Commercial Outlines and Briefs

Commercial Outlines and Briefs

Commercial Outlines and Briefs in the United States

They are addressed mostly to first-year law students. Take in account that Emanuels, Emanuels CrunchTime, Examples & Explanations, Introduction to Law Series and Casenotes Legal Briefs have the same publisher: Wolters Kluwer.

Gilbert

For some students, the substance of the Gilbert outline (West) was lacking when compared to Emanuel’s. Sometimes, the hypotheticals were too easy and the True/False/Multiple Choice were sub-par as well. But Gilbert Outline have a few good things. The charts are excellent for Learning the materials and the indexing system using the section symbol gives the newby practice with finding substance via § § ‘s instead of page numbers. Legalines, also from West, has a lower rate indeed.

Emanuels

Description from the publisher: “The most trusted name in law school outlines, Emanuel Law Outlines were developed while Steve Emanuel was a student at Harvard Law and were the first to approach each course from the point of view of the student. Invaluable for use throughout your course and again at exam time, Emanuel Law Outlines are well-correlated to all major casebooks to help you to create your own outlines. Sophisticated yet easy to understand, each guide includes both capsule and detailed explanations of critical issues, topics, and black letter law you must know to master the course. Quiz Yourself Q&As, Essay Q&As, and Exam Tips give you ample opportunity to test your knowledge throughout the semester and leading up to the exam. Every title in the series is frequently updated and reviewed against new developments and recent cases covered in the leading casebooks. Emanuel Law Outlines provide a comprehensive breakdown of the law, more sweeping than most, for your entire study process.”

Some students found these outlines more well suited for reviewing daily reading and putting each concept in the context of the class. The review problems at the end of each chapter are worth doing but there were many times where the review problems covered issues that the students skipped in class. They were great because of the substance of the actual outline. Some students, for review problems, would suggest using Chemerinsky for Contract Law and Examples and Explanations for Property.

Emanuels CrunchTime

The CrunchTime is really a consolidation of the full Emanuel Outline of the same subject minus detailed substance discussion. It is full of exam tips, sample problems and answers and great flowcharts for analysis of issues in each class. It is recommend the CrunchTime if the student has a visual Learning style. When used in combination with Examples & Explanations, a winning combination emerges.

Book description from the publisher: “When time is of the essence, make CrunchTime your exam study partner. Whether you’re preparing for a multiple-choice, short-answer, or essay exam, CrunchTime can improve your grade with a complete set of exam preparation tools that include capsule summaries of major points of law and critical issues, exam tips for identifying common traps and pitfalls, sample multiple-choice questions with answers, and short-answer practice questions with answers.

Visual learners will enrich their law school experience early in the semester by using the application flow charts in CrunchTime to visually illuminate points of law.”

Examples & Explanations (E&E)

Not a true outline, but Examples & Explanations (publisher: Woleters Kluwer) offers real world problems after each a great (and usually simple) explanation of each topic and an easy to understand explanation of the law behind the answer. The use of CrunchTime for outlining purposes and Examples & Explanations to supplement the understanding of the topics, professor comments and notes it would be fine for some students.

The E&E for contracts do a good job defining and explaining words and legal issues, and the text points out all the differences between the UCC and the Common law . In the E&E for torts, the examples and explanations aspect were the most useful. The E&E for property is recommended by some law students. The sample problems were useful and well done. Other students said that this commercial outline is good for Civil Procedure (but others disagree).

Book description from the publisher: “A favorite among successful students, and often recommended by professors, the unique Examples & Explanations series gives you extremely clear introductions to concepts followed by realistic examples that mirror those presented in the classroom throughout the semester. Use at the beginning and midway through the semester to deepen your understanding through clear explanations, corresponding hypothetical fact patterns, and analysis. Then use to study for finals by reviewing the hypotheticals as well as the structure and reasoning behind the accompanying analysis. Designed to complement your casebook, the trusted Examples & Explanations titles get right to the point in a conversational, often humorous style that helps you learn the material each step of the way and prepare for the exam at the end of the course.”

Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies (Aspen’s Introduction to Law Series)

By Erwin Chemerinsky. The book is expensive, but helps to summarize Constitutional law as well as to get to the root of each case. It doesn’t have sample problems, but it synthesized the information so well that I stopped reading my casebook altogether.

An Amazon’s review said: A central problem with teaching law by the casebook method is that most students also need a clear, expert roadmap of how the cases fit together, and how a particular doctrine that emerges from a line of cases — sometimes over a century or more — has evolved, changed, and operates today. Outlines of the black letter law (e.g. Gilberts) aren’t as useful for something doctrinal like con law. You want clear exposition in prose. You want concise descriptions of all the important cases and what they stand for. You want Chemerinsky.

All con law students should be grateful that one of the nation’s leading Constitutional practitioners and professors has written this book. Its size is intimidating, but that’s because it covers far more territory than the typical intro con law class. It’s so well-done, though, that it’s something serious students and lawyers will want on their bookshelves long after the first year — as a supplement for advanced-topics classes, and as an essential reference work.

The book is well-organized in an outline format with headings and subheads, so you can easily follow the thread of complex doctrine over time, like the Commerce Clause, or across its varied applications, like Equal Protection. Chapters are thorough but well divided. The organization allows you to find exactly what you need and to zero in on a particular narrow point or case, or to read more expansively about a doctrine’s development, change, and varied application. Chemerinsky’s prose is neutral, straightforward, always clear. He’s analytical but doesn’t make arguments. You couldn’t say his writing has personality, but it is quite readable.

Commercial Briefs

There are briefs in electronic version (like ecasebriefs) paper versions (like Casenotes Legal Briefs). These can be useful early on while the law students are learning how to brief their cases in their own way. While it is tempting to rely on commercial briefs and sometimes even skip the reading in favor of a commercial brief, the professors often asks questions which are not covered by the commercial briefs which may leave the students in a bad position. If the students use them only to review and to double check your briefs against them, they can be a good tool.

A good advice would be: only use others briefs after you are comfortable with briefing on your own. If you buy an older version, beware, the law may have changed. New briefs usually cover more material and have been improved.

Description of Casebriefs from its website: its “mission is to give the students of law the power to share and learn through an open and connected environment. Thousands of students use Casebriefs everyday to keep up with their studies and to collaborate content with their peers at their school and around the nation.”

The site “was launched in 1995 as the first digital brand of study aids to the law student market. Since then, we’ve been helping students to better understand how to study law and to better prepare for their daily course work and their exams.”

Commercial Outlines and Briefs in the United Kingdom

In the UK there are several titles, like “LawExpress”, by Pearson. Theres is also the Oxbridge Notes, for exams in Oxford and Cambridge. According with this platform “These notes cover all the LLB admin law cases and so are perfect for anyone doing an LLB in the UK or a great supplement for those doing LLBs abroad, whether that be in Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong or Malaysia (University of London).

These notes are formed directly from a reading of the cases and academic papers and are extremely concise. Included are the following types of documents:

A) 5-12 line summaries of the facts and ration of each case and statute. For key cases a longer analysis which details the judge’s reasoning, alongside dissenting judgements is included. You can see a list of the cases analysed below.

B) Summaries of the main academic papers between a half page and a page and a half in length. These will dramatically cut down your reading time and allow you to cover more authors in less time;

C) Short bulleted and indented lists of the principle rules. These are great for getting a broad overview of the law and for answering thorny problem questions.”

Oxbridge Notes’ policy is that they don’t allow students to upload their professors’ lecture notes. They think that the material can be too dense and the language isn’t always readily understandable.

See Also

Conclusion

Notes

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Briefs in Law, Commercial Law Questions, Commercial law, Common law, International Trade and Commercial Relations resources, Learning, List of Commercial and International Trade Law e-Journals.


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