SUMMER ACADEMIC SUCCESS PROGRAM
Extended Program with Professor Kirk Burkhalter ¹

Introduction ²

Welcome to the 2012 Extended Summer Academic Success Program. New York Law School offers this
summer program to facilitate your transition to the study of law. We seek to instill an attitude and a sense
of method conducive to your success as a law student. We want you to grapple with questions such as:
Why am I reading cases? What should I think about, what should I look for, and what should I remember,
when reading a case? What happens in a law school classroom? Why are law classes conducted through
questions and dialogue as well as through lecture? What are my responsibilities as a student during
classes? What is a law school final examination like? How is a law school examination related to reading
assignments and classroom activities? How should I approach my reading assignments and classes
more effectively to perform as well as possible on the final examination?

In the first part of the course, you will be introduced to a “case”—more precisely, to an opinion, written by
a judge in an appellate court, purporting to resolve a legal dispute between opposing parties. You will be
exposed to the importance of facts, the distinction between legally relevant facts and irrelevant facts, the
distinctions between propositions of fact and propositions of law, the manner in which a judge articulates
and justifies a legal rule or principle for determining which facts are legally relevant, the frequently difficult
distinctions between “holding” and “dicta,” and the manner in which lawyers make arguments – and juries
make findings—about how a legal principle applies to the facts of a case. The first part of the course also
examines background material discussing the history of Anglo-American legal processes, and provides
an introduction to relationships among important institutions in the American legal system—trial courts
and appellate courts in both the state and federal systems, state legislatures, state constitutions, the
Congress of the United States, federal administrative agencies, and the Constitution of the United States.
 

In the second part of the course, you will be introduced to the ways in which past cases—or
“precedents”—are used by lawyers and judges to shape the analysis and outcome of a controversy. Why
should past cases help determine the outcome of a present controversy? How do past cases help
determine the outcome of a present controversy? How does one determine which past cases are relevant
to a present controversy? How does one determine the way in which those past relevant cases are
relevant? How are practicing lawyers, judges, and legislators responsible for the definition and
development of law? To what extent is law found, or made—and by whom? We will confront these
questions through a series of cases that address the legal responsibility of a manufacturer or seller of a
product for injuries caused by that product to its purchaser, user, or to a bystander.
 

The final part of the course consists of an examination, which will be given on Friday, August 17. At a
time and place to be determined, there will be a final class meeting in which your examinations, each with
a critique, will be returned and discussed.

The syllabus and first week’s readings have been posted below. Your will receive the remainder of the course
materials during the first class. I look forward to working with you.
 

Extensive ASP Syllabus

Extensive ASP Course Book 2012

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
¹ Kirk Burkhalter, Associate Professor of Law
Office: 40 Worth Street, room S919, phone: (212) 324-6553; e-mail: kirk.burkhalter@nyls.edu
² Acknowledgments: These materials have been excerpted from LEGAL METHODS, by Harry W. Jones, John M.
Kernochan, and Arthur W. Murphy, published by Foundation Press, from AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ANGLO-AMERICAN
LEGAL SYSTEM, by Edgar Bodenheimer, John B. Oakly, and Jean C. Love, published by West Publishing Co., from
John Makdisi’s INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LAW, published by Anderson Publishing Co., and from Howard Zinn’s A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, published by Harper. Also, Professor David Chang, of New York Law
School has devoted years of invaluable energy and effort toward the development and implementation of New York
Law School’s Academic Support Program.