UPSC Optional Syllabus for Law- Paper I

A. Constitutional and administrative Law 

1. Constitution and Constitutionalism:

 The distinctive features of the Constitution.

2. Fundamental Rights—Public interest litigation; Legal Aid; Legal services authority.

3. Relationship between Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles, and Fundamental Duties.

4. Constitutional Position of the President and relation with the Council of Ministers.

5. Governor and his powers.

6. Supreme Court and the High Courts:

 Appointments and transfer.

 Powers, functions and jurisdiction.

7. Centre, States and local bodies:

 Distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States.

 Local Bodies.

 Administrative relationship among Union, State and Local Bodies.

 Eminent domain-State property-common property-community property.

8. Legislative powers, privileges and immunities.

9. Services under the Union and the States:

 Recruitment and conditions of services;Constitutional safeguards; Administrative tribunals.

 Union Public Service Commission and StatePublic Service Commissions—Power andfunctions.

 Election Commission—Power and functions.

10. Emergency provisions.

11. Amendment of the Constitution.

12. Principle of Natural Justice—Emerging trends and judicial approach.

13. Delegated legislation and its constitutionality.

14. Separation of powers and constitutional governance.

15. Judicial review of administrative action.

16. Ombudsman: Lokayukta, Lokpal etc.

 B. International Law

1. Nature and Definition of International Law.

2. Relationship between International Law and Municipal Law.

3. State Recognition and State Succession.

4. Law of the sea: Inland Waters,Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Continental Shelf, Exclusive
Economic Zone and High Seas.

5. Individuals: Nationality, statelessness; Human Rights and procedures available for their
enforcement.

6. Territorial jurisdiction of States, Extradition and Asylum.

7. Treaties : Formation, application, termination and reservation.

8. United Nations : Its principal organs, powers and functions and reform.

9. Peaceful settlement of disputes—different modes.

10. Lawful recourse to force : aggressions, self-defence, intervention.

11. Fundamental principles of international humanitarian law—International conventions and

contemporary developments.

12. Legality of the use of nuclear weapons; ban on testing of nuclear weapons; Nuclear
nonproliferation treaty, CTST.

13. International Terrorism, State-sponsored terrorism, Hijacking, International Criminal Court.

14. New International Economic Order and Monetary Law : WTO, TRIPS, GATT, IMF, World Bank.

15. Protection and Improvement of the Human Environment : International Efforts.

UPSC Optional Syllabus for Law- Paper-II

A. Law of Crimes 

1. General principles of Criminal liability: men’s rea and actus reus, men’s rea in statutory offences.

2. Kinds of punishment and emerging trends as to abolition of capital punishment.

3. Preparations and criminal attempt.

4. General exceptions.

5. Joint and constructive liability.

6. Abetment.

7. Criminal conspiracy.
 8. Offences against the State.

9. Offences against public tranquility.

10. Offences against human body.

11. Offences against property.

12. Offences against women.

13. Defamation.

14. Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

15. Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and subsequent legislative developments.

16. Plea bargaining.

B. Law of Torts

1. Nature and definition.

2. Liability based upon fault and strict liability; Absolute liability.

3. Vicarious liability including State Liability.

4. General defences.

5. Joint tort fessors.

6. Remedies.

7. Negligence.

8. Defamation.

9. Nuisance.

10. Conspiracy.

11. False imprisonment.

12. Malicious prosecution.

13. Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

C. Law of Contracts and Mercantile Law

1. Nature and formation of contract/E-contract.

2. Factors vitiating free consent.

3. Void, voidable, illegal and unenforceable agreements.

4. Performance and discharge of contracts.

 5. Quasi-contracts.

6. Consequences of breach of contract.

7. Contract of indemnity, guarantee and insurance.

8. Contract of agency.

9. Sale of goods and hire purchase.

10. Formation and dissolution of partnership.

11. Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

12. Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

13. Standard form contracts.

D. Contemporary Legal Developments

1. Public Interest Litigation.

2. Intellectual property rights—Concept, types/prospects.

3. Information Technology Law including Cyber Laws—Concept, purpose/prospects.

4. Competition Law—Concept, purpose/prospects.

5. Alternate Dispute Resolution—Concept, types/prospects.

6. Major statutes concerning environmental law.

7. Right to Information Act.

8. Trial by media.

LAW OPTIONAL STRATEGY: By Saumya Sharma, Rank – 9

UPSC CSE-2017
Law Optional Strategy
By Saumya Sharma, Rank – 9 UPSC CSE-2017
GS Strategy by Saumya Sharma
Hello all.
I am sharing my strategy for the law optional papers through this post. My seniors
from college who are now in the IAS helped me quite a bit with the strategy, and I

hope I can help you readers too just like they helped me.   
But before I begin, here are a few basic points:

