Law Commons^™

Why Judy Norman Acted In Reasonable Self-Defense: An Abused Woman And A Sleeping Man, Marina Angel

Marina Angel

The reasonable man has been replaced by the reasonable person, but that person still functions within legal doctrines conceived by men and interpreted to fit the facts of men's lives. To understand why it is sometimes reasonable for an abused woman to kill her abuser while he is asleep or otherwise incapacitated, basic criminal law doctrines do not have to be changed. They do, however, have to be applied to the facts of abused women's lives.

The issue of exit – why didn’t she leave – must be explained. Concepts of time – immediate, imminent, and cyclical – must be …

La Formazione Professionale Continua Dell'avvocato A Confronto Con Il Modello Tedesco, Valerio Sangiovanni

Valerio Sangiovanni

No abstract provided.

Restating Restitution: A Study In Contemporary Common Law Conceptualism, Chaim Saiman

Chaim Saiman

The ALI’s Restatement (Third) of Restitution provides one of the most interesting expressions of contemporary legal conceptualism. This paper explores the theory and practice of post-realist conceptualism through a review and critique of the Restatement. At the theoretical level, the paper develops a typology of different forms of conceptualism, and shows that the Restatement has more in common with the high formalism of the nineteenth century than with contemporary modes of private law discourse. At the level of substantive doctrine, the paper explains why labels in fact make a difference, and assesses which recoveries are more (and less) likely under …

"A Bulwark Against Anarchy": Affirmative Action, Emory Law School, And Southern Self-Help, William B. Turner

William B Turner

This article presents archival evidence about Pre-Start, Emory Law School’s affirmative action program from 1966 to 1972. It places that evidence into the context of current legal and scholarly debates about affirmative action in law school admissions and demonstrates that Pre-Start is an extremely important case study for anyone who wishes to think carefully about this important topic. I perform post-hoc strict scrutiny on Pre-Start, showing that it meets, not only the standard of the majority in Grutter v. Bollinger (539 U.S. 306 (2003)), but even the much more exacting standard of dissenting Justice Clarence Thomas. Because white supremacists are …

"A Bulwark Against Anarchy": Affirmative Action, Emory Law School, And Southern Self-Help, William B. Turner

William B Turner

This article presents archival evidence about Pre-Start, Emory Law School’s affirmative action program from 1966 to 1972. It places that evidence into the context of current legal and scholarly debates about affirmative action in law school admissions and demonstrates that Pre-Start is an extremely important case study for anyone who wishes to think carefully about this important topic. I perform post-hoc strict scrutiny on Pre-Start, showing that it meets, not only the standard of the majority in Grutter v. Bollinger (539 U.S. 306 (2003)), but even the much more exacting standard of dissenting Justice Clarence Thomas. Because white supremacists are …

Unpacking The Bar: Of Cut Scores, Competence And Crucibles, Gary S. Rosin

Gary S Rosin

Bar passage rates of first-takers vary widely among both the states and the law schools. State grading practices also vary widely, particularly as to minimum passing scores (“cut scores”) and whether they scale state exam components to the MultiState Bar Exam (“MBE”). The broad ranges of Bar passage rates and of state grading practices call into question the stewardship of the states over admission to the practice of law. This study uses generalized linear modeling, with a logit link function, to isolate the effect on the Bar passage rates of ABA-approved law schools of three factors: (i) the LSAT scores …

Unpacking The Bar: Of Cut Scores, Competence And Crucibles, Gary S. Rosin

Gary S Rosin

Bar passage rates of first-takers vary widely among both the states and the law schools. State grading practices also vary widely, particularly as to minimum passing scores (“cut scores”) and whether they scale state exam components to the MultiState Bar Exam (“MBE”). The broad ranges of Bar passage rates and of state grading practices call into question the stewardship of the states over admission to the practice of law. This study uses generalized linear modeling, with a logit link function, to isolate the effect on the Bar passage rates of ABA-approved law schools of three factors: (i) the LSAT scores …

Evaluating Goals And Methods Of A Skills Curriculum: Challenges And Opportunities For Law Schools, Harriet N. Katz

Harriet N Katz

Law schools have compelling reasons to begin a process of thoroughly reviewing their skills curriculum. A new ABA Standard for Accreditation, revised in 2005 to mandate skills education for every law student, is now being applied at law school re-accreditation reviews. In addition, EDUCATING LAWYERS, a report by the Carnegie Foundation, and BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL EDUCATION, an analysis by law professors, both published in 2007 and distributed nationally, draw critical attention to the methods and goals of law schools’ educational program throughout the curriculum. All three of these important publications emphasize preparing students for practice as competent and ethical …

