Colleagues: This message is intended primarily (though not exclusively) for con law list lurkers - those of you who are not eager to mix it up with the heavyweight scholars who customarily dominate this list.
In my humble opinion, almost all con law casebooks currently on the market are quite useful for budding con law scholars, but less useful for budding lawyers. A different option might appeal to many professors who prefer to teach con law in a more practical way. I’ve written several “Problem Method” casebooks in criminal procedure and criminal law. Each chapter begins with a rather complex Problem I’ve invented, followed by several major cases, with directions for students to apply the cases to the Problem. To analyze the Problem, the student must try to understand the issues discussed in the cases, see how those issues arise in the Problem, and organize those issues into a coherent outline. This, of course, is what lawyers do in practice (and students do on exams), and this is why most students enjoy working on the Problems. (I discussed the Problem Method in more depth at Moskovitz, Beyond The Case Method: It's Time To Teach With Problems, 42 Journal of Legal Education 241 (1992); copy attached.) My teacher’s manuals contain my outlines of the issues in the Problems, to give profs a leg up. I am thinking of writing the same type of book for constitutional law. It’s a lot of work, so I don’t want to do it if no one would consider using such a book. Could you please send me any thoughts, comments, or suggestions – on or off-list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), as you prefer? Even a brief note (“Do it.” “Dumb idea,” etc.) would help. Thanks. Myron Moskovitz
