| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this ESL lesson on laws and precedents are to:
- talk about strange and old-fashioned laws;
- watch a video and listen to a recording related to laws and judicial precedents;
- practise verbs for discussing legal systems and precedents.
With this lesson, students debate absurd and outdated laws. They watch part of a video (to 04:05) of a man testing old British laws, share their thoughts and explore vocabulary to discuss laws and judicial precedents (e.g. stifle, tangle, overturn). Students listen to a recording explaining how judicial precedents work and discuss the pros and cons of relying on judicial precedent in modern legal systems. They also work in pairs discussing landmark cases.
C2 / Proficiency60 minStandard LessonPremium Plan
WARM-UP AND VIDEO
This ESL lesson on laws and precedents begins with a warm-up. Students discuss questions about absurd or outdated laws. They then watch part of a video where a man tries to break some old British laws. Students look at some icons (fish, cards, a suit of armour and feet) representing four laws and guess what each one might be about. They watch the video (to 04:05) and check their answers. Following that, students read some video comments (e.g. Brilliant!, How disrespectful!) and discuss why people might have reacted in those ways. Afterwards, they write a comment of no more than five words that they would post. Next, students discuss what they think the origins of the laws, or the reasons for the laws, in the video might be. Then, they do the same for other laws around the world.
VOCABULARY AND DISCUSSION
In this part of this ESL lesson on laws and precedents, students complete statements on outdated or absurd laws using verbs to discuss the effects of laws (e.g. exempt, refrain, repeal). Afterwards, they look at the statements again, choose three and discuss how much they agree or disagree. Next, students complete verbs related to judicial precedent (e.g. establish, interpret, invoke) with their missing letters. After that, they listen to a recording explaining how judicial precedents work. They then retell the information using the verbs from the previous task. Following that, students discuss whether relying on judicial precedent benefits modern legal systems, weighing the pros and cons. Finally, in pairs, students take turns presenting landmark U.S. cases to each other. They ask and answer a related question before revealing the correct answer. Then, they discuss the cases together using follow-up questions.
HOMEWORK/REVISION
This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students read a text about an imaginary case, identify incorrect verbs and correct them. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.
WORKSHEETS
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Very interesting ! There’s some really challenging exercises for C2 students, but also a funny video too !
Thanks for you comment! We hope your C2 students enjoy the lesson 🙂
There is no UK legal system as suggested in this lesson. The UK is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. England and Wales have one legal system but Northern Ireland and Scotland each have their own separate systems.
Thank you for your comment. We’ve made the appropriate changes to the lesson. We’ve also updated the recording and links, so please make sure to download the worksheet again to access the latest version.