Successful Stories And Stories Of Success: Reflections On The History Of The Law And Economics Movement, Nimrod H. Aviad

Nimrod Haim Aviad

This paper joins a handful of attempts to understand the Law & Economics movement’s success in American legal academia. Adopting an historical perspective, the paper analyzes for the first time the movement’s own stories of success, developed and maintained by the movement’s own members, and considers them as a possible blue-print for success in contemporary legal academia. By following these stories of success, one comes to understand the keen ability of the movement’s economists and lawyer-economists to identify those patterns of academic practice which would eventually grant them the paramount academic capital that they have enjoyed over the last thirty …

Legal Education In The Age Of Cognitive Science And Advanced Classroom Technology, Deborah J Merritt

Deborah J Merritt

Cognitive scientists have made major advances in mapping the process of learning, but legal educators know little about this work. Similarly, law professors have engaged only modestly with new learning technologies like PowerPoint, classroom response systems, podcasts, and web-based instruction. This article addresses these gaps by examining recent research in cognitive science, demonstrating how those insights apply to a sample technology (PowerPoint), and exploring the broader implications of both cognitive science and new classroom technologies for legal education. The article focuses on three fields of cognitive science inquiry: the importance of right brain learning, the limits of working memory, and …

Clients, Empathy, And Compassion: Introducing First-Year Students To The “Heart” Of Lawyering, Kristin B. Gerdy

Kristin B. Gerdy

This explore the need for instruction and experience with the “heart” of law practice within the first year of law school. According to the report on legal education prepared by the Carnegie Foundation, the two major limitations in American legal education are 1) a lack of attention to practical education, including a marked lack of understanding client problems, and 2) failure to support development of ethical and social skills. With the release of this report it is likely that law school faculties throughout the United States will be looking at their curricula to see how to better fill these gaps …

Globalización, Derechos Humanos Y Sociedad De La Información, Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes

Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes

Para nadie es ajeno que las nuevas tecnologías, y en especial el internet, en la llamada era de la sociedad de la información, constituyen una de las mayores posibilidades con las que se cuenta actualmente para la adquisición de nuevos conocimientos, contactos personales interactivos como el correo electrónico, el chat, el comercio electrónico, la diversión, los grupos de discusión y las redes sociales.Sin embargo, al lado de las infinitas posibilidades benéficas que la red de redes ofrece, coexisten algunos usos abusivos, inseguros, peligrosos o incluso delictivos que nos plantean nuevos retos a los juristas, acerca de los cuales es posible …

Law Students Who Learn Differently: A Narrative Case Study Of Three Law Students With Attention Deficit Disorder (Add), Leah M. Christensen

Leah M Christensen

Abstract: More law students than ever before begin law school having been diagnosed with a learning disability. As legal educators, do we have an obligation to expand our teaching methodologies beyond the typical law student? What teaching methodologies work most effectively for law students with learning disabilities? The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of law students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) about their law school experience. The case study yielded four themes relating to the social, learning and achievement domains of the students. First, law students with ADD experienced feelings of isolation in law school; second, …

Navigating The Article Selection Process: An Empirical Study Of Those With All The Power--Student Editors, Leah M. Christensen, Julie A. Oseid

Leah M Christensen

Abstract: Anyone who enters the legal academy knows the pressure for new law professors to publish or perish. The use of student editors as the “gatekeepers” of legal scholarship is a distinctive feature of the legal academy. Yet, even with student editors holding the keys to academic success, few empirical studies have explored what factors student editors consider most important when making article selection decisions. The study reported in this Article attempts to shed light on this process and provide suggestions for new law professors as they navigate the law review article submission process. The present study examines how law …

Liberal Bias In The Legal Academy: Overstated And Undervalued, Michael Vitiello

Michael Vitiello

Abstract of Liberal Bias in the Legal Academy: Overstated and Undervalued According to the right, universities are hotbeds of radicalism. Critics of universities like David Horowitz have tried to push their agenda through legislation. Until recently, law schools drew little attention. That changed with the publication of a study that appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal; the right now cites the study as evidence that law schools too lean too far to the left. This article examines the debate. First, it examines the Georgetown study and concludes that the study overstates the extent to which law faculties are dominated by …

