King's Inns Entrance Examination cheat sheet

The King's Inns Entrance Examination is the admission test for the degree courses required before professional legal training at the Honorable Society of King's Inns, Dublin.

No official published syllabus or domain weighting was available for this sheet, so every bullet below states only widely verifiable features of the examination process.

The examination is normally sat by candidates seeking entry to the Barrister-at-Law degree course or the diploma courses run by the Society.

Assessment has historically combined written papers with a language requirement; candidates should confirm the current paper list directly with the Society's admissions office.

Irish constitutional law, contract, tort, criminal law and the Irish legal system are the areas most commonly examined in entrance papers.

English is the language of the examination; competence in written English is itself an assessed skill in essay and problem questions.

Problem questions are answered using the IRAC structure: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion.

Case citations should follow the OSCOLA-derived Irish convention: party names italicised, year in square brackets for law reports, round brackets for volume-based series.

Statutes are cited by short title, year and section, for example Sale of Goods Act 1893, section 4; the Constitution is cited as Article 34.3.1.

Contract formation requires offer, acceptance, consideration and intention to create legal relations; all four must be shown by the party asserting the contract.

An invitation to treat is not an offer: shop displays, advertisements and auction calls for bids are generally invitations to treat.

Acceptance must be unqualified and communicated to the offeror; the postal rule deems acceptance effective on posting where post is contemplated.

Consideration must be sufficient but need not be adequate; performance of an existing duty owed to a third party can constitute good consideration.

Irish law recognises promissory estoppel but not as a cause of action in itself; it operates as a defence against the enforcement of strict legal rights.

Terms are classified as conditions, warranties or innominate terms; only breach of a condition entitles the innocent party to terminate and claim damages.

Exclusion clauses are construed contra proferentem and must be incorporated by signature, notice or a course of dealing before they bind.

Damages aim to place the claimant in the position had the contract been performed, subject to remoteness under the rule in Hadley v Baxendale.

Negligence requires a duty of care, breach of that duty, factual causation, legal causation and damage of a recognised kind.

The duty test in Ireland follows the incremental approach endorsed in Glencar Explorations v Mayo County Council, not a free-standing threefold test.

The standard of care is that of the reasonable person; professionals are judged against a respectable body of professional opinion.

The Civil Liability Act 1961 governs contributory negligence, concurrent wrongdoers and the survival of actions in Irish tort law.

Occupiers' liability is statutory under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1995, which distinguishes entrants, recreational users and trespassers.

Defamation in Ireland is governed by the Defamation Act 2009; the tort requires publication of a defamatory statement concerning the claimant.

Trespass to the person comprises assault, battery and false imprisonment; each requires intention rather than negligence.

Vicarious liability requires an employment relationship and a tort committed in the course of that employment, assessed by close connection.

The Constitution of Ireland 1937 is the supreme legal instrument; legislation inconsistent with it is invalid to the extent of the inconsistency under Article 15.4.

The Oireachtas consists of the President and two Houses, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, under Article 15.1.

The President is elected by direct vote of the people for seven years under Article 12 and may not serve more than two terms.

The Government must enjoy the confidence of Dáil Éireann; Article 28.10 provides for dissolution and the Taoiseach's resignation on loss of confidence.

Judicial review examines the legality of decisions, not their merits; grounds include illegality, irrationality, procedural impropriety and breach of legitimate expectation.

The doctrine of precedent binds lower courts to the ratio decidendi of higher courts; obiter dicta are persuasive only.

Ireland is a dualist state: international treaties bind domestically only when incorporated by legislation, as with the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.

EU law has direct effect and supremacy within its scope, as confirmed in Ireland by the European Communities Act 1972 and subsequent case law.

The actus reus of an offence comprises the prohibited conduct, any specified circumstances and any specified consequence.

Mens rea categories are intention, recklessness, knowledge and negligence; strict liability offences require no mens rea as to at least one element.

The presumption against strict liability is rebuttable by clear statutory language or by the subject matter of the offence.

Murder in Ireland requires unlawful killing with malice aforethought, being intention to kill or intention to cause serious injury.

Manslaughter is either voluntary, where a partial defence such as provocation or diminished responsibility reduces murder, or involuntary.

The defence of self-defence requires reasonable force used in response to an unlawful attack; excessive force may reduce murder to manslaughter.

Insanity is governed by the M'Naghten rules; unfitness to plead is a separate question determined under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006.

Automatism requires a complete loss of voluntary control from an external cause; intoxication is a defence to specific intent offences only where it negates the required mens rea.

Answers should be written in Irish or English as the paper permits; clarity, structure and relevance carry marks independently of legal knowledge.

A problem answer should state the issue in one sentence, set out the governing rule with authority, apply it to the facts and state a conclusion.

An essay answer should define the terms in the question, advance a thesis, support it with authority and address the counter-argument.

Authority takes three main forms: case law, legislation and academic commentary; legislation prevails over case law where they conflict.

Time allocation should follow the mark weighting: a question worth twice as many marks warrants roughly twice the writing time.

Reading the whole paper before starting allows candidates to choose the strongest questions where there is a choice.

Citations should be accurate; a misnamed case weakens an argument more than an omitted citation.

Handwriting and legibility affect assessment; planning in the margin before writing reduces correction and improves structure.