Advanced Legal Reasoning: Modern Global Challenges
Course Description
This course will improve your ability to:
- Think, act and communicate like a lawyer.
- Identify legal issues in beginner and more advanced legal problems and devise effective strategies for solving those problems.
- Comprehend and analyze case, statutory, and other appropriate primary and secondary legal authorities.
- Synthesize law from case, statutory, and other appropriate primary and secondary authority.
- Apply critical thinking skills to legal authorities and their application to facts to solve legal problems.
- Communicate legal reasoning and solutions to legal problems effectively in objective writing.
- Nurture a developing sense of professional identity in the context of simulated client representation.
- Employ productive academic and professional behaviors to succeed in law school and law practice.
- Students will be able to effectively employ strategies of active listening, empathy and effective allyship during classroom discussions and group work.
Topics
This course will address several fundamental areas of the law, while using these to improve your analytical skills and legal writing. Topics may include contracts, torts, constitutional law, international commercial law, and criminal law. I will develop topics that are of the most interest to students and invite your input and feedback.
Course Materials
The textbook for the course is Legal Reasoning Cases Files (second edition) by Kris Franklin. This book is available for purchase in an electronic format for approximately US$40. If you have trouble purchasing the book online Pericles will assist you. Additional materials and assignments will be posted on Moodle.
Assignments
There will be four assignment which are used to assign your grade. Three individual writing assignments and one group assignment culminating in a class presentation and debate on the final class. There will be no exams.
Prerequisites
This course is taught entirely in English. There are no prerequisites although this course is considered an additional course to build in the skills from Legal Writing I and Legal Writing II.