2L-3L Upper Level Lesson Topics

This lesson reviews problems in client identification. The lesson is in the form of a game show CLIENT OR NOT?! in which students are presented with an individual who is claiming to be a client.

Climate change is the major emerging environmental law problem of the 21st century. However, understanding the legal issues surrounding climate change, both internationally and domestically, will be easier if you have a basic comprehension of what climate change is.

This lesson looks at the international framework for addressing climate change mitigation, as established in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its protocols.

This lesson is the third in the climate change series. It is designed to introduce students to the concept of climate change adaptation -- that is, the processes whereby humans respond to the ecological changes that climate change is causing.

As of the beginning of 2010, Congress had not enacted comprehensive federal legislation to address climate change. Nevertheless, a number of plaintiffs--mostly non-governmental organizations, or NGOs--have been using litigation to attempt to educate the public and prompt effective responses.

This is the last of five CALI lessons on climate change. It explores the ways in which litigants and agencies have tried to use existing federal environmental statutes -- the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act -- to address climate change.

This lesson tries to explain Coasean irrelevance (which is often known as the "Coase Theorem").

Cohabitants may litigate to obtain property, support, a share of an estate, or for derivative benefits such as wrongful death or survivor's benefits. This lesson reviews theories of recovery for cohabiting couples who were not formally married. The lesson explores contract, quasi-contract and equitable theories of recovery such as constructive and resulting trusts, quantum meruit, promissory estoppel and implied contract. Note that not all states allow all remedies reviewed in this lesson.

This lesson explores the Lanham Act provisions governing federal registration of collective marks and certification marks.

This lesson focuses on issues related to the commencement of legislative rulemaking proceedings. Accordingly, it focuses on how such proceedings are commenced and by whom. It also focuses on rules that are exempt from rulemaking requirements.

This lesson covers characterization of commingled property at divorce. It covers tracing, transmutation, differentiation between income and passive appreciation and other rules regarding characterization of commingled property as marital or separate.

This lesson deals with the "committed to agency discretion" exception to judicial review. Under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, courts tend to assume that administrative action is subject to review. However, there are several situations when courts will decline to exercise their review authority. One of those situations is the subject of this lesson: when administrative action has been committed to agency discretion by law.

The goal of this lesson is to introduce you to the basics of conducting company and industry research. Company research is the process of gathering information about a specific company. Once you have information about a company, you may need to know how that company is faring within its industry. Companies within an industry can be compared to one another, or an analysis of the industry itself can be done to see how it is performing.

This is the first in a series of lessons on the topic of "Compensatory Damages." It is designed as an "Introduction" to the overall concept of "compensatory damages" as well as to the key terminologies that are typically associated with these types of damages. For beginning law students, this Lesson should be completed first, before proceeding to any other Lessons that address more complex damages issues, as it contains a thorough presentation of the various terminologies and concepts that are unique to this specialized area of the law.

This lesson was written as a review of the material covered In Chapter 7 of the CALI e-book, Wetlands Law: A Course Source. The lesson reviews the compensatory mitigation requirements for Section 404 permits.

This lesson deals with a topic more commonly known as alimony, spousal support, or maintenance. Its focus is Chapter 5 of the American Law Institute Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. This is an introductory lesson. It assumes you have spent little or no time discussing this material in class.

This lesson addresses the protection afforded to compilations (including collective works) under United States copyright law.

This lesson will introduce you to the concept of Gross Income, usually the first concept students encounter in their study of the Federal income tax system. This lesson will also discuss certain exclusions, deductions and other concepts encountered in the calculation of Gross Income. This lesson will be useful to the novice student as it introduces the student to the typical analysis tax lawyers engage in.

The exercise provides practice in applying the concept that an utterance is hearsay if it is offered to show the truth of matters asserted therein.

This lesson explores the constitutional rules requiring confrontation of hearsay declarants in criminal prosecutions, with special emphasis on Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), and its progeny.

This lesson explores some of the rules surrounding police searches based on a citizen's consent. Students will be able to critically examine the law and the policies that permit consent searches under certain circumstances.

This lesson discusses the role of federal preemption in the implementation of environmental law. Specifically, when do federal environmental and natural resources statutes preempt, or displace, state laws on similar subjects? When are states free to enact their own environmental protections? What is the relationship between federal environmental law and state torts?

This lesson is intended as an overview of Constitutional Law principles that are important in Family Law. It can be used at the beginning of the Family Law course as a refresher of Constitutional Law. It can also be used during the course to clarify general constitutional doctrine. This lesson is related to two other lessons regarding constitutional aspects of Family Law.