TheSeaLocust's 1L Anxiety Meditation Retreat & Spa Forum

[sinfiery]

So, once you start outlining and you realize on a particular day, you may have been completely zoned out in class, how do you fill that gap on your outline? Supplements? Old outlines? Read it yourself? Google?

[Bikeflip]

So, once you start outlining and you realize on a particular day, you may have been completely zoned out in class, how do you fill that gap on your outline? Supplements? Old outlines? Read it yourself? Google?

Swap notes with a classmate who is on top of their shit. While this flies somewhat in the face of "don't let your dumbass classmates teach you shit you don't understand," your classmate was in the class and heard what your prof (who will be grading your exam) had to say. Wikipedia and the E&E weren't.

[thesealocust]

So, once you start outlining and you realize on a particular day, you may have been completely zoned out in class, how do you fill that gap on your outline? Supplements? Old outlines? Read it yourself? Google?

All of that works. Old outline, when it works, is the fastest way - and profs often re-tread their courses with minimal updates or re-ordering...

[Easy-E]

So, once you start outlining and you realize on a particular day, you may have been completely zoned out in class, how do you fill that gap on your outline? Supplements? Old outlines? Read it yourself? Google?

All of that works. Old outline, when it works, is the fastest way - and profs often re-tread their courses with minimal updates or re-ordering...

I got an outline for one of my classes from our LRW TA, but I dunno where to find the rest. And when someone has one, is their a nice way to ask how they did in the class? Don't want to seem ungrateful for someone giving me their outline (though it's also likely they got it from someone else) but I'd prefer an A student's obviously.

[thesealocust]

So, once you start outlining and you realize on a particular day, you may have been completely zoned out in class, how do you fill that gap on your outline? Supplements? Old outlines? Read it yourself? Google?

All of that works. Old outline, when it works, is the fastest way - and profs often re-tread their courses with minimal updates or re-ordering...

I got an outline for one of my classes from our LRW TA, but I dunno where to find the rest. And when someone has one, is their a nice way to ask how they did in the class? Don't want to seem ungrateful for someone giving me their outline (though it's also likely they got it from someone else) but I'd prefer an A student's obviously.

No, there is no nice/polite/non-awful way to ask how they did in the class. Realistically though, grade and outline quality have little to no correlation except at the negative end. The best outlines for your purposes actually come from people who totally miss the point of an outline and dump everything they can find into the document. The 100 page outline that covers every word the professor said in class wasn't a good use of that person's time, but can be very handy for you later on...

[Easy-E]

Am I stupid because I don't full understand what entails "common law"? Because I feel stupid. I get that theft and murder are common law offenses, but where is this all coming from?

[hephaestus]

Am I stupid because I don't full understand what entails "common law"? Because I feel stupid. I get that theft and murder are common law offenses, but where is this all coming from?

Common law, at a base level, just means anything that is not statutory (that is, judge made law). In crim, the common law offenses are a term of art for felonies "at common law," meaning what were felonies in England before they had significant statutory law.

[thesealocust]

Am I stupid because I don't full understand what entails "common law"? Because I feel stupid. I get that theft and murder are common law offenses, but where is this all coming from?

Not stupid at all! It's a weird and unintuitive distinction.

Common law really just refers to things which have been laws in the U.K. / U.S. legal system for so long that they derive their source from case law, or statues which were chiefly designed to re-state the case law.

This is in contrast with things that aren't common law, like civil procedure, where you have a body of law created more or less from scratch by legislative bodies and then subsequently interpreted by the courts.

It also comes up a lot as a distinction between historical lines of cases and modern versions with slight alternations. In criminal law, you might learn about "common law" crimes and their historical definitions and elements and contrast them with the modal penal code or statutes from specific states. In contracts, you might learn common law cases for contract theory but contrast them with similar provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code.

It's the kind of thing that is hard to understand until you've seen a lot of examples from each and start to see the contours of the legal universe more closely.

[Easy-E]

Am I stupid because I don't full understand what entails "common law"? Because I feel stupid. I get that theft and murder are common law offenses, but where is this all coming from?

Common law, at a base level, just means anything that is not statutory (that is, judge made law). In crim, the common law offenses are a term of art for felonies "at common law," meaning what were felonies in England before they had significant statutory law.

So these are things that just "inherent" offenses, if that makes sense? Rape, murder, theft, assault, arson, etc?

[Easy-E]

Am I stupid because I don't full understand what entails "common law"? Because I feel stupid. I get that theft and murder are common law offenses, but where is this all coming from?

Not stupid at all! It's a weird and unintuitive distinction.

Common law really just refers to things which have been laws in the U.K. / U.S. legal system for so long that they derive their source from case law, or statues which were chiefly designed to re-state the case law.

This is in contrast with things that aren't common law, like civil procedure, where you have a body of law created more or less from scratch by legislative bodies and then subsequently interpreted by the courts.

It also comes up a lot as a distinction between historical lines of cases and modern versions with slight alternations. In criminal law, you might learn about "common law" crimes and their historical definitions and elements and contrast them with the modal penal code or statutes from specific states. In contracts, you might learn common law cases for contract theory but contrast them with similar provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code.

It's the kind of thing that is hard to understand until you've seen a lot of examples from each and start to see the contours of the legal universe more closely.

Thanks for this. I guess it will make more sense as we get into it more, but this and the above post are definitely helpful.

