Dennis M. Patterson, Rutgers University School of Law, Camden Teaching Commercial Law: The Practice of Theory Summary: This presentation advances a new way to introduce students to commercial law. The vehicle for this presentation is a recently-published casebook (Hyland & Patterson, An Introduction to Commercial Law (West, 1999)). The casebook contains three innovations, each of which is independently useful to teachers of commercial law. This proposal describes the pedagogical approach of the casebook, and explains the innovations. How Cases are Used: We use cases in two quite different ways. To begin with, the commercial cases often present an invaluable statement of the context of the legal questions posed by the dispute. Today, students tend to rush through that statement in order to get to the holding, the rule that will be the subject of class discussion. We, instead, would like to take advantage of the facts to give students a feel for what life is like in the world of commerce. We will try to explain whether the particular situation examined is typical or atypical. We will also explain the relatively complicated relationships in such a way that they serve as a framework for a practical understanding of the issues involved. We will also ask whether either the parties or their lawyers might have done anything to avoid the problem that produced the legal dispute. Understanding of Interconnectedness: Commercial law is universally taught by proceeding from one Article to the next. We eschew this approach, organizing our casebook by topic, not by Code Article. Thus, each chapter will be denominated by key concept (e.g., warranty or remedy) and within each chapter, students will find cases from at least 3 and as many as seven different Code articles. By the end of this introductory course, students have mastered the basics of commercial law, refreshed their recollevtion of contracts, and learned much about many areas of law rarely seen in either the first year or even upper-level courses (e.g., subrogation, marshalling and bailments) Design: Traditionally, casebooks have presented alternating blocks of text, generally in the same typeface -- cases, editorial commentary, problems. This book introduces Interventions-- paragraph-long comments and questions, inserted in the text of opinions. The purpose of the Intervention is to prepare students for discussion of key issues prior to the class meeting. Interventions serve to remind, suggest, and prod student thought and reflection. The use of Interventions produces uniformly more organized and significantly deeper class discussion than one finds in using a more traditional case presentation. Summary: This presentation is not an advertisement for a casebook. The book is a vehicle for the introduction of a new pedagogical approach to commercial law. There is no reason to think this approach would not be of interest to law teachers generally. These ideas can help everyone.