LAW 605 Introduction to Legal Studies
This intensive "immersion-style" course is designed for entering first year law students. It introduces students to the analysis and reasoning necessary to understand legal materials. By taking this course students should achieve the skills necessary to understand cases and statutes and how to craft legal arguments from these materials. The principal topics will include: sources of law; structure of the American legal system; analysis of a case; the concept and use of precedent; progressive evolution of common law doctrine; emergence of new doctrine; analysis of a statute; approaches to statutory interpretation; relationship between statutes and case-law and between statutes themselves; and presumptions in statutory interpretation. Small section meetings will supplement large section lectures. Small section instruction will include case briefing, development of study skills, and professional writing practice.
Offered
August Term.