Which 1L doctrinal course is the most challenging?


First-year students attend class roughly 14 to 15 hours per week. Whether your courses are year-long or semester-long depends on the school, but the first-year curriculum is virtually identical at every law school in the country:

* Civil Procedure covers the nuts and bolts of litigation.

* Contracts is the study of enforceable agreements.

* Criminal Law, not surprisingly, covers criminal statutes and penalties.

* Property is the study of real-property ownership and rights, and when these rights are infringed.

* In Torts, you learn about civil injuries and their remedies, often with a healthy dose of economic theory.

Which course is the most difficult?

Of course, it varies from student to student. As indicated, Torts can be highly theoretical in its statement and application of the rules. Some students find this fascinating while others find it confounding.

On the other hand, Contracts and Civil Procedure, while very much concerned with theoretical / policy issues (as all law courses are), represent thickets of rule upon rule. Again, some students like the precision of the abundance of rules while others lose sight of the forest for the trees.

And Criminal Law and Property fall somewhere in between Torts and Contracts on this spectrum.

Your preference for one type of course over another may tell you something about the direction in which you can best pursue your career in the law.