inter (Nat)alia: A Nice Start

I think it’s a good sign when the first class of the semester is Institute.

My earliest law class this semester starts at 2:00 pm. That was not by choice; I typically prefer getting class or work over with early in the day. But the classes I wanted to take were only offered in the afternoon. That means Institute, which takes place on Mondays during lunch time, is my first class of the week. No complaints here about starting the semester with gospel instead of law.

Also, Bro. Nielsen (who teaches Institute) brought sandwich fixings that were left over from another meeting. So I had a really good lunch on Monday, besides a good first class.

My first law class of the semester is Business Associations, which deals with corporations, partnerships, LLCs, and other business relationships. So far it feels a little like Contract Law’s older brother. The casebook doesn’t have comics, but it has yielded a few good lines. One was a judge opining that a store owner’s duty to his customers involves “more than the diligent observance and removal of banana peels from the aisles.” Hoddeson v. Koos Bros. 135 A.2d 702 (App. Div. 1957).

My next class is Trusts & Estates, which my professor began by giving us a warning: “If you thought Criminal Law was bad, this class is a bit of a downer. Almost every case we’ll read involves someone dying.” Of course, in this class the decedent usually dies of natural causes, which is a definite step above the typical Criminal Law case.

My professor also reminded us that you can’t leave your property to a rock (not even a pet rock) and expounded on the “Warren Buffet” principle: leave your children enough inheritance to enable them to do anything they want to, but not enough to enable them to do nothing.

My last class is Public International Law, which refers to the concept of global and inter-state law through treaties, the law of war (which sounds like an oxymoron), the UN, international courts, etc. It is different than Comparative Law, which compares the laws of different countries (for example, Chinese law compared with British law). PIL began with a discussion about whether international law actually qualifies as law (a popular philosophical dispute in law schools), but my professor said we’ll approach it for the rest of the semester from the practical perspective of “yes, it is law; this is how we work with it.”

Later I will also have a seminar and a mini class: The Citizen Lawyer and European Union Law. They will take place during one week and two weeks, respectively, in the middle of the semester.

The other big event of the week was the ward picnic – good food, good activities, good people.