Professor Michael DeBow
medebow AT samford DOT edu
205-726-2434
Room 239-B, Robinson Hall                         Office hours:  I'm usually around; just call or come by
Samford University                                        Secretary:  Mrs. Judy McAlister, 726-2774, Room 239
Birmingham, Alabama  35229

Michael A. Berch, Rebecca W. Berch & Ralph S. Spritzer, Introduction to Legal Method and Process (West, paperback, 4th ed. 2006).

For the TWEN portal, click here.

For The Core of American Law on a Single Page, click here.
For American Classical Liberalism and Its Eclipse, in 32 Quotations, click here.
For British/American Legal Timeline, click here.
For A Hedgehog's Legal Glossary, click here.
For my general links page, click here.

If you’re interested in an introduction to basic economics, I recommend James Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup & Dwight Lee, Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity (2005).  You can purchase a copy at the Samford bookstore.  An earlier edition is available online here.  Either way, it is a very quick read.

Put simply, class attendance is expected and the Law School’s attendance policy will be strictly followed.  The instructor reserves the right to take a student’s attendance into account when determining course grades, even if the student has not crossed the Law School trip-wire.

June 3 (T) .  Getting started.
Class objectives; handouts and survey.
 

June 5 (Th).  The "rule of law" and the American legal system.
Paul Johnson, Laying Down the Law, Wall St. J., March 10, 1999
Famous quotations re: the rule of law
Ronald Bailey, The Secrets of Intangible Wealth, Wall St. J., September 29, 2007 and
        Our Intangible Riches, Reason, August/September 2007
Legal education in America: What Have You Gotten Into?
Berch 1-24, 34-57 (please skip Gibbons v. Pepper and accompanying note on pp. 15-16, and Lon Fuller on pp. 39-40)
Supplemental material: You can download the World Bank study Bailey describes by clicking here (see especially chapter 7).
* June 5, 1723 -- Adam Smith born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
 

June 9 (M).  Litigation and the pressure to settle.
Continuation of material from June 5, if necessary
Berch 74, 97-119, 123-132, 146-151, 469-475
Simple settlement model  (read definitions of "Expected value" and "Settle, Pressure to" in the Glossary)
Homework problems
Supplemental material:  Robert M. Lloyd, Hard Law Firms and Soft Law Schools, 83 N.C. L. Rev. 667 (2005) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab).
 

June 12 (Th).  Civics refresher.
Quote of the day:  "To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race." (Calvin Coolidge, 1924)
Declaration of Independence – see Timeline for link
US Constitution – see Timeline for link (Take a whack at Professor Chen's 21-question Constitutional scavenger hunt)
Note on Natural Rights and Utilitarianism
Review these three state common law "reception statutes"  (Do you see any important difference between the Alabama statute and the others?)
* June 15, 1215 -- King John agrees to the Magna Carta.
 

June 16 (M).  Our English inheritance I: To 1649 (private property, freedom to contract, rule of law/limited government).
Quote for today's class and the next two classes:  "The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.  We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence."  (Samuel Adams, 1771) (emphasis added)
First, study the Timeline through the year 1649, and read (at a minimum) the following documents linked there:
    * Charter of Liberties of Henry I (1100).  It "is important in two ways. First, Henry formally bound himself to the laws, setting the stage for the rule of law that parliaments and parliamentarians of later ages would cry for.  Second, it reads almost exactly like the Magna Carta, and served as the model for the Great Charter in 1215."
    * Magna Carta (1215) – Pay close attention to paragraphs 39 & 40.
    * Petition of Right (1628) – Sound familiar?
John Hasnas, Hayek, the Common Law, and Fluid Drive, 1 NYU J. L. & Liberty 79 (2005), read sections I & II (approximately 17 pages)
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (1623)
    Tom Bethell, How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims (1999)
    Wall St. Journal editorial, How the Pilgrims Made Progress, Nov. 25, 2005
Supplemental material:  A Brief Chronology of the House of Commons (PDF file)
    Tom W. Bell, Polycentric Law, Humane Studies Review (Winter 1991-92).  For more, go to www.tomwbell.com/Writings.html and scroll down to "Unwired legal issues".
    Scruton audio (New Criterion site?); Mark Steyn statistics
 

June 19 (Th) class will begin at 9:30.  Our English inheritance II: From 1649 on.
First, study the Timeline from 1649 on, and read (at a minimum) the following document linked there:
    * Bill of Rights (1689) -- Sound familiar?
Review American materials covered on June 12, then add
    Federalist Nos. 10 and 51
    Quotations re America and private property
Richard Pipes, Private Property, Freedom, and the Rule of Law (2001)
The English Legal Foundations of American Liberty -- A Tale of Contingency  (Albion's Seedlings, May 6, 2006)
Also Separated at Birth? (Chicago Boyz, July 8, 2006)
How America Is Alike -- and Different (Albion's Seedlings, July 8, 2006)
Supplemental material:  The Glorious Revolution (PDF file, includes Bill of Rights)
    Daniel Klerman, Jurisdictional Competition and the Evolution of the Common Law, 74 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1179 (2007).
    Web resources on Adam Smith, David Hume and James Madison
* June 21, 1788 -- New Hampshire becomes the ninth State to ratify the U.S. Constitution, thus bringing the document into force, pursuant to Article VII.
 