1. The syllabus for law optional is enormous. It will require a good amount of
time for its completion, so keep that in mind. I started studying for the
optional only after the prelims exam in June 2017, but that was possible
only because I had comprehensive notes with me from my college time for
bulky subjects such as IPC and Constitutional Law.
2. Your preparation for the Law-I paper will certainly help you with General
Studies- II paper. However, you must keep in mind that you will have to
mentally dissociate the two. Your GS-II will suffer if you write your answers
like a lawyer. You have to keep your GS-II paper as generalas possible. Do
not let your legal knowledge of the GS-II issues overexcite you.
3. Please spend more time in understanding crucial topics than in memorising
case law names. Your knowledge of suitable case law names will not help if
you are unable to demonstrate a deep understanding of the question asked.
4. Try joining a test series if possible. Every other candidate would have
joined a test series for their optional subject, and you should not put
yourself at a disadvantage by not having any prior answer writing practice. I
had joined ambition law institute’s test series. I believe practising helped-
as I could time myself better, and it also made me more decisive about
choosing which questions to attempt in the exam. However, please do not
rely exclusively on any test series or coaching center. You must
supplement it with your own strategy and hard work.
5. I must give due credit to my education at NLU, Delhi for my law optional
marks. However, I know of quite a few people who have aced at law
optional without having a law degree! So if the subject interests you, don’t
let your lack of a legal degree become a hindrance.

 
Finally, please do not get discouraged by people who tell you that ‘law is not a
scoring optional’ or similar stuff. Your optional should be a subject which you
have an inclination towards. If you do your subject sincerely, there will always be
a chance of you getting awarded decent marks for it (although they may not be as
high as, say, mathematics optional). Even in years when Law-I or II papers been
awarded low marks, there have been a few candidates who have scored around
145-150 in these papers. So, just keep a positive attitude and keep on working
hard!
In addition to the standard sources that I have mentioned later in this article, you
could follow the following websites:
 1. The Wire -it has a very good opinion-based coverage of legal issues. An
article I had read from this website helped me in answering the question in
2017’s Law I paper on the Rajbala v. State.  However, be sure to have your
own opinion on the articles you read about as well.
2. Livelaw- any recent legal developments that you ought to know about are
covered here.
3. I had also subscribed to google alerts for the keyword ‘law’. I used to
glance through the emails to see if there is any recent legal development
that I have missed.

Answer Writing:
The basic introduction-body-conclusion format should be followed to give a
structure to your answers. There will be a fixed space provided for your answers
in the answer booklet. Last year, for some questions carrying the same
weightage, different number of blank pages were provided. This reflects that even
for questions carrying the same marks, the examiner expects a difference in the
amount of content depending on what the question is asking. In any case, here is
the broad word limit which a friend of mine and I were following:

1. 20 marker- about 3 pages, 250 words

2. 15 marker- about 2.5 pages, 200 words
 3. 10 marker- about 1.5 pages, 150 words

 
Adjust this as per your own judgment. Whichever way you write, make sure
you answer the question well  rather than just writing what you know about.
Writing case laws and section numbers in your answers would demonstrate that
you know about the subject well, just like an experienced lawyer, so try to mention
them in your answers wherever possible. Memorization of case law names and
section numbers will come only via revision. You need not write the facts of the
case law you’re mentioning, unless it is imperative to do so. In most instances,
the ratio decidendi should suffice.
 
The way I used to study was: I would read a topic thoroughly, and then I would
read questions asked in the previous years from that topic. I would test myself if I
could mentally answer those questions. This helped me revise and also to
formulate answers in my head. For this purpose, I used a book by Ambition Law
Institute which has a topic-wise collection of all previous year questions.
 
