Law Commons^™

If You Draw It, Students Learn It: An Approach To Teaching Contracts And Other Doctrinal Courses, Paul Figueroa

Faculty Scholarship

Spring 2019 was my first semester as a tenure-stream law professor. That semester I taught Legal Remedies and Contracts II—two subjects that overlap in their coverage of contract damages. I felt very comfortable teaching contracts, given my nearly twenty years of experience on contractual matters in both the private and public sectors. My first few classes went well, which validated my initial confidence. However, my optimism about the semester evaporated when I attempted to teach the parol evidence rule (“PER”).1 It was a Monday, and before starting my Contracts II class I asked the students, “How was the weekend?” followed …

Moving Law Schools Forward By Design: Designing Law School Curricula To Transfer Learning From Classroom Theory To Clinical Practice And Beyond, April Land, Aliza Organick

Faculty Scholarship

Calls for reform of legal education are long-standing and have been renewed with vigor and an increasing demand for “practice-ready” lawyers. As part of these reforms, changes to the American Bar Association Standards have been made that now require law schools to provide experiential learning opportunities, to define specific objectives, and to show that students are making progress toward those objectives. A rapidly developing area of study regarding professional identity formation stresses the importance of supporting and guiding students through experiential learning throughout the course of law school. Additionally, as part of its accreditation process, the ABA will now evaluate …

Creating Lightbulb Moments: Developing Higher-Order Thinking In Family Law Classrooms Through Court Observations, Sonia Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

This article fills a critical gap in the family law literature by arguing that teaching doctrinal family law in conjunction with the application of established learning theory and pedagogy yields a deeper engagement with the subject matter and leads to more practice-ready lawyers. ABA Standards 301, 303, and 304 do not clearly articulate the distinction between experiential education and experiential learning; doctrinal law classrooms are often bereft of experiential learning activities. By incorporating active learning and inclusive pedagogy in the doctrinal classroom and following recommendations from the MacCrate Report and Family Law Education Reform Project, students will be better prepared …

Building Asian American And Black Solidarity For Racial Justice In Today’S America, Vinay Harpalani, Sunu P. Chandy, Sholanna Lewis, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

About the Panel: Although there have been tensions, including those tied to colorism, between the Asian American and Pacific Islander and Black communities in America, there has been an equally long history of mutual support and collaboration between these two communities. How does anti-Blackness in the AAPI community impact the work of building solidarity with Black activists? In this conversation, we highlight our common ground so that Asian American and Black social justice communities can push forward our collective needs to fight racial injustice and other forms of discrimination in this country.

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Maryam Ahranjani, Many Want Police Out Of Schools Across Nm, Maryam Ahranjani, Shelby Perea

Faculty Scholarship

In Albuquerque, University of New Mexico School of Law associate professor Maryam Ahranjani and Hope Pendleton, a board member of the Black Law Student Association at UNM, are saying now is the time to remove officers from schools.

“There’s a lot of unfortunate downstream negative repercussions for children from having police officers in schools,” Ahranjani said.

Pendleton and Ahranjani helped write a letter to APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy and her leadership team that says funds earmarked for the APS Police Department would be better spent addressing this counselor-to-student ratio and investing in other personnel.

“Reallocating funds away from law enforcement …

Developing Youth Voices, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Scholarship

Discusses the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, and its role in inspiring students to speak up about the things that are important to them. Students learn how the Constitution works by reading cases, and developing critical thinking and oral advocacy skills with relatable mentors.

For more information visit:

https://www.wcl.american.edu/impact/initiatives-programs/marshallbrennan/20th-anniversary/

The Harvard Crimson Interviews Vinay Harpalani (Justice Department Continues Investigation Into Harvard Admissions), Vinay Harpalani, Camille G. Caldera

Faculty Scholarship

A Department of Justice investigation into alleged discrimination in Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policies remains ongoing. Harpalani believes the existence of this investigation supports Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), which knows that the Trump Administration is sternly behind eliminating race-conscious admissions policies. He believes the real purpose of the investigation is to pressure other universities with race-conscious admissions policies to reduce or eliminate the use of race as an admissions factor.

The Guardian Interviews Maryam Ahranjani: When Kids Are Threats: The Assessments Unfairly Targeting Students With Disabilities, Maryam Ahranjani, Ike Swetlitz

Faculty Scholarship

His story should motivate district officials to re-evaluate their use of threat assessments, said Maryam Ahranjani, a law professor at the University of New Mexico. As currently practiced, she said, the assessment process can unfairly ensnare many students. “It’s treating them as if they are criminals without them actually engaging in criminal activity.”

