Law Commons^™

Right Writing Or Rite Riting?, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

After more than two decades of deliberation, a government-sponsored commission, composed of linguists from the major German-speaking countries, recently issued a new standard German grammar called Die neue deutsche Rechtschreibung.

Professional Responsibility: 1997 Survey Of Florida Law, Timothy P. Chinaris, Elizabeth Clark Tarbert

Law Faculty Scholarship

Professional responsibility law in Florida continued to expand in 1997. Case law, rules, and ethics opinions amplified and, in some areas, extended the duties that lawyers assume as officers of the judicial branch of government. This article examines professional responsibility decisions that are likely to affect the relationships that lawyers have with clients, former clients, judges, third parties, and The Florida Bar. Part II looks at developments affecting the most important relationship that lawyers establish and operate within: the relationship between lawyer and client. Part III reviews developments of significance to the lawyer's relationship to the court and the judicial …

The Volley Of Canons, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The "canons of construction" are a set of formalized rules or maxims for interpreting words. These canons are especially relevant for two categories of legal writers. First, brief writers can use the canons to argue a particular interpretation of the words of a statute. The statute's words provide the best evidence of statutory intent, both under the "plain-meaning" rule and when legislative history is sparse. Second, attorneys who draft instruments should consider the impact of the canons when choosing specific language to insert in a contract,' lease, or other instrument.

Not Selected For Official Publication, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Hundreds of thousands of "unpublished opinions" are now available on electronic databases. Although these opinions have not been designated as officially published precedent, they still may have a significant impact on the outcome of your client's case. The dilemma is whether you can or should cite these unpublished cases in your brief.

Program Planning-Ideas For Improvement, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

Picture the scene: you're at the Annual Meeting, it's Tuesday, and you're listening to your fifth "talking head" presentation. At the front of the room are five librarians/speakers, each of whom has exactly 15 minutes to shower you with their words of wisdom on the selected topic. In the audience are scores of librarians, whose eyes are glazing over and whose thoughts are wandering to more congenial topics. Sound familiar? This describes way too many programs at the typical MLL Annual Meeting. Instead of a good, thought-provoking discussion, or vigorous give-and-take between panelists and audience, we get sound bites. Why …

The Footnote=An Interruption, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The footnote is a familiar tool in legal scholarship. Some of the best law review articles, legal encyclopedias, and legal treatises devote half of each page to detailed, supporting footnotes. Footnotes make sense in this context. Readers of these sources have a dual objective: to glean a general framework for an argument and to find specific authorities to support each point. The Colorado Lawyer is such a research source. It lists authorities in endnotes so its readers may complete an article uninterrupted, but they also may find the more specific sources if they should need them.

The Cathedral At Twenty-Five: Citations And Impressions, James E. Krier, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

It was twenty-five years ago that Guido Calabresi and Douglas Melamed published their article on property rules, liability rules, and inalienability. Calabresi, then a law professor, later a dean, is now a federal judge. Melamed, formerly a student of Calabresi's, is now a seasoned Washington attorney. Their article—which, thanks to its subtitle, we shall call The Cathedral—has had a remarkable influence on our own thinking, as we tried to show in a recent paper.

This is not the place to rehash what we said then, but a summary might be in order. First, we demonstrated that the conventional wisdom …

Book Review: Postmodern Legal Movements: Law And Jurisprudence At Century's End By Gary Minda, Chris Sagers

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Postmodem Legal Movements does two things. First, the bulk of the book provides an overview of American jurisprudence, from Christopher Columbus Langdell to the present. This overview is necessary because, in order to understand "postmodem forms of jurisprudence, we must first explore what came before postmodernism, that is, modernism" (p. 5). Second, the relatively short latter portion of the book presents an argument about the current state of American legal scholarship and its future. Minda's picture of contemporary legal thought is that of a paradigm shift in the making.

Postmodern Legal Movements will prove useful to those in search of …

Faculty Highlights

Alfred Aman Jr. (1991-2002)

No abstract provided.

From Product To Process: Evolution Of A Legal Writing Program, Diane Edelman, Jo Ann Durako, Kathryn Stanchi, Brett Armdur, Lorray Brown, Rebecca Connelly

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Readers Speak Out, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This month, I am turning the column over to letters from readers. If you have a question or comment to share, please feel free to write or e-mail me at the addresses in the box below. Don't worry I will ask your permission before using your name.

