1L - First Year Lesson Topics

This lesson focuses on the justifications for giving Freedom of Speech, as protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, a privileged and preferred position vis-à-vis other rights. It begins with an analysis of historical antecedents, and concludes with an analysis of the justifications themselves. The lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and wish to refine and enhance their knowledge.

This lesson serves as background and foundation for other lessons on damages for harms to personal property. It deals with general principles and basic measures of damages recoverable for harms to personal property.

This lesson reviews the key aspects of the Merger Rule, the Rule in Shelley's Case and the Doctrine of Worthier Title. These three rules transform future interests in certain types of conveyances and should be learned after one has mastered the classification of estates and future interests and before one studies the Rule Against Perpetuities.

This lesson introduces the student to the structure, function, and terminology of the law of damages in the context of torts cases. It deals with the concept of general and special damages and presents questions that help students distinguish the two categories. Problems of measurement of damages are introduced, and nominal damages are briefly considered.

This lessons discusses the standard of care of professionals. The initial sections illustrate the general duty of professionals and highlight special problems associated with the professional standard. Special attention is then directed toward the malpractice action against attorneys.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the reader with Georgia legal research materials. The lesson focuses on Georgia's primary source material including cases and digests, citators, statutes, administrative materials, court rules and ethics.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the reader with Georgia legal research materials and will focus on Georgia's secondary source material. You will learn about finding aids for researching secondary source materials and explore both hard cover and online tools to access secondary source materials.

This lesson addresses inter vivos gifts of property, focusing primarily on personal property (but with a brief discussion of inter vivos gifts of land). The lesson explores the function of the various requirements (donative intent, delivery, and acceptance) for a valid inter vivos gift and the policies implicated by the law of gifts. The lesson includes a wide variety of problems designed to test student understanding of the rules governing inter vivos gifts.

This lesson follows up and builds upon the material in the lesson on Inter Vivos Gifts, but focuses instead upon transfers at death or in anticipation of death.

This lesson considers probably the most common type of implied term, that of good faith. At common law, courts often supply a term requiring the parties to exercise "good faith" or "good faith and fair dealing". Moreover, for the sale of goods, the UCC provides that every contract is subject to good faith requirements, which cannot be disclaimed by agreement.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the user with the range of documents produced by the Federal government, where they can be found, and how they can be used in a law practice.