The First-Year Curriculum - A Continuum
By Professor Alan Calnan, Southwestern Law School
Law creates and protects our freedoms. It does so by establishing rights and duties. The law's most fundamental rights and duties are taught in the first year of law school. Although each first year subject is distinct, together these subjects form a cohesive framework for analyzing any legal issue.
Property determines the nature and extent of our rights. Sometimes property interests are unclear. Other times they come into conflict. Property law resolves these issues. It indicates how we acquire rights to goods and land, establishes limits on their use and provides rules for their transfer to others.
With property rights settled, people may voluntarily exchange their rights for the rights of others. Contracts covers these consensual rights exchanges. Specifically, contract law establishes conditions for oral and written agreements and creates remedies for their breach.
Unfortunately, some people don't play by the rules. Rather than exchange rights, they infringe the rights of others. These nonconsensual transactions threaten both society and private citizens alike.
Criminal Law protects society from these rule-breakers. It creates public duties of restraint to deter breaches of the peace. When violations occur, it empowers a public officer to enforce its terms. If an accused is found guilty, it punishes his transgression by restricting his freedom.
Sometimes, anti-social behavior can result in personal injuries. The law of Torts deals with these private encounters. Tort law not only imposes civil duties of care, it gives private parties the right to enforce them. Armed with numerous theories of recovery, the victim can force his wrongdoer to pay compensation for his loss.
To ensure that such civil actions are tried fairly and efficiently, claimants must follow certain procedural rules. These rules are covered in the course, Civil Procedure. From filing a complaint to taking an appeal, civil procedure determines the who, what, where, when and why of all civil litigation.
Regardless of their content, laws are not ends in themselves. Instead, they are tools for handling specific social problems. To use them correctly, one must have proper training. This is the goal of Legal Analysis, Writing and Skills. Besides introducing students to the lexicon of the law, it teaches them how to think, write, problem-solve and argue like lawyers, all in a way that meets the highest ethical standards of the profession.
Finally, as students master these fundamental concepts, they also may begin pursuing certain specialties by taking elective courses like Copyright, Criminal Procedure, International Law, Legal Profession or Defense in the Law.
