Course Description

This course is part of the first-year JD curriculum.  It considers legal and policy issues involved in determining whether the law should require a person to compensate for harm intentionally or unintentionally caused. These problems arise in situations as diverse as automobile collisions, medical malpractice, and consumption of defective food products. The basic objectives are to develop an understanding of the principles, concepts, and purposes of private law governing injuries and of the common law method of adjudication. Topics covered include intentional harms to persons, trespass, negligence, strict liability, nuisance, and products liability.

This syllabus offers a complete course on torts, ranging from practical matters of procedure to fundamental conceptual problems encountered in the common law.  A student who wishes to pursue this topic from an academic perspective will find links to readings that explore topics in greater depth.  On the other hand, a student who wishes simply to prepare for the bar exam, or even just a final exam, will find black letter tort law presented with clarity.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

• display knowledge of basic tort law, including, for example, concepts associated with Trespass, Negligence, Nuisance and Products Liability;

• deploy legal reasoning at the introductory level.;

• analyze facts to identify legal issues presented by those facts; Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a tort claim in a given factual context;

• analyze the relationship between substantive tort law and litigation procedures;

• identify the rationale for substantive tort law;

• Distinguish policy and legal issues presented by tort law in a given factual context.

Students will be assessed on these learning objectives through:

• a final examination and in class discussion/exercises.