1L - First Year Lesson Topics

Excuses I provides a general introduction to excuse defenses by placing them within the larger context of the analysis of criminal liability. More specifically, Excuses I covers duress, entrapment, and mistake (or "ignorance"). Insanity and infancy are covered in Excuses II.

Excuses II covers the excuses of insanity and infancy. As in Excuses I, the connection between these defenses and other issues in the analysis of criminal liability is emphasized. Excuses II is a freestanding exercise and provides a general introduction to the concept of an excuse. Still, it's probably best used in conjunction with Excuses I.

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.

When the court awards money damages for breach of contract, it generally measures the damages by what is called the expectation measure or the expectancy. This lesson explains how those damages are calculated. It can be run either as an introduction to expectancy damages or as a review after you have completed your study.

The goal of this lesson is to take the user systematically through UCC Article 2. The lesson accomplishes this goal by having the user study a contract for the sale of goods. The concepts of Article 2 are thereby seen in the practical setting in which they are applied. Conversely, study of the contract reveals the source of each of the included provisions in the law. The user becomes familiar with the default rules and how those rules might be changed on behalf of a client. The user finishes with knowledge of the Code and how the Code may be applied in practice when drafting a contract.

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 introduces the student to the most common type of easement, the express easement. When we speak of an express easement we mean an easement that is voluntarily created by the parties to it. Express easements are to be contrasted with easements that are implied by law.

This lesson explores the intentional tort of false imprisonment. Beginning with identification of the interest the tort protects, the questions become more and more challenging as they explore the nature of the confinement necessary and appropriate damages. Since the greatest use of the tort today probably is in arrest for shoplifting, the lesson includes a tightly fact-bound question about a person detained for shoplifting. The lesson concludes with false imprisonment in two tough situations: religious deprogramming and nursing home confinement.

Compiled legislative histories are collections of the documents that make up the legislative history of a law. They save researchers the time and frustration of collecting the documents themselves. This lesson builds upon the CALI lesson How to Research Federal Legislative History. While it is not essential to complete that lesson first, doing so will improve your understanding of compiled legislative histories.

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.

In the Anglo-American legal system land is not owned directly. Rather, people own legal interests in land. The reason land is owned in this way goes back to the feudal origins of land holding in England. The fee simple absolute is one of the estates in land, which emerged from that system.

This lesson will help you understand: (1) the legal concept of an estate in land, (2) the legal characteristics of the fee simple absolute, and (3) what is necessary to create a fee simple absolute.