David Epstein asked me to post the following. I was a commercial law teacher earlier in my career, so I'm happy to.

COMMERCIAL LAW CURRICULUM REDO

We – Wayne Barnes, David Epstein, Paula Franzese and Kevin Tu – are asking for your help.

More and more law schools are no longer regularly offering three-credit courses in (1) payment systems, (2) secured transactions, and/or (3) sales. In part because these schools do not have faculty members who want to teach the courses. And, in part because students do not sign up for commercial law courses. Even if the commercial law courses are taught from 11-12:e30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And, the students are, of course, right. Most students do not need 42 class hours of payment systems or 42 hours of secured transactions or 42 hours more of sales. However, lawyers in a general civil practice do need to have familiarity with core commercial law concepts in order to master the specific statutory provisions that govern the transaction or litigation matter that they are working on. And, before that, there is a need to pass the state bar exam.

We propose that our students' needs can best be meet in a two credit course covering just the core commercial law concepts and are working on course materials for such a course. We welcome your reasoned arguments against this proposal. Even more welcome would be your suggestions as to how 28 class hours can most effectively be used by students learning core commercial concepts.

Look forward to seeing you at the AALS and/or receiving your emails.

If you have any thoughts, please email Wayne Barnes (wbarnes@law.tamu.edu); Paula Franzese (Paula.Franzese@shu.edu); Kevin Tu (tu@law.unm.edu), or David Epstein (depstein@richmond.edu) directly. Don't respond to me or the blog.