Law Commons^™

Happy Law Students, Happy Lawyers, Nancy Levit, Douglas Linder

Nancy Levit

This article draws on research into the science of happiness and asks a series of interrelated questions: Whether law schools can make law students happier? Whether making happier law students will translate into making them happier lawyers, and the accompanying question of whether making law students happier would create better lawyers? After covering the limitations of genetic determinants of happiness and happiness set-points, the article addresses those qualities that happiness research indicates are paramount in creating satisfaction: control, connections, creative challenge (or flow), and comparisons (preferably downward). Those qualities are then applied to legal education, while addressing the larger philosophical …

Toward A Deeper Understanding Of Professionalism: Learning To Write And Writing To Learn During The First Two Weeks Of Law School, Ben Bratman

Articles

Law schools are under pressure to instill in their students a sense of professionalism, but what exactly does professionalism mean? And what can professors of legal writing do to lay an educational foundation of professionalism? They are, after all, the teachers who at most schools have the greatest interaction with the impressionable first-year students.

Professionalism is frequently used to mean a variety of behaviors that are important for lawyers to exhibit, but that are also important for those in business - outside the traditional professions - to exhibit. In the context of legal education, professionalism is better understood to mean …

Morte E Ressurreição Da Hermenêutica, Ivo T. Gico

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

Este artigo trata dos objetivos e utilidades da hermenêutica, seja para tomada de decisões, seja para a compreensão do que é Direito. É por meio da hermenêutica que juristas de toda sorte acreditam extrair sentido e conteúdo das normas jurídicas de modo científico, quando, na verdade, a utilizam para fundamentar sua decisão pré-concebida. É a hermenêutica verdadeiro instrumento científico para se chegar a soluções justas ou mera forma de expressão para legitimação de decisões?

This article deals with hermeneutics true objectives and utilities, either as a decision making instrument or to answer the question: What is the Law? It’s through …