Law Textbooks and Casebooks

(1)?? Ewan McKendrick (Text Cases and Materials) Big Mac (2)?? Ewan McKendrick Contract Law Small Mac (3)?? Mindy Chen ? Wishart Contract Law (4)?? J. Beatson Anson?s Law of Contract (5)?? G.H. Trietel on the Law of Contract (6)?? Beale, Bishop and Furmston Contract: Cases and Materials
Vinna says:	Yuan Kheng says:
Big Mac Between all the various contract textbooks, Big Mac is The Textbook to have. Almost everybody has a copy of Big Mac. If all else fails, one can mug Big Mac inside out and still ace the exams with flying colours. It?s thick and bulky, but it has everything one needs in there, including important extracts of cases, which can be quite substantial sometimes, and saves one?s effort reading the whole case only to find that most of it isn?t relevant to the issue at hand.	Big Mac Big Mac, personally i feel, is an essential. It will really come in handy during exam time. They have really detailed commentaries (aka evaluations of seemingly conflicting cases) and it is very clear and straight-to-the-point.
Small Mac The summarized, shorter, simpler version of Big Mac, that is not absolutely necessary if you?re going to conquer Big Mac anyway, but good for revision and last-minute preparation for tutorials when you don?t have time to scour through Big Mac for the themes and issues. A lot of students use Small Mac together with Big Mac. It is also good material to read on the train and bus since it is so short.	Small Mac Small Mac is the most popular textbook, because it is heavily summarised and you?ll want to use it to do your tutorials because there is absolutely no time to flip through the more content-heavy Big Mac.
Mindy Chen- Wishart MCW is not a book everyone has, but is one that a lot of students refer to, especially while mugging for exams. Her book is less comprehensive than Big Mac to the extent that it only exceptionally includes case extracts (a couple of paragraphs), and usually only gives a few lines? worth of case summaries. However, she relies a lot on diagrams, so for those who are more visual, the diagrams may come in useful. She also has nuggets of insights in the book (she really is a very intellectual professor), which can be very valuable when you find them. On top of all these, Mindy-Chen will be lecturing the first and last few chapters of Contract Law, so it will come in handy to have her textbook at hand, so you know where she?s going in her lectures.	Mindy Chen-Wishart Mindy Chen is a visiting professor from Oxford. She will be lecturing your first 3 and last 3 topics (Offer and Acceptance/Intention to create legal relations/Consideration/Undue Influence/Unconscionability/Duress) so most people zap those topics from her textbook because her notes are?sadly?incomprehensible but once you lay it beside her textbook you?ll know what she?s trying to get at. The good thing about Mindy Chen is that she likes to draw alot of diagrams, so her book is filled with alot of diagrams. If you are a diagram person, you might want to get her textbook.
Beale, Bishop and Furmston CFF and BBF are less commonly used, and usually if you own a copy of Big Mac, you wouldn?t need to have these two.	Beale, Bishop and Furmston BBF has summaries of almost all the cases, which means you don?t have to waste your time logging on to Westlaw/Lawnet (basically websites which provide you with the full cases ranging from 5 pages to 300 pages long) because they have important case extracts. Most teachers love BBF, and they will start quoting BBF pages in their notes for you to refer to the case.
Anson?s Law of Contract The shortest Contract Law textbook around (I think), which means that it is extremely concise and to the point. It doesn?t waste time and paper printing case extracts either, and many of the cases are just mentioned in passing, but it is useful when one wants to get the big conceptual picture (which is ultimately more important than case facts themselves in the exams, since they are closed-book exams). Not really a must have?there are copies of them in the library.
Trietel on the Law of Contract The lecturers will usually refer to Trietel at the start of the semester as the book that not everyone will be able to conquer, because it is concise in a very ?chim? manner. For most of the semester, students will use Big Mac or Anson?s to grapple with and understand the concepts because the books are written clearly and in easy-to-understand terms. Using Trietel first will only mess up your mind. However, Trietel can be extremely good to have when one is studying for exams, because it has A LOT of insights, and it ties up many issues (cross-chapter issues) in a coherent manner. But you must already know your stuff before reading Trietel, otherwise you?ll just get lost. Not everyone reads Trietel. There?s no need to own a Trietel book, but just zoom for the copies in the library when the exams are looming ahead.

