Home  |  Introduction |  Legal Puzzlers   | Law Reviews  |  Online Forum   | Paper Topics  |  E-mail  me

.
TWENTY-ONE
LEGAL PUZZLERS

PHIL 22B
Spring 2006

PUZZLERS

1. But For What John Did, Alice Would Not Have Died -- John shoots Alice, putting her in the hospital, where she dies. . . .

2. Where There's Smoke, There's Fire -- John throws his still- burning cigarrette out of the car window and the forest burns down. . . .

3. John and Alice: At It Again -- John throws his still- burning cigarrette out of the car window, Alice comes along, and the forest burns down. . . .

4. Is It Murder to Induce Someone to Commit Suicide? -- In a South African case a man tells his mother to hang herself and she does. . . .

5. Henry's Fatal Desert Crossing -- John and Alice plot Henry's death as he plans to cross the Sahara. . . .

6. Selling a Gun to a Minor -- John sells a gun to a member of the high school basketball team only to be sued by the boy's parents when the boy injures himself . . .

7. Whose Fault Is It Anyway? -- John and Alice go quail hunting with Henry and shoot him in the eye. . . .

8. Missing the Mark -- Henry aims to kill John, but misses him and kills Alice instead. . . .

9. Love and Death in the Sudan -- In an actual case in the Sudan in 1947, Mohamed kills Hamid Yahya thinking he was a ghost. . . .

10. Alice, John and Henry Rob a Bank -- During the robbery John shoots and kills one of the banktellers while Henry waits "outside" in the getaway car. . . .

11. John (Finally) Tries to Do Something Nice for Alice -- In a reenactment of a classic hypothetical case, "The Case of Lady Eldon's French Lace," John tries to smuggle some "fancy" French lace into the United States. . . .

12. The Attempted Murder of a Corpse -- Unwittingly, Alice tries to murder John twenty minutes after he has passed away in his sleep. . . .

13. Hot Property -- Alice steals her own umbrella believing it belongs to someone else. . . .

14. John Goes to CVS for Some Chips and Has an Emergency -- John suffers a heart attack in his local CVS and tries to get the pharmacist to sell him a drug without a prescription . . .

15. John Takes a Job as a Trolley Driver and Faces a Big Decision -- John must decide whether to allow five people to die or to kill one person and spare the lives of the five . . .

16. John: The Transplant Doctor on a Mission -- John kills Alice and cannabalizes her for heart, lungs and kidneys to save five patients in need of organ transplants. . . .

17. John, the Abandoned Baby, and the Not-So-Rapidly Approaching Train -- John stands by and watches a two-year old be crushed to death by an on-coming train, a child he could have easily rescued with little effort and no harm to himself. . . .

18. John Sues the Government for Violating His Right to Privacy -- John sues the IRS after an IRS examiner rumages through his trash while it was still in John's own garbage can which he purchased from ACE hardware and before the city had picked it up. . . .

19. John Decides to Get Educated -- John makes a sexist remark in a math class at Brandeis and is brought before the Judicial Board for violating the University's "speech code". . . .

20. John and Alice Finally Settle Down, Only To Be Murdered by Henry -- John's and Alice's children try to introduce a Victim Impact Statement at Henry's trial for his brutal murder of their parents. . . .

21. Alice Sues Her Boss for Sex Discrimination -- Alice protests company policy barring female, but not male employees from any job at the plant with a level of lead exposure likely to pose reproductive hazards. . . .

.

  Back to top

 

Home  |  Introduction |  Legal Puzzlers   | Law Reviews  |  Online Forum   | Paper Topics  |  E-mail  me

Page last edited: December 18, 2005