1L - First Year Lesson Topics

This lesson focuses on the distinctions between justification and excuse defenses. Many of the major legal scholars and commentators have distinguished justification and excuse defenses. However, the modern view often blurs the distinction. This lesson points out the principal theoretical distinctions as well as the areas of substantial confusion or controversy with respect to classification, both at common law and under the Model Penal Code. The exercise also describes those circumstances in which classification one way or the other makes a difference.

This is a lesson on Kentucky primary and secondary legal research.

This lesson explores the capacity defense to contract formation, including when a contract may be avoided because of the minority, mental incapacity, or illiteracy of one of the parties.

This lesson provides an introductory overview of landlord-tenant law, including: the historical origins of non-freehold estates; basic vocabulary of landlord-tenant law; including the concept of rent; the significance of leases as a mechanism for gaining the right to use and possess land; and the conveyance and contract theories of landlord-tenant law as alternative approaches for fashioning legal rules.

The lesson in landlord-tenant law addresses the doctrine of constructive eviction. It is assumed that you have a good understanding of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, which is a predicate for the doctrine of constructive eviction. Before doing this lesson, you should study the separate lesson named "Landlord and Tenant: Quiet Enjoyment," unless you are sure that you have a firm grip on the covenant of quiet enjoyment, actual evictions, and remedies for breach of quiet enjoyment.

This lesson examines the duty of the landlord to deliver possession of the leased premises to the tenant. Courts have split as to whether the landlord has an implied duty to deliver actual physical possession of the property. Express lease provisions that bear on the delivery of possession are also considered. There is also a short discussion of a related topic: covenants of title in leases.

This lesson in landlord-tenant law addresses the periodic tenancy, also known as the periodic estate. Topics include creation of the periodic tenancy by express agreement, creation by implication, and termination of the periodic tenancy by notice. Hybrid transactions, which combine elements of the periodic tenancy and the term of years, are also considered. A sample essay exam question is included.

This lesson in landlord-tenant law addresses the covenant of quiet enjoyment. Topics include use of an express covenant of quiet enjoyment, including variations in wording; implication of the covenant; the scope of the covenant (protection against the landlord; persons claiming through the landlord; and paramount titleholders), actual eviction; and remedies for breach of quiet enjoyment.

This lesson addresses the application of the statute of frauds to leases of real property. Topics include the conveyance and contract provisions of the statute; the contents of the lease document that are required to comply with the statute of frauds; the effect upon the parties when a tenant takes possession under an invalid oral arrangement; the doctrine of part performance; and the statutory exception for short-term leases.

This lesson in landlord-tenant law addresses the tenancy at sufferance, also known as the estate at sufferance. This subject is also known as the law of holdover tenants. Topics include creation of the tenancy at sufferance by implied and express agreement, the landlord's election to treat the tenant at sufferance as a trespasser or as a tenant under a new lease, and the liability of the tenant at sufferance for rent and other obligations. Eviction rules and procedures are not covered in detail in this lesson.

This lesson in landlord-tenant law addresses the tenancy at will, also known as the estate at will. Topics include creation of the tenancy at will by express agreement, creation by implication, and termination of the tenancy at will by notice. Hybrid transactions in which one or both parties relinquish or modify their right to terminate at any moment are also considered.

This lesson in landlord-tenant law covers the tenancy for years, also known as the estate for years, term for years, or term of years.