Wow. I just negotiated a contract…with a vending machine!
And, perhaps you made a contract today too.
But sometimes the 1L subjects just seem so far removed from my life experiences that I often found – as a law student – that I was "lost in space in an alien outer world."
Perhaps you feel that way too. If so, here's some practical tips to help make sense of the cases, statutes, and hypotheticals that are the grist of the first year law school curriculum:
- Contracts/UCC Sales & the Vending Machines: As a starter, try to see if you entered into any common law or UCC contracts today. Perhaps you took the bus or train to law school. If so, you had some sort of common law contractual arrangement. Have you ever received a gift card? If so, congratulations…you are a third party beneficiary. Have you tried to make a purchase from a vending machine for a candy bar to get you through the afternoon? Then, you negotiated a UCC contract for the sale of a good. I wonder whether you or the vending machine made the offer? In other words, you might already be a contracts maestro in the midst of your real life daily experiences.
- Torts in the Bumps & Bruises of Everyday Life: I just committed one the other day. Blinded by my cell phone (as I walked with my head bent downward with my gaze gripped by the screen), I stumbled right into another person in the hallway. I wonder…battery, assault, negligence?
- Property Law Practicalities: Wow. Did you perhaps come across someone that has a fee simple absolute? Maybe the law school building that you are sitting in today? Or, did you see any easements in gross? Perhaps a highway bill board or, take a glance out a window, even a power line? And then, there is one of my favorites. I'm almost there. For nearly 18 years, I've been crossing the grass just outside the law school building in order to get myself as quickly as possible to the corner store. That's right. I'm a torts trespasser (at least hypothetically). I've been in the daily process of committing an intentional tort. But, after 18 years, I'll become something else…an adverse possessor…perhaps of a prescriptive easement? In fact, here's an article about a former Boulder judge that made an adverse possession claim against a neighbor: http://www.denverpost.com/tresspassadversepossession And, then, there's another of my favorites: A newspaper article in the Denver Post that – are your ready for this – commented as follows: "Opponents of private transfer fees say they violate a common-law principle in place for centuries called touch and concern. Under that principle, a payee placing a covenant must provide a benefit or have a present connection to a property (emphasis added)." http://www.denverpost.com/touch and concern Wow, I wish I had read that article as a law student.
- Criminal Law Reminders…Most Everywhere: If your law school has a parking lot, then it probably has parking lot signs. Lots of them. Everywhere (and mostly with fine print details). I wonder…is that a strict liability crime or is there a mental state required to establish a parking violation? And, what is the volitional act that one must do to commit a parking violation? And, are there any defenses, such as when I am late to class? My favorites…all the warning signs when I ride the bus.
As you can see, the world of the casebook might also be the world of our lives.
So, in between all of that casebook reading, class preparation time, note taking, and outlining, take a peek…at the world around you.
You might just catch someone in a tort or two!
(Scott Johns).
