Assignments

 

What You Should Learn

In any doctrinal course, you should master the legal doctrines so you can apply them to new facts. We’ll cover torts like assault, battery, false imprisonment, trespass, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress. You should also learn (1) how to read a case, such that you can identify the legal issues raised and the court’s resolution of them; (2) how to construct and evaluate legal arguments; and (3) how to present arguments persuasively.

 

First Assignment

For the first day, please read pages 4–8 in Tort Law: Cases & Critique, Taylor Swift, Philosopher of Forgiveness by Scott Hershovitz, and this article by Charlotte Kramon. I’d also strongly recommend reading Orin Kerr’s How to Read a Legal Opinion before diving into the cases.

Course Materials

We’ll use my casebook, Tort Law: Cases & Critique — a resource I created especially for this class. The digital version is available for free, while a hard copy may be bought for around $30. Other materials are linked below on the syllabus. I might occasionally assign other problems, readings, podcasts, or videos about current events. I’ll also recommend, but not insist, that you listen to Season 1 of the Dr. Death podcast, especially episodes 5, 6 & 7. (Note that the first episode and some middle episodes describe gory surgery details, especially episode 1 at 8:40–11:00.)

 

Assessment

Your grade will reflect your course participation and your midterm and final exams. During our first class, I’ll explain further how I consider these different forms of assessment. I plan to give exams with word and time limits and without access to the internet or your files. The exams will probably include a mix of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. You may bring along a single sheet of paper to each exam. You may use both sides of this sheet however you like, so long as it includes only your own work (including collaborative work produced with your classmates). Please try not to worry too much about the exams. We’ll talk about them more as they approach.

Other Materials

Feel free to use other materials you find helpful, but remember that you won’t be evaluated on those materials. Tort law is a sprawling subject, we won’t be covering everything, and you can learn everything you need to know for this course by completing the assignments and attending class. I’ve heard good things about Kenneth Abraham’s The Forms and Functions of Tort Law — which you can access online (for free!) through the UGA Law Library — but, again, this isn’t required.

 

Honor

All work done in this course is subject to UGA Law’s Honor Code and Plagiarism Policy and UGA’s Academic Honesty Policy. Unless I explicitly say otherwise, you mustn’t use generative AI technologies during class to help you answer questions or at any time to generate responses on assignments. Beyond those two prohibited uses, I encourage you to experiment with these tools as you learn about tort law, but you should never rely on them as your exclusive knowledge source and should always assess their outputs critically. (Trust me — I’ve seen enough GenAI errors about material covered in this course to proceed cautiously!) If in doubt about whether a use of technology is permissible in this course, please ask me.

Questions? The best way to reach me is by email. To ensure you have my contact information, please email me by 5pm on August 17 with a fun fact about yourself or something that interests you that has nothing to do with law school. You may also use this email to tell me anything else you’d like me to know — your preferred name, your pronouns (mine are he/him/his), or anything else that’ll help me to help you learn.

All the page ranges refer to our casebook, Tort Law: Cases & Critique (e.g., you should read pages 4–8 for our first class).

All supplemental (non-casebook) materials are mandatory unless I mark them as “recommended.”

This syllabus is a general plan for our course, but we might have to deviate from it. If so, I will announce those changes as we go, giving you as much notice as possible.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

This week’s materials raise challenging topics. We’ll discuss sexual assault, domestic violence, racism, and violence by police and others. I’ve included content warnings in the casebook. Please note that the supplemental materials by Franks, Coates, Taylor, and Prabhu might also be distressing.

  • Fri: 50–55

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

  • Tue: 95–104

  • Thu: 105–11

  • Fri: 111–18

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

  • Tue: 168–76

  • Thu: 177–83

  • Fri: 184–87

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

An optional TA Review Session will be held on Thursday, November 13, at 12–1pm in Room A.

  • Tue: 237–43

  • Thu: 243–50

  • Fri: 251–63

    • Invisibilia, Emotions, NPR (2017) (recommended)

Week 14

December 5, 9am: Final Exam

For syllabus inspiration, I’d like to thank Elizabeth Burch, Rebecca Crootof, Woodrow Hartzog, Claudia Haupt, Don Herzog, Douglas Kysar, Andrew Selbst, Jed Shugerman, Elizabeth Weeks, Mike Wells, John Fabian Witt, and especially Scott Hershovitz, all of whose curricula helped me when shaping my own. I’m also immensely grateful to Jeff Cieslikowski for his thoughtful advice and research that helped me improve my syllabus and teaching of various topics.

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