Legal Aptitude or Legal Reasoning is a section in law entrance exams that holds maximum weightage and demands candidates to possess good knowledge of fundamentals. Through this section, the exam conducting authorities test the legal awareness, analytical skills and problem-solving ability of candidates.

Preparation for Legal Reasoning and Legal Aptitude sections of the law entrance exams is no cakewalk. The Legal Reasoning section of CLAT is considered the toughest as it includes passage-based questions in which candidates have to identify the facts and principles themselves. In order to ace Legal Reasoning and Aptitude, candidates should have a systematic approach and a dedicated time schedule of at least six months. Read on to know what Legal Aptitude and Reasoning is all about, what topics are included in the section, how to prepare for the subject and a lot more.

Legal Aptitude is a section in law entrance exams that tests both Legal Reasoning as well as Legal Knowledge of candidates.   

Legal Knowledge consists of questions that are based on legal facts and current legal affairs. The section evaluates the candidates on their knowledge of legal facts.

Example of a Legal Fact or Legal Knowledge question along with answer:

Q. Which of the following positions is not provided for in the Constitution of India?

(a) Attorney General for India

(b) Solicitor General of India

(c) Advocate General of the State

(d) Chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission

Correct answer: B

Legal Reasoning is an important component of Legal Aptitude. It is a method of applying laws to facts in order to answer legal questions. Lawyers in a court of law use legal reasoning to argue for the interpretation that they find most convincing or that is most favorable to their client. Legal Reasoning has five major components:

• Issue: What is the issue that one is trying to resolve? What is being debated?
• Facts: What facts are presented in the issue?
• Principle: What legal rules can be applied to the given facts?
• Analysis: Apply the principle(s) to the facts
• Conclusion: What is the conclusion after applying the legal rules to facts?

Also Read:

Let us understand the above components of Legal Reasoning through an example:

Observe the following principle:

Now, check the following facts:

What is the issue or the question asked?

Is Rahul guilty of the nuisance?

Example of a Legal Reasoning Question along with Solutions

Read the following passage:

Answer the subsequent question assuming that the decision in Kathi Kalu Oghad, given in the passage above, is valid law:

Correct answer with solution:

Now, try to answer the following question:

Correct answer with solution:

In order to ace the Legal Aptitude/Reasoning section, candidates should divide their preparation into two parts:

• Skills: In the first part, candidates should focus on enhancing their analytical, reading and comprehension skills. Candidates should be able to read and comprehend the facts quickly and thereafter, apply the legal principle to those facts and draw a conclusion out of it.
• Awareness: The second part of Legal Reasoning preparation requires candidates to stay updated with all the legal news and especially make a note of the important judgements made by the courts of law in the last one year. Staying updated with the latest legal news is important as many questions in the law entrance exams are based on news sources.

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• How to prepare for DU LLB Entrance Exam?

Check out the important topics on which Legal Reasoning questions are based in different law exams:

• Legal GK and Awareness
• Current Affairs
• Important Supreme Court Judgments
• Important Acts and Amendments of the Legislature
• Legal Maxims
• Indian Constitution
• Law of Torts
• Vicarious Liability
• Strict Liability
• Law of Crimes
• Law of Contracts
• International Law
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Hindu Marriage Act
• Constitutional Law

Check out some of the best books for Legal Reasoning preparation below:

• Legal Awareness and Legal Reasoning by Pearson Publications
• Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning by AP Bhardwaj
• Objective Legal Aptitude by RS Aggarwal
• Analytical Reasoning by MK Pandey

Apart from these books, candidates should focus on reading:

• Newspapers
• Articles on legal matters in magazines

Also Read:

• Best books for CLAT preparation
• Section-wise CLAT books to read
• Best books for AILET preparation
• Best books for MH CET Law preparation
• Best books for DU LLB entrance exam preparation

Check out the weightage of Legal Reasoning section in some of the law entrance exams below:

Q 1. Who is the only Judge of the Supreme Court of India to also have been the Vice-President of India?

