First Year Course Descriptions

Civil Procedure

3 credits

Civil Procedure—the “rules” part of the required, first-year Legal Process and Civil Procedure sequence—covers various topics that arise in the pre- and post-trial stages of civil litigation. We will focus on federal procedural statutes and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which have served as models for procedural rules in many other jurisdictions. The course will cover:

Pleading

the documents (pleadings and related motions) by which litigation is initiated, defined, and sometimes disposed of

Joinder of claims and parties – and – supplemental jurisdiction

how litigation may be structured when it involves multiple claims and parties and the extent of federal courts’ power to hear particular claims in the litigation as structured;

Pre-trial discovery

the means by which parties obtain information prior to trial;

Summary judgment

disposition of issues or claims through a final judgment on the merits without trial

Preclusive Effects of Judgments

limitations on the parties’ ability to re-litigate matters that have been decided in a prior action.

Constitutional Law

4 credits

An introduction to American constitutional law, with an emphasis on U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The course will explore various methodologies of constitutional interpretation and modes of constitutional analysis. Topics covered include the role of the judiciary in reviewing acts of the political branches of government; the separation of powers and relations among the three branches of the federal government; the powers of the national government and federalism- based limits on Congress and the states; and individual constitutional rights.

Criminal Law

3 credits

Traditional and contemporary doctrines of substantive criminal law are analyzed, with focus on such issues as: theories of punishment, the formal elements of criminal culpability, the theory and degrees of homicide, criminal causation, inchoate crimes, accessorial and vicarious liability, conspiracy, and defenses of excuse and justification.

Criminal Procedure

3 credits

The subject matter is Supreme Court decisional law and policy issues relating to the application and scope of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Topics typically covered include: incorporation theory, right to counsel and related entitlements, the exclusionary rule, pretrial identification procedures, search and seizure law, and interrogation law. Students should gain both knowledge relating to constitutional law, which governs the permissible perimeters of police conduct and defendants’ rights, and an informal sense of how the criminal justice system actually operates.

Contracts

4 credits

What promises are legally enforceable? Why does the law enforce those promises? What does it mean to enforce a promise? This course explores those questions, using the basic concepts, principles, and doctrines of contract law, sometimes called “the law of broken promises.” Specific topics include the requirements for formation of a contract (such as offer and acceptance), justifications for enforcing promises (such as consideration or detrimental reliance), justifications for denying or limiting enforcement (such as unconscionability or mistake), interpretation of contract terms, and remedies for breach of contract.

Legal Process

3 credits

Legal Process is a required first-year course that addresses both the value of procedural protections and the limits on judicial power. These protections and limits derive from the federal Constitution, federal and state statutes, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Specific topics covered in the course include personal jurisdiction, notice and the opportunity to be heard, subject matter jurisdiction, venue, and federalism-based limits on the choice of law in federal court (the “Erie doctrine”). For example, the federal Constitution limits a court’s power to enter orders affecting persons who have little or no contact with a particular geographic area. In addition, the Constitution and federal statutes define the types of cases or controversies that federal courts can hear. Although these topics require attention to highly complex and detailed legal doctrine, at a meta-level, they involve larger theoretical issues of the power and the very legitimacy of courts and the law that they apply. Just as important as the legal doctrine and theory that you will study are the skills that you will develop, including legal analysis and argumentation and the ability to think deeply and critically about how the law develops and changes.

Legal Analysis and Writing

4 credits

Students in this first year course will begin to develop the art of analytical legal writing. In classes, students engage in discussions and practical exercises as they learn to analyze cases, statutes and other authorities. The course emphasizes student development in the following skills: organizing the analysis of legal issues logically and coherently; expressing written legal analysis clearly, concisely, and effectively; developing and defending legal arguments, both in writing and orally; performing basic legal research; drafting selected legal documents; and using proper citation form. Exercises and other assignments promote the students’ awareness and appreciation of relevant ethical standards.

Property

4 credits

Property law, broadly defined, governs relationships among people with respect to “things.” These “things” include land (“real property”), tangible objects such as a casebook (“personal property”), and intangibles such as a publisher’s right to prevent others from reproducing the original content in a book (“intellectual property”). The Property Course examines how property rights may be limited, in situations where more than one person has rights to the same piece of property, and in situations where one owner’s rights must be balanced against the rights of the owner of a separate piece of property.

Topics covered in the Property Course may include: modes of acquisition of property (e.g., capture, find, creation), present possessory estates and future interests, co-ownership of property, marital property, landlord-tenant law, land sales, title recording systems, easements, restrictive covenants, nuisance, public land use regulation (including zoning, eminent domain, and the issue of regulatory takings), and global property issues.

Torts

4 credits

This course explores the methods and policies for allocating losses from harm to one’s person, property, relations, and economic and other interests. The course covers the substantive principles of tort claims and their defenses. The course examines the three main theories of tort liability: intent, negligence, and strict liability and analyzes the theoretical and practical aspects of tort liability.