There are a wide variety of commercial outlines, case briefs and supplemental textbooks to attract the law student dollar. At the beginning of the term I though "why would I want extra reading?" but now 9 weeks in, I have caved and bought a few.

The problem is, the main textbook in any class is invariably a casebook. From what I can tell, casebooks have developed an idiomatic and not entirely logical format. Cases, usually from appellate courts, are edited down for length and then the casebook editor adds a section of "notes and questions" on the end. Not much space (if any) is given to explaining the doctrine that the case is about -- your best bet is to get a hint from the section heading at the top of each page ("oh right, I'm in Informed Consent ...")

The other problem with casebooks is they're, you know, full of cases. What's good is these are real opinions. What's bad is the judge was not writing the case for your benefit, law student, so teasing out the signficance sometimes seems like a long drive for a short day at the beach.

Anyhow. The supplements, if nothing else, confirm that you actually are following what's going on correctly because they just give you the doctrine and the applications, and often -- this is very helpful -- hypothetical situations to answer questions about. The final exam is going to be full of hypos, not appellate court opinions, that's for sure.

19 Oct 04