Torts: Doctrine and Process

In Torts: Doctrine and Process, Donald H. Beskind and Doriane Lambelet Coleman draw on their experience as academics and practitioners to offer a rigorous first-year course that covers intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability, and that meets the highest intellectual and analytical capabilities of today’s law students. Modeling the sophisticated modern practice setting, the cases and materials are designed primarily for extraction learning: their doctrinal context is clear, but the rules are generally derived from careful reading and analysis. This doctrinal approach frames classroom discussions about topical issues in the law and normative, economic, and theoretical arguments about rule choices and legal strategy. The text is also designed to build students’ legal method skills, including honing their abilities to synthesize disparate material, to develop and distinguish between argument and evidence, and to work at the juncture of the substantive black letter law of torts and the rules of civil procedure that govern the litigation process. The principal materials are complemented by notes and questions and problems based on past exams, together providing the basis for this focused introduction to torts and to the law generally.