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 student, legal professional, lawyer and judge.
This lesson reviews the material covered in the first part of Chapter 1 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source. The lesson reviews the nature of agencies and Congressional control over agencies.
This lesson reviews the material covered in the second part of Chapter 1 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source. The lesson reviews the Executive Branch controls over agencies.
This lesson addresses the process by which Congress makes laws and accompanies Chapter 2 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source.
This lesson addresses theories of statutory interpretation and accompanies Chapter 3 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source.
This lesson addresses theories of statutory interpretation and accompanies Chapter 3 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source.
This lesson reviews the introductory material in Chapter 4 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering intrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the plain meaning and ordinary meaning rules covered in Chapter 4 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering intrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the exceptions to the plain meaning rule covered in Chapter 4 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering intrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the punctuation, grammar, and textual canons covered in Chapter 4 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering intrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the structural canons covered in Chapter 4 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering intrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the material in the first three sections of Chapter 5 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering extrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the material addressing subsequent legislative action, inaction, and stare decisis in Chapter 5 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering extrinsic sources).
This lesson reviews the material addressing common law canons, the remedial statutes canon, and the rule of lenity in Chapter 6 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering substantive policy canons).
This lesson reviews the material addressing the constitutional avoidance canon, severability, and the federalism canon in Chapter 6 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering substantive policy canons).
This lesson reviews the material addressing preemption, sovereign immunity, retroactivity, and implied causes of action in Chapter 6 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering substantive policy canons).
This lesson reviews the introductory material addressing agencies in Chapter 7 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering agencies and statutory interpretation).
This lesson reviews the material addressing Skidmore v. Swift, Chevron v. NRDC, and United States v. Mead in Chapter 7 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering agencies and statutory interpretation).
This lesson reviews the material addressing Brand X, the major questions doctrine, and deference to agency interpretations of regulations in Chapter 7 of the CALI eLangdell casebook, Statutory Law: A Course Source (covering agencies and statutory interpretation).
This lesson introduces strategies and resources for researching state and federal judges. After completing this lesson, you will feel comfortable researching a judge's educational and professional history, scholarship, prior opinions, and other courts and judges they most frequently cite. It will be useful for prospective and current judicial clerks, law firm summer associates, paralegals, and practicing attorneys.
Creating Study Aids is part of the Academic Support series of CALI Lessons. This lesson introduces you to law school study aids. It begins with a brief overview of self-regulated learning and Bloom's learning taxonomy. Then, the lesson introduces law school study aids by pairing them with learning objectives at each level of the taxonomy. Finally, the lesson concludes with an activity designed to help you reflect on your learning. It can be used as an introduction, supplement, or as review.
This lesson explores the concepts of notice and knowledge. These are important concepts in many areas of law, e.g., contracts, property, constitutional law, criminal procedure and civil procedure.
This is an exercise designed to introduce first-semester law and graduate 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.
This lesson provides an overview of the branches of the U.S. government and how each branch makes law.
This is one in a series of lessons directed at the ethical and professional considerations associated with the production of particular lawyering documents. This lesson is intended to introduce first year law students to the ethical and professional considerations associated with the preparation of predictive, interoffice memoranda. It is assumed that students are familiar with predictive, interoffice memoranda. No prior instruction in professional responsibility is required.
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 1: Professors Ron Eades, John Farago, Patrick Wiseman
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
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 3: Professor Darryl Wilson
A Question and Answer session with Prof. McFarland, author of several of CALI's lessons in Tort Law and Civil Procedure. Prof. McFarland has been teaching for over 30 years. His comments in this podcast about the first semester of law school focus on the Socratic method, preparing for class, note-taking during class, class participation, "riding out" that "lost at sea" feel common during the first few weeks of law school, the appropriate use of study aids, advice about law school exams, and general advice on doing well in law school.
In this podcast, Prof. Jennifer Martin discusses the top ten mistakes law students make in law school examinations. These are poor issue spotting, poor knowledge and understanding of the law, poor application of the law to the facts, giving only conclusory answers, lack of organization, errors in the facts, failure to understand the role you are given in the examination, padding, fact inventing, and question begging.
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.
Professors Brown and Grohman, are the authors of many CALI lessons. Additionally, both teach 1L courses. In this podcast they share their experiences and insights on time management issues for law school students, preparing for class, how to brief a case, research tips applicable for 1L writing assignments (and the eventual practice of law), how to develop an understanding of the law, and techniques and tips for studying and preparing for the final exam.
This lesson tries to explain Coasean irrelevance (which is often known as the "Coase Theorem").
This lesson examines the ethical issues associated with, and tools available for, researching parties, witnesses, and jurors on social media sites.
This is the first part of a two part lesson on probability theory. The lesson covers the basics of averages, deviations, conditional probability, and probability models. It roughly corresponds to the first probability theory chapter of Prof. Georgakopoulos' book Principles and Methods of Law and Economics.
This is the second component of a lesson on probability theory. The lesson discusses distributions, the Bayes theorem, and the central limit theorem. It also roughly corresponds to the second probability theory chapter of Prof. Georgakopoulos' book Principles and Methods of Law and Economics.