December 3, 2007

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
The University has cancelled all classes for today Tuesday 12/3, that start before 10:00 a.m., and so our class is cancelled for today. Our next class meeting will be Thursday 12/5.

The case brief that is due Thursday will still be due Thursday. I have had some email questions from students about the brief, and so I thought that some suggestions might be helpful to you.

First, there have been questions about the "under what law" segment of the issue. The laws that are providing the rule in this case are the principles of equity, or the equitable rules regarding specific performance.

The major difficulties have been identifying the operative legal questions, and the key facts that go with them. My suggestion is to read the case paragraph by paragraph, and try to identify what question the court is dealing with in each paragraph. There is more than one issue in the case, and so look for the specific legal questions that the court faces. Reading the rest of the chapter regarding equity, equitable principles, and the preconditions to the exercise of equity should be useful. Ask yourself what the pre-conditions are before the court will impose equitable remedies, and what conditions might also preclude the court's imposition of equitable remedies.

Once you have identified those operative legal questions, the Facts you need will be those that answer the question, "under what circumstances (Facts) will this be the outcome regarding this legal question?". The Facts in this case are actual conditions that exist in the world, not the procedural stuff that has happened in court.

I hope that this is helpful. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions. See you Thursday