(a) Justice A. N. Ray

(b) Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah

(c) Justice Patanjali Sastri

d) Justice P. N. Bhagwati

Q 2. Who replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court of the United States?

(a) Neil Gorsuch

(b) Brett Kavanaugh

(c) Amy Coney Barrett

(d) Sonia Sotomayor

Q 3. Who among the following was not a judge of the Supreme Court of India?

(a) Justice R. Banumathi

(b) Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra

(c) Justice Manjula Chellur

(d) Justice Ranjana Prakash Desa

Q 4. In Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case between India and Pakistan before the International Court of Justice, the 15-1 majority found Pakistan to be in violation of obligations under which international law instrument?

(a) Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

(b) International Convention on Civil and Political Rights

(c) United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

(d) United Nations Convention Against Torture

Correct Options: Q 1: (b), Q 2: (c), Q 3: (c), Q 4: (a)

Also Read:

• CLAT previous year question papers
• AILET previous year question papers
• LSAT India previous year question papers
• SLAT previous year question papers
• MH CET Law previous year question papers
• DU LLB previous year question papers 

Q 1. Principle: No confession made to a Police Officer, shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence.

Facts: Ritu was accused of having murdered Akash over a property dispute. After arrest, Ritu made a confession to the Inspector that she had in fact murdered Akash. The confessional statement of Ritu was written on a paper and Ritu signed the same. The police carried on further investigation but were not able to find any other evidence to produce before the court. Can the confessional statement signed by Ritu be proved in court?

(a) No, such a confessional statement cannot be proved since the confession was made to a Police Officer.

(b) Yes, such a confessional statement can be proved since it is not an oral confession. It has been duly signed by Ritu and hence there is no doubt that she made the confession herself.

(c) Yes, since there is no other evidence, it is necessary to rely on this statement or else a serious offender will escape the clutches of criminal law.

(d) Both (b) and (c)

Q 2. Principle: No tenant of immovable property shall, during the continuance of the tenancy, be permitted to deny that the landlord of such tenant had, at the beginning of the tenancy, a title to such immovable property.

Facts: Aishwarya rented a flat from Nidhi for 2 years. She signed a rent agreement and regularly paid the monthly rent to Nidhi for 6 months. In the seventh month, Ashish approached Aishwarya and told her that he is the real owner of the property and that Nidhi is defrauding Aishwarya as well as Ashish. Ashish showed Aishwarya the original property papers which showed him to be the real owner. Satisfied that the papers were genuine and that Ashish is the actual owner, Aishwarya stopped paying the rent to Nidhi and started paying the same to Ashish. Nidhi filed a suit against Aishwarya for the recovery of rent arrears. Aishwarya took the defence that Nidhi was never the real owner of the flat and that she will pay the rent to the real owner i.e. Ashish. Decide.

(a) Aishwarya should pay the rent to Nidhi since she took the property on rent from Nidhi and now she cannot deny Nidhi’s title over the property

(b) Aishwarya has checked the property papers herself and it is clear to her that Ashish is the actual owner. Thus, she can deny Nidhi’s title and should pay the rent to Ashish

(c) Aishwarya should deposit the money in court and let the court decide who to give the money to

(d) A disputed property should never be given on rent until the dispute is resolved

Q 3.

Principle: A person who suffers an injury caused as a result of a risk to which they consented, cannot complain of the consequent damage. The defendant must have the capacity to give consent to risks involved, have complete knowledge of the extent as well as nature of risks and agree to the risk voluntarily.

Facts: Q urged his older brother Z to allow him to ride Z’s motorbike. Q had recently obtained a motorbike driving license and was eager to ride Z’s motorbike. The motorbike had a complex operation mechanism, which Q did not understand. Z did not bother to explain this to Q and let him ride the bike. Q met with an accident and is suing Z for the injuries caused. Z contends that Q consented to the risk. Decide.

