Note: This syllabus is still under construction. This Note will be removed when it is complete.
Welcome to torts, the law of private wrongs!
This syllabus will provide an overview of the expectations for the course and the reading assignments.
Overview
Tort law defines the circumstances in which one is liable for injuries suffered by another, in situations not involving voluntarily assumed obligations. This body of law addresses competing concerns about what kinds of harms deserve compensation, how to most fairly and efficiently distribute losses from accidents, and under what conditions different rules should apply. It also requires examination of the different roles of judge and jury in a the American system of common law. This course will thoroughly examine negligence law, including its development, current doctrine, and practical applications, while offering an overview of intentional torts, strict liability, and products liability.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course you will be able to:
- Understand the basic tort doctrines and the contexts in which they apply
- Work through a legal claim formally, including each step in a prima facie case and defenses, applying existing rules to new fact patterns
- Discuss the various theoretical frameworks underlying tort law and critically evaluate existing legal rules and possible alternatives
- Understand the roles of judge and jury and the ways in which substantive tort law relies on the differences
- Appreciate the common law method and the ways that method differs from other types of lawmaking
Materials
The casebook for this course will be Goldberg, Kendrick, Sebok & Zipursky, Tort Law: Responsibilities and Redress (5th ed.). I don’t care how you acquire it, as long as you can do the reading assignments as they appear in the 5th edition. (Note: The 6th edition is out, but we will not be using it. Torts doesn’t change that much year to year, so hopefully this means you can all save some money.) Some other readings will be posted in the course OneDrive, along with any other handouts.
The first two weeks of casebook readings have been posted in the OneDrive to give you time to buy the book, and one copy of the 5th edition is available on course reserve in the library. (There’s also a copy of the 6th edition should you really need it; the readings are mostly the same just with different pages.)
Feel free to use other study aids you find helpful, but remember that you won’t be evaluated on those other materials. Tort law is a sprawling subject; we won’t be covering everything, and you can learn everything you need to know for this course by completing the assignments and attending class. That said, I’ve heard good things about I’ve heard good things about Kenneth Abraham’s The Forms and Functions of Tort Law—which you can access online (for free!) through the UCLA Law Library—but, again, this is not required, and not even necessarily recommended. Joseph W. Glannon’s, Examples and Explanations: The Law of Torts, may also be helpful.
Class Meetings, Review Session, Final Exam
Class: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 10:35–11:50 AM, Room 2357
Review Session: Wednesday, December 2, 1:15–2:30 PM
Final Exam: Thursday, December 17. 3-hour open-book, fully secured exam (printed materials only). Format subject to change with notice.
Note: We will not have class on September 17th. That class will be rescheduled as soon as possible and I will post the change here. Please mark down the change in your calendars. If there are any more changes, I will give you plenty of notice.
Office Hours
My regular office hours will be on Mondays 1:15–2:30PM, in Room 3370. I encourage you to come by. Feel free to come in groups with questions or sit in on a conversation already in progress. If you cannot make that time or want to have a private conversation, please email me to schedule another time.
Classroom Policies
Our classroom is an environment in which all participants (instructor included) are free to try out ideas and to voice opinions, including some that might be offensive to others, so long as they do so in good faith and in a manner that does not demean or degrade others. The following rules and policies aim to foster such an environment. I reserve the right to penalize violations, including—albeit only in extraordinary cases and only with advanced written notice—refusing to allow the violator to sit for the final exam.
Attendance
Regular attendance is required for all classes at UCLA Law. If you must miss a class because of a medical need, or serious familial, religious, or professional obligation, please email me at least 2 hours before class to request an excused absence. Class will not be recorded except for religious holidays or other extenuating circumstances as needed.
Class Participation
I will alternate between periods of lecturing, periods of Q&A, and class discussion. I expect you to come prepared to participate. In particular, I will expect that you have carefully read the assigned material prior to class and are prepared to respond to questions and/or offer comments to facilitate quality class discussion.
Quality class discussion does not mean giving the “correct” answer—in torts there are often several valid answers to questions. The key is to be prepared and to make your best effort at reasoning through an issue, putting your thoughts and arguments into words. You may request help from “co-counsel” at any time, but I ask that you first give the question your sincere effort. If, for whatever reason, you feel that you cannot answer questions on a given day, you may ask me ahead of time not to call on you. You do not need to give me a reason, and I will do my best to honor the request; if I call on you anyway (e.g., if you’ve asked too close to class time so I didn’t see it or I feel you are abusing this rule), then you must answer the question as normal to the best of your ability.