Community Lawyering In The Juvenile Cellblock: Creative Uses Of Legal Problem Solving To Reconcile Competing Narratives On Prosecutorial Abuse, Juvenile Criminality, And Public Safety, David Dominguez

David Dominguez

Community Lawyering in the Juvenile Cellblock: Creative Uses of Legal Problem Solving to Reconcile Competing Narratives on Prosecutorial Abuse, Juvenile Criminality, and Public Safety challenges systemic deficiencies in juvenile detention practices from the perspective of Community Lawyering. Community Lawyering in these circumstances achieves two goals. First, it offers legal assistance to the incarcerated child in order to vindicate legal interests protected by the United States Constitution and state statute. Secondly, through creative use of law students’ problem solving skills, Community Lawyering works with others in the community to realize the vision of a collaborative system of juvenile justice, one that …

Opportunity Lost: How Law School Disappoints Law Students, The Public, And The Legal Profession, Jason M. Dolin

Jason M. Dolin

The paper discusses how current law school pedagogy fails to prepare, or even attempt to prepare, students to practice law. Churning out large numbers of law students who have paid for an expensive and inefficient education, law schools continue to practice 19th century pedagogical methods. Although these methods have been discredited as ineffective, law faculties largely continue using these familiar methods. The paper discusses how all three of law schools constituences - law students, the profession, and the public - will be better served by law school adopting methods and techniques that are used in other professional education.

Teaching In Reverse: A Positive Approach To Analytical Errors In 1l Writing, Lesley S. Kagan, Susan E. Provenzano

Lesley S Kagan

In this manuscript, we explore student-centered teaching methods that embrace student error as part of the learning process. Specifically, we advocate an error-as-growth philosophy, urging legal writing professors to address 1L analytical errors early in the semester, give the students a clear understanding of where they are likely to go astray and teach the students strategies for avoiding error during, rather than after, the writing process. We document the common analytical errors in our students’ writing assignments, review cognitive psychology and composition theories that might explain these errors, and design a curriculum that “teaches in reverse” – that is, moves …

What Helps Law Professors Develop As Teachers? - An Empirical Study, Sophie M. Sparrow, Gerald F. Hess

Sophie M Sparrow

The overall goal of this article is to provide concrete suggestions for how law schools can improve teaching and enrich law student learning. In doing so, it reviews and analyzes the data collected from two national surveys about the kinds of faculty development activities that are most effective in improving law professors’ teaching. One survey was designed to quantify how many law teachers engaged in twenty-two types of teaching development activities over the previous five years and to assess the effectiveness of each of those activities. The other survey focused on the effectiveness of a national conference on teaching and …

Teaching In Reverse: A Positive Approach To Analytical Errors In1l Writing, Lesley S. Kagan, Susan E. Provenzano

Lesley S Kagan

In this manuscript, "Teaching in Reverse: A Positive Approach to Analytical Errors in 1L Writing," we explore student-centered teaching methods that embrace student error as part of the learning process. Specifically, we advocate an error-as-growth philosophy, urging legal writing professors to address 1L analytical errors early in the semester, give the students a clear understanding of where they are likely to go astray and teach the students strategies for avoiding error during, rather than after, the writing process. We document the common analytical errors in our students’ writing assignments, review cognitive psychology and composition theories that might explain these errors, …

The De-Evolution Of American Legal Ethics, Jennifer Schultz Reed

Jennifer Schultz Reed

That since Legal Ethics became a mandatory course in all ABA accredited law schools in 1974, there has been little, if any, perceptible change in the ethics of the legal profession. The absence of significant discernable impact is due to several factors: the failure to define what the profession means and intends by the concept of legal ethics; the inability of law schools to find coherent and successful ways to teach this subject; and the fact that the public generally continues to regard lawyers with little respect and to equate the misdeeds of some with the conduct of most. In …

Bridging The Gaps: How Cross-Disciplinary Training With Mbas Can Improve Professional Education, Prepare Students For Private Practice, And Enhance University Life, Seth Freeman

Seth Freeman

What can law schools do to address the criticisms in the Carnegie Foundation’s January 2007 report on legal education? That report found that law schools are not teaching students how to be competent lawyers. One particularly promising answer is cross-disciplinary training with MBAs, which leading law schools such as NYU, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard have embraced in recent years. In this article, I explore the value of such courses, and discuss a cross-disciplinary course that I successfully debuted in the Fall of 2006 at NYU entitled, “Negotiating Complex Transactions with Executives and Lawyers.” More generally, I argue …

