1L - First Year Lesson Topics

This lesson is intended to familiarize the user with Colorado secondary legal research materials. The lesson focuses on secondary source material including: Colorado Practice, treatises, periodicals, CLEs and form books. No prior knowledge of Colorado legal research is necessary to follow this lesson. While this lesson is aimed primarily at first year law students who will be learning about these materials for the first time, each section may be used independently to brush up on Colorado-specific legal research skills.

Focusing on the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, this lesson gives a brief overview of the ways in which federal environmental and natural resources law can raise issues regarding the federal government's constitutional authority to regulate pursuant to the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In particular, it looks at the possible limitations on the federal government's Commerce Clause authority as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1995 decision in United States v. Lopez and as a result of federalism and land use considerations.

The goal of this lesson is to introduce you to the basics of conducting company and industry research. Company research is the process of gathering information about a specific company. Once you have information about a company, you may need to know how that company is faring within its industry. Companies within an industry can be compared to one another, or an analysis of the industry itself can be done to see how it is performing.

This lesson considers the differences between the various comparative fault schemes found in different jurisdictions. It begins by considering in what respects the plaintiff's conduct is being compared with the defendant's conduct. Next, it introduces students to the three main types of comparative fault schemes before going on to illustrate when and how they lead to different results, with particular reference to aggregation of defendants' fault.

This is a basic lesson covering the common law doctrine of concurrence. At common law, crimes required not only an actus reus and a mens rea but concurrence of the two.

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 is meant to provide you with an introduction to Connecticut primary legal materials. After you have completed this lesson, you will have a better understanding of where to find and how to use Connecticut primary law materials, including case law, statutes, and regulations.

Basic knowledge and familiarity with primary legal resources is required for this lesson.

This lesson explores the various ways in which the criminal law considers victim consent. Topics include consent as negating an offense element, consent as justification, effective consent, and limitations on consent as a defense.

This interactive exercise addresses the topic of consent as a privilege or defense to various intentional tort claims. It begins with a consideration of how consent is determined to exist and then explores various applications of the defense in contexts such as medical encounters and sporting events. Consideration is given to how the courts have utilized the concept of consent in balancing the competing interests of the plaintiff and the defendant in relation to overarching policy goals.

This lesson addresses a number of issues involving consideration, including whether there was a bargain, whether there is consideration for the settlement of a claim, and whether one of the promises was illusory. You should run it after you have run the lesson on Consideration: The Basics of Consideration and the Bargain Theory.