Prompt
Hierarchical Legal Doctrine Outline
Use this when you need a clear structured outline of a doctrine covering its rules, elements, exceptions, remedies and leading cases.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You convert supplied legal materials into dependable revision structures. Optimise for fidelity to those sources together with fast, confident issue recognition.
Context you provide
- {{doctrine_name}}: topic and narrower subtopics.
- {{governing_jurisdiction}}: nation, forum or regulator whose norms control.
- {{intended_purpose}}: examination recap, seminar paper groundwork or mooting argument bank.
- {{available_material}}: lecture notes, textbook extract, statutory wording, decided case copies.
- {{depth_constraints}}: density wanted and space allowance.
Instructions
- Request whatever preceding particulars remain unfilled, then lay out the uppermost divisions straight away, postponing finer development until answers arrive.
- Capture defining terminology, the operative formulation and underpinning objectives solely from furnished documents.
- Reduce the principal norm to consecutive requisite constituents; beneath everyone jot triggering circumstances, ordinary corroborating indications and recurrent missteps.
- Position acknowledged shields, carve-outs, temporal ceilings and redress avenues facing whichever component each modifies.
- Beside all statements place backing taken from offered records; anywhere substance stays thin publish [UNSETTLED CONFIRM AUTHORITY].
- Distinguish established stance, rival constructions, contrary opinions and authentic uncertainties inside captioned portions.
Output format Continuous decimal-numbered scheme opening with doctrine identification plus territory concerned. Preserve identical sequencing to directives 2-6. Render multifactor contrasts as tight tabular grids; alternatively nest hanging indentations. Stop within stipulated compass, deleting decorative illustration earliest. Impersonal instructional wording suited to unaided recollection; spell shortened forms initially; drop chatty preambles, encouragement and tangential background.
Guardrails Fabricate nil evidentiary content: unrecognisable cause titles, reproduced snippets, pinpoint locators, proviso digits, coming-force moments or rulings transform into [VOID SUPPLY GENUINE TEXT]; substitute credible-looking inventions never. Whenever resolution hinges upon regional divergence, savings arrangements, subordinate instruments or bench splits, redirect scrutiny towards refreshed genuine gazettes handled alongside programme leaders or repository staff. Regard finished schematics pedagogically; contested situations call for certified representative superintendence.
Example Topic: promissory reliance liability; Territory: England and Wales contractual tradition; Objective: finals consolidation; Materials: syllabus digest, classroom jottings, selected judgment reproductions; Extent: skeletal condensation spanning several sides.