Rules of evidence are, as the name indicates, the rules by which a court determines what evidence is admissible at trial. In the U.S., federal courts follow the Federal Rules of Evidence. This series of Federal Rules books, consisting of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure, are powered by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, and created in partnership with The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI).

Professor Russell L. Weaver graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1978. He was a member of the Missouri Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and won the Judge Roy Harper Prize. After law school, Professor Weaver was associated with Watson, Ess, Marshall & Enggas in Kansas City, Missouri, and worked for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C. Professor Weaver began teaching at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law in 1982, and holds the rank of Professor of Law and Distinguished University Scholar. He teaches Constitutional Law, Advanced Constitutional Law, First Amendment Seminar, Comparative Constitutional Law, Remedies, Administrative Law, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. Professor Weaver has received the Brandeis School of Law's awards for teaching, scholarship, and service, including the Brown Todd & Heyburn Fellowship. He has been awarded the President's Award (University of Louisville) for Outstanding Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity in the Field of Social Science, the President’s Award (University of Louisville) for Outstanding Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity in the Career Achievement Category, and the President's Award for Distinguished Service.

This Lesson will introduce American environmental law students to general principles of international law, with some examples of how such principles create and influence international environmental law.

Approximate Completion Time: 30 minutes

I recently learned a new phrase “noisy learners”* to describe successful online learners. The same day, I noticed that the lettering for the “L” key on my laptop was wearing away. On the surface these appear to be unrelated events; yet I’d like to explore them both in this post, as there may be a tangential connection.

I recently attended the ALI Incubator Conference.  At least 30 schools are already running an incubator of some sort and another 50 seem to be launching something in the next 12-18 months. I won’t bury the lede – I liked EVERYTHING about how the incubator movement is shaping up in law schools. Here are my bullets…

The Federalist, commonly referred to as the Federalist Papers, is a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison between October 1787 and May 1788. The essays were published anonymously, under the pen name "Publius," in various New York state newspapers of the time.

Barbara Glesner Fines is the Ruby M. Hulen Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, where she has taught since 1986. Professor Glesner received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and her masters of law degree from Yale Law School. She teaches Professional Responsibility, Family Violence, Divorce Process, and a Seminar in Ethical Issues in the Representation of Families and Children. Her recent publications include ETHICAL ISSUES IN FAMILY REPRESENTATION (Carolina Academic Press 2010); PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH (Context and Skills Series)(Carolina Academic Press 2012); Fifty Years of Family Law Practice - The Evolving Role of The Family Law Attorney, 24 J. AMER. ACAD. MATRIM. L. 601 (2011); Lessons Learned About Classroom Teaching from Authoring Computer-assisted Instruction Lessons, 38 WM. MITCHELL L. REV. 1094 (2012). Professor Glesner has held leadership positions in many organizations devoted to legal education, including the AALS Section on Teaching Methods (Chair 2012-13); the AALS section on Professional Responsibility (Secretary 2012-13); the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (Board of Directors, 1998‐2005; President 2002‐2005; Editorial Board 1998- current); and the Institute for Law School Teaching and Learning (Advisory Board 2003-date, Acting President 2006‐2008).

This lesson explores the cause of action of conversion as a means of compensation for intentional interferences with personal property. It will examine the several components of interest, invasion, conduct and remedy as the conceptual vehicles for study. Each section of the lesson will focus on one of these components, present the theory, and then give the student an opportunity to apply the theory or explore some of its ramifications. The lesson is designed to be comprehensive enough to be assigned without supporting textual assignment or classroom attention to the subject. Although the lesson is free-standing, students may find that completing the lesson on trespass to chattels before working on this lesson will produce more satisfactory results.

In its focus upon tort theory the lesson seeks to avoid immersion into the complexities of substantive property law and commercial law that are often litigated in conversion cases.

A separate lesson on Trespass to Chattels deals with the other cause of action that allows one to recover for harms to personal property.

 

Approximate Completion Time: 1.5 hours

This chapter’s objective is to raise interesting tax ethics issues in practical contexts. There are 44 notes and questions to prompt and guide discussions, and primary source materials to inform the discussions (e.g., cases, IRC provisions, and Circular 230 excerpts).