Please use the comments section to share thoughts on choosing a casebook in Contracts. (See here and here for a discussion of the Course Preparation Project.)
Posted by Matt Bodie on May 10, 2007 at 04:29 PM
Comments
That might compromise my anonymity unless you have one of those voice-disguising contraptions handy. Also, I do know how to spell your name. The “ie” was just a weird Benadryl-addled tic this morning, I swear.
Posted by: 1elle | May 16, 2007 12:40:15 AM
By all means, give me a ring to talk about the final anytime.
Posted by: Ethan Leib | May 15, 2007 6:51:01 PM
As a former student in Prof. Lieb’s contracts class, I’d like to confirm his sense that students grew to like Macauley, Kidwell. It was clear, interesting, and well edited, it integrated UCC and common-law approaches, and the explanatory notes at the beginnings of sections set things up nicely (I read them even when Prof. Lieb did not assign them). It’s also really refreshing to get out of the Law & Econ mode of most first-year courses. Thank you for your thoughtful choice, Prof. Lieb. Now if we can talk a bit about that final…
Posted by: 1elle | May 15, 2007 10:38:45 AM
Huge fan of Frier and White. The cases were very well organized with the topic, and the notes were just helpful enough without giving away too much of the ball. It was pedagogically the best casebook I’ve sad so far.
Posted by: 1L | May 13, 2007 5:30:15 PM
I concur on Knapp, et al. It is the flip problem of the Bainbridge book in Business Associations, however. There is so much explanatory material that the new professor needs a fair amount of self-confidence in pruning.
I assume that UCC Article 2 fits here. I used Whaley’s UCC book the first time I taught it, and it and I did not click. I liked the Keating Sales: A Systems Approach better, but I think it would be better he tried not to include the real estate stuff. I didn’t touch it, and I think there is better stuff out there for real estate transactions. The Keating book has some glitches, however (for example, very confused on 2-708(2) lost profits) – drop me a buzz if you are using it.
I think the article on teaching that Matt or Paul referred to has a great point about having a shadow text – the benefit of switching from Whaley to Keating meant that I had a resource for problems, exam questions, etc.
Posted by: Jeff Lipshaw | May 12, 2007 9:17:06 AM
I personally adore the Knapp, Crystal & Prince “Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials” book for Contracts.
The cases were interesting and generated good class discussions. My favorite feature of this book are the Problems at the end of each chapter which are very similar to typical exam fact patterns. Our Professor assigned one or two of these a semester to be turned in (not graded, just for completion credit). As a first year law student new to law school, this really helped me understand what to expect on an exam and alleviated some of the sheer terror involved.
Posted by: Law Student | May 11, 2007 5:42:18 PM
I am partial to Macauley, Kidwell. It is unorthodox — and I have to supplement on Consideration and Offer & Acceptance from Farnsworth (areas they basically refuse to cover on principle). But it is the most intellectually stimulating book I’ve found. Its “Law & Society” and “Law in Action” schtick can get old from time to time; but I believe it makes for a very interesting course. Students resist it (just as I resisted it when I was a student), largely because it comes in two softbound volumes and doesn’t look like a traditional casebook. But I am totally convinced that it wins most students over by the end. Even the haters appreciate the different tone and approach, I suspect.
If you are a problem-based sort of teacher, the book isn’t for you. But I think the book generates very good discussions. I use the Danzig supplement as well, which I am reconsidering for next year when we shift down from 5 units to 4; Danzig gets very mixed reviews from students — and I’m not fully convinced it adds as much value as I want it to.
Posted by: Ethan Leib | May 11, 2007 5:34:16 PM
I use the Murphy, Speidel, and Ayres book. It has a nice continuing series of problems, and it integrates the UCC well into the discussion. The three authors have three fairly different foci: my sense is that Murphy focused on legal history and traditional doctrine, Speidel focuses on commercial law (he is the reporter for the revision of UCC Article 2), and Ayres focuses on law & economics. The contrasts can be a bit jarring, but overall there’s a lot of good material there.
Posted by: Matt Bodie | May 11, 2007 1:07:20 PM