Introduction to US Law

Summer 2010

Professors Mark Gergen and Justin McCrary

Introduction to US Law is a two credit course. It meets 14 two hour sessions over the
entire summer. Professor Gergen will teach 10 sessions and Professor McCrary will teach 4
sessions.

Texts There are two texts. Professor Gergen will use George P. Fletcher and Steve
Sheppard, American Law in a Global Context: The Basics (Oxford 2005)(“F&S”). Professor
McCrary will use A. Mitchell Polinsky, An Introduction to Law and Economics, 3rd edition
(Aspen 2003) (“P”). Supplementary materials for a few classes will be made available on
bSpace.

Testing There will be a final exam that we expect will be a mix of short answer and
medium-length issue-spotting or essay questions based on the materials covered in class. Each
of us will write and grade questions on the materials we teach. We hope to divide up the
questions for our separate parts of the course so the length and weight of each part roughly
corresponds to the portion of time spent on each part, i.e., 5/7th and 2/7th respectively.

Office hours and contact information Our office hours are the hour immediately
following class on a day we teach.

Professor Gergen’s office is 598 Simon Hall. His e-mail is mgergen@law.berkeley.edu.

His administrative assistant is Cathy Romanski (597 Simon, cromanski@law.berkeley.edu, x2-
5335).

Professor McCrary’s office is 586 Simon Hall. His e-mail is

jmccrary@law.berkeley.edu. His administrative assistant is Ida Ng (793 Simon Hall,
ing@law.berkeley.edu, x2-5406).

Syllabus
Session Topic Assignment Professor
May 24 Introduction; the common law; F&S 1-12 (read as Gergen
analogy and reading cases background), 15-28, 77-
82
May 26 Language of the law F&S 54-74 Gergen
June 2 Constitutional identity; judicial F&S 105-109 (read as Gergen
review background), 132-149
June 7 Efficiency and equity; the Coase P 1-16, 103-106 McCrary
Theorem; and competitive
markets
June 9 Applications to nuisance law and P 17-28, 29-42 McCrary
breach of contract
June 16 Application to automobile P 43-56 McCrary
accidents
June 21 Applications to pollution control P 107-123 McCrary
and products liability
June 23 Federalism F&S 150-171 Gergen
June 28 The US Supreme Court and the F&S 224-242, 302-314 Gergen
common law
June 30 Some current issues in property F&S 358-375 Gergen
July 12 Human tissue as property F&S 376-394 Gergen
July 14 Foundations of tort law F&S 440-451 Gergen
July 21 Contributory negligence to F&S 472-487 Gergen
comparative fault
July 26 Punitive damages F&S 488-501, Exxon Gergen
Shipping excerpt