Book list:
PS- Dukki refers to guide book. I bought my dukkis from Jain Book Store in
Connaught Place, Delhi.
Constitutional and Admin Law
I relied on my notes from my constitutional law classes in college, and brushed it
up with the following sources:

1. Topic Nos. 1 to 3 (Distinctive features, Fundamental Rights and their

relationship with DPSPs etc).- MP Jain
2. Topic Nos. 4 to 11- Constitutional Law Dukki(supplemented with MP Jain,
DD Basu and Laxmikant wherever I needed more details)
3. Topic Nos. 12 to 15- Admin Law Dukki (can be supplemented with IP
Massey wherever needed)
4. Topic No. 16 (ombudsman)- made short notes using the internet
5. In addition, I was following Gautam Bhatia’s
blog https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/  

 
International Law
PS- Since the concise version of the SK Kapoor book was not available in the
market when I went to purchase it, I studied from the expanded volume.
 
 1. Topic No. 1 Nature and Definition of IL- Shaw
2. Topic No. 2 Relationship between international law and municipal
law- International Law Dukki, SK Kapoor 
3. Topic No. 3 State Recognition etc.- SK Kapoor
4. Topic No. 4 Law of the Seas- Shaw
5. Topic Nos. 5 to 7- SK Kapoor
6. Topic No. 8 United Nations- the internet
7. Topic Nos. 9,10- SK Kapoor

Topic No. 11 onwards will require you to read from multiple sources. The best
way to go about them is to use the internet generously, make your own notes.
Make sure to not leave any topic out.
Also, there is this wonderful blog on public international law which I was following
from my college days– https://ruwanthikagunaratne.wordpress.com /. You should
definitely refer to it for case summaries and the like.
 
Law of Crimes

1. For IPC, I referred to my college notes. In addition to that, I referred to

the bare Act and the criminal law dukki. Make sure to focus on the
illustrations for important sections such as murder, theft etc given in the
bare Act.
2. Prevention of Corruption Act- the internet
3. Protection of Civil Rights Act- the internet, and also make sure to cover the
Atrocities Act and the recent amendments made to it
4. Plea Bargaining- Read the sections from CrPC, and referred to an article on
it online

 
Law of Torts

1. Law of Torts by Bangiawill help you to sufficiently cover the syllabus.

However, revising it will be a problem so make extremely short notes for
quick revision.
2. Consumer Protection Act- I went through the sections of the bare Act.
Additionally, do cover the recent developments regarding the new
consumer protection Act.

 
Law of Contracts and Mercantile Law

1. Contract Law i.e. Topic Nos. 1 to 7- For this, read the relevant sections
from the bare Act. Supplement with the Contract Law Dukki. Refer to Avtar
Singh for the topics the dukki does not cover properly.
2. Contract of Agency- Booklet on the topic, available in Rajinder Nagar
market
3. Sale of Goods Act- Same as above
4. Formation and Dissolution of Partnership- Bare Act along with judgments
such as the KD Kamath and Haldiram Bhujiwala cases
5. Negotiable Instruments Act- Booklet available in Rajinder Nagar market,
along with the recent developments regarding the Dashrath Rupsingh
Rathod case
6. Arbitration and Conciliation- I referred to my college notes, and primers on
the new Act.
7. Standard form contracts- Contract law dukki
8. Contemporary Legal Developments- The wire, livelaw, spicyIP, any new
reports of the Law Commission. This is one topic for which you really
cannot know what to study. Keep an eye on any recent legal developments
you read about in the newspapers, or anything legal which is being talked
about by op-ed writers.
9. PIL- MP Jain, articles from the internet
10.IPR- primer by Nishith Desai Associates on the IPR regime in India. It is
sufficiently detailed and covers the topic well.
11.Cyber Laws- received help from a friend who is into technology law. You
could read a primer on the Act.
12.Competition Law- read the PDF files available on the website of the
Competition Commission of India on abuse of dominant position, anti-
competitive practices etc.
13.ADR- for this, I read section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code and related
jurisprudence (it is a short topic).
14.Right to Information Act- went through the bare Act and a few articles
online
15.Trial by Media- 200th report of the Law Commission of India (to be read
selectively)