June 23 (M).   Defining property rights I: Private property and prosperity.
Keeble v. Hickeringill (Q.B. 1707) -- handout
Pierson v. Post (N.Y. 1805) -- handout
Ghen v. Rich, 8 F. 159 (D. Mass 1881) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
Supplemental material:  Web resources on William Blackstone and the Economic Freedom Network
    13 Originals: Founding the American Colonies (website)
    Paul Rubin, Folk Economics, 70 S. Econ. J. 157 (2003), and discuss survey results
    Bethany Berger, It's Not About the Fox: The Untold History of Pierson v. Post, 55 Duke L.J. 1089 (2006)
    Andrea McDowell, Legal Fictions in Pierson v. Post, 105 Mich. L. Rev. 735 (2007).
 

June 26 (Th).  Defining property rights II: An introduction to legislatures, statutes, rent-seeking, and the police power.
Schoolmasters’ case (1410) -- handout
Darcy v. Allen (K.B. 1603) (also known as the Case of Monopolies) -- handout
Statute of Monopolies (1624)
Supplemental material:  Web resources on Edward Coke
    Jacob I. Corre, The Argument, Decision, and Reports of Darcy v. Allen, 45 Emory L.J. 1261 (1996) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
    Barbara Malament, The "Economic Liberalism" of Sir Edward Coke, 76 Yale L.J. 1321 (1967).
 

June 30 (M).  The pressure to settle revisited.
Homework assignment:  The Miami Beach Problem
Review settlement model, numerical problem(s)
Fontainebleau Hotel Corp., 114 So.2d 357 (1959) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
Coase Theorem  (the cornerstone of “law and economics”)
Supplemental material:  Web resources on Ronald Coase
 

July 3 (Th) .  Default rules.
Quote of the day:  "[A]s people when contracting contemplate performance, not breach, they commonly say little or nothing as to what shall happen in the latter event, and thus the common rules have been worked out by common sense, which has established what the parties probably would have said if they had spoken about the matter."  (Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in Globe Refining Co. v. Landa Cotton Oil Co., 190 U.S. 540, 543 (1903) (emphasis added)).
Mandatory and default rules
Contracting around default rules
Least-cost party – Numerical problem(s) from Anaytical Methods book
Case study:  "equitable conversion"
    Bleckley v. Langston, 143 S.E.2d 671 (Ga. App. 1965) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
        ??  387 S.E.2d 361 (Ga. App. 1989), cert vacated 392 S.E.2d 533 (1990)
    Munshower v. Martin, 641 So.2d 909 (Fla. App. 1994) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
    Stoebuck & Whitman on equitable conversion.
 

July 7 (M) .  Gains from trade and contract law.
Web resources on Lord Mansfield
Kozinski opinions in Trident Center, 847 F.2d 564 (9th Cir. 1988) and
    Morta, 840 F.2d 1452 (9th Cir. 1988) (both via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
Mitchel v. Reynolds (K.B. 1711) -- handout
Lake River Corp. v. Carborundum Co., 769 F.2d 1284 (7th Cir. 1985)
More ?  Rent control case (California)?
 

July 10 (Th) .  Torts:  Accidents and negligence.
Carroll Towing, 159 F.2d 169 (2d Cir. 1947) (Hand Theorem) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
Product liability case ?
Look over this web page on Jeremy Bentham, and read these two short notes
* July 10, 1723 -- William Blackstone born in London, England.
 

July 14 (M) .  Closing appraisal I.
Paul Rubin, Micro and Macro Legal Efficiency: Supply and Demand, 13 Sup. Ct.  Econ. Rev. 19 (2005) (via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
Supplemental material:  Frederick Schauer, Do Cases Make Bad Law?, 73 U. Chi. L. Rev. 883 (2006) (also via TWEN, under "course materials" tab)
 

July 17 (Th).  Closing appraisal II & review session (your questions only).
Daniel Klerman & Paul G. Mahoney, Legal Origin?, 35 J. Comparative Econ. 278 (2007)
Supplemental material:  Kenneth Dam, Legal Institutions, Legal Origins, and Governance (2006)
    Kenneth Dam, The Judiciary and Economic Development (2006).
 

July 21 (M).  A "constructive Friday" -- so our class will not meet.
 

July 23 (W).  EXAM -- 9 AM - 12 Noon.  If you wish to type your exam on your computer, go to Room ___.  If you are handwriting your exam, go to Room ___.
 

All original materials Copyright (c) 2007-08  Michael E. DeBow.

                            "It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers."
                                                                    -- James Thurber

                            "Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."
                                                                    -- Voltaire

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