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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

I heart Torts

"Law school is hard" is a huge understatement.
Imagine you've been thrown into the ocean and you can't swim. It's midnight, so you can't see anything around you. Someone is in a lifeboat and shouting instructions at you on how to swim so you can make it to the boat. After dog paddling for five minutes, you realize that your rescuer is shouting in French. So now you're struggling to stay afloat and translate French...all the while trying to just get to the boat. Did I mention that there's a thunderstorm, it's cold, and you're really tired? And the Green-line is late...again?!

Law school is a lot like being rescued from the ocean by Frenchmen. You're learning how to preform new tasks and analyzing material in a completely new language. Learn to swim, mon cherie, or au revoir!

So far, Torts has held up to my quintessential ideals of a law school experience. The teacher loves the Socratic Method (putting students on the spot and probing them with questions until they  discover the legal standard beneath the facts). Prof. Lustiq may seem stern and gruff, but he genuinely wants the students to learn and succeed. We have ungraded "quizzes" each week so we can monitor how well we understand the material. His midterm is only 7% of our grade, so we can have a full exam under our belt before the final without a huge penalty.

Torts is a hard subject, with or without Lustiq putting students on the "hot-spot". In a very basic sense, torts are wrongful acts fought in civil courts. We covered intentional torts (battery, assault, trespass, etc) for the first month. Here's how I taught myself about trespass and conversion of chattel (movable property).

I thought it was creative. :)

Proof that doodling in your note margins CAN be productive. Enjoy!

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