Law Commons^™

Teaching "Is This Case Rightly Decided?", Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

“Is this case rightly decided?” From the first week of law school, every law student must grapple with this classroom question. This Essay argues that this vital question is problematically under-specified, creating imprecision in thinking about law. This Essay thus advocates that law professors should present students with a three-part framework: whether a case is rightly decided legally, morally, or sociologically.

Additionally, this Essay argues that disaggregating the question exposes deeper deficiencies in legal education. Many law professors do not provide students with serious grounding to engage in rigorous thinking about the relationship between law, morality, and justice, not to …

Grasping Fatherhood In Abortion And Adoption, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

Biology makes a mother, but it does not make a father. While a mother is a legal parent by reason of her biological relationship with her child, a father is not a legal parent unless he takes affirmative steps to grasp fatherhood. Being married to the mother at the time of conception or at the time of birth is one of those affirmative steps. But if he is not married to the mother, he must do far more before he will be legally recognized as a father. Biology is often presented as a sufficient reason for this dichotomy--it is easy …

How Cosmopolitan Are International Law Professors?, Ryan Scoville, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers an empirical answer to a question of interest among scholars of comparative international law: why do American views about international law appear at times to differ from those of other countries? The authors contend that part of the answer lies in legal education. Conducting a survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of nearly 150 legal academics, the authors reveal evidence that professors of international law in the United States often lack significant foreign legal experience, particularly outside of the West. Sociological research suggests that this tendency leads professors to teach international law from predominantly nationalistic and …

Challenges And Opportunities For New Lawyers, David Nersessian, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

These are challenging times to be a lawyer. They may even be transformational times. Recent upheavals in financial, industrial and real estate markets have many lawyers (and clients) not only cutting back, but also fundamentally re-thinking their business models and the ways in which legal services are provided. Until very recently, hardly a day passed without news of law firm layoffs, deferred start dates, or canceled summer programs. In-house lawyers face substantial budget cuts at the very time their departments must navigate a broader range of legal and organizational challenges. And many government and public interest employers are dealing with …

History In The Law Library: Using Legal Materials To Explore The Past And Find Lawyers, Felons And Other Scoundrels In Your Family Tree, Kurt Metzmeier

Faculty Scholarship

The standard law books and databases typically employed in legal research record the foibles and follies of humankind. This article discusses how these resources can be used to research local and family history.

Introduction Symposium: The Jurisprudence Of Slavery Reparations: Introduction, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

On April 9th and 10th, 2004, Boston University School of Law sponsored a symposium titled The Jurisprudence of Slavery Reparations. As the principal conference organizers, we are pleased and a bit awestruck to see the symposium contributions published in this issue of the Boston University Law Review. The papers published here - in the first symposium of its kind in a major law review - should serve as an immensely valuable reference on the jurisprudence of reparations

The Lawyering Process: An Example Of Metacognition At Its Best, John M.A. Dipippa, Martha M. Peters

Faculty Scholarship

This article celebrates the 25th anniversary of the publication of Gary Bellow and Bea Moulton's The Lawyering Process by looking at the work from personal and theoretical perspectives. From the personal perspective, the authors discuss how The Lawyering Process influenced them as teachers and scholars. From the theoretical perspective, the authors show how the book modeled various metacognitive processes. Combining the personal with the theoretical, the article shows how The Lawyering Process challenged lawyers to be-come aware of their own thinking by demonstrating how it challenged the authors to do so.