Source: http://www2.samford.edu/~medebow/LegalProcess.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 06:18:58+00:00

Document:
REQUIRED TEXTS Michael A. Berch, Rebecca W. Berch & Ralph S. Spritzer, Introduction to Legal Method and Process (West, paperback, 5th ed. 2011 or 4th ed. 2006).
Daniel Hannan, Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World (Broadside Books, paperback, 2014).
May 26 (T). Getting started.
Class objectives, lecture on English history, and handouts. Brief description of "equitable conversion."
May 27 (W). Reading and analyzing judicial decisions I: Equitable conversion and the risk of loss prior to closing.
Bleckley v. Langston, 143 S.E.2d 671 (Ga. App. 1965).
Stoebuck & Whitman on equitable conversion.
Legal Education in America: What Have You Gotten Into?
May 28 (Th). What is "the rule of law"?
Hannan pp. 1-18 & 55-89.
John Hasnas, The Myth of the Rule of Law, Wisconsin Law Review, vol. 1995, pp. 199-234 (1995).
Note to class members: As explained on Thursday, we're going to flip the assignments for Friday and Monday. So, read Monday for Friday, and then Friday for Monday. Call me if you have any questions.
May 29 (F). Voluntary exchange, wealth creation, and the role of the common law.
The amazing properties of "good" property and contract laws.
Read the definitions of "Bargaining range" and "Gains from trade" in the Glossary.
Recommended (browse): You can download the 2005 World Bank study Bailey describes ("Where Is the Wealth of Nations?") by clicking here (see especially chapters 2 and 7).
June 1 (M). Reading and analyzing judicial decisions II.
Recommended (browse): If you're curious about what procedures were used prior to the introduction of trial by jury, I recommend two terrific articles by economist Peter Leeson, Ordeals (Journal of Law & Economics, 2012) and Trial by Battle (Journal of Legal Analysis, 2011). According to Norman Cantor, ordeals were used apprximately 80% of the time, with the remaining 20% of disputes settled by "compurgation" (oath-taking). Trial by battle was introduced by the Normans, was originally available only to Normans, and was rarely used.
June 2 (T). Reading and analyzing judicial decisions III.
June 3 (W). Litigation and the pressure to settle I.
John Langbein, The Disappearance of Civil Trial in the United States, 122 Yale L.J. 522 (2012).
Robert M. Lloyd, Hard Law Firms and Soft Law Schools, 83 N.C. L. Rev. 667 (2005) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab).
June 4 (Th). Litigation and the pressure to settle II.
June 5 (F). Anglo-American history, including the big picture of the common law.
Section III.A.1. & 2. of Todd Zywicki, The Rise and Fall of Efficiency in the Common Law: A Supply-Side Analysis, 97 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1551 (2003). If you're reading the SSRN version (sign up is FREE) of the paper, read pages 17-27. If you're reading the Westlaw version of the published article, read pages 1567-1578.
Tom W. Bell, Polycentric Law, Humane Studies Review (Winter 1991-92). For more, click here and scroll down to "Various other legal issues"
Daniel Klerman, Jurisdictional Competition and the Evolution of the Common Law, 74 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1179 (2007).
* June 5, 1723 -- Adam Smith born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
June 8 (M). Our English inheritance (private property, freedom to contract, rule of law/limited government I).
Charter of Liberties of Henry I (1100) -- especially paragraph 13. The Charter "is important in two ways. First, Henry formally bound himself to the laws, setting the stage for the rule of law that parliaments and parliamentarians of later ages would cry for. Second, it reads almost exactly like the Magna Carta, and served as the model for the Great Charter in 1215."
Magna Carta (1215) – especially paragraphs 39 & 40.
Petition of Right (1628) – Sound familiar?
Bill of Rights (1689) -- Sound familiar?
June 9 (T). A civics refesher (private property, freedom to contract, rule of law/limited government II).
June 10 & 11 (W & Th). Defining property rights: Private property and prosperity.
Daniel Ernst, Pierson v. Post: The New Learning (2009).
June 12 (F). The pressure to settle revisited: An introduction to the Coase Theorem.
Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Forty-five Twenty-Five, Inc., 114 So.2d 357 (1959).
* June 14, 1645 -- The turning point in the English Civil War: Charles I's army defeated by Parliament's New Model Army (commanded by Lord Fairfax) at the Battle of Naseby.
June 15 (M). Gains from trade and contract law I.
Bruce Benson, The Spontaneous Evolution of Commercial Law, 55 S. Econ. J. 644 (1989).
Paul Rubin, Folk Economics, 70 S. Econ. J. 157 (2003) (another source) and discuss survey results.
* June 15, 1215 -- King John "agrees" to the Magna Carta.
June 16 (T). Gains from trade and contract law II.
and Morta v. Korea Ins. Corp., 840 F.2d 1452 (9th Cir. 1988).
June 17 (W): Gains from trade and contract law III.
Walgreen Co. v. Sara Creek Property Co., 966 F.2d 273 (7th Cir. 1992).
June 18 (Th). Torts I: Accidents and negligence.
United States v. Carroll Towing Co., 159 F.2d 169 (2d Cir. 1947) (Hand formula for negligence).
June 19 (F). Torts II: Comparative negligence and products liability.
Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 377 P.2d 897 (Cal. 1963) (products liability).
Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 532 P.2d 1226 (Cal. 1975) (comparative negligence).
* June 21, 1788 -- New Hampshire becomes the ninth State to ratify the U.S. Constitution, bringing the document into force pursuant to Article VII.
June 25 (Th). Final exam, 9:00 - 12 noon, Room 118.
Kenneth Dam, The Judiciary and Economic Development (2006).
Daniel Klerman, et al., Legal Origin or Colonial History?, 3 J. Legal Analysis 379 (2011).
Rafael La Porta, et al., The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins, 46 J. Econ. Literature 285 (2008).
Daniel Klerman & Paul G. Mahoney, Legal Origin?, 35 J. Comparative Econ. 278 (2007).
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Last updated June 15, 2015.
All original materials Copyright (c) 2007-15 Michael E. DeBow.

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