[thesealocust]

In the real world, if you have a legal question you have to know the chain of authority: what statues and cases apply with what level of binding precedence. So if somebody does something criminal in Arkansas, you look to Arkansas criminal laws, federal criminal laws, and cases interpreting them.

In law school, you just examine a wide array of rules, laws, cases, statutes, interpretations, etc. "Common law" refers to the rules that have existed for a long period of time, and for which you will find example cases in many different jurisdictions often over dozens or hundreds of years. Part of law school is often contrasting various common law rules with more modern statutory rules.

[Easy-E]

In the real world, if you have a legal question you have to know the chain of authority: what statues and cases apply with what level of binding precedence. So if somebody does something criminal in Arkansas, you look to Arkansas criminal laws, federal criminal laws, and cases interpreting them.

In law school, you just examine a wide array of rules, laws, cases, statutes, interpretations, etc. "Common law" refers to the rules that have existed for a long period of time, and for which you will find example cases in many different jurisdictions often over dozens or hundreds of years. Part of law school is often contrasting various common law rules with more modern statutory rules.

Yeah, based on previous exams my whole crim exam is going to be application of common law vs. MPC. It's all a bit overwhelming, but I'm hoping it will come together eventually.

[sublime]

..

[thesealocust]

I got actually stressed out today for the first time - I fucking forgot to hit done on an ICW that I had completed like a month ago, and apparently that is a late assignment, which would seem to be one point off of my final grade. Completely my fault, but a really stupid reason to lose a point on the final. I mean, the prof is cool, and assuming that I complete all other assignments on time, she may overlook it - although she is really big on rules.

Just a really stupid, really avoidable mistake.

Just one point; water under the bridge. You'll be fine.

The thing about stupid, really avoidable mistakes that nobody ever tells you? You're going to make a few, and that's a big part of how you'll avoid them in the future.

[theInnerCircle]

my rant is more social based.

my classmates give me anxiety cuz they are always stressed out and everyone camps out in the fuckin library which is more silent than a silent buddhist retreat. jesus we are 1Ls and its not that big a fuckin deal! as a result i feel like maybe i'm the crazy one and i must be way behind and i'm a lazy jerk, etc.

ppl don't do study groups in my class/section either. they just hole up, alone. wtf?!?

thankfully i have gta to look forward to as well. and a part time where i interact with normal humans.

[thesealocust]

my rant is more social based.

my classmates give me anxiety cuz they are always stressed out and everyone camps out in the fuckin library which is more silent than a silent buddhist retreat. jesus we are 1Ls and its not that big a fuckin deal! as a result i feel like maybe i'm the crazy one and i must be way behind and i'm a lazy jerk, etc.

ppl don't do study groups in my class/section either. they just hole up, alone. wtf?!?

thankfully i have gta to look forward to as well. and a part time where i interact with normal humans.

The echo chamber can be really grueling. You're not way behind or lazy in all likelihood... it's just really hard to "ride your own ride" (as motorcyclists like to say) in an environment like 1L.

[First Offense]

I don't mean to step on our esteemed OP's turf, but I agree... you have to find out what works for you. As a 1L I'm finding it hard myself, but I think you just have to trust that you know how you learn best, and do that. Also, don't listen to what other people are doing. My one takeaway as a 1L so far is that no one else has a clue either, so don't get stressed out by what they're doing in relation to you.

[justonemoregame]

Mr. Sealocust, is it possible to not know some law, but still be able to miraculously apply it?

[thesealocust]

Mr. Sealocust, is it possible to not know some law, but still be able to miraculously apply it?

Sorta. The law you need to know to apply is usually the really basic law that will be hard to miss from class, like the main bullet points. You absolutely won't need to know all the squib cases, Scalia dissents, etc.

[KD35]

Until now, a lot of my section has been utterly insufferable. Multiple pretentious cliques. Frustrating because it is hard to have a sense of camaraderie like other sections have, and it is draining. We are in midst of midterms (graded, but only for practice), and I've heard that it gets better after midterm grades come back because people realize they aren't all that. Hoping this is true, because I love the whole LS material, just the people are crappy right now. Does it get better? Or should I get used to insufferable pricks because they will be the same for the whole year?

[thesealocust]

Until now, a lot of my section has been utterly insufferable. Multiple pretentious cliques. Frustrating because it is hard to have a sense of camaraderie like other sections have, and it is draining. We are in midst of midterms (graded, but only for practice), and I've heard that it gets better after midterm grades come back because people realize they aren't all that. Hoping this is true, because I love the whole LS material, just the people are crappy right now. Does it get better? Or should I get used to insufferable pricks because they will be the same for the whole year?

It'll get a bit better over time as everybody gets beaten down.

[stillwater]

i found that after 1st semester grades came out, the gunning got worse as people started to delusionally believe that gunning harder during class would make up for their grade deficiencies. oh man was it bad. just read the news during class, helps ignore them.

[Easy-E]

I don't full understand how to outline. I don't really get what it should be. Break down the sections into headings, then insert BLL and case holdings and all the "checklist" type items we have for each heading? Isn't this all already in my class/case notes? Why does it take so goddamn long apparently? Is it too late to become a dentist?

[theInnerCircle]

i officially no longer know whats going on in torts, thanks to my wonderfully engaging professor... -______-

[Hspeaksfriend]

Thanks for this, SeaLocust