The 1L elective that I am taking this semester is Law and Process: Privacy Torts. I didn’t do so well on my exams last semester, so I was placed in that class for my 1L elective. LLS has an academic success program to help students with tips and skills for studying, outlining, and test taking. Students who have a GPA lower than 2.85 after their first semester will be placed in the Law and Process: Privacy Torts class.
The privacy torts class expands on the four privacy torts that were briefly covered in our Torts class: (1) Intrusion Upon Seclusion, (2) Public Disclosure of Private Facts, (3) Appropriation of Name or Likeness, and (4) False Light. So far, my class has covered Intrusion Upon Seclusion and is finishing up with Public Disclosure of Private Facts. The material that I’m learning right now is very applicable to our lives currently, especially when privacy and media coverage appear to be very controversial topics. This class has gotten me to think critically about how privacy and the media impact our lives… Do we really have privacy when all of us are carrying a device in our pockets that is capable of audio and video recording? What are the limits to what a newspaper or media company can rightfully publish that does not invade a person’s private information?
Besides learning about privacy and the media and reading the casebook, I am also reading a book for class titled Mastering the Law School Exam. It’s a comprehensive guide that has helped me adjust the way I tackle exams like how to analyze a hypothetical, how to model my answer, and how to improve on multiple choice questions.
The concepts we cover in class have also interested me into looking into the legal parameters of journalism and how the law would intersect with journalism. With so many interesting concepts and classes that I have been taking in law school, it’s so hard to imagine one day having to choose a field of law to pursue and practice in.