1L - First Year Lesson Topics

This lesson provides instruction on conducting Utah legal research using both primary and secondary sources.

This lesson teaches students how to use online citators to confirm that a case is still "good law"--meaning, the case still represents existing law. This lesson focuses on the online citators of Shepard's on Lexis+ and KeyCite on Westlaw. The lesson assumes students know how to use digests and how to create a research strategy.

This lesson is an introduction to researching Virginia law using secondary sources.

This is an overview of vocabulary used in the lessons on Defenses. You might wish to run it prior to running those lessons.

This lesson is designed to introduce students to Washington's primary law: cases, statutes, and regulations. Although the lesson can be used as a standalone tool, it can also be used to supplement other forms of instruction such as classroom lectures or demonstrations. The questions provide students with ongoing feedback as they learn.

This lesson provides a review of the doctrine of prior appropriation, the water law system that dominates in the western part of the United States.

This lesson provides a review of the five major doctrines that states have employed to decide who has what rights in ground water.

This lesson provides a review of federal reserved rights for students who have covered that doctrine in a Water Law, Natural Resources Law, or Advanced Property course.

While most of the states in the country choose between the water law doctrines of prior appropriation and riparian rights, California applies both. This approach to state water law is called, appropriately, the California system.