The Problem Method
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Syllabus topic 2, "Methods of Teaching - Merits and demerits"
Pages 103 to 105 of 543
In one line
The problem method starts from a client's difficulty rather than from a rule: the student is given facts and asked what should be done, and the law is learned on the way to the answer.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: the problem method presents the student with a concrete factual situation raising legal issues and requires them to identify the issues, find the applicable law, apply it to the facts and advise or predict the outcome; learning is thus organised around the use of law rather than around its statement, and the method develops issue identification, research, application and advice, which are the operations a practitioner performs.
How it works
The problem comes first. A set of facts is given, usually with a client who wants something, and often with facts that are incomplete or contested, as they are in practice.
The student works. Identify what is actually in dispute; find the provisions and the authorities; apply them to these facts; notice what is missing; and state a conclusion with its qualifications.
The class then compares answers, which is where the teaching happens, because the interesting part is why two competent students reached different results.
The four operations to name in an answer: issue identification, research, application, and advice or prediction. A student who lists these has the structure of the method.
Merits
It is the closest classroom method to practice. A lawyer is never handed a rule and asked to expound it; they are handed a problem. The method rehearses the real operation.
It teaches issue identification, which nothing else teaches. Knowing the law of contract is useless if you cannot see, in a page of facts, that the question is one of frustration rather than breach. This is the skill most conspicuously absent in graduates.
It forces integration. A real problem does not respect the syllabus. One set of facts can raise contract, limitation, procedure and evidence at once, and the student has to notice.
It motivates. Students work harder on a problem with a person in it than on a doctrine.
It exposes the incompleteness of facts. A well built problem leaves something out, and the student who notices and says what further information is needed has learned something an examination rarely teaches.
And it is examinable. Unlike some active methods, the problem method's product can be assessed directly, which is why it survives where others do not.
Demerits
A good problem is expensive to write. It must raise the intended issues, be realistic, not be solvable by a single lookup, and have a defensible answer. Three hours of preparation for one class is normal.
It can leave gaps in coverage. Problems cover the law unevenly: whatever the problems happened to raise is what the class learned, and a topic nobody set a problem on is not covered.
The Problem Method
It presupposes the law. A student who does not yet know that frustration exists cannot find it. The method works best after some exposition, not instead of it.
It is slow. Like the case method, it trades coverage for depth.
It needs a library or a database, because research is half the method, and chapter 170 shows what many colleges have.
And it can degenerate. A problem with one obvious answer is a comprehension exercise wearing a client's clothes.
Its place in Indian legal education
MU sets situational problems, so the method is already in the assessment. Papers in this University's law courses regularly set a set of facts and ask the candidate to advise. A course taught entirely by exposition leaves students meeting that format for the first time in the examination hall.
Schedule II requires it in the clinical papers. Paper 22, professional ethics, is to be assessed through case study, viva and periodical problem solution besides written tests, which is the problem method named in a regulatory instrument.
And it is the natural bridge to the clinic. A live client is a problem with the facts arriving in the wrong order, and a student who has done problems is ready for one. Chapter 480 takes that up.
A worked example
The problem. Farida runs a small printing business in Bhandup. In January she agrees in writing to print and deliver fifty thousand brochures to a company by 30 April, for a fixed price, payment on delivery. In March the machine she needs is destroyed in a fire not caused by her. An identical machine can be hired, but only at a cost that would make the contract a heavy loss. The company insists on delivery and threatens to sue. Advise Farida.
Issue identification. Is this frustration, or merely a contract that has become more expensive? Is there a term about force majeure? Is the machine a specific thing the contract depended on, or a means Farida chose?
Research. The provisions on the effect of an agreement becoming impossible, the authorities on commercial hardship not amounting to frustration, and the position where performance remains possible at greater cost.
Application. Performance is possible; it is expensive. The law's answer is not usually favourable to Farida, which is exactly what makes it a teaching problem.
Advice. What Farida can be told, what her exposure is, what should be negotiated, and what further facts are needed: the wording of the contract, whether the machine was identified, and whether the company relied on that machine.
The Problem Method
Notice what the student has done. They have used contract law, thought about evidence, considered negotiation and produced advice, and they will not forget the doctrine, because it arrived attached to a person.
Distinctions
| Problem method | Case method | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Facts with no decision | Decided cases |
| Question asked | What should be done | What was decided and why |
| Produces | Application and advice | Reasoning and reading |
| Answer | Uncertain, may be qualified | Known, though its reason is argued |
| Assessment | Directly examinable | Awkward on an essay paper |
Quick revision
The problem method gives facts and asks what should be done; the four operations are issue identification, research, application and advice.
Merits: closest to practice; teaches issue identification; forces integration across subjects; motivates; teaches the student to notice missing facts; and is directly examinable.
Demerits: problems are expensive to write; coverage is uneven; it presupposes some knowledge; it is slow; it needs research resources; and a badly built problem is a comprehension exercise.
In India: MU already sets situational problems, and Schedule II requires assessment of paper 22 through case study, viva and periodical problem solution.
It is the natural bridge to the clinic, because a live client is a problem whose facts arrive out of order.
Test yourself
1. State the four operations the problem method requires of a student. Identifying the issues; researching the applicable law; applying it to the facts; and advising the client or predicting the outcome.
2. Give three merits and three demerits. Merits: it rehearses what a lawyer actually does; it teaches issue identification, which no other method teaches directly; and it forces integration across subjects because a real problem does not respect the syllabus. Demerits: a good problem takes hours to write; coverage of the syllabus is uneven because only what the problems raised is learned; and it presupposes enough knowledge for the student to know what to look for.
3. Where does the Rules of Legal Education 2008 require the problem method? Schedule II, for paper 22 on professional ethics and professional accounting system, whose examination rules are to include assessment through case study, viva and periodical problem solution besides written tests.
4. Why is a problem with one obvious answer a bad problem? Because the method's value lies in issue identification, judgment and the recognition that facts are incomplete. A problem with a single obvious answer tests comprehension of a rule and rehearses none of those operations.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.