Law School for Everyone

416 Pages·2017·30.89 MB·English

by  Edward K. Cheng

Topic Subtopic
Professional Law
Law School
for Everyone
Course Guidebook
Professors Edward K. Cheng, Joseph L. Hoffmann,
Molly Bishop Shadel, and Peter J. Smith
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Table of Contents
Litigation and Legal Practice
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1• Litigation and the American Legal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2• Thinking like a Lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3• Representing Your Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4• Trial Strategy behind the Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5• Opening Statements: The Moment of Primacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6• Direct Examination: Questioning Your Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7• The Art of the Objection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8• Problematic Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
9• Controlling Cross-Examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10• Closing Arguments: Driving Your Theory Home . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
11• Understanding the Appellate Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
12• Arguing before the Supreme Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Criminal Law and Procedure
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Table of Contents I
1• Who Defines Crimes, and How? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
2• Crime and the Guilty Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3• Homicide and Moral Culpability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4• The Law of Self-Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5• Federal Crimes and Federal Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6• Cruel and Unusual Punishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
7• Due Process and the Right to Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8• Government Searches and Privacy Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9• The Shrinking Warrant Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
10• The Fifth Amendment Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
11•  Miranda and Police Interrogations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
12• Plea Bargains, Jury Trials, and Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Civil Procedure
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
1• Procedural Rights and Why They Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
2• Subject Matter Jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
3• Jurisdiction over the Defendant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
4• A Modern Approach to Personal Jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
5• The Role of Pleadings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
6• Understanding Complex Litigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229
7• The Use and Abuse of Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236
8• Deciding a Case before the Trial Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
II Law School for Everyone
9• The Right to a Civil Jury Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
10• Determining What Law Applies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
11• Relitigation and Preclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263
12• Appeals and How They Are Judged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Torts
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
1• The Calamitous World of Tort Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
2• Legal Duty to Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
3• Reasonable Care and the Reasonable Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
4• Rules versus Standards of Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
5• The Complexities of Factual Causation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
6• Legal Causation and Foreseeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
7• Liability for the Acts of Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
8• When Tort Plaintiffs Share the Blame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
9• Animals, Blasting, and Strict Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
10• The Rise of Products Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
11• Products Liability Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
12• Punitive Damages and Their Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Supplementary Material
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Image Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Table of Contents III
DISCLAIMER:
The legal information provided in these lectures is for informational
purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. These
lectures may not reflect the most current legal developments in any particular
applicable jurisdictions and cannot substitute for the advice of a licensed
professional with specialized knowledge who can apply it to the particular
circumstances of your situation. Use of and access to these lectures do not
create an attorney-client relationship with The Teaching Company or its
lecturers, and neither The Teaching Company nor the lecturer is responsible
for your use of this educational material or its consequences. You should
contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal issue
or problem. The opinions and positions provided in these lectures reflect
the opinions and positions of the relevant lecturer and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions or positions of The Teaching Company or its affiliates.
Pursuant to IRS Circular 230, any tax advice provided in these lectures may
not be used to avoid tax penalties or to promote, market, or recommend any
matter therein.
The Teaching Company expressly DISCLAIMS LIABILITY for any DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
OR LOST PROFITS that result directly or indirectly from the use of these
lectures. In states that do not allow some or all of the above limitations of
liability, liability shall be limited to the greatest extent allowed by law.
Litigation and
Legal Practice
Molly Bishop Shadel, J.D.
Molly Bishop Shadel, J.D.
Professor of Law
University of Virginia
School of Law
Molly Bishop Shadel is a Professor
of Law at the University of Virginia
School of Law, where she teaches
negotiations and advocacy classes
and is a senior fellow at the Center for
National Security Law. She graduated
magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in English and
American Literature and Language. Professor Shadel earned her J.D. from
Columbia University, where she served as a note editor for the Columbia
Law Review and was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar. After graduation, she
clerked for Judge Eugene H. Nickerson of the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of New York. Professor Shadel then spent four years as
a litigation associate with the firm Covington & Burling. In 2002, she joined
the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review,
where she represented the United States on terrorism-related matters before
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Professor Shadel taught oral
advocacy classes at the University of Virginia for a year as a lecturer before
joining the faculty in 2005. She also served as the law school’s director of
public service from 2005 to 2007.
Professor Shadel is the author of Finding Your Voice in Law School: Mastering
Classroom Cold Calls, Job Interviews, and Other Verbal Challenges and
coauthor (with Robert N. Sayler) of Tongue-Tied America: Reviving the Art
of Verbal Persuasion. She is conducting an empirical study of law school
teaching practices and how those methods affect student experiences
and outcomes. Professor Shadel is also a planning faculty member of the
Leadership in Academic Matters program, a  biannual, semester-long
leadership course for University of Virginia professors and administrators. ■
2 Professor Biography
Litigation and Legal Practice
In this series of 12 lectures, you will explore the important roles that
litigation and the adversarial system play in American law. The course
begins with an examination of the American legal system generally,
including the significance of law and lawyers in our history and society.
You will then consider what it means to think like a lawyer, learning about
matters of precedent, textual analysis, inductive and deductive logic, logical
fallacies, and the use of analogy. You will also examine the practical and
ethical issues of the attorney-client relationship, learning why a lawyer might
want to represent a seemingly guilty person, for example, and what a lawyer
should do if a client asks her to break the law. As the course continues, you
will learn about pretrial preparation, jury selection, opening statements,
direct examination, cross-examination, and closing arguments. You will
consider how media coverage and social media can impact what happens
in the courtroom. You will learn about evidence—what types of evidence
might be introduced at trial, how to handle common objections, and how
to address the problems caused by false confessions, mistaken eyewitness
identification, and flawed expert testimony. As you approach the end of the
course, you will begin to examine the appeals process, including the various
procedures, standards of review, and approaches to effective advocacy that
distinguish appellate courts from trial courts. Finally, the course concludes
with an exploration of the United States Supreme Court—its history, its
function, and the unique challenges and opportunities that it presents for
lawyers, clients, and the American people as a whole. ■
Course Scope 3
Lecture 1
LITIGATION AND THE
AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM
Litigation holds a special role in the American legal system, and learning
about it offers a valuable orientation to the study of law generally.
In this lecture, you will explore why we adopted the particular legal
system we have in this country, how that system works, and why law is
taught in America the way it is.