PrepTest 121

[lcid:3582] Prep Test 121 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 13-19  .        Although the rights of native peoples of Canada  . have yet to be comprehensively defined in Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal Studies


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background/Intro to implied legal question
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Native Canadians don’t have their rights defined in law
    • Native Peoples - Right to govern selves and land; ownership over movable cultural property
    • Traditional statute/law - Movable property owned by museums/custodians
    • Recent litigation/Native Canadians - Owned by Native Peoples
    • Suggested Question - Who owns it? Who should?

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Current legal framework; Alternative argument
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Current (Canadian law) - Private property - Items are owned and can be transferred
    • Alternative (Native Canadians) - Collective ownership - People use items that are collectively owned, but they can’t transfer them out

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Current situation; Author’s prediction/opinion
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Current - Courts recognize ownership of museums who have documents
    • Prediction - Courts will recognize collective property; courts will and “should” honor claims of Native Canadians

Main Point: Courts should and will increasingly view claims of Native Canadians to movable cultural property as invoking the idea of collective ownership, thus honoring their communal ownership rights in these items.

Key Lines?

Lines 9-14 - Key legal issue/question raised

Lines 15-16 - Current approach

Lines 25-28 - Alternative approach

Lines 53-61 - Author’s prediction and opinion on what “should” happen

Meta-Structure?

Question/Answer and Old Approach/New Approach - This passage enmeshes two common Meta-Structures in a way that happens relatively frequently in Legal Studies passages. It presents a Question that the legal system needs to address, which suggests a Question/Answer Meta-Structure. Here, that question is: Who owns Native Canadian movable cultural property (Lines 9-14)? In such a Meta-Structure, the Author’s answer (or her opinion of a key answer) is the main point. Frequently, though, in a Legal Studies passage, the answer to the legal question involves a New Approach to that area of law, which is what we see here! The Author presents the current approach - basing the decision on the idea of private property (Lines 15-16). She then highlights an alternative - basing the decision on the idea of collective ownership (Lines 25-28), which is how Native Canadians have traditionally viewed ownership of their movable cultural property. At the end of the passage, the Author predicts that this approach will become more common (Lines 55-60) and endorses it (“should be honored,” Line 61). In an Old Approach/New Approach passage, the Author’s opinion of the New Approach serves as the main point. Here, the Author endorses the New Approach as an Answer to the key legal Question in the passage, so that is our main point, as we summarized above.

Prediction - Predictions are almost always featured in questions when one is made by the Author. Here, the Author doesn’t just endorse the use of the concept of communal property/collective ownership in cases involving Native Canadian property claims, but she also predicts that courts “will gradually recognize” that it’s the appropriate framework in these cases. Such a prediction on the core topic of the passage should be reflected in the main point and will likely feature in a question or two.

Last Thoughts?

Nothing here!

Question prompt

According to the concept Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Review the section on private property, focusing on the definition of “property owner,” and then find an answer reflecting that definition

Answer Anticipation

Looking back over our notes, we see that “private property” serves as the foundation for the current approach (Old Approach) to Canadian court cases surrounding claims of Native ownership of movable cultural property. That discussion happens in the first half of Paragraph 2, so we should go there to review how these terms are defined.There, it states that this conception of property focuses on all property “being owned by individuals” (Lines 17-18) that are “encourage[d]...to use their property as they see fit without outside interference (Lines 20-22).Let’s find an answer that defines “property owners” as people who own goods and can, without interference, do what they want with those goods.

Answer choices

  1. A
    one who possesses a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 46-51) This is a tricky answer! The passage establishes that a bill of sale - like the ones held by museums - can establish that one is a property owner, but that’s not the same as defining a property owner. That's like saying a “driver” is defined as “someone who has a driver’s license” - it misses the entire action that makes a driver a driver!

  2. B
    one who possesses proof Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 46-51) This answer is functionally equivalent to (A), in that bills of sale and proof of prior possession are lumped together in the passage and thus serve the same role. Since that’s the only difference between these two answers, they’re both equally wrong.

  3. C
    one who is allowed Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) (Lines 20-22) Property ownership in a world of private property is “based on a philosophy” that owners have the right to use property as they see fit, as this answer states. It reflects how the term is defined in the relevant section of the passage, so this is the correct answer.

  4. D
    one who is allowed Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 41-42) The discussion of handing property down to heirs is at the end of Paragraph 2, showing that the collective ownership practiced by Native Canadians doesn’t involve property being inherited by heirs. While this might imply that property is passed down to heirs in a private property system, it doesn’t fully establish it, nor does it state it, so this answer is incorrect.

  5. E
    one who is allowed Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 32-33) This answer seems to be conflating key concepts from both approaches to property - private and collective ownership. It’s in the discussion of collective ownership where the Author refers to the community, so this answer is incorrect.

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