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The Study of Law: A Critical Thinking Approach, Sixth Edition

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Authors
  • Katherine A. Currier
  • Thomas E. Eimermann
  • Lisa Leibow
Series / Aspen Paralegal Series
BOOKMARK
Book length
696 pages
Publication Date
2025-02-14
Edition
Sixth Edition
Teaching Materials
NO
Description
Table of contents
Preface

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on Casebook Connect, including lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes practice questions, an outline tool, and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes.

Proven effective in the classroom, The Study of Law: A Critical Thinking Approach, now in its sixth edition, brings real-world perspective to understanding basic legal concepts and the American legal system. The authors’ acclaimed critical thinking approach actively engages students in the process of legal reading, analysis, and critical thinking. The text offers a thorough introduction to core topics and concepts, including sources and classifications of law, the structure of the court system, civil litigation and its alternatives, analyzing and interpreting the law, and substantive law. 

Professors and students will benefit from:
● Critical thinking approach introduces students to the study of law, encouraging them to interact with the materials through hypothetical scenarios and exercises, realistic examples, discussion questions, and legal reasoning exercises.
● Strong pedagogy reinforces well-written text presented in an accessible and well-organized format.
● Edited cases in every chapter teach students how to read and analyze the law.
● Thorough introduction to substantive law, with chapters on torts, contracts, property and estate law, business law, family law, and criminal law and procedure, and professional responsibility and ethics.

New to the Sixth Edition:
• Updated law throughout, with a principle focus on the major changes made by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2022, 2023, and 2024 terms. This includes new case excerpts, new Discussion Questions and new Critical Thinking Exercises.
• Key changes include:
    o Enhanced discussion of stare decisis in Chapter 1.
    o Discussion of U.S. Supreme Court’s overruling of the Chevron doctrine regarding the need to defer to agency interpretations and inclusion of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in Chapter 2.
    o Coverage of the ramifications of Dobbs v. Jackson.
    o Chapter 6 on Constitutional Law completely updated to address major Supreme Court cases on freedom of expression, religious freedom, and the Second Amendment. Also includes new discussion of transgender issues.
    o In Chapter 12, an expanded discussion of Crimes Affecting Governmental Functions; an analysis of parental responsibility when a child commits a mass shooting; added section on Presidential Immunity; and new Discussion Questions, including reference to U.S. Supreme Court case Grants Pass v. Johnson regarding constitutionality of criminalizing homelessness.
    o Updated section on making legal services available to low-income clients in Chapter 14.
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Table of Contents
Summary of Contents

Contents 
List of Illustrations 
Preface

PART 1 The American Legal System 
Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study of Law 
Chapter 2 Functions and Sources of Law 
Chapter 3 Classification of the Law 
Chapter 4 The Court System and the Role of Judges 
Chapter 5 Civil Litigation and Its Alternatives 
PART 2 Substantive Law and Ethical Issues 
Chapter 6 Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 
Chapter 7 Torts 
Chapter 8 Contract Law 
Chapter 9 Property and Estate Law 
Chapter 10 Laws Affecting Business 
Chapter 11 Family Law 
Chapter 12 Criminal Law 
Chapter 13 Criminal Procedure
Chapter 14 Ethical Dilemmas Facing Attorneys 

Appendix A The Constitution of the United States 
Appendix B NetNotes 
Glossary
Table of Cases 
Index
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Preface
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About the authors
Katherine A. Currier
Elms College

Katherine A. Currier, J.D., served as the Elms College Paralegal and Legal Studies program director for many years. Currently, she coordinates the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies. She has developed and taught many law-related courses, including Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing; Introduction to Legal Studies I and II; Law Office Computer Literacy; Law Office Applications; Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiating; and Law and Literature. In addition to the three texts she has coauthored with Professor Eimermann, Professor Currier has publications in the areas of legal ethics as applied to paralegals and law office computing.

Professor Currier is actively involved in the development of undergraduate legal education at both the regional and the national levels, particularly through her work with the American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Approval Commission on Paralegals. Professor Currier has served on the national board of AAfPE, first as its parliamentarian and then later as the elected representative of four-year paralegal programs. She served many years as the AAfPE publications chair, charged with the final responsibility for overseeing the Journal of Paralegal Education and Practice and The Educator.

Professor Currier frequently speaks at both the AAfPE Northeast regional meetings and the annual AAfPE conferences on topics as diverse as the use of computer shareware, paralegals and the unauthorized practice of law, creative teaching techniques, and conducting legal research on the Internet. Professor Currier also chaired the American Bar Association Approval Commission on Paralegals, the body charged with conducting site visits of paralegal programs that are seeking their initial ABA approval or reapproval. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE), an organization dedicated to promoting excellence in business education.

Prior to teaching at Elms College, Professor Currier taught at Suffolk Law School and Western New England College School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude with her B.A. in Political Science from Carleton College, with her M.A. in Political Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and with her J.D. from Northeastern University Law School.

Thomas E. Eimermann
Emeritus Professor
Illinois State University

Thomas E. Eimermann is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Illinois State University where he started their paralegal program in 1976 and served as its Director until 2004. During those years he taught the Introduction to Paralegal Studies and the Legal Research and Writing courses, as well as constitutional law and administrative law. Professor Eimermann was a member of the American Association for Paralegal Education's Board of Directors from 1986–1993 and served as president of that organization in 1991–1992. He has also served on the Certification Board and Specialty Task Force of the National Association of Legal Assistants; as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services; and as a member of the Hearing Board, the Inquiry Board, and the Oversight Committee of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. As a consultant for the Illinois Department of Corrections, he designed their Uniform Law Clerk Training Program.

In addition to the three paralegal texts he has coauthored with Professor Currier, Professor Eimermann's publications also include Fundamentals of Paralegalism, Fundamentals of Criminal Practice: Law and Procedure (coauthored with Thomas McClure), and journal articles on paralegals, jury behavior, and free speech issues. He earned his B.A. in Political Science at North Central College. He went on to receive an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign campus. Professors Currier and Eimermann have also authored Introduction to Paralegal Studies: A Critical Thinking Approach and The Study of Law: A Critical Thinking Approach.

Lisa L. Leibow

Professor Leibow’s experience teaching community college students and graduate paralegal students inspired her to design and launch a brand-new American Bar Association-approved bachelor’s completion program in GW’s College of Professional Studies, where she teaches Argument & Logic, and Law, Literature, & Pop Culture and the Senior Capstone course.

Her legal career includes experience as Administrative Law Judge at a state regulatory agency; as in-house regulatory counsel to a quasi-governmental trade association; representing clients in judicial, legislative and regulatory proceedings at the federal, state and local levels; and drafting subsidiary contracts for broadcast stations and employment and vendor contracts for telecommunications carriers.

In addition, she is an experienced author and writing professor with a demonstrated history of publishing and teaching writing at the graduate, undergraduate and community education levels. She is skilled in legal, academic, fiction, short stories, creative non-fiction, literature and poetry. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Prize. She’s currently working on a collection inspired by Supreme Court Opinions.

Professor Leibow is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Also, she is president and co-founder with author Julia Alvarez of The Scheherazade Project, a non-profit artivism movement that uses the power of creativity, solidarity and courage to promote social justice, nourish our spirits and enable a more beloved community.
Product Information
Edition
Sixth Edition
Publication date
2025-02-14
Copyright Year
2025
Pages
696
Connected eBook with Study Center + Paperback
9798889060536
Connected eBook with Study Center (Digital Only)
9798889060543
Subject
Introduction to Law
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