Favorite Holiday-Themed Cases
posted by Eric Goldman
I can’t imagine doing anything as radical as wearing a chicken suit when teaching the chicken case in Contracts, but I do like to find ways to reinforce classroom pedagogical lessons in entertaining ways. In particular, when timed right, it’s especially fun to teach holiday-themed material on or around the holiday.
For example, around Halloween, Contracts or Property professors can teach Stambovsky v. Ackley, 572 N.Y.S.2d 672 (NY App. Div. 1991), in which buyers sought rescission for failure to disclose that their new house was haunted. Among other remarkable aspects, the court said that the house was haunted as a matter of law. Or, Civil Procedure professors might teach US ex rel Mayo v. Satan, 54 F.R.D. 282 (W.D. Pa. 1971), which matter-of-factly discusses whether it is possible to establish personal jurisdiction over Satan.
I’m not particularly creative about holiday/teaching material pairings, so I’ll turn the question over to you. What’s your favorite holiday-themed case or other teaching material? Any good St. Patrick’s Day materials? Valentine’s Day? Earth Day? Festivus?
January 11, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Posted in: Law School (Teaching)
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Responses (2)
Zarah - January 12, 2007 at 12:03 pm
How about loss of consortium or alienation of affection in Torts around Valentine’s Day?
ryang - January 12, 2007 at 4:15 pm
This isn’t technically law school… But the undergraduate professor for Business Law at the University of Florida far outdoes the chicken suit professor. He dresses up in at least one different costume EVERY day. In fact, he has an entire storage office just for his costumes.
In my opinion, he makes a mockery out of the class. It is impossible to learn anything, because his attempts at providing visual memory clues only serve to further obfuscate complicated legal concepts. He was educated at Harvard Law School though…
PICTURES: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/11/Floridian/Class_clown.shtml
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