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Abstract:
Much has been written about law school teaching. In our view, the contributions of Kent Syverud, Susan Becker, and Douglas Whaley are especially valuable. Why, then, did we bother to write this article? Because most articles focus narrowly on specific teaching techniques or on particular law school courses. Only a few offer general advice to the new teacher. No article, to our knowledge, has ever furnished detailed and comprehensive advice on how to teach a law school course - from choosing a book and designing a syllabus to orchestrating the classroom experience to creating and grading the final exam. That is the aim of this article.

teaching, law school teaching, teaching techniques, teaching strategies, classroom, casebook, syllabus, courtroom simulation

Abstract:
The First Amendment provides vigorous protection for public protest - so long as the protester takes up position in a traditional public forum. But the list of traditional public forums is a short one. It is essentially confined to public parks, squares, streets, and sidewalks. When given the opportunity to expand that list, the Supreme Court has consistently refused. Now, at the dawn of a new century, our traditional public forums are threatened by two different trends. First, they face increasing obsolescence as a platform for reaching one's fellow citizens. Fifty years ago, taking up position on a public square would have been an ideal way to gather signatures or pass out leaflets. But today, our traditional public forums are less and less the crossroads of the community, less and less the setting where we encounter our fellow citizens on foot. For most Americans, the scene of our daily activity has shifted from publicly-owned to privately-owned spaces, like shopping malls, where the First Amendment does not apply. This problem is compounded by a second trend: governmental efforts to divest a public square, park, street, or sidewalk of its status as a traditional public forum.

First Amendment, Public Forum