Freshman Seminar – Spring Quarter 2012

Ambiguity and Misunderstanding in the Law

I. Course Information

Linguistics 87 (1 unit credit): LIGN 87, Section I.D. 747434
8 Meetings: Tuesday, 3:30 – 4:20 in APM 5420

Professor: Sanford Schane
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30-11:30, or by appointment, 3101 APM
Tel.  (858) 434 -7231
e-mail: sschane@ucsd.edu

Course web page: http://grammar.ucsd.edu/courses/lign87

II. Course Objectives

• To recognize types of linguistic ambiguity
• To analyze various kinds of misunderstanding in legal cases and contracts

III. Course Requirements and Grading (Pass/NoPass only)

• Reading of all court cases for discussion in class
• Attendance at class meetings
• Written homework assignments (to be turned in on date due)
• No final exam
• All court cases and homework assignments are available for download from the course web site

Meeting	Court cases	Homework
I	Introduction	---
II	Frigaliment Importing v. International Sales	Frigaliment
III	Raffles v. Wichelhaus	Raffles
IV	Interstate Commerce Commssion v. Kroblin	ICC
V	Viviano v. Jewelers Mutual Insurance Co.	6-part analysis
VI	Oswald v. Allen	6-part analysis
VII	Weinberg v. Edelstein	6-part analysis
VIII	California v. Brown	Brown