Language of the Law: Concepts and Insights
July 29 - August 2, 2024 or August 5 - 9, 2024
Course Overview
The Language of the Law: Concepts and Insights boot camp is an optional program that offers incoming first-year students an introduction to the fundamentals of legal information. The course introduces students to the four types of law that govern our democratic society (constitutional law, statutory law, regulatory law and case law) and helps them begin to understand how they intersect and overlap with each other in application, creating a strong foundation students will benefit from throughout their law school career. The course will address six topics:
- Structure of Legal Information
- Jurisdiction, Primary v. Secondary law, and Mandatory v. Persuasive Law
- Fundamentals of Case Law
- Fundamentals of Secondary Sources
- Fundamentals of Statutory Law
- Fundamentals of Regulatory Law
Course Details
Dates: July 29 - August 2, 2024 or August 5 - 9, 2024; the two weeks prior to Emory Law's Orientation activities.
Cost: Free
Open to: incoming 1Ls at Emory Law
Materials required: None
All sessions will be held in Gambrell Hall in person.
Registration is open and required for enrollment in the program. Registration closes Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at 5:00 pm ET. Please see the registration website for more information.
Course Schedule
Students can register for either Option 1 (July 29 - August 2, 2024, mornings only), Option 2 (August 5 - 9, 2024, mornings), or Option 3 (August 5 - 9, 2024, afternoons). Students are expected to attend all sessions for which they are registered. No make-up classes will be available. The two schedules are shown below. For additional information, see the registration website.
Date | Time | Topic |
Day 1 | Morning: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | - Welcome and Introduction - Structure of Legal Information - Fundamentals of Jurisdiction - Primary v. Secondary Authority - Mandatory v. Persuasive Authority - Tour of the MacMillan Law Library |
Day 2 | Morning: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | - Fundamentals of Case Law - Exercise #1 Assigned |
Day 3 | Morning: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Afternoon: 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. | - Fundamentals of Secondary Sources - Exercise #2 Assigned |
Day 4 | Morning: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Afternoon: 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. | - Fundamentals of Statutory Law - Exercise #3 Assigned - Overview of Law Library Services |
Day 5 | Morning: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Afternoon: 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. | - Fundamentals of Regulatory Law - Exercise #4 Assigned - Wrap-up |
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the Language of the Law boot camp,
1. Incoming 1Ls will be able to describe and understand the four types of laws that govern the United States in order to have a better understanding, at the beginning of their law school career, of how “the law” is written and how it works in the real world as well as how it is used as a tool for teaching legal concepts.
2. Incoming 1Ls will be able to articulate the difference between a statute and a regulation, thus preparing them for a broader understanding of the concepts taught in 1L Leg/Reg on the first day of classes.
3. Incoming 1Ls will learn how to navigate multiple legal resources to discover legal authority appropriate for different types of legal analysis thus preparing them for success in ILARC.
4. Incoming 1Ls will understand the fundamental structure of legal information in order to provide a framework for understanding core concepts in all future classes, regardless of the type of law (statutory-based courses such as Contracts and Civil Procedure, case law-based courses such as Property and Torts, agency and regulatory-based courses such as Leg/Reg, Health Law or Environmental Law, and constitutionally-based courses such as Con Law and Criminal Procedure).
Course Instructors
Christina Glon, JD, MSLIS, Associate Law Librarian for Research Services, MacMillan Law Library
Elizabeth Christian, JD, MLS, Law Librarian for Research Services, MacMillan Law Library
Allison Coffey, JD, MLS, Law Librarian for Research Services, MacMillan Law Library
Andrea Quinn, PhD, JD, MLIS, Law Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Research Services, MacMillan Law Library
Andy Stamm, JD, MLS, Law Library for Research Services, MacMillan Law Library
David Yoo, SJD, LLM, MLIS, PhD, LLB, Law Librarian for Research Services, MacMillan Law Library