Week 1 Assignments – all are due by Sunday, 7/2 by 11:59p.m. – 20 points

These assignments are designed to (1) ensure you have read the material (2) engage you in the learning process and (3) take approximately as much time as you might have spent doing work in a 5-hour, in-class setting (not counting reading).

Please submit your responses to these questions in a Word document with clear identification as to which question are answering. For example, you would write: Chapter 1, Question 2.

Chapter 1

1. Americans with a Better Cause (ABC), a nonprofit organization, files a suit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), claiming that a certain federal statute the DOJ is empowered to enforce, conflicts with the U.S. Constitution and with a state constitution. In each situation, which source of law has priority? [Approximately 1 paragraph response is acceptable] One point. TIME ESTIMATE: 15 MINUTES. 
2. Answer “Multiple-Choice Questions 1-4. Four points. TIME ESTIMATE: 15 MINUTES
3. Using the Google (or other) search engine, find two current (within the last 5 years) cases that interest you: one civil, one criminal. You can Google ‘celebrity lawsuits,’ ‘civil cases in the news’, etc. : Explain the different roles played by each type of law, and summarize the issues in the respective cases. This should take you approximately ½ to 1 page set at 1.5 lines. Four points.                TIME ESTIMATE: 35 MINUTES 

Chapter 3

 4. For legal disputes between parties, why is mediation often considered advantageous over litigation? Please provide at least two examples to support your answer. One point.

 TIME ESTIMATE: 10 minutes

5. Answer “Essay Questions” 2, 4 & 5 from textbook page 73. Three points.

TIME ESTIMATE: 40 MINUTES

6. Find a current article on a pending class action against a large pharmaceutical, tobacco, automobile, or other company. Answer these questions in a one-page, 1.5 line-spaced document:

1. What is a class action?
2. How long has this class action been going?
3. How does a class action change the stakes for the parties?
4. What are the plaintiffs’ claims?
5. Have developments in the class action favored the plaintiffs or defendants?
6. What are the long-term business, legal, and social consequences of class actions such as this one? Do those consequences support class actions as a valid form of litigation? 6 points.