Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Law 101: Fundamentals of the Law
Michael Martella · Open SUNY · 2018
Law 101: Fundamentals of Law, New York and Federal Law is an attempt to provide basic legal concepts of the law to undergraduates in easily understood plain English. Each chapter covers a different area of the law. Areas of law were selected based on what legal matters undergraduates may typically encounter in their daily lives. The textbook is introductory by nature and not meant as a legal treatise.Facebook
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Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Employment Discrimination
Matthew Green · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2017
This Chapter will address the current protections that are available to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) individuals who allege they have been victims of employment discrimination. The Chapter's primary focus will be on federal statutory law, particularly Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although the focus here is on federal law, Appendix I to this Chapter lists the states that protect individuals from public and/or private discrimination under state laws. This topic is explored in four parts: (1) a brief overview of congressional efforts to enact a statute to protect individuals from employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; (2) discusses Title VII and sexual orientation; (3) discusses ways in which recent courts have handled sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII; and (4) similarly examines early judicial treatment of claims brought by individuals alleging discrimination on the basis of their gender identity and/or expression and explores how the law has developed in this area as well.
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Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society—Cases and Materials
James Boyle; Jennifer Jenkins · James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins · 2016
This book is an introduction to intellectual property law, the set of private legal rights that allows individuals and corporations to control intangible creations and marks—from logos to novels to drug formulae—and the exceptions and limitations that define those rights. It focuses on the three graphmain forms of US federal intellectual property—trademark, copyright and patent—but many of the ideas discussed here apply far beyond those legal areas and far beyond the law of the United States. The book is intended to be a textbook for the basic Intellectual Property class, but because it is an open coursebook, which can be freely edited and customized, it is also suitable for an undergraduate class, or for a business, library studies, communications or other graduate school class. Each chapter contains cases and secondary readings and a set of problems or role-playing exercises involving the material. The problems range from a video of the Napster oral argument to counseling clients about search engines and trademarks, applying the First Amendment to digital rights management and copyright or commenting on the Supreme Court's rulings on gene patents.
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Torts: Cases and Contexts
Eric Johnson · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2016
Plain-spoken and convivial, this casebook makes a deliberate effort to explain the law, rather than to provide a mere compilation of readings and questions. Simple concepts are presented simply. Complex concepts are broken down and accompanied by examples and problems. By being clear and straightforward, the casebook aims to quickly get students to the point where they can navigate regions of gray and build nuanced arguments. The book is written from the conviction that when students stop to puzzle over something, it should be because the law itself puzzles, not because the book obfuscates. Students describe the book as easy to read. A key aim is context, with explanations of how pieces of doctrine fit into the bigger picture. There is also a continual effort to plug doctrine into the real world of practice, getting students to think about litigation strategy and tactics. Another key feature is a high-degree of organization. Doctrine is explained upfront, independent of and before the cases. After the cases, there is no notes-and-questions mishmash. Historical notes, check-your-understanding questions, questions to ponder, and problems are all separately labeled as such. The readings are rich with variety. The classic cases are here, of course. But there are also atypical readings that allow students to see tort law from different perspectives, including an opening statement, a closing argument, administrative-enforcement letters, an excerpt from a novel, and an opinion on tribal law from a Navajo court. Many selections are also startlingly modern, with facts involving texting-and-driving, alcoholic energy drinks, Facebook libel, suddenly accelerating Toyotas, and the misery of a six-hour tarmac delay. Please note that the publisher requires you to login to access and download the textbooks.
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Torts: Cases and Contexts
Eric Johnson · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2016
Plain-spoken and convivial, this casebook makes a deliberate effort to explain the law, rather than to provide a mere compilation of readings and questions. Simple concepts are presented simply. Complex concepts are broken down and accompanied by examples and problems. By being clear and straightforward, the casebook aims to quickly get students to the point where they can navigate regions of gray and build nuanced arguments. The book is written from the conviction that when students stop to puzzle over something, it should be because the law itself puzzles, not because the book obfuscates. Students describe the book as easy to read. A key aim is context, with explanations of how pieces of doctrine fit into the bigger picture. There is also a continual effort to plug doctrine into the real world of practice, getting students to think about litigation strategy and tactics. Another key feature is a high-degree of organization. Doctrine is explained upfront, independent of and before the cases. After the cases, there is no notes-and-questions mishmash. Historical notes, check-your-understanding questions, questions to ponder, and problems are all separately labeled as such. The readings are rich with variety. The classic cases are here, of course. But there are also atypical readings that allow students to see tort law from different perspectives, including an opening statement, a closing argument, administrative-enforcement letters, an excerpt from a novel, and an opinion on tribal law from a Navajo court. Many selections are also startlingly modern, with facts involving texting-and-driving, alcoholic energy drinks, Facebook libel, suddenly accelerating Toyotas, and the misery of a six-hour tarmac delay.