(a) Q did not consent to the risk because he did not have capacity to consent to the risk

(b) Q did not consent to the risk because his consent was not voluntary

(c) Q consented to the risk because he urged Z to let him ride the motorbike

(d) Q did not consent to the risk because he did not have knowledge of the extent and nature of risk

Correct Options: Q 1: (a), Q 2: (a), Q 3: (d)

Read the below passage:

Answer the five subsequent questions:

Q 1. Which of the following statements correctly depicts the essentials of misrepresentation?

(A) A misrepresentation is a positive statement of fact, which is made or adopted by a party to a contract and is untrue.

(B) Misrepresentation and false representation do not mean the same.

(C) If one party has induced the other to enter into a contract by misrepresenting, though innocently, any material fact especially within his own knowledge, the party misled cannot avoid the contract.

(D) A misrepresentation is a negative statement of fact, which is made or adopted by a party to a contract and is true.

Q 2. Consider the statements given below and answer which one correctly describes a fraudulent act.

(I) The expression fraud means an intention to deceive, whether it is from any expectation of advantage to the party himself or from ill will towards the other is immaterial.

(II) A fraud is an act of deliberate deception with the design of securing something by taking an unfair advantage of another. It is a deception to gain from another’s loss.

(III) Fraud arises out of deliberate active role of representator about a fact.

(A) (I), (II) are correct.

(B) (I) correct.

(C) (I), (II), (III) are correct.

(D) (I) and (II) are correct but (III) is incorrect.

Q 3. Which of the following statements is correct?

(A) Fraud is an innocent wrong whereas misrepresentation is an intentional wrong.

(B) The principal difference between fraud and misrepresentation is that in the former, the person making the suggestion does not believe it to be true and, in the latter, he believes it to be true.

(C) In fraud and misrepresentation both, it is not a misstatement of fact, which misleads the promise.

(D) Fraud and misrepresentation both are innocent wrongs

Q 4. Mr. A sells a car to Mr. Y, his childhood friend with a knowledge that the car is defective. Before buying the car, Mr. Y says to Mr. A, “If you do not deny it, I shall assume that the car is perfect”. Mr. A says nothing. In light of the statement, decide the liability of Mr. A.

(A) A’s silence is equivalent to speech and hence a misrepresentation.

(B) A is not liable for fraud, but liable for misrepresentation.

(C) A is liable for fraud and misrepresentation both.

(D) A’s silence is equivalent to speech and hence a fraud

Q 5. In which of the following statements will a contract not be voidable at the option of a party?

(A) When a party takes consent by fraud.

(B) When a party takes consent by misrepresentation.

(C) A contract entered by fraud and misrepresentation is neither void nor voidable.

(D) When silence amounts to fraud, but the other party whose consent was taken had discovered the truth or had the means of discovering the truth with ordinary diligence.

Correct Options: Q 1: (A), Q 2: (C), Q 3: (B), Q 4: (D), Q 5: (D)

Q. What is Legal Reasoning all about?

Q. What are the four essential steps in Legal Reasoning?

• Identifying the legal principle(s)
• Identifying the facts
• Applying the principles to facts
• Drawing out the conclusion

Q. How to solve the Legal Reasoning questions in CLAT?

• Read the passage carefully
• Identify the principles set out in the passage
• Identify the facts in the passage
• Once both are identified, break down the principle into small parts for better clarity and less errors
• While breaking down the principle, pay close attention to ‘OR’ and ‘AND’ conditions
• Also, pay close attention to the small tweaks in facts that can have a big impact on the outcome of a question

Q. Which are the important Legal Aptitude topics?

Q. Is Legal Reasoning the same as Legal Aptitude?

• Legal Reasoning: Questions based on Legal Reasoning focus on legal propositions in which candidates are given/have to identify the facts and principles and draw out a conclusion
• Legal Knowledge: Questions are based on legal facts and current events related to the field of law