Of New Preps and Casebooks

For the first several (roughly 5) years I was a law professor, I taught the same course package.  In a prior life I was a litigator and so I taught a litigation package.  We have two semesters of Torts here and I taught Torts I and Torts II.  I also taught Evidence and Professional Responsibility.  I enjoy all of these courses.  There is definitely an advantage to retaining the same courses; you learn the material thoroughly and you can focus more resources on scholarship. 

This year, 3 of my 4 courses are new preps.  In the last year and a half, I have taught 4 new courses.  I have added Insurance, Products Liability, Contracts I and Contracts II.  I have enjoyed the new material, and I feel like it has given me a better understanding of tort law.  For Insurance and Products Liability, that makes a lot of sense given how related they are.  It also applies to Contracts.  Teaching Contracts helps map the boundary between the two topics. 

In teaching the new courses, I have been delighted with my casebook selection.  In Insurance, I use Ken Abraham’s “Insurance Law and Regulation (5th ed. 2010).”  The book is well-organized and I like the inclusion of actual insurance policies.  In Products Liability, I am using David Owen, John Montgomery, and Mary Davis’s “Products Liability and Safety (6th ed. 2010).”  I’m still making my way through it, but the first chapter provides a number of perspectives on products and the subsequent organization is good.  The notes are thorough and engaging.  Moreover, the authors of these 2 books are very helpful.  In Products, both David and Mary have offered guidance on syllabi, paper topics, and guest speakers.  In Insurance, Ken Abraham once responded to an e-mail question in 15 minutes…from Paris. 

For my Torts casebook, I use Marc Franklin, Robert Rabin, & Mike Green’s “Tort Law and Alternatives (9th ed. 2011)” and have used that book from the beginning.  I like it a lot.  It is thorough and the case selection is engaging.  In the future, I may try another casebook simply for the sake of variety.  Two casebooks that have caught my eye:  Tom Galligan, Phoebe Haddon, Frank Maraist, Frank McClellan, Mike Rustad, Nicholas Terry, and Stephanie Wildman’s “Tort Law:  Cases, Perspectives, and Problems (4th ed. 2007)” and John Goldberg, Tony Sebok, & Ben Zipursky’s “Tort Law:  Responsibilities and Redress (2nd ed. 2008).”

–CJR