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Torts: Cases, Principles, and Institutions
John Witt · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2022
This is the Fifth Edition of Torts: Cases, Principles, and Institutions, a casebook for a one-semester torts course that carves out a distinctive niche in the field by focusing on the institutions and sociology of American tort law. The book retains many of the familiar features of the traditional casebook, including many of the classic cases. Like the best casebooks, it seeks to survey the theoretical principles underlying those cases. But it aims to supplement the cases and principles with editorial notes that focus students’ attention on the institutional features of our tort system, including features such as the pervasiveness of settlements, the significance of the market, the role of the plaintiff's bar, the importance of private insurance, the contingency fee, and the jury. These institutional arrangements are what make American tort law distinctive. They are how the substantive doctrines of tort law are translated into the practice of torts lawyers. And they are sociologically fascinating in their own right. TCPI integrates the institutional materials into the cases and notes rather than segregate them into separate sections of their own. It does so because its aim is not to teach the details of any one institution, such as the mechanics of the law of subrogation or workers’ compensation. Few one-semester torts classes can take up so much material. Instead, the book integrates the institutional material into the main text to draw general lessons about the massive, sprawling systems of private administration that American law has created under the umbrella of our torts system.
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Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Legal Information Institute · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2016
Civil procedure consists of the rules by which courts conduct civil trials. In the U.S., civil procedure usually takes the form of a series of rules and judicial practices. The federal courts follow the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This series of Federal Rules books, consisting of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure, are powered by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, and created in partnership with The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). You may download the books for free, but remember that publishing these books is not free for our organizations. These rules govern the conduct of all criminal proceedings brought in Federal courts. Our Federal Rules ebooks include: The complete rules as of December 1, 2014 (for the 2015 edition). All notes of the Advisory Committee following each rule. Internal links to rules referenced within the rules. External links to the LII website's version of the US Code.
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Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
Legal Information Institute · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2014
This series of Federal Rules books, consisting of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure, are powered by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, and created in partnership with The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI).These rules govern the conduct of all criminal proceedings brought in Federal courts. Our Federal Rules ebooks include: The complete rules as of December 1, 2012 (for the 2013 edition). All notes of the Advisory Committee following each rule. Internal links to rules referenced within the rules. External links to the LII website's version of the US Code.
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Federal Rules of Evidence
Legal Information Institute · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2016
Rules of evidence are, as the name indicates, the rules by which a court determines what evidence is admissible at trial. In the U.S., federal courts follow the Federal Rules of Evidence. This series of Federal Rules books, consisting of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure, are powered by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, and created in partnership with The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). You may download the books for free, but remember that publishing these books is not free for our organizations. Our Federal Rules ebooks include: The complete rules as of December 1, 2014 (for the 2015 edition). All notes of the Advisory Committee following each rule. Internal links to rules referenced within the rules. External links to the LII website's version of the US Code.
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Civil Procedure: Pleading
Hillel Levin · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2014
This chapter covers the Civil Procedure topic of Pleading: The Plaintiff‘s Complaint. The chapter takes approximately four class periods to cover in detail. The student is exposed to cases, presented with questions that are designed to both guide class discussion and to help the student focus his reading of the materials, pleadings from cases, and the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Faculty materials available: This eLangdell chapter includes a teacher's manual. Faculty and staff at CALI member schools can access these faculty-only materials by logging in to eLangdell with their normal cali.org username and password. Contact CALI if you have questions. This chapter covers the Civil Procedure topic of Pleading: The Plaintiff's Complaint. The chapter takes approximately four class periods to cover in detail. The student is exposed to cases, presented with questions that are designed to both guide class discussion and to help the student focus his reading of the materials, pleadings from cases, and the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. There are two accompanying files available only to faculty who are registered at cali.org (registration is free for faculty at CALI member schools): a Teaching Manual and a Supplemental Material document. The Supplemental Material should be distributed to students at the appropriate point in the unit. Please see the Teaching Manual for details.
