2L-3L Upper Level Lesson Topics

This lesson provides students in a Water Law, Natural Resources, or Advanced Property with a basic review of the subject of water law and the two main water law systems in the United States.

This lesson can serve as an introduction or review of the way in which "secondary considerations" are used in assessing the nonobviousness requirement in patent law. The lesson assumes a basic familiarity with the nonobviousness doctrine.

This lesson covers the historical evolution of Congress's authority to enact legislation pursuant to the Commerce Clause. Congress's contemporary Commerce Clause authority is covered in a separate lesson.

This lesson explores the exceptions to an attorney's ethical duty of confidentiality that are designed to protect third persons from death, injury or financial loss.

The purpose of this lesson is to guide students who are not experienced in researching private international law. After providing some background on the definition and sources of private international law, this lesson will suggest the initial and follow-up steps that a researcher of a typical issue related to private international law generally should take.

This lesson explores some of the basic issues surrounding one of our most basic constitutional rights, the right to a trial by jury. The lesson explores the issues of what constitutes a "criminal prosecution" requiring a jury trial, as well as the issues of size and unanimity requirements for a "jury" to pass constitutional muster.

This lesson is the second lesson reviewing Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). This lesson explores issues relating to the assertions by a suspect of the rights provided by Miranda--the right to silence and the right to an attorney prior to questioning; the application of the exclusionary rule to violations of Miranda; and exceptions to and limits on the Miranda rule.

This lesson discusses the role of federal preemption in the implementation of environmental law. Specifically, when do federal environmental and natural resources statutes preempt, or displace, state laws on similar subjects? When are states free to enact their own environmental protections? What is the relationship between federal environmental law and state torts?

This lesson will cover the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine, its application, and its three exceptions.

This lesson reviews Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), one of the most well known and important cases ever decided by the United States Supreme Court.

This lesson reviews the reasoning and holding of the landmark case of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968) and explores the broader issues relating to investigative detentions and limited searches spawned by the Terry decision.

This lesson is designed to introduce students to the methods by which real estate brokers are compensated. Before beginning this lesson, you should complete Real Estate Brokerage Relationships.

This is an introduction to researching the law relating to intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies. IGOs and NGOs have significant input into international law and finding their resources can be integral to researching international law.

This lesson explores the circumstances under which and reasons why courts will dispense with the requirement for a search warrant.

This lesson reviews the concept of probable cause as defined and applied by the United States Supreme Court.

This lesson will cover the general area of adoption law and is designed as an introduction for those students who have not studied the subject and as a review for those students who have.

In addition to the limitations imposed upon interrogations by Miranda, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel also constrain law enforcement authority in the interrogation context. This lesson will discuss those additional constitutional limitations. Although it isn't necessary to have mastered the Miranda limitations at this point, some familiarity with those standards will be helpful.

This lesson will discuss the Exclusionary Rule, the circumstances under which it may be raised, and two important exceptions to its use -- the Impeachment Exception and the Leon Good Faith Exception.

This third lesson in a three lesson set on warrants addresses execution of warrants. Two separate lessons, "Searches and Seizures with Warrants: Issuance of the Warrant 1" and "Searches and Seizures with Warrants: Issuance of the Warrant 2," cover the rules for issuing warrants and the use of these rules with an application for a search warrant and a search warrant. This third lesson treats what happens when police obtain a warrant. It examines the knock & announce requirement, the proper time and method of entry, and the property subject to search under a search warrant.

This lesson reviews the basic regulatory framework of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. The lesson can serve either as a review of the statute or as an introduction to it.

This lesson explores some of the rules surrounding police searches based on a citizen's consent. Students will be able to critically examine the law and the policies that permit consent searches under certain circumstances.

Article III of the United States Constitution requires a plaintiff to establish "standing" in order to sue in federal court. In addition to showing an injury-in-fact, plaintiff must also show "causation" and "redressability." In other words, plaintiff must show that defendant is the "cause" of the injury, and that the injury will be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.

The lesson will review the three most significant automobile search standards: the automobile exception, searches of automobiles incident to arrest, and inventory searches of automobiles.

This lesson explores the countless "administrative" searches governed by the Fourth Amendment that occur every day without warrants or probable cause, in public schools, jails and prisons, factories and offices, and at vehicle checkpoints and border crossings.