Black Letter Law Forum

[Lycurgus]

Where do you go to get the black letter law? Do the E&E's provide the BLL?

[MrPapagiorgio]

Gilbert or Emanuel's commercial outlines

[BruceWayne]

Where do you go to get the black letter law? Do the E&E's provide the BLL?

Yes.

[traydeuce]

BLL does not exist. You read the cases, and insofar as they contain BLL, that's the BLL you've got/need to know. (Except in crim, where, yes, go read Dressler.)

[zeth006]

BLL does not exist. You read the cases, and insofar as they contain BLL, that's the BLL you've got/need to know. (Except in crim, where, yes, go read Dressler.)

And the lectures.

[JusticeHarlan]

Where do you go to get the black letter law?

Read case
Put "black letter law" in brief
Refine based on lecture
Compile into outline
???
Profit

[reasonable_man]

BLL does not exist. You read the cases, and insofar as they contain BLL, that's the BLL you've got/need to know. (Except in crim, where, yes, go read Dressler.)

Bit of an overgeneralization; no?

[I.P. Daly]

Where do you go to get the black letter law? Do the E&E's provide the BLL?

The E&E's are a great resource, and they do provide an analysis of black letter law. However, annoyingly, most E&E's do not explicitly list the elements of a particular cause of action. Perhaps the best resource for BLL is a commercial outline. E&E's are better for learning how to do a proper analysis of BLL.

One of the easiest ways to determine whether you're accurately getting the BLL/rules of law from the assigned cases is to cross check your case brief with a commercial brief. This website is a great resource for commercial briefs: http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/category/law/

In some situations, Wikipedia is also a good resource.

[traydeuce]

BLL does not exist. You read the cases, and insofar as they contain BLL, that's the BLL you've got/need to know. (Except in crim, where, yes, go read Dressler.)

Bit of an overgeneralization; no?

Yeah, it is. But it is true that all you need to know is in the cases/lectures, and that supplements just exist to clarify cases for those who struggle to learn the law that way.

[Heartford]

Learning black letter law is important, but I think it gets a lot more attention than it deserves.

[target]

What are about articles that are between cases? Have you ever have to use a concept drawn from those articles on an exam?

[Heartford]

What are about articles that are between cases, or in some case in stead of cases? Have you ever have to use a concept drawn from those articles on an exam?

Yes.

[traydeuce]

What are about articles that are between cases? Have you ever have to use a concept drawn from those articles on an exam?

I have used them. You never have to use them. If you're good, you can use them to distinguish yourself and get an A. Here's where they can be helpful. A significant minority of exams are of the "what would YOU like the law to be" variety. (And some don't appear to be, but are in disguise, like "is Obamacare constitutional?" Yes, existing doctrine more or less answers that question (btw, answers it in favor of Obama), but it's one of these things that's so up for grabs because the issue is so hot that asking that question is, to a large extent, tantamount to asking whether we ought to invent some new wrinkle to the doctrine so as to invalidate Obamacare.) So, what law professors spend their lives doing is making arguments about what the law should be. And sometimes it's a good move to rely on and build on, without simply regurgitating, some of these arguments in your exam.