Law Commons^™

Clinical Legal Education: An Annotated Bibliography (Second Edition), Karen Czapanskiy, J. P. Ogilvy

Karen Czapanskiy

No abstract provided.

A Critique Of The Aals Hiring Process, Allen R. Kamp

Allen R. Kamp

The article citiques the process of hiring professors in legal academia.

Service Learning And Legal Education: A Sense Of Duty, Dana Harrington Conner, Nathaniel C. Nichols, Thomas J. Reed

Nathaniel C. Nichols

No abstract provided.

Service Learning And Legal Education: A Sense Of Duty, Dana Harrington Conner, Nathaniel C. Nichols, Thomas J. Reed

Thomas J Reed

No abstract provided.

"The Lord Speaks Through Me": Moving Beyond Conventional Law School Pedagogy And The Reasons For Doing So, Robert C. Schehr

Robert C. Schehr

ABSTRACT Maintenance of status quo law school curricular design and delivery, along with the continued marginalization of live client clinic programs, and the discordant objectives of law schools as compared to the expectations of Bar passage, serve to stifle the role of juridic practitioners in the service of justice. Decades of careful scholarship regarding the problems associated with the quality of legal education have repeatedly called for curricular revisions that should enhance the knowledge and skill base of graduates, develop their level of preparedness to actually serve in the profession, and demonstrate care for students. And while there has been …

Of Authorship And Audacity: An Empirical Study Of Gender Disparity And Privilege In The “Top Ten” Law Reviews, Minna J. Kotkin

Minna J. Kotkin

In today’s law schools, article placement is a significant consideration in hiring, promotion, tenure, and lateral mobility. This article analyzes authorship by gender and home school “privilege” in 15 law reviews (the “top ten”) over a three year period. It compares these data with the gender composition of the professoriate and of the 15 schools’ faculties, using Association of American Law Schools and American Bar Association statistics. The mean percentage of articles authored by one or more women (and no men) is 20.3. Nationally, women comprise 31% of the tenured/tenure-track professoriate and 28.3% at the 15 schools. At the associate …

"Props" In The Law School Classroom: A Calendar For The Civil Procedure Course, Charles Rees

Charles A Rees

If, as Shakespeare said, "all the world's a stage," how can we instructors bring more drama to the law school classroom? In particular, how can "props" be used in a course, such as Civil Procedure, to improve learning and have fun? In my Civil Procedure course the "props" include characters from literature--Sherlock Holmes, Hamlet's graveyard scene with Yorick's skull, Alice in Wonderland meeting Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and a new superhero ("Leatherman"). I also use games-spelling bee, yo-yo, "Clue" boardgame, and crossword puzzle. There are articles of clothing--suitcase full of shoes, toga, and flip-flops; and costumes--Nixon mask, wigs, and motorcycle helmet. …

An Interdisciplinary Framework For Understanding And Cultivating Law Student Enthusiasm, Emily Zimmerman

Emily Zimmerman

Anecdotal evidence abounds about the loss of enthusiasm experienced by law students. Law review articles too note this loss of enthusiasm and the demoralization of law students that occurs during their time in law school. However, although the loss of law student enthusiasm is frequently noted, little has been done to systematically analyze law student enthusiasm. Existing literature does not provide a definition of “law student enthusiasm” or a foundation of theory and research for understanding law student enthusiasm and its significance in legal education.

In an effort to fill the gap in our understanding of law student enthusiasm, this …

An Interdisciplinary Framework For Understanding And Cultivating Law Student Enthusiasm, Emily Zimmerman

Emily Zimmerman

Anecdotal evidence abounds about the loss of enthusiasm experienced by law students. Law review articles too note this loss of enthusiasm and the demoralization of law students that occurs during their time in law school. However, although the loss of law student enthusiasm is frequently noted, little has been done to systematically analyze law student enthusiasm. Existing literature does not provide a definition of “law student enthusiasm” or a foundation of theory and research for understanding law student enthusiasm and its significance in legal education. In an effort to fill the gap in our understanding of law student enthusiasm, this …

Sailing Against The Wind: How A Pre-Admission Program Can Prepare At-Risk Students For Success In The Journey Through Law School And Beyond, Julie M. Spanbauer, Sonia Bychkov Green, Maureen Straub Kordesh

Julie M. Spanbauer

ABSTRACT This article provides a scholarly analysis of an innovative and recently created summer special admissions program designed to provide an opportunity for “at-risk” students. This new program, the “Summer College to Assess Legal Education Skills” (SCALES), was created to provide access and opportunity to students who otherwise would not be admitted to law school because their law school indicators fall below the minimum requirements for admission. Thus, the students enrolled in the program include immigrants, minorities, and nontraditional returning students, many of whom represent the first generation in a family to earn a college degree. To the delight and …

