A Law Student's Toolkit

Whether you are an advanced law student looking to review the basics, or an aspiring law student looking for head start, this course will help you build the foundation you will need to succeed in law school and beyond. This course will introduce you to terminology, concepts, and tools lawyers and legal academics use to make their arguments. It will help you follow these arguments—and make arguments of your own.

This course consists of a series of short lectures and assignments. A reading list complements each lesson, providing you with a roadmap to help you explore the subject matter more deeply on your own. Although the lessons may cross-reference each other, they are modular in nature: you should feel free to approach them in whatever order fits your schedule, interests, and needs.

• Introduction
• An overview of what you will learn, how it will help you, and how to get the most from it.
• Categories and Distinctions
• Dichotomies and oppositions that will help you categorize legal rules and frame policy questions.
• Law and . . .
• Interactions between the law and academic disciplines such as economics, philosophy, and psychology.
• Legal Structures
• Fundamental frameworks of legal analysis and procedure.
• Evidentiary Tools
• Concepts from the law of evidence that can help you respond to questions and make compelling arguments
• Preparation Tools
• The tools you need to get the most out of law school.
• Postscript