Courses on civil procedure focus on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the case law that interprets those rules. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure guide attorneys who practice in federal courts in how to serve complaints, when to file motions or responses, what must be included in a pleading, and the rules of discovery, among other things.
Constitutional law courses focus on the United States Constitution and the United States Supreme Court rulings that interpret the Constitution. Some of the topics covered in a constitutional law course are: the commerce clause, Congress's taxing and spending power, due process, equal protection, and the First Amendment freedoms.
Contract law focuses on both the common law of contracts and contracts for the sale of goods that are covered under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.). Courses in contract law cover, among other things: the principles of offer and acceptance, consideration, the Statute of Frauds, the Parol Evidence Rule, and third-party beneficiaries.
Criminal law courses focus on both criminal law and criminal procedure in most cases. In the criminal law portion of the class, students will learn about common law crimes: assault, battery, kidnapping, rape, robbery, theft, and homicide. Most criminal law courses also have a preliminary introduction to criminal procedure that discusses the Constitutional protections granted to the accused by the Bill of Rights, such as the right to an attorney, the Miranda rights and Fourth Amendment search and seizure.
Courses on property law are very diverse and cover a large swath of common law property topics: lost property, abandoned property, misplaced property, gifts, conveyancing, mortgages, leases and subleases, assignments, easements, real covenants, government takings, riparian rights, and fixtures.
Tort law comprises two areas mainly: intentional torts and negligence. A tort is a wrong committed by one person against another that requires the party who committed the wrong to compensate the innocent party. The intentional torts are: assault, battery, false imprisonment, trespass to land, trespass to chattel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and conversion. Negligence is a complex area of law where students learn about topics such as proximate causation, legal causation, and res ipsa loquitur. Tort law is the type of law practiced by personal injury lawyers.
Legal research and writing is an important class for first-year law students, required by nearly all law schools. Students learn how to write like an attorney: they draft motions, pleadings, client letters, memoranda, and briefs. Another skill taught is how to efficiently conduct legal research using materials accessed on the Internet, such as Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw, and how to use the various Reporter systems, sets of hard-copy volumes on court cases and decisions.