Book Title: Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System
Book Author: Professor Jay M. Feinman
Law Preview Review Rating: 5 Stars
First-year students often complain of being lost — not knowing what rule they are supposed to extract from the cases they read for each class, and how all the rules fit together. Law 101, by Rutgers-Camden Law's Professor Jay Feinman, gives a roadmap to keep you on track.
Law 101 covers all of the first-year subjects: Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Property, Torts, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. Here you find clear explanations of the hundreds of individual rules that bedevil students, from the ancient Statute of Frauds in contract law to abortion rights in constitutional law. More important, the book explains what each subject covers, where it comes from, and what its basic principles and policies are. This big picture of each subject is invaluable for putting in context what you cover in each day's class and then putting it all together for final exams.
The best feature of Law 101 is that it does not just recite the rules; it engages you in the process of thinking about the law in the same way that good Socratic classes do. There are as many questions as there are answers in the book, and many of the questions stem from the classic cases and modern controversies that fill law school casebooks. When two seamen adrift in a lifeboat kill and eat their companion, a cabin boy, to save their own lives, is it murder or a justified killing? Is burning an American flag constitutionally-protected free speech? And why should McDonald's have to pay when seventy-nine year old Stella Liebeck spills hot coffee on herself after going through the drive-thru? The stories make the book an entertaining read as well as a valuable resource.
We were so impressed with Professor Feinman's straightforward style of writing, and his reputation as a phenomenal lecturer, we retained him to lecture for Law Preview in select cities. Whether or not you decide to take Law Preview, you should definitely pick up a copy Law 101.
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