Important Questions

1) What is law?
2) Why is it important?
3) Where are laws?

I) What a person can do and what a person can’t do

A) Breaking clear laws
1) Subject to change
(a) Can be ignored
2) People are empowered to use discretion
(a) Police officers, prosecutors, judges (esp. sentencing)
II) Civil vs Criminal Law
A) Civil
1) Cases can be brought by government, people, etc.
B) Criminal
1) Cases brought by the government
III) Constitutional Law
A) Law of the Land
B) Only one source
C) Creates the Government
D) Limited in its powers
1) Policed power
(a) Power of the states to do anything not given to the federal government under
the constitution (9th Amm.)
IV) Process vs. Substantive
A) Process
1) Due Process
B) Substantive
1) Property rights
V) Protected classes
A) Highest level – Compelling Interest
1) Race
2) Religion
B) Next Level
1) Gender
(a) Trad approach no longer relevant
C) Lowest Level – Rational Basis
1) Age
2) Economic
VI) Abridgement of rights
A) Speech
1) Prior Restraint
2) Commercial Speech
3) Obscenity
4) Can’t be overly vague
VII) Tort
A) 4 elements
1) Duty owed
2) Breach of duty
3) Causation
4) Damages
B) Tort Law
1) Establishes the rate of compensation
C) Examples
1) Med. Malpractice
2) Personal Injury
D) Types
1) Intentional
(a) Reasonably foreseeable
2) Negligence
(a) Behaving contrary to reason
3) Inherent
(a) Certain types of actions automatically qualified
(i) Explosives, etc.
4) Product
(a) If a product, upon correct use, causes damage, it qualifies
5) Res Ipas Loquitur
(a) “It speaks for itself”
E) Assumption of risk/waivers
1) Changes the balance from simple negligence to gross negligence
F) Damages
1) Compensatory Damages
2) Punitive Damages
(a) Punishes the defendant
G) “But for…”
1) Would the damages have occurred “but for” the breach of duty by the defendant?
VIII) Contracts
A) Making and keeping promises and agreements
1) An objective manifestation of a meeting of the minds
B) Create a duty
 C) Contracts can be implicit or explicit
1) Implicit contracts require reasonability test
D) Statutes of Fraud
1) Certain contracts must be written
(a) Debt repayment
(b) Contemplation of marriage
(c) Sale and interest of land
(d) Duration lasting longer than a year
(e) Worth a large amount (<$500 in NY)
E) Manifestation of Assent
1) Age, capacity
2) Under duress
F) Nullification of Contract
1) Impossibility
2) Act of God
3) War
G) Adhesion contract
1) Downloading an app, etc.
2) Absolute, you agree to all terms
IX) Property Law
A) The state has various power to provide for the “health safety and welfare of its
occupants”
B) The state has delegated various authorities to local governance, among them zoning
laws
C) Types of properties
1) Real property
(a) Land
2) Personal property
3) Intellectual property
(a) Patents
D) Acquisition of property
1) Adverse possession
2) Gifting
(a) Gifts made in contemplation of marriage are exempt
E) Ownership of property
X)