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First Year Curriculum Courses
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Fall Semester
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| Contracts |
LAW 107 4 Hours |
| This course addresses the basic principles and significance of making, interpreting and enforcing contracts and gives attention to related theories of obligation, such as promissory estoppel and quasi-contract. |
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| Criminal Law |
LAW 110 3 Hours |
| This first-semester course examines major criminal law concepts, including intent, criminal act, and justification and excuse for crimes, as well as exploring the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the criminal justice system. |
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| Introduction to Law |
LAW 100 1 Hours |
| This one-week course presents the student with an initial understanding of the methods and goals of the law school classroom. The course simulates and examines the typical first-year classroom experience, including an exam, better to prepare the student to get the maximum benefit from the "real courses" that begin the second week. The grade recorded for this course is either the actual grade received on the Introduction to Law exam or a "Pass" if the actual grade is less than the student's GPA for the first semester |
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| Legal Analysis |
LAW 111 1 Hours |
| This course covers formulating a rule of law from one or more legal authorities, placing the rule in a rule-structure, analyzing the application of that rule to a set of facts and organizing a written legal discussion of that analysis. It requires completion of weekly exercises and attendance at all classes (or make-up of any absences). |
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| Property |
LAW 116 4 Hours |
| This course examines the history and development of the Anglo-American system of real property rights, estates in land, possessory and non-possessory interests and assorted legal doctrines, both ancient and modern, involving real and personal property interests. |
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| Torts |
LAW 119 4 Hours |
| This course examines the principles underlying the law of civil wrongs to persons and property. It focuses on the law of negligence but also addresses intentional torts and introduces the concepts of liability for abnormally dangerous activities and defective products, concepts that are more fully developed in Torts II. |
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Spring Semester
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| American Constitutional System |
LAW 150 4 Hours |
| This course focuses on significant cases interpreting the Constitution of the United States. The course examines the way in which the Constitution has been interpreted to distribute the power of decisionmaking in our governmental system among the branches of our federal government, the state governments, and individuals. |
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| Jurisdiction & Judgments |
LAW 151 3 Hours |
| This course treats subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, venue, transfer, notice, opportunity to be heard and the Erie problem. In addition, it introduces enforcement of judgments and res judicata and collateral estoppel. The course provides some continuity for first-year students by presenting extended common-law case sequences that develop case analysis skills through the second semester. It also presents opportunities for careful parsing of statutory text. |
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| Legal Writing I |
LAW 152 3 Hours |
| Legal Writing I covers research strategy, forms of legal reasoning, professionalism, and predictive legal writing. The couse examines organizational paradigms and the use of authorities in analyzing questions governed by (1) a single-issue analysis; (2) a conjunctive analysis (a rule with mandatory elements); and (3) a factors analysis (articulated or unarticulated). Typically, at least one of the assignments will be based on a statute. The course teaches writing as a constructive process and requires completion of at least two major writing assignments (one state law and one federal law) and a final examination. |
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| Sales |
LAW 153 3 Hours |
| This course explores the law of the sale and lease of goods primarily through a series of problems designed to encourage the student to concentrate on the exact statutory language in the Uniform Code and related federal statutes. The goals of the course are to impart some knowledge of the commercial background necessary to a full understanding of that law and to teach the methodology of the Uniform Commercial Code |
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| The Legal Profession |
LAW 149 3 Hours |
| The Legal Profession course is an exploration of lawyer professionalism. Students learn about what "professionalism" means for lawyers and why it matters. They see what pressures the practice of law places on professionalism in different settings. The students explore the many ways in which the legal profession seeks, imperfectly, to create and perpetuate the conditions that promote professionalism. This course also examines the extraordinary challenges and opportunities that come with a life in the law, and the students study ways in which professionalism contributes to the satisfaction that lawyers find in their calling. In addition, to class readings, discussions, guest speakers, and an exam, the students write two papers reflecting on their career goals. They also visit in small groups with experienced lawyers to discuss life in the legal profession, and they read a biography of a famous lawyer or judge and discuss it in a small group setting. |
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Fall & Spring Semester
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| Introduction to Legal Research |
LAW 103 1 Hours |
| A one-credit, graded legal research course that meets in the early weeks of the fall semester and the spring semester. The classes are taught by the professional librarians and cover print and electronic formats used for researching state and federal judicial, administrative, statutory and secondary sources. The course requires assignments, class attendance, and an exam to be given in late February. |
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