First assignments

The first assignment is pages 1-17 of the Administrative Law: Cases and Materials (10th ed. 2026).

Professor Kirkwood

Pages 3-12, 25-37, and Appendix B of the Antitrust Law: Policy and Practice (Carolina Academic Press, 5th ed. 2020) casebook.

The material for this course consists of Coleman, Stempel, Baicker-McKee, Herr, & Kaufman, Learning Civil Procedure (4th Edition West 2022).

For our first class meeting on Tuesday, August 25, please read Walker v. City of Birmingham (on Canvas); Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Table of Contents (link on Canvas); the DOJ Ferguson Report, pp. 1-6 (on Canvas); Five First Year Survival Tips. Also, complete Week 1 Discussion (on Canvas). And read Learning Civil Procedure pp. xliii-xlviii and the Comprehensive Study Guide pp. 1-3, 11-15, and 32-34 (on Canvas). Finally, review the Course Policies (on Canvas).

A Canvas site for this course has been established, and you should register for it. This assignment (and attendant materials) are reflected on the Week 1 Overview page.

The material for this course consists of Coleman, Stempel, Baicker-McKee, Herr, & Kaufman, Learning Civil Procedure (3d. Edition West 2018).

For our first class meeting on Saturday, August 21, please read Walker v. City of Birmingham (on Canvas); Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Table of Contents (on Canvas); the DOJ Ferguson Report, pp. 1-6 (on Canvas); Five First Year Survival Tips. Also, complete Week 1 Discussion (on Canvas). And read Learning Civil Procedure pp. xxxvii-xlii and the Comprehensive Study Guide pp. 1-3, 11-15, and 32-34 (on Canvas). Finally, review the Course Policies & Syllabus (on Canvas).

A Canvas site for this course has been established, and you should register for it. This assignment (and attendant materials) are reflected on the Week 1 Overview Page.

Professor Kalantry

Class 1: Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Introduction/Surrogacy Contracts (part 1)

The below readings can be found on Canvas or in this Dropbox folder.

Read

1. v to xvii (Kuney & Lloyd): Introduction to Contracts (in Canvas under "Files")
2. The syllabus posted on Canvas.
3. The surrogacy contract in Baby M surrogacy contract (in Canvas under "files") [This was the agreement between the litigants in the Baby M case]
4. The Baby M trial court opinion, 217 N.J.Super. 313, (in Canvas under “Files”)
5. The Baby M (NJ Supreme Court opinion) (in Canvas under “Files”)

Questions

1. What is a recent contract you have entered into? Did you sign it or is there other ways to enter into contracts?
2. What are the key obligations of the parties in the surrogacy contract?
3. Why does the trial court spend so much time describing the circumstances and social class of the plaintiffs and the defendants?
4. What is the connection between family law and contract law in this case?
5. Who is Harold Cassidy, the lawyer eventually retained by Mary Beth Whitehead? What kinds of cases does he take?
6. What are the reasons Whitehead claims that the surrogacy contract should not be enforced?
7. What remedy does the court grant?
8. What parts of the lower court opinion were reversed and what parts were upheld?
9. Why does the court find that surrogacy contracts are against NJ statutes and public policy?
10. Why does the court call the discussion about the contract issues by the lower court just “commentary”?
11. There were a host of amicus briefs in this case, how do you think that impacted the court’s decision? You should note that the amicus brief filed by feminist organizations and law professors argued that surrogacy contracts should not be enforced.

Professor Bowen

Class 1: Monday, August 24, 2026

Marriages: Substantive & Procedural 

Ceremonial Marriage, Void, and Voidable Marriages

Pages 101 (start with Note: void…)-109 & 128-133 & 138-143

Class 2: Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Recognizing Informal Relationships

Common Law Marriage and Putative Spouse Doctrine

Pages 165-178

Professor Slye

Read

TUESDAY:  Chapter 1

Questions and ideas to focus on:

1. What are the most important purposes/goals of the criminal justice system and why?  Are these the same as the international criminal justice system?
2. Given those purposes/goals, how well does criminal prosecution and punishment further them at both the domestic and international levels?
3. Can you think of alternatives that might further those goals as well, or even better?
4. Does the enormity of mass atrocity require a different approach to criminal justice, or justice generally, than “normal” or “common” crimes?

• Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting, p. 1-69.
• NPSM-7, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/
• "Trump Administration Unleashes Global Campaign to Crush Radical Left Terrorism", https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/07/trump-administration-unleashes-global-campaign-to-crush-radical-left-terrorism/
• Optional: Listen to this episode of the Death Panel podcast, with Vicky Osterweil talking about the above recent developments from the Trump Administration. https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod/posts/trumps-new-red-w-165004076

• Brown, Kate. Tiny Gardens Everywhere. p. 9-90. Note: You can skip the subsections within these pages that are about the author gardening with her neighbors and the ones about Pablo and Maria. Focus on the historical material about policing poor people in England and Germany, the enclosure of the commons, how people were forced into wage labor and how they resisted and subsisted. This book also exists as an audiobook. If you choose to listen to it rather than read, please take careful notes.
• Questions to consider when reading: What are the commons and what is enclosure of the commons? What did enclosure change about how people survive? Why does it matter whether people can grow their own food or not? Why did the governments Brown is talking about discourage people from being autonomous? Why did people want autonomy from commerce and wage work? What does this history tell you about how poverty was invented, what capitalism is, how it works, and what it has to do with law and legal systems? Why does studying what happened in England and Germany hundreds of years ago help us understand our lives in the Pacific Northwest today?