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Computer-Aided Exercises in Civil Procedure
Roger Park; Douglas McFarland · CALI's eLangdell® Press · 2014
The sixth edition, first published as an ebook, and this seventh edition carry forward the philosophy and structure of the earlier editions. This book is not a comprehensive treatise on the subject of civil procedure, yet it provides a mixture of expository text, cases, and self-testing questions in nearly all of the major areas of the subject. In order to maximize accessibility, flexibility, and compatibility of the book, the authors have chosen CALI's eLangdell Press to publish and distribute the sixth edition (as chapters) and this revised seventh (as a complete book) electronically with a Creative Commons license. Publishing a law textbook electronically with far fewer restrictions than most commercial books and using a somewhat new, boutique outfit such as eLangdell Press is an unconventional choice, to say the least. But the authors share the eLangdell vision of more flexible teaching materials for professors and more cost-effective books for students. Professors may now edit and remix this work to match their teaching without worry of copyright infringement. Students may now adopt this book, read it using any number of software or devices, and even print it - all for free. The book's authors, like its publishers, believe that this new book model represents an important and long overdue step forward in the way law school books are published. All the exercises have been substantially revised for this edition. The individual exercises also are reorganized and expanded so that they follow a more standardized pattern: expository text on the topic area, work-book questions, and introduction to the related online CALI lessons. This book, and the accompanying interactive exercises known as CALI Lessons available online through the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) at www.cali.org, are intended to provide a challenging educational experience. For each exercise, students should read the text in this book and answer the questions before accessing the
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Business Law, Ethics, and Sustainability
Andrew Hosmanek; Brendan Smith; Michael Dayton · OpenHawks OER · 2023
Business Law, Ethics, and Sustainability is a textbook for undergraduate law courses. It covers business law topics such as contracts, business organizations, employment law, and torts, as well as a general survey of American law. Additional topics include Constitutional law, civil rights, environmental law, criminal law, and litigation.
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Government Regulation and the Legal Environment of Business
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Mayer, Warner, Siedel and Lieberman's Government Regulation and the Legal Environment of Business is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students must understand in today's highly regulated business environment. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Government Regulation and the Legal Environment of Business provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to contracts, consumer credit transactions, bankruptcy, intellectual property, securities regulation, regulation of real estate, antitrust, unfair trade practices, employment law and labor relations. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, employees, creditors, shareholders, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Legal Aspects of Marketing and Sales
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Legal Aspects of Marketing and Sales is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students who will work in marketing or with marketing managers must understand. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Legal Aspects of Marketing and Sales provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to contracts, sales, intellectual property, antitrust law and unfair trade practices. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, shareholders, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Legal Aspects of Corporate Management and Finance
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Legal Aspects of Corporate Management and Finance is an up-to-date textbook that covers key legal issues relating to corporate management and finance. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Legal Aspects of Corporate Management and Finance provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to contracts, agency law, partnerships, corporations, commercial paper, debtors and creditors. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy students will need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, employees, creditors, shareholders, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Law of Commercial Transactions
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Law of Commercial Transactions is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students who engage in commercial transactions must understand. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Law of Commercial Transactions provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to key commercial transactions topics: contracts, sales, commercial paper, debtors and creditors. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy students will need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, creditors, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Law for Entrepreneurs
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Law for Entrepreneurs is an up-to-date textbook that covers the broad spectrum of legal issues that entrepreneurs must understand when starting and running a business. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Law for Entrepreneurs provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to contracts, product liability, intellectual property, insurance, agency law, partnerships, corporations, and employment law. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy that entrepreneurs need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, employees, creditors, shareholders, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students must understand relating to real estate (an especially important business asset), as well as estate planning and insurance. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to property rights and duties, estate planning, insurance, secured transactions, mortgages, and related topics. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need when working with these concepts, which are critical to business planning and success.
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Introduction to Contracts, Sales and Product Liability
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with whichmanagers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumennecessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers,government officials—and to their own lawyers. Traditional publishers often create confusion among customers in the text selection process by offering ahuge array of publications. Once a text is selected, customers might still have to customize the text to meettheir needs. For example, publishers usually offer books that include either case summaries or excerptedcases, but some instructors prefer to combine case summaries with a few excerpted cases so that studentscan experience reading original material. Likewise, the manner in which most conventional textsincorporate video is cumbersome because the videos are contained in a separate library, which makesaccess more complicating for instructors and students.
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Business Law and the Legal Environment
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Our goal is to provide students with a textbook that is up to date and comprehensive in its coverage of legal and regulatory issues—and organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. This book engages students by relating law to everyday events with which they are already familiar (or with which they are familiarizing themselves in other business courses) and by its clear, concise, and readable style. (An earlier business law text by authors Lieberman and Siedel was hailed “the best written text in a very crowded field.”) This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with which managers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumen necessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers, government officials—and to their own lawyers.