Oral Legal Defence Techniques
Main language of instruction: Spanish
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, English,
Head instructor
Dra. Carmen María LÁZARO - cmlazaro@uic.es
Office hours
Any queries regarding the progress of the subject, its content or its assessment should be directed to the course coordinator.
One of the essential and recurring tasks of a lawyer’s professional activity is the oral defence of the rights and interests of his or her clients. However, such communicative activity is far from simple, added to which it is a subject not usually included in the teaching content of a law degree syllabus. This course teaches students, in a practical way, the various oral defence techniques, based on the specific perspective of presenting specialised legal knowledge to a highly technically aware audience.
None required
That students are able to make oral presentations of their specialised technical-legal knowledge in a rigorous, convincing and brilliant way.
Students will learn how to:
Orally transmit their technical-legal knowledge to a specialised audience, in a rigorous, convincing and brilliant way.
Unit 1. Communication techniques. Study techniques.
Unit 2. Memorization techniques. Review systems. Cumulative review.
Unit 3. Organization of time.
Unit 4. The legal discourse. Elements. Structure. Adaptation of the speech.
Topic 5. The legal debate. Rules. Premises. Structure. Emotional aspects.
Unit 6. Public speaking. Formal and substantive aspects. Duration.
Unit 7. Non-verbal language. Clothing. Look. Voice. Gesticulation.
Topic 8. Assertive behavior. Techniques.
The teaching methodology will combine two educational strategies.
One half of the course will consist of master classes to provide the student with knowledge about effective memorisation, stress management and effective oral communication skills.
The other half of the course will concentrate on preparing students for dealing with all kinds of oral presentations.
The evaluation consists of two parameters:
Participation in class and the performance achieved in tests set by the teaching staff accounts for 60% of the final mark.
An oral test set by the teaching staff for which students need to present on specified legal content accounts for 40% of the final mark.
The teaching staff of the subject will provide students with the necessary materials as the course progresses.