Course Descriptions Fall Semester 2013

Contracts (4 credits): An examination of the principles governing the formation, performance, and enforcement of promissory obligations. The principal objective of the course is the development of the foundational skills of legal reasoning and legal analysis, skills that the course seeks to develop principally by examining how judge-made common law rules emerge and evolve and how lawyers facilitate that evolution through the representation of clients. In addition, the course will contrast the challenges to the lawyer posed by common-law rules with those posed by statutes and constitutions.

Criminal Law (3 credits): A study of the sources and purposes of the criminal law, the definition of crimes, theories of group criminality, and defenses to criminal liability. This course will introduce students to the interpretation and construction of statutes, the use of statutory codes, and will explore the dynamics of the relationship between the courts and legislatures.

Torts (4 credits): A study of claims and defenses relating to civil liability for the infliction of harm to person, property, and reputation. Uses of the civil process in shaping and presenting tort actions will also be addressed. The course also will trace the evolution of the common law related to civil liability. Students will consider how social policy shapes the civil duties that are assigned, the standards for the level of care that are imposed, the causation that is recognized, and the damages that are allowed.

Fall 2013 Class Time Schedule for Part-time Students