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Today in History (1862) - The U.S. government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. On the same day in 1865, the Confederate Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black troops, granting them freedom with the consent of their owners. Lee surrendered a few weeks later. |
Having just sold my entire collection of hornbooks, commercial outlines, and other study paraphernalia to one of my former LSAT students, I thought it might be worthwhile for those in the know to dispense some advice regarding the feast of materials available at your law school bookstore. Though there is no replacement for regular class attendance, dedicated study time, and frequent ingestion of Adderall, I would recommend the following for anyone who gets stuck:
Aspen's Examples & Explanations Series. These are about as close to Law for Dummies as you're going to get. They aren't completely stripped down and useless like the majority of commercial outlines. Instead, they leave out cases (for the most part) and focus on giving you a step-by-step explanation of the law. The Glannon volumes on Torts and CivPro are particularly badass.
For Contracts: Farnsworth on Contracts. Don't buy it, because it's huge and you'll never read the whole thing. But when a particular phrase like 'promissory estoppel' or 'inflatable twinkie' makes you cringe, find Farnsworth in the library and he'll ease your pain.
For ConLaw: Erwin Chemerinsky's Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies is voonderful. I have several close friends whose lockers had Chemerinsky's face plastered on the inside. If ConLaw makes you cry, Erwin will make you cry less.
For Property: Quick! Your great-great grandmother just died, leaving her entire PEZ collection to your third male grandchild, but only if he agrees to become a radish farmer. Can she do that? I don't know, but you probably will after checking out this book from John Makdisi. It's got a ton of problems to help you review estates and future interests, and is solely responsible for me getting a D+ instead of a D in Property.
Everything Else: Is crap, in my opinion. But I'm sure that plenty of other folks with much higher GPA's have much better opinions. So feel free to add your thoughts. This is for posterity.
August 8, 2004 06:36 PM | TrackBackIf you are wrestling with the Uniform Commercial Code, the Examples and Explanations Series covering articles 2, 3, and 9 (all three books written by the same author, James Brook) make those topics easier to understand.
Posted by: Sean S at August 9, 2004 09:42 PMFor Torts, those Law in a Flash Flashcards were pretty kick-ass.
Posted by: Soup at August 11, 2004 11:31 AMI second Erwin Chemersky's book. Back in my Con Law class it was listed as a "recommended" book for the course. Being cheap in those days, I skipped it to save money. Ten days or so before the final, I ended up buying it anyway and it cleared up so many concepts that, until that point had still been muddy in mind. My short use of it probably made the difference of at least one whole grade level.
Erwin your my hero!
Posted by: Edward at August 11, 2004 01:17 PM