The Duncan case
What crime was Gary Duncan charged with?
Battery (=intentional infliction of offensive or harmful contact)
How do we call the legal question in a case?
The issue
You can't select a topic without checking first that they exist.
Sources!
A source that is not the law itself but comments or describes the law
A secondary source
What was the legal issue in the case?
Whether Duncan had a right to jury trial in a criminal case before a state court.
The general principle the cases stand for.
The rule (or rule of law).
The thing you need to do if your topic is too broad
Narrow the topic
A source that represents the law itself (a case, a statute, the Constitution)
In general, is there a right to a jury trial in a criminal case?
Yes, although this right does not apply to all crimes.
Note: "it depends" is also a correct answer
What the court decided in the specific case.
The holding.
Cite at least 2 criteria in the choice of topic
-Personal interest
-Feasibility
-Originality
-Timeliness
-Availability of sources
A book written by experts and summarizing the principles of the common law on a legal topic
A Restatement
What provision of the Constitution was used by Duncan to argue that he had a right to a jury trial?
6th and 14th amendment
An opinion in which the judge agrees with majority, but with a different reasoning.
A concurring opinion.
The two types of sources you will to develop your topic
Primary and secondary sources
Cite 3 types of secondary sources
-Law review articles
-Restatements
-Law books and manuals
-Treatises
-Legal encyclopedia
Petty crimes (as opposed to serious crimes).
What is "dicta"?
The part of the reasoning that is not necessary to solve the case. Unlike the holding, "dicta" is not binding authority.
The technical term to mean that someone already wrote about the topic recently with the same perspective
The topic is "preempted"
Another term for the rules issued by government agencies
Administrative regulations