Taking Prepositions Seriously, Jeffrey G. Sherman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Double Talk And Twisted Thought: Reflections On Incoherence, Elizabeth Fajans

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Noble's International Guide To The Law Reports, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Bringing The "Real World" To Advance Legal Research, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

Nearly all U.S. law schools include an Advanced Legal Research course as an elective course for second and third-year students. The justification for the course is obvious, and proponents of advanced courses have succeeded easily in convincing law school curriculum committees to approve chem. Most Advanced Legal Research courses also use "real-world figures" (guest speakers) ro supplement and enhance the instruction provided by the professors of the courses.3 The experiences and current positions of rhe "real-world" speakers are diverse, including librarians, attorneys, publisher/vendor representatives, and government officials. This article discusses the reasons for using real-world figures in Advanced Legal Research …

Overcoming Challenges In The Global Classroom: Teaching Legal Research And Writing To International Law Students And Law Graduates, Diane Edelman, Mark Wojcik

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Writer’S Board And A Student-Run Writing Clinic: Making The Writing Community Visible At Law Schools, Terrill Pollman

Scholarly Works

In this article the author explains institutional programs she has developed in response to a common problem, students’ frustrations with the limits of a law school’s legal writing program. The author proposes establishing a Writers’ Board, where members of the law school community who care most about legal research and writing training can work together to create opportunities for students to learn more. The Writers’ Board’s primary project is a Writing Clinic that offers diverse ways to improve legal research and writing on campus. Despite problems that are likely to arise when creating a Writers’ Board and Clinic, the author …

Legal Writing As A Kind Of Philosophy, 48 Mercer L. Rev. 1091 (1997), Joel R. Cornwell

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nothing So Destructive As Habit, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

As with physical exercise, inertia may prevent you from beginning. You complete your briefs, your clients pay the bills, and you win some of your cases. Doesn't this mean your writing is adequate? You already spend a lot of your time writing--why dedicate additional time to improve?

Book Review And Commentary: What Price Freedom?, Vincent A. Wellman

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

New Lr&W Teachers Alert! 14 Ways To Avoid Pitfalls In Your First Year Of Teaching, Kathleen Elliott Vinson

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Teaching is a challenge. This article discusses common pitfalls to avoid in your first year of teaching and how to navigate around them.

Action Research In Legal Education, 33 Willamette L. Rev. 383 (1997), Paul T. Wangerin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From The Bramble Bush To The Web: How The Internet Is Changing The Practice Of Law, James G. Milles

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Proposal To Reform The United States Gift Tax Annual Exclusion, Jeffrey S. Kinsler

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article analyzes the U.S. gift tax annual exclusion, the main exemption to U.S. gift tax laws. The Article develops the history and purpose of the gift tax annual exclusion to demonstrate that the current system does not accomplish its original purposes. The Article concludes that reform is needed and proposes legislation to simplify the gift tax laws and create a more equitable gift tax law system. The Article uses the gift tax laws of New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the Netherlands as models for U.S. gift tax reform legislation.

The Secondary Effects Doctrine: 'The Evisceration Of First Amendment Freedoms', David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

An analysis of First Amendment Jurisprudence and the Secondary Effects Doctrine.

Of Painters, Sculptors, Quill Pens And Microscopes: Teaching Legal Writers In The Electronic Age, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

No longer do lawyers write most of their work “by hand.” Instead, most legal writing is now done on word processors. This has the potential to change the way lawyers write in a fundamental way. Because word processors make it easier to write more than was possible “by hand” modern legal writers are more akin to sculptors than painters. Such writers must create finely-tuned written products from the large quantities of material that can now be inputted into a document and then edited and whittled away to create a finished product.

This Article examines how the arrival of the electronic …

The Self-Graded Draft: Teaching Students To Revise Using Self-Critique, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Beazley first explains why the predictability of legal documents, legal writers, and legal readers makes an objective method of self-critique particularly useful in legal writing. She then discusses how she designs self-grading guidelines and explains various methods for incorporating the self-grading process into a legal writing course. Finally, she addresses some of the challenges she faced when assigning the self-graded draft to students, and discusses ways to deal with these challenges. In appendixes, Professor Beazley included two samples of self-graded draft guidelines for use in a three-draft Memorandum Assignment, as well as a short illustration of …

Education's Promise, Laurel Oates, Sam Wineberg

Faculty Articles

This is a story with at least two parts. In the first part, Sam Wineburg, a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Washington, tells his story, the story of instruction in the United States, beginning with one revolution, the scientific revolution, and ending with another, the cognitive revolution. In the second part, Laurel Oates, the Director of Legal Writing at Seattle University School of Law, tells our story, the story of legal education and, in particular, legal writing, and how both have been affected by these revolutions.

Real Revolution, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of First-Year Student Westlaw Use: Why Vendor Training Isn't Enough, Aaron Schwabach

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.