a) You have been invited to give a brief lecture to students intending to study law and preparing to sit for an assessment test on Legal research Methods and Writing. The subject of your lecture is to be “the determination of the law applicable to the facts of the a case.” Prepare your lecture focusing on the nature of the reasoning process employed by lawyers in applying law to the facts of a case

1. While there are complex rules regarding when courts can avoid their own past precedent,one aspect of the doctrine of precedent is quite simple. A court is strictly bound to followthe decisions of a court of equal to or higher than it in the hierarchy of the courts, subjectto well defined exceptions.