AILET Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning Syllabus

Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning in AILET, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Legal Principles and Application

   3 topics

   • Principle-Fact Reasoning
     • Applying a given legal principle to a fact situation
     • Identifying the correct legal outcome
     • Reasoning even with assumed or counter-intuitive principles
   • Identifying Relevant Principles
     • Selecting the applicable principle among several
     • Distinguishing material from immaterial facts
   • Multiple Principles and Conflicts
     • Reconciling competing principles
     • Determining which principle governs
2. 2

   Law of Contracts

   3 topics

   • Formation of Contract
     • Offer, acceptance and communication
     • Consideration and intention to create legal relations
     • Capacity to contract and free consent
   • Void, Voidable and Illegal Agreements
     • Coercion, undue influence, fraud and misrepresentation
     • Mistake and unlawful object
   • Performance and Breach
     • Discharge of contract
     • Remedies for breach and damages
3. 3

   Law of Torts

   3 topics

   • General Principles of Tortious Liability
     • Essentials of a tort: damnum sine injuria and injuria sine damno
     • Defences and general exceptions
   • Negligence
     • Duty of care, breach and damage
     • Contributory negligence
   • Specific Torts
     • Nuisance and trespass
     • Defamation
     • Strict and absolute liability
     • Vicarious liability
4. 4

   Criminal Law

   3 topics

   • General Elements of Crime
     • Actus reus and mens rea
     • Stages of a crime and inchoate offences
   • General Exceptions and Defences
     • Private defence
     • Mistake, accident and necessity
     • Insanity and intoxication
   • Important Offences
     • Offences against the human body
     • Offences against property
     • Abetment and criminal conspiracy
5. 5

   Constitutional and Legal Awareness

   3 topics

   • Fundamental Rights and Duties
     • Right to equality and freedoms
     • Right to life and personal liberty
     • Constitutional remedies and writs
   • Legal Maxims and Terms
     • Commonly tested legal maxims
     • Important legal terminology
   • Landmark Judgments and Legal Developments
     • Significant Supreme Court decisions
     • Recent legislative and legal reforms

Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning flashcards for AILET

24 of 65 cards from the Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. In Principle-Fact (Legal Reasoning) questions, what is the single most important rule a candidate must follow when applying the given principle?

   Apply ONLY the principle stated in the question to the facts, even if it contradicts actual law or your own knowledge. The principle is assumed true and absolute for that question.

2. What is the basic three-step method for solving a principle-fact legal reasoning problem?

   1) Read and understand the principle, 2) Read the facts carefully, 3) Apply the principle to the facts logically to reach the conclusion the principle dictates (not your moral or factual opinion).

3. When a legal reasoning question gives a principle and the facts clearly satisfy every condition of that principle, what should the answer be?

   The conclusion that follows directly from satisfying the principle's conditions, regardless of fairness or your own view of the outcome.

4. How do you identify the 'relevant principle' when a passage contains multiple statements of law?

   Select the principle whose conditions match the material facts of the problem; discard principles dealing with situations not present in the facts.

5. In 'Multiple Principles and Conflicts' questions, when two given principles point to opposite conclusions, how is the conflict typically resolved?

   Apply both principles to the facts; the principle that more specifically and directly governs the facts prevails, or apply them cumulatively as instructed, giving the result both together produce.

6. If a principle and an exception to it are both given, and the facts fall within the exception, what governs the outcome?

   The exception governs, displacing the general principle for that fact situation.

7. What is the essential rule about adding extra assumptions in legal reasoning questions?

   Do not assume facts not stated. Decide only on the basis of the facts given and the principle provided.

8. What are the essential elements required for the formation of a valid contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872?

   Offer and acceptance, lawful consideration, capacity of parties, free consent, lawful object, intention to create legal relations, certainty, and not expressly declared void (Section 10).

9. Define an 'offer' (proposal) under Section 2(a) of the Indian Contract Act.

   When one person signifies to another his willingness to do or abstain from doing something with a view to obtaining that other's assent to the act or abstinence.

10. What is the difference between an offer and an invitation to offer? Give an example.

    An offer is a definite proposal capable of acceptance forming a contract; an invitation to offer merely invites others to make offers (e.g., goods displayed in a shop, advertisements, auction notices, tenders).

11. What must an acceptance be to convert an offer into a promise (Section 7)?

    Acceptance must be absolute and unqualified (mirror image of the offer) and expressed in some usual and reasonable manner; a conditional acceptance is a counter-offer.

12. Define 'consideration' under Section 2(d) of the Indian Contract Act.

    When at the desire of the promisor, the promisee or any other person has done, abstained from doing, or promises to do or abstain from doing something — such act, abstinence or promise is the consideration.

13. State the maxim regarding consideration and explain the Indian position on past consideration.

    'Consideration may be past, present (executed) or future (executory).' Unlike English law, Indian law recognises past consideration as valid consideration.

14. Who is competent to contract under Section 11 of the Indian Contract Act?

    A person who is of the age of majority, of sound mind, and not disqualified from contracting by any law to which he is subject.

15. What is the legal status of an agreement entered into by a minor in India?

    It is void ab initio (absolutely void from the beginning), as held in Mohori Bibee v. Dharmodas Ghose.

16. Define 'free consent' under Section 14 of the Indian Contract Act.

    Consent is free when it is not caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake.

17. What is the difference between a void agreement and a voidable contract?

    A void agreement is not enforceable by law (no legal effect); a voidable contract is valid and enforceable until the aggrieved party (whose consent was not free) chooses to rescind it.

18. When consent is caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud or misrepresentation, is the contract void or voidable?

    Voidable at the option of the party whose consent was so caused (Section 19 / 19A).

19. What is the effect of a bilateral mistake of fact essential to the agreement (Section 20)?

    The agreement is void.

20. Is a contract void or valid where the consent is obtained by a mistake of Indian law versus a mistake of foreign law?

    A mistake as to a law in force in India does not make the contract voidable; but a mistake as to a foreign law is treated like a mistake of fact (Section 21), which can make it void.

21. Define an 'illegal agreement' and distinguish it from a merely void agreement.

    An illegal agreement is forbidden by law / against public policy and is punishable; all illegal agreements are void, but not all void agreements are illegal. Collateral transactions to an illegal agreement are also void, whereas those to a merely void agreement may be valid.

22. List four types of agreements expressly declared void under the Indian Contract Act.

    Agreement in restraint of marriage (S.26), in restraint of trade (S.27), in restraint of legal proceedings (S.28), wagering agreements (S.30); also uncertain agreements (S.29) and agreements to do impossible acts (S.56).

23. What are the modes of discharge (termination) of a contract?

    By performance, by agreement/consent (novation, rescission, alteration, remission, waiver), by impossibility/frustration, by lapse of time, by operation of law, and by breach.

24. What is the doctrine of frustration / supervening impossibility under Section 56?

    A contract to do an act which, after the contract is made, becomes impossible or unlawful by an event the promisor could not prevent, becomes void when the act becomes impossible or unlawful.

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