business law essay

BA 358 Final Project, Spring 2020

Instructions

For your final project, you will be required to prepare (1) a mock issue-spotting exam for substantive issues covered throughout the semester and (2) an accompanying set of comprehensive answers that utilize the IRAC method to analyze the legal issues.

Use the sample midterm #2 and the model answers to it as guides to formulate (1) a “Facts” section that contains an original set of facts that can cover all potential issues you wish to discuss and (2) an “Analysis” section that contains answers that analyze the legal issues in the Facts section using the IRAC method. Unlike the model answers for sample midterm #2, your Analysis section should not spend any time discussing potential non-issues in your fact pattern.

Please provide a title for your Facts section (for fun!).

Do not put your name on your final project. Instead, put your CWID number.

There is no minimum word count for the Facts section, but it must not exceed 2,500 words. You must put the word count at the top of the first page of the Fact section. I will simply stop reading at 2,500 words, so be sure to stay within the limit. But don’t go overboard and make the section too short. I recommend that you include enough facts to allow for good legal analysis, since not including enough facts will make your analysis difficult.

There is no minimum word count for the Analysis section, but it must not exceed 4,000 words. You must put the word count at the top of the first page of the Analysis section. I will simply stop reading at 4,000 words, so be sure to stay within the limit.

Your project must cover the following 7 legal issues:

• 1 intentional torts or negligence issue

• 1 strict liability or products liability issue

• 1 contracts issue pertaining to mutual assent or consideration

• 1 contracts issue pertaining to discharge, breach, conditions, excuses, or remedies

• 1 vicarious tort liability or employee discrimination issue

• 1 issue pertaining to the business judgment rule

• 1 corporations issue pertaining to Unocal enhanced scrutiny or entire fairness review

The Facts section can consist of loosely-related stories all tied together with a single main character. There is no need to construct one story that somehow covers all 7 issues. It’s in your advantage to try to hit multiple issues with the same story (for brevity’s sake), but it’s not necessary.

Each issue should be based on a rule that we’ve covered in class, either in your assigned readings or during class. You can feel free to refer to the cases we’ve read to provide inspiration for you. However, you should make sure that the story varies sufficiently from the facts of these cases. If the story involves an identical fact pattern as a case you’ve read, it will not create an issue anymore since the case will provide sufficient precedent to conclusively rule in one side’s favor.

The Facts section can include the issues in any order that you would like. However, you must: (1) put the issues in the order listed above in the Analysis section. For instance, facts that

BA 358 Final Project, Spring 2020

pertain to your negligence issue may occur near the end of the Fact section, but your Analysis section should discuss the negligence issue as the second issue to analyze; and (2) clearly label each issue with the type of issue you’re addressing. For instance, if the mutual assent issue in your Facts section is “Did Bob make an offer to John?”, the fourth legal issue in your Analysis section should start with something like, “Issue #4 (mutual assent): Did Bob make an offer to Jon?”

Grading Criteria

To evaluate your final project, I will ask:

(1) Is your final project coherent, thoughtful, clearly written, and well organized? (2) Does the fact pattern lead reasonably to the issues identified in the answers and only

those issues? (3) Do the answers identify the proper issues from the fact pattern and analyze them

thoroughly? (4) Do your answers display appropriate mastery over the legal concepts covered in class?

Tips

Make sure to pick an issue, i.e., a dispute within which each party can make a legitimate claim in their favor about the application of the same rule to the facts.

Make sure to focus on just one issue for each IRAC. For instance, asking “Was A negligent?” and then analyzing each of the five elements is a surefire way to get a low score.

Start by picking the nine rules you want to focus on, then build the facts and the analysis around the rule.

Make sure to pick a rule with plenty of potential for analysis. A factor test, for instance, is a good way to help you deepen your analysis. Rules that refine a broader rule (but make sure to include both the broad rule and the refinement) or were the focus of a discussion in a case (to help you compare and contrast with a similar case) are also good ways to go.

Look to the cases we’ve read throughout the semester for rule refinements and for inspiration.

Do not do any outside research! I will not look favorably to rules or concepts that we did not cover in class.

You should probably aim for somewhere around 1,750 words in the Facts section and somewhere around 3,000 words in the Analysis section. However, I’ve had great projects that were shorter and horrible projects that were longer.