1L - First Year Lesson Topics

This lesson deals with liability for defectively designed products and products that are defective because of an inadequate warning. It does not consider liability for defectively manufactured products, which are dealt with in the lesson Liability for Defectively Manufactured Products. It begins by comparing the two predominant tests for determining whether a product is defectively designed (the consumer expectations test and the risk/utility test), then considers the impact of warnings, including a consideration of the learned intermediary doctrine.

This lesson deals with liability for defectively manufactured products. It does not consider liability for defectively designed products, or products that are defective because of an inadequate warning, which are dealt with in the lesson Liability for Defectively Designed Products.

One of the difficult common law issues in defamation was the distinction between libel and slander. This lesson explains the differences between the two types of defamatory statements. Material is provided on the damage requirements of both. This lesson is part of a series about defamation. One should review the lesson on Basic Issues in Defamation and Privileges before working with this exercise. After finishing this one, the exercise on Constitutional Issues in Defamation should be covered.

This lesson examines the law of licenses, specifically as that law intersects the law of easements. The Lesson first defines licenses and contrasts that definition with the definition of easements. It then explores the circumstances in which a license, normally revocable, becomes irrevocable and explains that an irrevocable license essentially gives the parties the same rights and duties as an easement would.

This lesson will examine the life estate, the shortest freehold estate in land recognized by Anglo-American law.

Liquidated damages clauses are provisions in a contract in which the parties agree on the amount of damages to be paid in the event of breach instead of having a court decide that issue. This lesson explores whether liquidated damages clauses are enforceable under the tests used in the Restatement, the UCC, and a California statute. The lesson can be run either as an introduction to liquidated damages or as a review after you have completed your study.

This lesson provides a thorough overview of Louisiana Primary Legal Resources. It covers resources that will be familiar to legal researchers from other jurisdictions and examines resources that are unique to Louisiana.

Louisiana is a mixed legal jurisdiction with strong ties to French and Spanish Civil Law. There are differences between the civil law practiced in Louisiana and the common law practiced in the other 49 states. Although some of those differences have been bridged, some of the secondary materials discussed in this lesson vary greatly from the secondary materials of other jurisdictions.

This lesson takes a look at 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 concerns Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), a difficult and important case in Constitutional Law. It is contained in every Constitutional Law casebook and usually appears as one of the first cases. This lesson is designed to assist students to understand Marbury v. Madison and its relevance.

This lesson teaches you about the operation of Marketable Title Acts which are also known as Marketable Record Title Acts. The focus is on statutes based on the Model Act. You should already be familiar with recording acts before attempting this lesson.