How this course works and how to study itCómo funciona este curso y cómo estudiarlo
The professor's own advice, in my words: the casebook as GPS, briefs for every case, vocabulary notebook, the hour after class, your own outline, and the exam format.Los consejos del propio profesor, en mis palabras: el casebook como GPS, brief de cada caso, cuaderno de vocabulario, la hora después de clase, outline propio y el formato del examen.
The rhythm of each chapter
Law first (the text), then the cases, then the chapter scenario answered like a short exam essay. The scenario is the practice exam. Treat every one as if it were graded: time yourself, write the full answer, then compare with the class discussion.
What the professor keeps repeating
- Read, then reread. Scanning is not reading.
- Brief every case as if you were the one on call: name and court, procedural history, facts, issue, holding and rule, rationale for each holding, disposition, what the dissent said.
- Keep a vocabulary list. Every unknown word (legal, Latin, French, banking) gets written down, looked up and defined where you can find it again. The glossary on this site is that notebook.
- Ask who, what, where, when, how and why of every case and every scenario.
- Attend, pay full attention, take notes by hand. The most important hour is the one right after class: rewrite the notes and feed the outline while it is fresh.
- Build your own outline. Commercial outlines use other people’s vocabulary; only the person who wrote an outline knows what sits behind each line.
- Go to the footnotes and sources; exam scenarios are born there.
- Speak in class. Confidence comes from competence, and competence from practice. This is the safe place to practice.
- Immersion: English from waking to sleeping, including with other Mexicans.
The exam, as far as the materials say
- Essay problems in the style of the chapter scenarios. The prior exam problem posted in Canvas was a single corporate-governance essay worth half the grade, with a 1,200-word limit and the word count written on the answer.
- Each question hands you a client (“the person with a dollar bill and a problem”) and asks for advice. Advise all of them, one at a time, from their side.
- Open or closed book: the intro slides say open-book; the September practice quiz says the final is closed-book. Ask, and prepare as if closed (the outline must be in your head either way).
- Vocabulary and the authority test from the practice quiz (actual, apparent, inherent, estoppel, laches, ratification, respondeat superior) are fair game as definitions.
The AI rule of the course
Consult AI; never surrender your judgment. Write your own answer first, then ask the model to challenge it (what did I miss, what am I assuming, what is the strongest argument against me, what is legally wrong), then verify every authority yourself and decide. Keep the three versions apart: your draft, the critique, your final. This site follows the same rule: everything here is my own words, and anything marked unverified is a draft until I check it against the book or the opinion.
My weekly loop for this class
Tuesday after class: capture three lines (rule we used, case we spent longest on, one thing I did not get). Wednesday: briefs or skims for Thursday, five questions from the quiz set of the chapter, three terms written out by hand. Sunday: scenario of the chapter, timed, then checklist self-check and the feedback command.