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First Readings

Readings for Spring 2026

This may not be an exclusive listing of all faculty members’ first assignment and class meeting notices. If you do not see a class that you are in listed below, it may be necessary to check with the faculty member.

Dates for Spring 2026

  •  The form for submitting assignments will be activated on Friday, December 5, 2025.
    • Assignments will begin to be posted on Monday, December 8, 2025.
  • The form for submitting assignments will be deactivated on Thursday, February 12, 2026.
    • Assignments will be removed on Thursday, February 12, 2026.

General Assignment Information

Textbooks and First Day Assignment

General Assignment Information

REQUIRED TEXT ROBERT L. FELIX, RALPH U. WHITTEN, RICHARD H. SEAMON, & JESSE M. CROSS, AMERICAN CONFLICTS LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, (Carolina Academic Press, 7th ed. 2020). ISBN: 978-1-5310-1355-4. Make sure to purchase or rent the hard copy—no e-books, please. Please read pages 3-31 (Introduction to “Horizontal” Choice of Law, and the Vested Rights/Traditional Approach). Please note that I do not permit the use of laptops in class, but if you have a full-sized tablet that lies flat, and you plan to take notes on it using a stylus, rather than typing, you may use that in my class. If you have an ADA or Section 504 accommodation for note-taking using a laptop, please inform me of it prior to the first class meeting, and of course, I will honor it.

First Day Assignment

General Assignment Information

REQUIRED TEXT CHARLES W. RHODES & RENEE KNAKE JEFFERSON, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: FOUNDATIONS, INTERPRETATIONS, & COMMENTARIES (West Academic 2025), ISBN 979-8-88786-822-6. This is a new book, so please do not delay in ordering or renting it. There is no course supplement because the casebook includes all constitutional source material.Please read pages 1-42, which includes several very important documents and sources that influenced the U.S. Constitution, along with the document itself, but no cases. Read all of these documents carefully and take notes in preparation for our introductory class discussion. Cold-calling will happen this first day (as it will every class day), so please be prepared. Please note that I do not permit the use of laptops in class, but if you have a full-sized tablet that lies flat, and you plan to take notes on it using a stylus, rather than typing, you may use that in my class. Also, if you have an ADA or Section 504 accommodation for note-taking using a laptop, please inform me of it prior to the first class meeting, and of course, I will honor it. 

First Day Assignment

General Assignment Information
Course Packet, pp. 13-36 

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

Text of the Constitution (in casebook at pp. xxxvii to l); Yuval Levin, Can the Constitution Unite Americans, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2H3Np-pE6Q.

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

Casebook, pp. 1-29.

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

Welcome to Food & Drug Law, 

Please see the course Blackboard page for a copy of the syllabus and the first assignment. 

Please also find a recent (in the past year) news article about a food and drug law issue that interests you and come to our first class prepared to briefly share the article and why you selected it.

I look forward to seeing you in class in January. 

Prof. Boyd

General Assignment Information

Welcome to Food Law & Policy: Please see the course Blackboard page for a copy of the syllabus and the first assignment. I look forward to seeing you in class. Prof. Boyd

General Assignment Information

The only book you need to buy before the first class is: Lathrope, Selected Federal Taxation: Statutes and Regulations. Any recent edition is fine (2023-2026). Bring it to the first class.

First Day Assignment

General Assignment Information

Welcome to Property! For our first class, please complete the Intro unit and Unit 1A through State v. Shack. All readings are in the assigned text (Singer, et al 8th Ed).

First Week Assignment

General Assignment Information

Welcome to Taxation of Property Transactions! For our first class, please read Gains from Dealings in Property pgs 161 – 174 in the Donaldson text (including the code and reg provisions cited by the text). Please also prepare the problems in the assigned pages: 3-17 & 3-18.

General Assignment Information

Textbook, pp. 1-25.

General Assignment Information

Textbook, pp. 1-27.

General Assignment Information

Welcome back! I hope you all had a good break. We will not use a textbook or course pack in this course. Instead, I will distribute material in class and via our TWEN site. For our first class (Mon., Jan. 12th, at 9:10 a.m.), please do the following. 1. Read the policies on pp. 1-2 of the syllabus, which is attached here. 2. Read the article on unpublished and depublished opinions, which is on our TWEN site. 3. Complete the Weight of Case Law exercise, also on TWEN, and be ready to discuss the exercise in our first class. I look forward to working with you!

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

Welcome back! I hope you had a good break.

Please get hardcopies of these three texts: (1) R. Freer, W. Perdue & R. Effron, Civil Procedure: Cases, Materials & Questions (9th ed. 2024); (2) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: 2024-25 Edition OR 2025-26 Edition, published by Carolina Academic Press; and (3) Joseph Glannon, Civil Procedure: Examples & Explanations (9th ed. 2023).