Unlocking The Secrets Of Highly Successful Legal Writing Students, Anne Enquist

Anne M Enquist

Abstract Unlocking the Secrets of Highly Successful Legal Writing Students Anne M. Enquist Seattle University School of Law Why are some law students successful in their legal writing classes and others are not? To identify the secrets to success, I did a case study of six second-year law students as they wrote a motion brief and an appellate brief for their 2L legal writing course. Based on their 1L legal writing course, two of these students were predicted to be highly successful, two were predicted to be moderately successfully, and two were predicted to be only marginally successful. Through daily …

Did Harvard Get It Right?, Laurel Currie Oates

Laurel Currie Oates

Abstract: Q: Did Harvard get it right when it adopted the casebook method over 150 years ago? A: Maybe. Many first-year law students struggle to understand why law professors force them to divine legal principles from judicial decisions, some of which were decided before their grandparents were born and others which seem to be written in a foreign language. Wouldn’t it much be easier, and better, if law schools used the same pedagogy that is used in many other disciplines: reading assignments, lectures, and exams that test whether students have learned the information set out in those textbooks and lectures? …

To Make Or To Buy: In-House Lawyering And Value Creation, Steven L. Schwarcz

Steven L Schwarcz

In recent years, companies have been shifting much of their transactional legal work from outside law firms to in-house lawyers, and some large companies now staff transactions almost exclusively in-house. Although this transformation redefines the very nature of the business lawyer, scholars have largely ignored it. This article seeks to remedy that omission, using empirical evidence as well as economic theory to help explain why in-house lawyers are taking over, and whether they are likely to continue to take over, these functions and roles of outside lawyers. The findings are surprising, suggesting that in-house lawyers may now be performing as …

Student Body Diversity: A View From The Trenches, Gail S. Stephenson

Gail S. Stephenson

Although educators have stressed the value of classroom diversity for 150 years, American law schools are becoming less diverse. Total minority enrollment in ABA-approved law schools was down for the academic year 2005-2006, and the number of African Americans enrolled has reached its lowest point since 1990-1991. The ABA revised Standard 211 (renumbered 212) to require law schools to “demonstrate by concrete action” their commitment to diversity. This revision has been quite controversial, drawing opposition from those who do not believe that diversity is important.

The author, who teaches at a historically black law school with a fairly even mix …

A Primer For New Civil Law Clinic Students, Steve Berenson

Steve Berenson

Abstract Many law students’ initial experiences in live-client clinics are likely to be unfamiliar and unsettling. It may be reassuring to such students to know that generations of students before them have encountered a remarkably similar array of issues. Moreover, the new clinic students’ experiences will take place within a context that has been shaped significantly by a series of choices, conflicts, and controversies that have marked the common history and development of the civil legal aid and clinical legal education movements in America. The goal of this primer is to familiarize such students with this common ancestry and the …

"The Paradox Of Legal Expertise: A Study Of Experts And Novices Reading The Law", Leah M. Christensen

Leah M Christensen

Abstract: What strategies do lawyers and judges use to read the law? The study described in this article examined the way in which 10 legal experts (8 lawyers and 2 judges) and 10 novices (law students in the top 50% of their class) read a judicial opinion. Whereas the experts read efficiently (taking less overall time), the beginning law students read less efficiently. Where the experts read the text flexibly, moving back and forth between different parts of the opinion, the novices read inflexibly. The experts connected to the purpose of their reading more consistently than the novices and drew …

To Make Or To Buy: In-House Lawyering And Value Creation, Steven L. Schwarcz

Steven L Schwarcz

In recent years, companies have been shifting much of their transactional legal work from outside law firms to in-house lawyers, and some large companies now staff transactions almost exclusively in-house. Although this transformation redefines the very nature of the business lawyer, scholars have largely ignored it. This article seeks to remedy that omission, using empirical evidence as well as economic theory to help explain why in-house lawyers are taking over, and whether they are likely to continue to take over, these functions and roles of outside lawyers. The findings are surprising, suggesting that in-house lawyers may now be performing as …

To Make Or To Buy: In-House Lawyering And Value Creation, Steven L. Schwarcz

Steven L Schwarcz

No abstract provided.