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Creating a Course Outline

Creating a Course Outline. Jeffrey Minneti Associate Professor of Legal Skills and Director of Academic Success Stetson University College of Law minneti@law.stetson.edu. Presentation Objectives. Explain the purpose of a course outline Discuss the content of a course outline

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Creating a Course Outline

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  1. Creating a Course Outline Jeffrey Minneti Associate Professor of Legal Skills and Director of Academic Success Stetson University College of Law minneti@law.stetson.edu

  2. Presentation Objectives • Explain the purpose of a course outline • Discuss the content of a course outline • Suggest a process for creating a course outline • Suggest forms for course outlines

  3. Course Outline Purposes • Learning theory perspective • Building schema • Creating a tool to facilitate problem solving • Pragmatic perspective • Structure major premise of syllogism • Consolidate information in one place • Capture the structure of the law • Macro level • Micro level • Template for memorization of law

  4. Course Outline Content • Vocabulary • Concepts • Rules • Policy • Examples and non examples of law in factual contexts

  5. Course Outline Content • Vocabulary • Latin phrases • Stare decisis • In rem • Mens Rea • Language of the law • Remand • Appellee • Cause of action • Service of process

  6. Course Outline Content • Concepts • Ideas • Contract formation • Terms of art • Meeting of the minds • Offer • Acceptance • Consideration • Promissory Estoppel

  7. Course Outline Content • Rules • Sources • Primary • Constitution • Statutes • Court decisions • Administrative Regulation • Secondary • Restatements • Treatis/hornbook

  8. Course Outline Content • Synthesized Rules • Types • If, then • Elements • Disjunctive • Factors • General Rule + Exceptions • Hybrid

  9. Course Outline Content • If, then rule • If you capture or mortally wound a wild animal on public lands, you have a property right in the wild animal. • If you engage in an act, knowing with substantial certainty the consequences of the act, for the purpose of tort liability, you have acted with intent.

  10. Content of Course Outline • Elements • Law broken into discrete units • each has its own test or definition • each must be proven for the rule to apply • Example • An actor batters another when he intends to cause harmful or offensive contact with the person of another and such contact actually occurs • Elements • Intent • Causation • Harm or offense • Another person • Actual contact

  11. Course Outline Content • Elements • Example • Contract formation • Offer • Acceptance • Consideration

  12. Course Outline Content • Disjunctive rules • Battery includes harmful OR offensive contact • Damages for breach of contract may include money damages OR specific performance • Delivery of a gift can be actual OR constructive

  13. Course Outline Content • Factors • Personal jurisdiction analysis • Several layers to the test • Minimum contacts • Purposefully direct actions to forum? • Product placed in stream of commerce? • Business relationship with forum state business? • If internet contact, how interactive is the web business with the forum state? • Reasonableness • Burden on the defendant • Burden on the plaintiff • Interest of the forum state

  14. Course Outline Content • General Rule + Exceptions • Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought, unless, the actor acted in self defense

  15. Course Outline Content • Hybrid rules • Contract formation • Subject Matter Jurisdiction

  16. Course Outline Content • Review rule structures: • If, then • Elements • Disjunctive • Factors • General Rule + Exceptions • Hybrid

  17. Course Outline Content • Policy • The ideas that animate the law, give it purpose, guide its evolution • Judicial process • Firm v. flexible rules • Slippery slope • Flood of litigation • Normative • Freedom of contract • Individual v. Altruism • Economic • Cost-benefit analysis

  18. Example of Policy • Adverse possession forces real property owners to pay attention to uses of their property and benefits those who put real property to productive use.

  19. Course Outline Content • Examples and non-examples of rules in factual context • Cases (including note cases) • Holding • Rule + dispositive facts • Hypotheticals that professors present in class

  20. Course Outline Process • Starting point • Utilize your case book’s table of contents and/or course syllabus as templates for the major topics covered during the class • Next Step • For each topic, pool together pre-class notes, during class notes, post class notes, and readings from supplemental sources • Final Step • For each topic, synthesize rule structures

  21. Starting Point: Table of Contents and/or Syllabus • If your professor proceeds sequentially through the case book, utilize the case book’s table of contents to structure your outline • If your professor “jumps around” sections of the case book, utilize the professor’s syllabus to structure your outline

  22. Next step: Pool information • For each topic, pre-class, gather information from assigned and supplemental reading relevant to the topic you are studying • For each topic, during class, edit and add to the information you gathered pre-class • For each topic, post class, review the information gathered pre and during class: • Identify patterns and structures in the information • Identify gaps in the information • List questions about the information and create a plan for addressing them

  23. Final Step: Synthesize Rule Structures • Generally legal synthesis requires inductive thought • Discern rule structures from a number of sources, each of which individually reveals only a portion of the rule’s structure • Inductive thinking derives general principles from specific cases and materials covered in case book and in class

  24. Course Outline Process • Suggestions to improve your inductive thinking about cases • Know the purpose for reading the case • Reduce the case to 1-2 sentences that explain the law of the case in light of the facts and the purpose • Gather the 1-2 sentences from the cases together and make a cumulative list of the legal principles and policies related to the purpose for which you read the case • Discern form, structure, hierarchy among the principles and policies

  25. Final Step: Synthesize Rule Structures • On occasion, information is delivered in a structured form • Need only record the structure of the rules, noting their development from general idea to more specific

  26. Course Outline Forms • Traditional outline • Concept map • Timeline • Comparison chart • Comparison diagram • Flow chart

  27. Review Presentation Objectives • Explain the purpose of a course outline • Discuss the content of a course outline • Suggest a process for creating a course outline • Suggest forms for course outlines

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