Our Classroom Community
I ask all members of the class to strive to interact in a collegial manner. In emphasizing collegiality, I don’t mean to discourage disagreement. Rather, each class member is entitled to your respect, and to a presumption that their views are being offered in good faith—even if they are views with which you sharply disagree. By building such a community, we enable each of us to feel comfortable contributing to discussion. So if you are someone who feels difficulty speaking up, please push yourself to do so. Each of your contributions will be important and valuable building blocks for our discussion, even if they might occasionally feel clumsy in the moment. On the other end, I also ask that you also be cognizant of your speaking time. If you find that you are speaking often, please consider making space for others in the room who speak less frequently to have their turn. The most important thing is to remember that you are in this together, and that this is a collaborative process. The aim is that we engage each other directly and generously, as joint venturers in a shared educational undertaking.
Electronics and AI Policy
The use of AI is not permitted during class. Phones and other mobile devices are to be away and silenced, except as needed to answer in-class polling questions.
Please note that I take this seriously. I considered a laptop ban, like many of my colleagues are adopting, but I believe the in-class polling (see below) to be valuable enough to you to keep electronics available. But I am wary of laptop usage in class in general, and I will consider violations of the AI policy in particular to be violations of the Student Conduct Code.
Recording, Posting, etc.
Per University policy, UCLA Student Conduct Code 102.28 says that expectations of privacy apply, and it specifically prohibits recording without the consent of all recorded parties and prohibits taking photographs where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. In remote teaching, advising, chatting, and other engagement in course activities remotely, there is a reasonable expectation that photographing, screen capture, or other copying methods or recordings will not occur without express permission from all participants. A violation subjects a student to the disciplinary process. Do not record your courses, do not take screen shots of your classes, professors, or classmates, and do not release, post, email, text, or otherwise share or sell course materials to others.
Assessment
Exam
Your grade will be based on your performance on the final exam and to a limited degree, your class participation.
Self-Assessment
We will employ two forms of self-assessment in this course. The first is real-time assessment via in-class polling. I will periodically ask the class to work through hypotheticals and other questions. I will explain the answers at the time. If you get the answer wrong—or even if you get it right—make sure you understand why, and if not, this is a good question to discuss with your study groups or bring up in office hours.
You will also be required to complete two brief writing assignments as indicated on “Review Exercise” days. The first will be after the negligence prima facie case, and the second after we discuss products liability—about 1/2 and 3/4 of the way through the course respectively. These will be issue-spotter-style problems. You are expected to write out answers at home and submit them before class on the indicated days. The responses will not be part of your final grade, except that you must turn them in before class on the due date or you will lose a single-step letter grade for the final grade. After you turn them in, we will then go over them in class as indicated on the syllabus, and over the next week or two, I will provide feedback on your answers. The use of AI is not permitted for these exercises, as doing so would quite defeat the purpose
Deadlines:
Review Exercise 1: October 6
Review Exercise 2: November 10
Accommodations
UCLA Law strives to provide accommodations in a way that supports students with disabilities while maintaining their anonymity and the fundamental nature of our law program. As such, students needing academic accommodations should not contact their professors directly, but contact Carmina Ocampo, Director of Student Life or the UCLA Center for Accessible Education (CAE) When possible, students should start this process within the first two weeks of the semester, as reasonable notice is needed to coordinate accommodations.
Resources for Health and Wellness
Students needing assistance with medical or mental health issues, substance abuse, anxiety or depression or other health-related matters should contact the Office for Student Affairs, UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 310-825-0768 (Courtney Walters is the counselor regularly assigned to the law school) or the Ashe Student Health & Wellness Center at 310-825-4073.