Diaspora’S Role In Nepal’S Development: Summary Of The Forum Held At The Nepali National Convention. Baltimore, Md, Usa. July 5-7, 2019, Ambika P. Adhikari, Diwakar Dahal, Rajendra Khatiwada

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Four major Nepalese community organizations, ANA, ANMA, BANA, and INLS jointly hosted the “Nepali National Convention 2019” in Baltimore, Maryland, USA during July 5 to 7, 2019. Eight other community-based organizations including Blood Donors of America, Society of American Nepalese Nurses, Nepalese Association of Florida, Nepal Pasa Pucha Amerikaye, America Nepal Women’s Association of Greater Washington, Nepal Education and Culture Center, America Nepal Society, and Association of Nepali Teraian in America were involved as co-hosts of the convention. Several other local organizations participated in support of the convention.

The Forum “Diaspora’s Role in Nepal’s Development” was held from 1:30-3:00 pm …

The Justice System Is Criminal, Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony

2020 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

Constructing The First Year Experience: Improving Retention And Graduation Rates At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Sonia M. Gipson Rankin, Tim Schroeder, Joe Suilmann, Pamela Cheek

Faculty Scholarship

In 2012, UNM teamed up with the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, to conduct a Foundations of Excellence® (FoE) First College Year Self Study addressing student success. As members of the First Year Steering Committee, we invented, coordinated, measured, and documented programs for linking students to the academic experiences and support that were best attuned to their needs.

Searchlight New Mexico Interviews Maryam Ahranjani On The Prisonization Of America's Public Schools, Maryam Ahranjani, Sara Solovitch

Faculty Scholarship

Maryam Ahranjani writes about personal experiences with mass school shootings in "The Prisonization of America's Public Schools," published in October 2017 in Hofstra Law Review. The article takes a critical stance against what Ahranjani terms the growing "criminal infrastructure" metal detectors, surveillance cameras and police officers within our nation's schools. Searchlight New Mexico asked Ahranjani what kind of national response makes sense in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting.

The Prisonization Of America's Public Schools, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past generation, episodes of mass school violence in American public schools have led to the “prisonization” of schools. The problems associated with prisonization practices have been identified and well-documented in the legal literature over the past few years, and they include the school-to-prison pipeline, as well as the over-policing of vulnerable populations like students with disabilities and African-American and Latino children. This piece seeks to contribute to existing literature in two ways. While national attention has turned to the lack of rigorous research on the effectiveness of prisonization practices, and studies are underway to identify whether prisonization practices …

Rhetoric, Referential Communication, And The Novice Writer, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Classical rhetoric is integral to teaching legal writing, and this essay argues that its use must be enhanced with audience awareness. This is so rhetoric can be successfully applied to teaching and the practice of legal writing.

This essay begins with a very brief overview of the relationship of rhetoric to legal writing and how audience awareness is a key factor in both. This overview leads to a definition of two distinct tasks that must be incorporated into the writing process: first, learning about and understanding specific audiences; second, learning how to implement writing that works for that audience.

A …

Teaching, Thinking, And The Legal Creative Process, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

The author asks how we can teach student how to think as she reflects on how many students with excellent basic writing skills were not fully developing the reasoning before writing their paper.

Part One of this essay formulates the creative process necessary for developing good legal analysis, arguments, and documents, and suggests its encouragement by non-result oriented teaching. Part Two explains a class the author designed, which succeeds, at least in part, in bringing thinking to the surface for study and discussion.

Can Havruta Style Learning Be A Best Practice In Law School?, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Havruta is a traditional Jewish method that seems compatible with legal education because of its focus on process, and so adaptable to law school training in legal reasoning, and because it is based upon dispute and resolution, another aspect that corresponds with the study of law. A unique form of collaborative student centered learning involving pairs of students, this article considers the application of Havruta to the law school setting and whether it should be incorporated into the law school curriculum.

A Photographer's Guide To Legal Writing, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

The author recounts a photography course that taught the three keys to an effective photograph: determining theme, focusing attention on char theme, and simplifying. This article adapts these three keys to legal writing to teach and remind writers of the necessary components of an effective legal document. This method provides a new way to look at old teachings.