Rankings: A Dramatization Of The Incentives Created By Ranking Law Schools, Jeff Sovern

Jeff Sovern

Rankings: A Dramatization of the Incentives Created by Ranking Law Schools Sellers in a competitive market shift resources from attributes buyers don't care about to attributes buyers do care about. In markets in which buyers rely on imperfect signals for quality, sellers move resources away from improving the quality of their product to enhancing the illusion of quality. For example, before freshness dating, when consumers tested the freshness of bread by squeezing it, bakers reportedly added chemicals to bread to preserve its softness longer, thereby creating the illusion of freshness. Similarly, law school rankings encourage schools to shift resources away …

The Political Economy Of Legal Education And Legal Pracitce: Judicial Globalization And The Establishment Of American Style Law Schools In Japan, Hidetoshi Hashimoto

Hidetoshi Hashimoto

This article analyzes recent legal reform in Japan, specifically focuses the establishment of American style law schools. The article examines current legal education, the National Bar Examination, rationale for legal reform, recommendations of the Judicial Reform Council, new law schools, law school admission, law school curriculum, the new bar examination, apprenticeship training and practicing law in Japan. The attempt of legal reform is in response to demand for greater citizen participation in judicial process in Japan but also to judicial globalization. The author stresses that the judicial reform must be made in such a way that it guarantees judicial independence.

Book Review: Juris Types, Learning Law Through Self-Understanding, Richard Redding

Richard E. Redding

This article reviews the new book by Martha Peters and Don Peters, Juris Types: Learning Law Through Self-Understanding (2007). The book proposes that legal pedagogy and student learning strategies be guided in part by Carl Jung's Psychological Type Theory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ("MBTI"). The MBTI is one of the most widely used personality tests in the world today, although the test has never been accepted in the academic community. This paper reviews the history of the development of the MBTI, and the empirical research on its validity and reliability, to explain why the test and its associated theory …

Kuwait University, Civil Law And The Internet: Genesis Of A Dedicated Civil Law-Teaching Website (Being A Unesco Cited Project), Mashael Alhajeri

Mashael Alhajeri

No abstract provided.

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 …

Discusiones Sobre La Educación Legal: ¿Cuál Es La Puerta De Entrada?, Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Considero que hay diferentes puntos de entrada al tema de la educación legal (o jurídica). Este artículo hace un mapa sobre 4 propuestas en el marco de la educación legal que más me interesan y que se han presentado de manera constante durante los últimos cincuenta años en diferentes latitudes. En ese sentido, lo que a continuación ofrezco es una guía de algunas de las escuelas jurídicas que, en su momento, han realizado una crítica a la educación legal imperante en su contexto. Al final de la exposición de ellas plantearé una reflexión que creo útil para el estado actual …

The Reception Of Hans Kelsen's Legal Theory In The United States: A Sociological Model, D. A. Jeremy Telman

D. A. Jeremy Telman

The Essay explores the reasons underlying opposition to Hans Kelsen's approach to the law within the U.S. legal academy. The vehemence with which legal scholars within the United States rejected Kelsen's philosophy of law is best understood as a product of numerous factors, some philosophical, some political and some having to do with professional developments within the legal academy itself. Because philosophical and political opposition to Kelsen's legal philosophy has been well-explored in earlier articles, this Essay discusses those topics briefly in Part I and then sets out in Part II a sociological model that grounds the academy's rejection of …

Service Learning And Legal Education: A Sense Of Duty, Dana Harrington Conner, Nathaniel C. Nichols, Thomas J. Reed

Dana Harrington Conner

No abstract provided.

Commentary, Session 1: Deciding To Become A Dean, Linda L. Ammons

Linda L. Ammons

Deciding to become a dean is a difficult decision. How do you know when you are ready and how do you need to prepare? Mentorship, leadership skills, risk-taking, vision, and energy are just some of the attributes needed by deans in today’s law school environment.

The Importance Of Professionalism, John L. Gedid

John L. Gedid

No abstract provided.

The Bologna Process And Its Impact In Europe: It's So Much More Than Degree Changes, Laurel S. Terry

Laurel S. Terry

The Bologna Process is a massive, multi-year project designed to create the European Higher Education Area by the year 2010. It began approximately ten years ago when four European Union (EU) countries signed a relatively vague declaration. It has now grown to forty-six countries, including all of the EU Member States and nineteen non-EU countries. The Bologna Process countries have agreed on ten action lines for restructuring European higher education. These action lines are nothing short of revolutionary - they address everything from adoption of a three-cycle degree system (e.g., bachelor-master's-doctorate degrees), European-wide quality assurance efforts, mobility of higher education …