Structure of the Course
- Negligence
- Duty
- Breach
- Causation
- Defenses
- Damages
- Strict Liability
- Products Liability
- Intentional Torts
Schedule & Assignments
Reading assignments are below. We may proceed more quickly or slowly than it indicates, and the readings may be periodically updated to reflect our pace. Most of the readings will be from the casebook (CB); others will be pdfs or links as indicated. Note that you are responsible for all of the material in the assigned readings—including all opinions, dissents, concurrences, and casebook notes—and may be tested on any of it, even if it is not discussed in class.
| Class # | Assignment (If a case is named, it includes the notes after.) | Topic |
| 1 | Ferguson, Letter to a 1L on the First Day of Law School (pdf); CB 3–18; 38–43 | Introduction to Torts |
| 2 | CB 49–69 | Introduction to Duty |
| 3 | CB 69–76; Intro from Joy Milligan, Pluralism in America (pdf) | General Duty of Care |
| 4 | CB 76–94; Restatement 2d § 314A (pdf) | Affirmative Duties |
| 5 | CB 94–110 | Affirmative Duties, con’t |
| 6 | CB 110–128 | Premises Liability |
| 7 | CB 149–155; 160–171 (skip n.4) | Ordinary Prudence |
| 8 | CB 171–195; Bender, Lawyer’s Primer, 20–25 (pdf) | The Reasonable Person |
| 9 | CB 195–98; Sheeley v. Memorial Hospital (pdf); CB 212–216 nn. 1–10, 14, 16 | Custom & Professional Standard of Care |
| 10 | CB 217–231 | Cost-Benefit Balancing |
| 11 | CB 231–242 | Res Ipsa Loquitur |
| 12 | CB 424–439; Restatement §§ 286 & 288A (pdf) | Negligence Per Se |
| 13 | CB 245–58; 273–281 (through note 8); 284–292 | But-For Cause; Loss of a Chance |
| 14 | CB 292–318 | Loss of a Chance, con’t, Multiple cause |
| 15 | CB 335–357 | Proximate Cause |
| 16 | CB 357–382 | Superseding Cause |
| 17 | CB 382–396 | Palsgraf |
| 18 | Review Exercise I: (due before class in BruinLearn) | Review Negligence Prima Facie Case |
| 19 | CB 493–510; Wassell v. Adams and commentary (pdf) (Note: Wassell can be a hard case to read. It’s an appeal of jury finding that a woman was partially negligent for contributing to her own sexual assault. I will not be cold-calling in this class, but everyone does remain responsible for the materials.) | Comparative Fault |
| 20 | Guest Speaker: Benjamin Keane, Bowerman Law Group | Tort Law in Practice |
| 21 | CB 511–534; Defunctland: The History of Action Park | Implied & Express Assumption of the Risk |
| 22 | CB 575–599 | Compensatory Damages |
| 23 | Chamallas & Wriggins Chapter 6 (pdf); Soffen, In One Corner of the Law, Minorities and Women Are Often Valued Less (read article, and play with the tool); CB 465–470 | Compensatory Damages con’t; Wrongful Death Acts |
| 24 | CB 599–619 (nn. 1–10, 14, 18); 1114–1125 | Punitive Damages |
| 25 | CB 619–631; 644–657; 883–885 (n.1) | Vicarious Liability; Liability Insurance; Workers Compensation |
| 26 | CB 869–871; 887–907 | Strict Liability: Trespass |
| 27 | CB 956–975; Restatement 2d § 520 | Strict Liability: Ultrahazardous Activities |
| 28 | CB 979–999 | Product Liability: Precursors, Elements |
| 29 | CB 999–1024 | Manufacturing and Design Defects |
| 30 | CB 1024–1035; 1070–1082 | Consumer Expectations vs. Risk Utility; Warning Defects |
| 31 | In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction Litigation and notes (pdf); Garcia v. Character Technologies (pdf) | Apps and AI as Products |
| 32 | Review Exercise II: (due before class in BruinLearn) | Review Negligence Defenses and PL |
| 33 | CB 667–679; Alcorn v. Mitchell (pdf) | Intro to Intentional Torts, Battery |
| 34 | CB 679–705 | Intent |
| 35 | CB 705–06 (Intro to Part B); Allen v Hannaford (pdf); Culp, Autobiography and Legal Scholarship and Teaching (excerpt; pdf); CB 712–721 | Assault; Transferred Intent |
| 36 | CB 721–737 | Consent; Self-Defense |
| 37–39 | TBD (we’ll likely use some of them as catch-up days throughout the semester) |
Andrew Selbst 