FALL ONLINE COURSE 2000
Course Overview

by Ransford Pyle

OVERVIEW is the appropriate label for this course. It is designed to introduce students to American law and the American legal system.

CATALOG DESCRIPTION:

That's the official description. It was made up 20 years ago when this was basically an introduction to a paralegal program. Today the Legal Studies Program has a more liberal arts component complementing the large number of pre-law students who have enrolled in our program.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

The purpose of this course is to prepare students to evaluate and understand legal information.
Like other introductory courses, it is the gateway to more advanced courses.
Unlike some other fields, however, law can be understood in its basic features with the acquisition of a basic vocabulary of the law along with a grasp of legal reasoning and legal procedure.
Successful completion of this course should allow students to read and understand all but the most specialized of legal materials and be able to make intelligent evaluations of the reports and claims of legal events reported in the media.

To This End the following work will be stressed:

Vocabulary: You must learn the basic terms of the law
Reading Cases: Understanding American law requires special reading skills
Themes: There are certain fundamental features underlying American law

THE INSTRUCTOR:

Ransford C. Pyle, A.B. (Harvard); J.D. (Florida); Ph.D. (Florida).
Admitted to Georgia and Florida bars.
Associate Professor.
Taught at UCF since 1976.
Author of two legal texts:
Foundations of Law
Family Law
For a more interesting version, see my UCF personal home page.

THE BOOK:

You will note that the text, Foundations of Law, was written by me (Ransford C. Pyle). I have taught Law and Legal System at UCF for 21 years and based the text on what I felt students need to know to get started in learning about the law.

The guiding purpose in writing the book was to include enough material to get a basic understanding of American law without becoming embroiled in the great detail that the study of law entails.

While the book attempts to be as clear as possible, inevitably some concepts are difficult and I encourage you to ask for clarification of points that you do not understand.
The text is divided into two important parts in each chapter. I start off with comments and explanations of topics pertinent to each chapter. Interspersed with the "comments" are "cases." In this instance, the cases are condensed versions of judicial decisions written by judges in deciding cases. In most instances these are appellate decisions, meaning that they are not trial court, that is, lower court, decisions, but come from courts of appeals and supreme courts, both state and federal. This means that one of the parties was not content with the decision at trial and has appealed the lower court's decision to a higher court. In our system, judicial decisions are consulted when making new decisions and the case method is the primary focus of law school training.

THE METAPHOR: Law as a Jigsaw Puzzle

In many of my classes, I have introduced the subject of law in the first class with a metaphor of a jigsaw puzzle. We begin by encountering a bunch of pieces that seem not to have any relation to each other. The better we understand the pieces, and the more pieces we acquire, the clearer the picture of the law becomes.
My point is that the study of law does not logically proceed from one point to another. We cannot really say that we should start by learning Property or Contracts, or that Civil Procedure should be taught before Torts. I deal with system and process first, but I could certainly understand why another teacher would choose the immediacy of substantive areas like criminal law, torts, and contracts because students can relate them to real-life experiences.
The study of law requires an act of faith. Study long and hard and you will understand. And for most the law will turn out to be something quite different than what they thought it would be. Get to know the pieces of the puzzle.

THEMES

Five "themes" will be emphasized during the course. While these are presented at the outset, they, and their accompanying queries will be addressed throughout the course. They represent fundamental features of American law and will be the subject of presentations and/or papers later in the course. Try to keep these in mind. They may help to focus on the significance of the detail. They are, in a sense, the final picture of the completed puzzle.

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Send email to the instructor, Ransford Pyle, to: pla3013@reach.ucf.edu

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