Legal Elements

Fall 2009 Session

Profs. Jeff Jones, Joe Miller, John Parry, and Juliet Stumpf

All links on this site are to documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader format (*.pdf) unless otherwise noted.

Goals & Skills

We state the course's goals and skills here.

Casebook

Peter L. Strauss, Legal Methods: Understanding and Using Cases and Statutes (2d ed. 2008)

Syllabi

Below are the links each professor's syllabus.

Prof. Jones - Syllabus, Revised (10/22)

Prof. Miller - Syllabus, Version 3

Prof. Parry - Syllabus, Version 2

Prof. Stumpf - Syllabus, Version 3

Supplemental Materials

Over the course of the semester, we will post supplemental materials for the class. Materials that may be of interest to all four sections will be in the "Common Area," and materials for a specific section will be under the pertinent professor's name.

Common Area

• At a recent event hosted by the University of Arizona Law School, Justices Breyer and Scalia discussed their respective approaches to construing statutes and constitutional provisions. You can watch the event by streaming video, at links provided here.

• A pending case: Recently, the Seventh Circuit heard oral argument in an appeal that turns on the scope of the term "a foreign ... tribunal" in 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a). This statute empowers a U.S. district court to order a person to provide discovery materials to another, where the requesting party needs the materials "for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal." The issue in this Seventh Circuit case is whether a private arbitration proceeding taking place in London, England constitutes a foreign tribunal under the statute. The trial court, in an opinion you can read here, held that a private arbitration is not within the statute. You can listen to the oral argument on line, here. Compare the points the lawyers make, and the questions the judges ask, to the statutory construction methods we've been discussing in class.

• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth CIrcuit will hear arguments here in Portland during the first week of November, as shown on this schedule. We encourage you to attend an argument session.

• Here are two illustrative opinions from the Workers' Compensation Board, in two recent cases: In re Gebhardt, and In re Houser.

• The supplemental reading for Class Session #12, comprising highlights from the legislative history of the RSAA, is here.

•To learn more about the structure of the Oregon courts, explore this webpage from the Oregon Judicial Department.

• To learn more about case analysis and class prep, take a look at Prof. Orin Kerr's How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students.

• For a fun meditation on statutory interpretation and precedent, take a look at Prof. Hillel Levin's The Food Stays In The Kitchen.

• In 2002, a U.S. district judge confronted the question, in the prosecution of attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid, whether an airplane is a "vehicle" for purposes of a portion of the USA PATRIOT Act. We provide an edited copy of the judge's decision here.

• Legal Elements Class Recording from Tuesday October 13
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For Professor Miller's Class

• Handout from Tue, 9/22/09 - Some rule statements

• Handout from Thu, 9/3/09 - Alternatives to the Rules of Decision Act