Also, please sign on to our course TWEN site. For our first class, read the “Course Policies” section of the syllabus. Then read pages 3-18 in the Freer, Perdue & Effron (FP&E) text; pages 611-21 in the Glannon text; and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 1 and 2, which appear in order at the beginning of your Federal Rules supplement. For anyone who is unable to buy books until financial aid checks are deposited, the readings for the first several days of class are on TWEN: click on “Readings for Class” and you’ll see a folder marked “PDFs for Students without Texts for First 5 Days.”

I look forward to working with you! 

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

Textbook, pp. 1-7; 26-46 

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

TWEN will be the primary course management tool for Topics in Insurance Law # 688 this Spring. Please be sure to register on TWEN for that course and review the information already posted, which includes a Schedule and Syllabus under the Navigation Box. I will use the e-mail addresses that you provide in TWEN E-Mail Options to build a class e-mail list for distributing future assignments and handouts. For the first class, on January 12, 2026, read Paul v. Virginia, 75 U.S. 168 (1868). Please also bring a printed copy of the Articles of the United States Constitution to the first class meeting.

General Assignment Information

Welcome to Constitutional Rights and Liberties! Assignments for the first week of class and textbook information can be found on Blackboard. Please email me with any questions or concerns.

General Assignment Information

The readings for the first week of class are posted on Blackboard. Looking forward to seeing you all soon! 

General Assignment Information

Vagts et al Casebook pp. 3-18.

Syllabus

General Assignment Information

In the first class, we shall first talk through what is going on currently in this rapidly changing area. I attach also a powerpoint in pdf format as backgrounder that we can then look at covering more the classic view of international economic law in place prior to circa 2016.

Syllabus
PowerPoint File

 

General Assignment Information

Read: Introduction, Preface to Second Edition pp. v-vi,1-2, and 287-88. Read: Intentional Interference with Contractual Relationships and Prospective Economic Advantage - Sections A, B, C, D. 

Syllabus
Supplemental Materials

General Assignment Information

Welcome to Immigration Law! The assigned text for this course is Kit Johnson, Immigration Law: An Open Casebook (2025). You can access the PDF of this book under "course texts" on TWEN. If you prefer a paper copy of the book, you can purchase one on Amazon at the link on TWEN for around $13. Most of our readings will come from this book and the Immigration and Nationality Act, which is also linked under course texts. You can access it directly from the link, download a PDF compilation ( of the "statutory supplement"), or purchase a bound copy (of the "statutory supplement") from Amazon at the link on TWEN for around $10.

For our first class, please read the following sections of Chapter One of the textbook: 1.1, 1.3-1.5, and complete the Priorities Exercise linked in the 1/13 readings and assignments folder. The course text and all referenced folders, etc. are on TWEN. Email me if you have not yet been added to the TWEN page and I will get you set up. 

General Assignment Information

Hello Section 002! I’m looking forward to having you in Civil Procedure this spring. The course syllabus and course materials are available on Blackboard (blackboard.sc.edu). Our textbook is Glannon, Perlman, and Raven-Hansen, Civil Procedure: A Coursebook (5th ed.) (ISBN: 9781543843781). You may use any format (hardbound, loose-leaf, or digital). For our first class (January 12), please read: Glannon, pg. 3–19. Also, before the first day of class, please review the Blackboard folder titled “Welcome and Course Syllabus.” I look forward to seeing you soon!

General Assignment Information

Glannon text: Ch. 1 - An Introduction to American Courts, pp. 2-14, 21-40

First Day Reading Assignment

General Assignment Information

See attachment for required text and first week assignments. Entire syallbus and course materials posted on Blackboard.

First Week Assignments

General Assignment Information

Introduction; Textbook pp. 3-15.

General Assignment Information

Coeckelbergh, pgs. 63-74 Snake Oil, pgs. 21-26, Chpt. 7 Hirsch et al., Chpt. 4 Gartner Hype Cycle Gartner 2025 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Highlights for Autonomous Business Research Data Lifecycle Kenneth W. Abbott & Duncan Snidal, Hard and Soft Law in International Governance” 54 INT’L ORG. 421 (2000), pgs. 421-24 (When reading this article please imagine the discussion of hard and soft law in the context of “artificial intelligence technology providers,” instead of international actors.) 

Syllabus
Hard and Soft Law In International Governance Article

General Assignment Information

Read E&E Ch. 1, pp. 3-18, Ch. 2 pp. 19-27 – Introduction and Choice of Entity (read up to start of S Corporations), prepare problem (provided on Syllabus and Assignment List) 

Syllabus
First Day Reading Assigment and Assignment List

General Assignment Information
Read Course Packet Ch. 1, Parts A, B, and C, pp. 1-13, and be prepared to share (see Assignments document)

Syllabus
First Day Reading Assigment and Assignment List

General Assignment Information

Please read: (1) Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935); and (2) Justice Manual policies 9-27.001, .110, .220, and .260 

General Assignment Information

The class one assignment is for the first two classes, but make sure to read Belle Terre for the first day

Syllabus

 

 

 


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