Law Commons^™

The Indentured Servants Of Academia: The Adjunct Faculty Dilemma And Their Limited Legal Remedies, John C. Duncan, Jr.

Journal Publications

In this half of the twentieth century, the academic equivalent of the indentured servant is the adjunct faculty member in higher education. Adjuncts cannot say or do much about their plight. The dilemma of adjunct faculty leads to what should be considered a violation of due process rights. This Article first examines who are the adjunct faculty, what are their dilemmas, and how are they viewed in the academic world. The heart of the paper then explores the limited legal remedies available. The essential problems of lack of due process and minimal protection through collective bargaining and contractual agreements are …

The Daishonin’S Path: Applying Nichiren’S Buddhist Principles To American Legal Education, John W. Teeter Jr

Faculty Articles

The fundamental aspects of Nichiren Daishonin's teachings merit modern attention. The Daishonin was a tireless mentor for his disciples, and his call for compassion, critique, courage, and wisdom are essential for law students and teachers alike. A remarkable man, the Daishonin's perceptions ought to inform the way professors teach and advise their students, and encourage others to reflect on their own sources of spiritual sustenance and examine the contributions they can make toward deepening the relevance, meaning, and joy of legal education.

The Daishonin emphasized the primacy of The Lotus Sutra, which declares that all living beings inherently possess the …

Self-Reflection Within The Academy: The Absence Of Women In Constitutional Jurisprudence, Karin M. Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article will suggest that legal education has failed to represent the significant contributions of women in our American legal heritage within its curriculum. It urges that an acknowledgment of the feminine contribution must now be included within the curriculum of law schools in such a way that the contribution is incorporated within traditional substantive courses rather than select courses dealing with primarily "women's issues." Focusing on the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, this article highlights the achievements and legal battles of women which were integral to the overall development of legal theory in our country. It discusses some of …

Advanced Legal Studies, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

The Law School is part of the University of Michigan, among the world's premier research and teaching universities. The University is renowned for its top-ranked graduate programs in the social sciences and humanities; its schools of law, engineering, business, medicine and music; and its specialized research institutes and centers of study. Law students are able to take advantage of the rich intellectual life and the tremendous resources such as libraries, cultural and recreational facilities, and curricular offerings in other fields, made possible by the larger university environment.

And Then There Was One, Douglas R. Heidenreich

Faculty Scholarship

In the twentieth century's second decade, Minneapolis lawyers created four night law schools, all of which William Mitchell College of Law numbers among its predecessor institutions. By 1940, a single law school remained, an amalgam of the original four. It would unite in 1956 with its St. Paul counterpart to form William Mitchell College of Law.

Continuing Classroom Conversation Beyond The Four Whys, Jeffrey W. Stempel, Bailey Kuklin

Scholarly Works

LAW school classes regularly prove Santayana's aphorism. Although nearly every law teacher desires to keep discussion focused and forward-moving, there are more than a few moments of thundering silence experienced in the classroom. Most of us adjust to this inevitability by positing some pedagogical virtue to still air and contenting ourselves with the knowledge that conversation-stopping “whys?” are usually delivered by us as teachers rather than the students. