Lessons: 1L - First Year Lesson Topics

This lesson can be used in a Family Law or Constitutional Law course, as preparation for class or as review for an exam on the topic of Abortion.

This lesson will introduce you to the process of researching federal agency decisions. You should expect to encounter: overview of agency regulatory powers; types of agency decisions; how to find them; how to update them; and their precedential value.

In this lesson, it will be assumed that you are comfortable with the concepts involved in researching judicial court opinions and agency regulations.

This lesson takes a look at two types of agreements that lack consideration: those supported by past consideration or moral obligation. Consideration is often described as the bargained-for-exchange. The bargained-for-exchange is what induces the making of the promise by the offeror and the promise induces the furnishing of the consideration by the offeree. Consideration is the ordinary means for justifying the enforcement of the promises by the parties. Where consideration was given in the past or the promisee is only morally obligated to make the promise, bargained-for-exchange is lacking and the promises are not enforceable.

This lesson sets out the basic requisites for identifying and evaluating those promises that are only supported by past consideration or moral obligation. The general attributes of consideration are covered in other lessons.

This lesson will help you master legal citation using the ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation (Third Edition).

There are two versions of this lesson available from CALI. Please make sure that you are working through the version assigned to you by your professor. Each version has the same coverage. The "original" version is a single lesson. This version takes the original lessons and divides it into four parts, with each part being a separate lesson.

You should start your study with Part 1.

Throughout the ALWD lesson, you will be asked to read specific portions of the ALWD Citation Manual. You then will be asked to complete interactive exercises that will test your understanding of and ability to apply the various citation rules. Topics covered in this part include cover cases, statutes, books, and legal periodicals. Other lessons include typeface, spacing abbreviations, capitalization, ordinal numbers, pinpoint pages and section numbers, and full and short citation formats (Part 1), and introductory signals, and quotations (Part 3).

This lesson will help you master legal citation using the ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation (Third Edition).

There are two versions of this lesson available from CALI. Please make sure that you are working through the version assigned to you by your professor. Each version has the same coverage. The "original" version is a single lesson. This version takes the original lessons and divides it into four parts, with each part being a separate lesson.

You should start your study with Part 1.

Throughout the ALWD lesson, you will be asked to read specific portions of the ALWD Citation Manual. You then will be asked to complete interactive exercises that will test your understanding of and ability to apply the various citation rules. This part is a Final Quiz reviewing material covered in the three other lessons. Other lessons cover the topics of typeface, spacing abbreviations, capitalization, ordinal numbers, pinpoint pages and section numbers, and full and short citation formats (Part 1) citation of cases, statutes, books, legal periodicals (Part 2), and introductory signals, and quotations (Part 3).

Effective December 1, 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to reflect changes in discovery resulting from the electronic storage of information. CALI's lessons do not yet reflect these amendments. As each lesson is revised to reflect the amended rules, the lesson's catalog description will be updated to enable students and faculty to easily tell which lessons include the amended rules.

As its name implies, this lesson is designed to give the student an introduction to the subject of interpleader. The lesson briefly describes the concept of interpleader and some of the historical limitations on the remedy, but its focus is on interpleader under the federal statute and Rule 22. The lesson introduces the various procedural issues involved—such as subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction and venue—and highlights the differences between statutory and rule interpleader on these subjects. The lesson also contains a segment on the problem presented in State Farm v. Tashire—enjoining other pending actions. The lesson requires the student to use the relevant statutes and rules, which are included in the lesson.

This lesson has been revised to reflect the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as they were re-written effective December 1, 2007.

This exercise is designed to help train beginning students in the analysis of judicial opinions. The student is asked to agree or disagree with assertions about a diversity jurisdiction case (Baker v. Keck). The computer responds to the student’s answers by evaluating them or asking further questions.

Basic Future Interests is a follow-up tutorial exercise to The Estate System. It deals with the two major classes of future interests, those retained by transferors and those created in third persons. Emphasis is given to distinguishing among the various kinds of vested remainders and contingent remainders, as well as to distinguishing between remainders and executory interests. The lesson also provides the primary treatment of the defeasible fee simple estates, with emphasis on the future interests that tailor them.

This lesson is now broken into 10 separate parts available separately:

• Lesson 1: The Concept of "Future Interest"
• Lesson 2: The Defeasible Estates and Their Future Interests
• Lesson 3: Fee Simple Determinable (and Possibilities of Reverter)
• Lesson 4: Fee Simple on Condition Subsequent (and Rights of Re-entry)
• Lesson 5: Fee Simple On Executory Limitation (and Executory Interests)
• Lesson 6: Reversions
• Lesson 7: Remainders
• Lesson 8: Kinds of Vested and Contingent Remainders
• Lesson 9: Executory Interests
• Lesson 10: Identifying Remainders and Executory Interests

This lesson is part of a series of exercises covering Basic Future Interests. While the 10 lessons comprising this series can be worked in any sequence, the lessons do to some degree build on each other. Thus, it is suggested that students work them in order.
The 10 lessons are:

1. The Concept of "Future Interest"
2. The Defeasible Estates and Their Future Interests
3. Fee Simple Determinable (and Possibilities of Reverter)
4. Fee Simple on Condition Subsequent (and Rights of Re-entry)
5. Fee Simple On Executory Limitation (and Executory Interests)
6. Reversions
7. Remainders
8. Kinds of Vested and Contingent Remainders
9. Executory Interests
10. Identifying Remainders and Executory Interests

Students should complete the Basic Estate System lesson prior to working through this lesson and series.

Battery Basics is an introduction and initial exploration of the intentional tort of battery. It is designed primarily for students who want to test their basic knowledge of the tort, or who spent little or no time on intentional torts in class. Battery Basics identifies the elements of battery, requires application to some common fact situations, and responds to common misconceptions about the tort.

Traditional contract law classifies contracts into bilateral and unilateral contracts. Bilateral contracts are those involving promises made by all parties, whereas unilateral contracts involve promises made by only one of the parties. This lesson explores the distinction between bilateral contracts (where both parties make promises) and unilateral ones (where only one party makes a promise) and the effect on the obligations of the parties resulting from the classification. This lesson ends with an analysis exercise on unilateral and bilateral contracts.

This lesson will serve as an introduction to some of the secondary resources available in the field of California law. The topics covered include the online and print formats of treatises, practice guides and the state legal encyclopedia. No prior knowledge of California law or legal materials is required, however students should have a basic understanding of building search queries with Westlaw and Lexis.

This lesson may be worked in two parts. Part one deals with California treatises and the legal encyclopedia. Part two covers California practice guides.

This lesson is first in a series that takes a look at the basics of agreements governed by the U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG provides a uniform set of rules for international sales contracts where the parties are located in different signatory countries. While some of the rules parallel those under the common law and Article 2 of the U.C.C., many are different. This lesson sets out the basic requisites for determining when the CISG applies and evaluating contracts governed by the CISG. The general attributes of domestic contracts and other CISG contracts are covered in other lessons.

This lesson tries to explain Coasean irrelevance (which is often known as the "Coase Theorem").

This lesson explores the concept of conditions in the law of contracts. It distinguishes promises from conditions, discusses the various kinds of conditions, and explains ways the courts relieve parties from the harsh effect of conditions. The lesson concludes with two sample exam questions.

This lesson takes a look at the basic aspects of the contractual element of Consideration. In a typical transaction, the consideration (described as a bargained-for-exchange) is what induces the making of the promise by the offeror. In turn, the promise induces the furnishing of the consideration by the offeree. Consideration is the ordinary means for justifying the enforcement of the promises by the parties. This lesson sets out the basic requisites for establishing consideration. The general attributes of formation of contracts (mutual assent, offer and acceptance) are covered in other lessons.

This lesson is an examination of the constitutional law aspects of Family Law. It builds upon lessons which provide a review of Constitutional Law in the Family Law context, but is much more detailed. It is intended as a supplement and review of constitutional doctrine as it occurs in specific Family Law areas such as marriage, divorce, parenting, procreation, sexuality, the rights of minors, and end-of life issues.

This lesson is intended as an overview of Constitutional Law principles that are important in Family Law. It can be used at the beginning of the Family Law course as a refresher of Constitutional Law. It can also be used during the course to clarify general constitutional doctrine. This lesson is related to two other lessons regarding constitutional aspects of Family Law.

This lesson provides a review of the constitutional requirements for standing in federal courts that citizen plaintiffs must fulfill in order to bring environmental citizen suits in the federal courts. These requirements apply to citizen suits brought pursuant to either citizen suit provisions in specific environmental or natural resources statutes, such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, or the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

This lesson assumes that students have already studied standing in their Environmental Law or Administrative Law courses.

This lesson deals with contract formation. Students are given a series of hypothetical problems dealing with basic contract law as reflected in Restatement of Contracts (Second) and the Uniform Commercial Code. Coverage includes: intent to contract, definiteness, options, rejection, revocation, counteroffer, lapse, consideration, promissory estoppel, moral obligations, and accord and satisfaction. The program not only responds with correct and incorrect answers, but also gives feedback regarding underlying reasons for answers. If an incorrect answer is given, the program follows up with additional questions on the topic to improve student understanding.

This lesson is designed for first-year contracts students to use prior to class discussion of the topics. The lesson presents a case or a statute and then asks students to respond to questions designed to test their understanding of the text. The immediate reenforcement aids learning and frees up class time for investigating the rationale behind the rules. This work was supported in part by a grant from NCAIR (National Center for Automated Information Research).

Topics include:

• Expectation Damages
• Specific Performance
• Mitigation
• The cost of Completion
• Applying Expectation Damages
• Restitution Damages
• More Applications of Expectation Damages
• Substantial Performance / Substantial Breach
• The Lost Volume Seller
• Excuse of Performance
• Reliance Versus Expectation Damages
• Foreseeability of Damages
• Liquidated Damages

We are all aware of the perils of poor electronic legal research skills. Whether it is the story of the summer associate who was not asked to return to the plumb job for dipping too deep into the Lexis® service budget or the firm librarian's challenge in negotiating a favorable contract with Westlaw® based upon prolonged use of the program by associates reading the daily New York Times, we have all heard of ways the misuse of electronic legal resources has challenged those engaged in legal practice.

Though Westlaw® and Lexis® service provide us with sophisticated functionality that can ease the pain of legal research, these systems do not necessarily provide the most cost efficient means of conducting research. You may think that using them makes better use of your time, which necessarily results in savings to your clients, but remember, you will bill for the time you invest in electronic researching, in addition to the cost of the research, and if you have not developed a strategy to search effectively, you may incur increased research costs and additional man hours.

This lesson will help you avoid the pitfalls of poor research strategy when using Lexis® service and Westlaw® and briefly introduce you to some cost-saving alternatives.

This lesson is designed to help students understand the term "search" as it is used under the Fourth Amendment. As we shall see, the term is a term of art which does not always correspond to popular conceptions or definitions of the term search. In this lesson, we explore the various facets and definitions of the term. This lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and who would like to refine their knowledge.

Prof. Andersen has written a CALI lesson that provides students with extensive flowcharts designed to aid in learning the analytical framework necessary for understanding the Dormant Commerce Clause. In this podcast, Prof. Andersen gives an overview of the Dormant Commerce Clause, including a brief discussion of the June 2005 U.S. Supreme Court Gonzales decision, concerning states regulation of medical marijuana. He also offers tips for tackling this topic and explains the best way to use his related lesson.

This exercise reviews the substance of contract law and demonstrates the application of the substantive law in the process of drafting. The exercise begins with a form contract. The student must rewrite the contract to suit the needs of the client. On completion, the student will have reviewed applicable principles from both the common law and the U.C.C. In addition, the student will have learned principles of drafting that can be applied either to revision of a form or to drafting from scratch.

Drafters of contracts, wills and statutes are plagued with the ambiguities inherent in the use of these two connectors. This lesson is designed to identify these ambiguities and then help students to draft with conjunctions which eliminate those ambiguities.

After completing this lesson students should be able not only to identify ambiguous uses of 'and' and 'or' so that they may better analyze contracts, wills or statutes which they read, but they should also be able to draft documents so that ambiguities are avoided. A variety of real life applications are presented for each drafting problem and students are called upon to draft solutions. Students will interview a client to determine which meaning is appropriate, thus reenforcing the notion that drafting is an iterative process calling upon the lawyer to identify and clarify ambiguities in the client's instructions.

This ambiguity inherent in 'and' and 'or' is discussed at length in Scott Burnham's Drafting and Analyzing Contracts (LexisNexis 3d edition). This lesson uses Burnham's taxonomy as its basis.

Duress is one of those concepts that is easy to define and hard to apply. The lesson explores which kinds of "threats" are likely to provide a defense to contract formation and which are not.

This lesson has been revised to reflect the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as they were re-written effective December 1, 2007.

This exercise has two purposes. The first is to engage students actively in legal analysis. Hence, the exercise contains some difficult questions that require careful thought. The second is to provide a survey of the rules of evidence in order to give students a deeper understanding of other subjects studied in Civil Procedure courses.

CALI's Director of Curriculum Development, Deb Quentel, spoke with six law professors about outlines, studying for class, preparing for exams, time management, and how professors grade exams. The conversations were recorded as podcasts. While these podcasts are not intended to take the place of a conversation with your professor, the professors hope that these podcasts give law students additional insight into the exam process.

Panel 2: Professors Ron Brown and Joe Grohman

This lesson focuses on the presidential version of executive privilege. The lesson examines the justifications for the privilege, the requirements for its invocation, and judicial handling of that privilege. The lesson is intended for students who have studied this privilege in class, and who wish to further refine their understanding of the topic.

Contracts are sometimes referred to as express or implied. Implied contracts are in turn often referred to as contracts implied-in-fact or implied-in-law. The difference between express contracts and implied-in-fact ones results from the conduct of the party in making the promise constituting the assent to the contract. Implied-in-law or quasi-contracts, however, are not really contracts at all, but merely a remedy in restitution. This lesson explores the nature of express contracts, implied-in-fact and implied-in-law contracts.

This lesson on federal tax research covers the legislative, administrative, and judicial materials used in the specialized area of tax law. A basic knowledge of primary sources such as statutes, regulations, and cases; secondary sources such as treatises, law reviews, newsletters, citators, digests, and periodical indexes is assumed. Federal taxation is a specialized field with many publications devoted solely to federal taxes. For general background there are many excellent CALI lessons, including, but not limited to Researching Federal Legislative History, Forms of Statutory Publication, Introduction to Secondary Resources, and Updating/Validating Case Law Using Citators.

This lesson introduces Florida primary legal resources including the Florida Constitution, statutes, court decisions, Florida administrative law and Florida attorney general opinions.

This lesson deals with the formation of contracts under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (excluding 2-207 issues). At common law, a contract is formed often by the showing of mutual assent plus a consideration. The rule is reversed under the Uniform Commercial Code, however. Under UCC 2-204, a contract can be formed in any manner sufficient to show agreement, even if the parties leave open terms. This lesson will explore the effect of the difference in formation between common law and Article 2. You can work this lesson as an introduction to the formation of contracts under the UCC or as a review. The material in this lesson may be a more in-depth study of Article 2 than some first year contracts courses require. However, prior to working this lesson, you should have an understanding of the common law on offer, acceptance and mutual assent.

This lesson explores the elements of the fraud defense, looking at both affirmative misrepresentation of facts and failure to disclose facts. The user should finish with the ability to determine which element is in issue in a case.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the reader with Georgia legal research materials and will focus on Georgia's secondary source material. You will learn about finding aids for researching secondary source materials and explore both hard cover and online tools to access secondary source materials.

This lesson considers probably the most common type of implied term, that of good faith. Courts often supply a term requiring the parties to exercise "good faith" or "good faith and fair dealing". The UCC provides that every contract is subject to good faith requirements, which cannot be disclaimed by agreement.

This is an exercise designed to introduce first-semester law students to the basic elements of a typical case "brief" and to teach them general methodology for writing their own briefs. The exercise consists of three parts: (1) an introduction to the purposes and uses of a case brief; (2) a detailed examination of each of the ten components of a typical case brief (with examples); and (3) two actual cases that students are asked to read and then to brief, using the methodology described in this exercise. A sample brief for each of the two cases is also provided, thereby allowing students to correct and modify their briefs by way of comparison.

The terms of a contract include express and implied promises, conditions, provisos and presuppositions that bind the parties. Contracts often have "gaps" in them, either intentionally or unintentionally left that way by the parties. This exercise considers how courts supply terms to fill those gaps both at common law and under the UCC.

This is the third in a series of lessons on injunctions against speech. This lesson focuses on injunctions against invasions of privacy. The lesson is intended for students who have studied this material in class and who seek to refine their knowledge.

Interpretation involves an ascertainment of the meaning of a contract. Whereas "construction" of a contract relates to the legal effect of the words used by the parties, "interpretation" addresses the meaning of the parties. Whose meaning is to be given effect with respect to certain contract terms? What evidence may be taken into account when courts engage in interpretation? In another lesson, the discussion of the parol evidence rule relates to the admissibility of agreements made prior to or contemporaneous with the writing. Here, the parol evidence rule will be considered with respect to the admissibility of extrinsic evidence to determine the meaning of the contract as formed.

This is an introductory lesson on federal and state statutes, to acquaint first-year law students with this important form of law. The lesson focuses on the basic structure of statutes and the sources in which they appear. It doesn't describe how to research statutes, but you'll learn statutory research much more easily if you learn this material first.

The lesson begins with a Skills Assessment Quiz. This quiz is designed to help you figure out how much you already understand statutes. It covers the most essential information on statutes, which should be gained from the lesson. At the end of the lesson, you can retake the Skills Assessment Quiz and discover how effectively you have improved your understanding.

Effective December 1, 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to reflect changes in discovery resulting from the electronic storage of information. CALI's lessons do not yet reflect these amendments. As each lesson is revised to reflect the amended rules, the lesson's catalog description will be updated to enable students and faculty to easily tell which lessons include the amended rules.

This exercise is designed to help students learn the principles of joinder under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It is designed to be used in different ways. Students may use it as a tutorial to accompany assigned readings, as a supplement to reinforce concepts discussed in class, or as a review before exams. The tutorial is interactive, requiring the student to respond to various questions and hypotheticals to learn the principles embodied in the rules. It does not assume any specific knowledge of the joinder rules - it is designed to teach the rules from scratch.

The exercise uses hypertext links between various parts of the tutorial. These links offer students options in navigating through the lesson so they are not forced to follow a particular order. The user is the master of the organization. All of the rules and statutes that are needed are available as part of the lesson and may be viewed at any time by selecting an on-screen button.

The lesson includes units on a variety of joinder topics: Claim Joinder (Rule 18); Party Joinder (Rule 20); Counterclaims; Cross-claims; Third-Party Claims (Rule 14); Compulsory Joinder (Rule 19); and Intervention (Rule 24). It also contains an extensive unit devoted to the Subject Matter Jurisdiction problems raised by these rules. Finally, there is a review unit to allow the user to apply the principles learned in the lesson. The exercise is not tied to the organization of any particular civil procedure text.

This lesson has been revised to reflect the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as they were re-written effective December 1, 2007.

The student is asked, in this exercise, to answer questions about whether a hypothetical action could be brought in various fora.

This exercise is designed primarily to give basic instruction on statutes relating to diversity jurisdiction, removal, venue, and personal jurisdiction. However, the exercise also requires the student to interpret two diversity jurisdiction cases that deal with change of citizenship by acquisition of a new domicile.

Everything the student needs to know for the exercise is contained in the exercise; so the exercise can be assigned prior to reaching the subject in class, with a view toward allowing class discussion to begin at a higher level.

This lesson explores the capacity defense to contract formation, including when a contract may be avoided because of the minority, mental incapacity, or illiteracy of one of the parties.

This lesson looks at formal preliminary agreements, often titled letters of intent or memorandums of understanding. Often parties sign a formal preliminary agreement at the beginning of negotiations without the intention of being bound to the transaction as a whole prior to the completion of a formal agreement. However, the formal preliminary agreement may bind the parties to negotiate in good faith and to other obligations related to the transaction. This lesson can be worked as an introduction to letters of intent or as a review. However, prior to working this lesson, you should have an understanding of offer, acceptance and mutual assent.

This lesson covers medical research, as opposed to health law research. This lesson will emphasize resources that are free of charge, although it should be noted that there are also many fee-based services that provide the full text of medical resources; among these is Westlaw's "Medical Litigator," unveiled in early 2007, which provides some access to medical information.

This lesson explores one of the fundamental requirements for contract formation, mutual assent. Mutual Assent is a mutual manifestation of assent to the terms of an agreement. This lesson looks at how parties establish mutual assent, including manifestations of mutual assent by words and conduct and the effect of misunderstanding. However, the attributes of offer and acceptance are covered in other lessons. This lesson concludes with a sample analysis exercise involving mutual assent.

The traditional division of negligence into duty, breach of duty, causation (cause in fact and proximate cause), and damages provides the structure of this lesson. The student will find navigation to an individual section or even to an individual area (such as res ipsa loquitur within breach of duty) easy. The most likely use of the lesson is as a review and test of understanding following classroom discussion, but the questions can also be used to preview that discussion. Because the lesson is lengthy, the student is invited to divide it into at least two sessions. The lesson is designed to reinforce the student's understanding of the basic law of negligence, and then to lead far beyond the elements of the tort into factual applications, policy considerations, and argument evaluation.

Numerous hypertext links and citations to authorities invite the student to consideration of differing views and to further research into the area. The lesson often engages the student in a "dialogue" on the merit of a response.

This exercise deals with offer, an essential element of the bargaining process. There are basically three requirements to establish an offer: (1) intent; (2) definiteness; and (3) communication to the offeree.

This lesson has been revised to reflect the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as they were re-written effective December 1, 2007.

This exercise is in three parts. First, the student surveys the basic law of preclusion (both claim preclusion and issue preclusion) to test and to solidify understanding of the area. The questions explore the elements of the doctrines, such as the requirements of a final judgment and necessary decision of an issue, as applied to various fact situations. Hypertext is available at all times for quick review or checking of the elements. The second part of the exercise becomes more complex as it turns to heavy emphasis on the policies behind issue preclusion. The student analyzes each fact situation from two perspectives: Blackletter Bart, who takes a rule-bound approach to issue preclusion, and Functional Felicia, who takes a policy-oriented approach to issue preclusion. Third, the student answers questions developing the abandonment by the courts of the requirement of mutuality for issue preclusion. Both defensive collateral estoppel and offensive collateral estoppel, from the perspectives of both the plaintiff and the defendant, are analyzed.

The purpose of this CALI lesson is to guide students who are not experienced in researching private international law questions.

This series of three lessons consists chiefly of hypothetical factual situations designed to reinforce the student’s skills in applying the major principles and precepts of basic property law. The student is expected to determine the correct answers by reasoning from hypothetical facts through the applicable precepts and principles, rather than merely being able to identify the rules that apply. The program responds to student answers by suggesting, in windows on the screen, reasons which make the correct answers correct and the wrong answers incorrect. Use of these programs is even more effective in discussion groups of two or three, where the reasoning can be aired before answering.

This series consists chiefly of hypothetical factual situations designed to reinforce the student's skills in applying the major principles and precepts of basic property law. The student is expected to determine the correct answers by reasoning from hypothetical facts through the applicable precepts and principles, rather than merely being able to identify the rules that apply. The program responds to student answers by suggesting, in windows on the screen, reasons which make the correct answers correct and the wrong answers incorrect. Use of these programs is even more effective in discussion groups of two or three, where the reasoning can be aired before answering.

These lessons have been temporaily removed for revisions. Thank you for your patience. CALI

Effective December 1, 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to reflect changes in discovery resulting from the electronic storage of information. CALI's lessons do not yet reflect these amendments. As each lesson is revised to reflect the amended rules, the lesson's catalog description will be updated to enable students and faculty to easily tell which lessons include the amended rules.

This game, the newest game in the Coney Island & Buffalo Creek series, introduces students to pre-trial discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Like Buffalo Creek II: A Game of Discovery, it assumes the jurisdiction has not opted-out of the Rule 26 initial and pre-trial disclosure requirements. The discovery issues arise in the context of a class action school desegregation case. One player represents the plaintiffs who contend the school district is failing in 1994 to comply with a 1970 school desegregation order. The other player represents the defendant school district, the school board, and its employees (including a high school principal whose remarks concerning interracial dating at a prom brought him national notoriety).

Several of the questions have multiple parts. After a description of potential items for disclosure or discovery, the player in possession of the information is asked if he or she wants to disclose it. Next, the receiving player is asked if he or she wants to seek discovery of the information in question or additional information. Attorneys must decide whether the rules require disclosure of the items in question; whether to resist discovery; and must provide reasons for failing to disclose or resisting a discovery request. The computer plays the roles of the clerk of the court (to file motions) and Judge Myron Thompson (to rule on the motion and offer observations about the player’s performance). Players must also consider time, the cost of discovery litigation, the cost of compliance with requests, and their reputation.

This lesson introduces students to one of the constitutional issues that can arise as a result of environmental and natural resources regulation: regulatory takings under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It begins by giving students an overview of regulatory taking claims, their distinction from physical takings of private property, and some of the rules that apply in evaluating whether a regulatory taking has occurred. It then provides examples of how regulatory taking issues can arise in environmental and natural resources regulation, using the Clean Water Act's Section 404 program and the Endangered Species Act's Section 9 prohibitions as examples.

This lesson assumes that students have been exposed to regulatory taking issues in class but does not require detailed knowledge of regulatory taking law. This lesson also assumes that students are generally familiar with the federal Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act., although it also supplies the immediately necessary information about both statutes.

This lesson introduces students to the concepts of ripeness and mootness. This lesson is geared to students who have studied these concepts in class (perhaps some time ago in their constitutional law classes) and wish to delve into the subject more deeply.

The subject of this lesson is satisfaction clauses. Satisfaction clauses require special attention because they could operate as illusory promises. The object of this lesson is to learn 1) to distinguish illusory promises from enforceable satisfaction clauses, and 2) to determine whether courts will apply an objective or subjective standard of satisfaction.

This lesson examines several status issues that arise in standing cases. In a prior lesson, we examined two contexts in which individuals might seek standing: taxpayer standing and citizen standing. In this lesson, we examine two other situations that may arise: the right of associations to sue on behalf of their members, and the rights of individuals to assert the interests of third parties. This lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and who are seeking to further refine their knowledge and grasp of the area.

This lesson covers the basic Constitutional doctrine of state action. This lesson can be used to prepare for class or as a review of Constitutional doctrine. This lesson consists of 25 scored questions and 2 unscored questions, divided into three substantive parts. The first part, State Action Basics and History, considers the basic principles and history of state action doctrine. The second part, United States Supreme Court State Action Cases, treats major cases generally covered in Constitutional Law courses, casebooks, and study materials. The third section, A State Action Hypothetical, examines a recent case decided by a circuit court.

This lesson introduces the student to the doctrine and processes involved in interpreting state and federal statutes. Statutes are a critical part of every substantive area of the law, so this is important background for every law student, lawyer and judge.

This lesson has been revised to reflect the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as they were re-written effective December 1, 2007.

The student is asked to decide summary judgment motions on a claim for defamation and a counterclaim for battery. After requiring the student to explore and apply the fundamental concepts of summary judgment, such as what constitutes a genuine issue, the exercise moves into more difficult problems based on court interpretations of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 56.

This lesson provides an overview of the history and structure of the European Union, followed by an introduction to researching European Union documents. The European Union is a truly unique structure which represents over half a century of cooperation between select nations. As the sole supranational legal order in the world, the European Union offers a truly unique model of study to legal scholars and practitioners.

This is a game to test your memory of where decisions from district courts in each state would be appealed.

This lesson takes a look at the the Mailbox Rule. The offeror, as master of the offer, may insist that the offeree accept by means of the mail (or some similar form delivery, such as e-mail). Alternatively, the offer may not specify a means of acceptance and the offeree may decide to use the mail, where such acceptance would be permissible in accordance with the offer. This lesson sets out the ramifications of use of the mail (as well as e-mail and facsimiles, which follow the same rule). The general attributes of offer and acceptance are covered in other lessons.

This lesson presents an introduction to the doctrine that the performance of a pre-existing duty, or a promise to perform such a duty, does not constitute a sufficient consideration to make a promise binding. Through questions based on a series of hypothetical cases, underlying reasons for the doctrine are considered, as well as its ramifications in various contexts. Coverage includes: the performance of duties owed to the promise or third parties as consideration; modifications on one side of executory contracts; substituted contracts following rescission; executory accords; satisfaction; liquidated claims and offers to settle unliquidated claims.

The Statute of Frauds is a defense to certain oral contracts. In this lesson, the student is guided to always ask three questions: 1) Is the agreement within the Statute of Frauds? 2) Is the agreement evidenced by a writing? 3) Is there an exception to the Statute? Experience with this framework should help in resolving any Statute of Frauds issue. A sample exam question is also included.

Prof. Burnham, author of a number of CALI lessons and podcasts provides students with advice on multiple choice exam questions. Prof. Burnham goes into the different aspects of a multiple choice question: the stimulus, options, key, and distracters. Additionally, Prof. Burnham discusses the different types of multiple choice questions such as questions that test a student’s ability to recall information, those that draw on materials discussed in class, and those that require analysis. Students are taught how to respond to the call of a question, apply IRAC to multiple choice questions, as well as different tactics for eliminating options in a question. At the end of this lesson students will know how to decipher what type of question is being asked, how to spot the specific issue in the question, and how to eliminate the other choices.

This lesson addresses the enforcement provisions of the child custody jurisdiction statutes. It also addresses the international aspects of child custody enforcement. The lesson should be worked after completing the lesson on Child Custody Jurisdiction.

The lesson assumes that the student is familiar with the provisions of the UCCJA, the PKPA, and the UCCJEA, but does not assume knowledge of the enforcement provisions of these statutes. The lesson does not assume that the student has a great deal of exposure to the international aspects of this issue, other than perhaps a brief overview of the Hague Convention and the International Parental Kidnapping Act.

The subject of "unlawful delegation" of powers is an important issue in both constitutional and administrative law. Not infrequently, Congress attempts to delegate its legislative authority to an administrative agency or to the courts. Sometimes, Congress attempts to delegate judicial power to administrative agencies. In this lesson, we explore the legality of such delegations. This lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class, and wish to refine their knowledge.

This CALI lesson provides instruction on conducting Utah legal research using both primary and secondary sources.

This lesson has been revised to reflect the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as they were re-written effective December 1, 2007.

Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that certain defenses, including lack of jurisdiction, improper venue, and failure to state a claim, can at the pleader’s option be brought by motion prior to filing a responsive pleading. It also provides that certain of these defenses are waived if they are not asserted in the proper fashion. This exercise deals with the reasons for special treatment of those defenses and analysis of the waiver provisions of the rule. It provides practice in close scrutiny and interpretation of a complex set of interrelated provisions.

Who has the right to pump and use ground water -- the water in underground aquifers? The various states in the United States have used a variety of rules to establish rights in ground water. As a practical matter, some of these rules have created problems because states didn't recognize that ground waters and surface waters are often connected.

This lesson provides a review of the five major doctrines that states have employed to decide who has what rights in ground water. It is intended to serve as a review of these doctrines for students who have studied ground water rights as part of a Water Law, Property, or Advanced Property course. The lesson consists of 15 questions.

While most of the states in the country choose between the water law doctrines of prior appropriation and riparian rights, California applies both. This approach to state water law is called, appropriately, the California system.

This lesson gives a brief overview of the California system of water rights. California was the first state to attempt to blend prior appropriation and riparian rights. However, its example can be considered instructive for the modern evolution of water law, because more and more states are trying to blend the best parts of both systems.

This lesson is available only in a non-standard lesson format. As CALI updates the format of this lesson, we will continue to make this lesson available to you and your students in its current form because we believe it still has educational value. While this lesson still, essentially, runs as intended, there are potential technical problems: 

1. there is no way to print the score certificate standard in most CALI lessons; 
2. there is no ScoreSave feature and, thus, it is incompatible with LessonLink; and 
3. the built-in save feature is unreliable and may not work as the lesson leads students to believe.  

Because of these printing and saving complications, if you assign or suggest this lesson, we highly recommend you not require any sort of proof of completion from your students.

Effective December 1, 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to reflect changes in discovery resulting from the electronic storage of information. CALI's lessons do not yet reflect these amendments. As each lesson is revised to reflect the amended rules, the lesson's catalog description will be updated to enable students and faculty to easily tell which lessons include the amended rules.

This game is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of the discovery process. It is based on the acclaimed book "A Civil Action," by Jonathan Harr, and draws its problems from the litigation arising out of the contamination of the Aberjona aquifer in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Woburn provides students with a unique opportunity to acquaint themselves with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding discovery in the context of a concrete, real-life case. Assuming the roles of plaintiffs' and defendants' attorneys, the players alternate making decisions about when and how to disclose or request discovery of certain pieces of information, as well as when to cooperate with and when to oppose their opponent's discovery efforts. The simulation is highly interactive, with the computer taking the role of Judge Skinner, who occasionally intervenes to rule on discovery motions.

The thirteen problem sets included with Woburn cover a wide variety of topics, including:

• Mandatory initial and supplemental disclosure requirements;
• Proper use of various methods of discovery (subpoenas, interrogatories, depositions, requests for document production, medical examinations, requests for admission);
• Expert witness reports;
• Work product and privilege defenses;
• Cost-shifting for discovery activities;
• Attorney's fees awards; and
• Sanctions for conduct in violation of the rules.

Woburn will teach students the details of the rules. It will also illuminate the strategic dimensions of discovery. While pursuing their discovery efforts within the context of the rules, the players are forced to think strategically about the costs of various discovery activities, time constraints, and their reputation with the judge, jury, and the legal community at large. Frivolous motions are punished by a loss of reputation; time-consuming document requests may exhaust a player's financial resources. The need to juggle these non-legal factors brings the rules to life, showing the student how particular rules affect attorneys' decision-making processes in concrete situations.

The game is to be played out of class, on the student's own schedule. At the end the students will have internalized the structure and dynamics of the discovery rules, and be ready to discuss the more conceptual or policy-oriented issues in class.

This new, internet-based interface makes Woburn easily accessible and easy to play. On-screen reports let the players know at all times how their discovery efforts are progressing, and pictures of the actual persons involved in the trial as well as of the contamination site, court documents, and so forth, further heighten the impact of the game.