Criminal Law Textbooks and Casebooks

Stanley Yeo, Neil Morgan, Chan Wing Cheong, Criminal Law in Malaysia and Singapore (Textbook) Stanley Yeo, Neil Morgan, Chan Wing Cheong, Criminal Law in Malaysia and Singapore (Casebook Companion) Chan Wing Cheong, Michael Hor, Victor Ramraj, Fundamental Principles of Criminal Law: Cases and Materials
Vinna says:	Yuan Kheng says:
Most students just have the YMC textbook and casebook, which will ensure your survival in law school. If you get Prof. Chan, then don?t bother using the CHR textbook, since he won?t even bother referring to the book. He refers to his own textbook and casebook All The Time (obviously). Some tutors dislike using YMC and use CHR instead, which is fine, because they both essentially cover the same issues and cases. They are just alternates.	Criminal Law will be split into sections, that means everyone will be taught by different professors. Almost all professors require you to buy the YMC Textbook and Casebook. They are compulsory. Word of advice ? don?t follow the opinions in YMC blindly, the professors usually don?t agree with each other so it?s important to listen to what your professor says in class and ask yourself if you agree with him/her.

Legal Analysis, Writing and Research Materials

(1)?? Beckman Coleman and Lee Case Analysis and Statutory Interpretation (2)?? Richard Neumann Jr Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing (3)?? Richard Wydick Plain English for Lawyers (4)?? Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation
Vinna says:	Yuan Kheng says:
Neumann and Beckman Neumann is The Most Important Book for most students. Every student would have to refer to Neumann at some point in time in his/her LAWR journey. It?s less easy to say for the tutors, since there are so many tutors teaching LAWR, both academics and practitioners alike, but Neumann is usually the Must-Have for LAWR. Sometime in Semester 1 the lecturers will insist that every student owns a copy of Beckman, and then there will be long queues outside the Student Counter for the book. Not all tutors actually use the book though, so it depends on which tutor you get. Beckman gives the general overview of how judicial systems work (particularly Singapore?s) so it?s quite a good book to have as an introduction to the Singapore legal system.	Neumann and Beckman Beckman and Neumann are compulsory, so you don?t really have much choice. You will be assigned readings from this, and trust me, you?ll rely more on Beckman and Neumann than you?ll rely on your teacher. Neumann gives you all the format of the assignments you have to hand in, and your tutors will expect you to adhere very closely to its structure etc.
Richard Wydick?s Plain English Not a must-buy?it depends on the tutor. Not every tutor refers to it, but even if s/he does, copies of it are available in the library. The book is essentially a guide on how to write in clear, legal terms and not fluff around and waste words. Word counts will soon become your enemy in LAWR.	Richard Wydick?s Plain English Wydick is quite useless in my opinion, but some tutors make their students bring in the book and no photocopies allowed because LAWR tutors are anal about copyright laws you might need it but really, just borrow from a friend. My friends all borrowed mine and i didn?t even have the chance to flip through it.
Carswell Canadian Citation Guide The full Carswell citation book is actually half in French and half in English?but we only need to use the English part (duh). Everyone will definitely need to use Carswell throughout the academic year because in almost every assignment (except the first few that is), students are required to cite sources accurately (it?s not as easy as it sounds). It is usually in very high demand in the library. Most students just photocopy parts of the English part, BUT be careful because some tutors absolutely hate to see the photocopied version. It?s law school after all, and it is against copyright law to photocopy more than 10% of a book. It is important to have a copy at hand if teachers refer to them during lessons, and it is probably going to be useful throughout law school and beyond as well.	Carswell Canadian Citation Guide This book is a must, and you?ll want to keep it for the rest of your legal career because it teachers you how to cite cases in your writings. Most seniors are keeping this but just get parts of it photocopied (not more than 10%!).

So, we know that?s quite a lot to take in. If you have any questions just drop us a comment on this page with your name and email and we?ll try to get back to you as soon as possible!

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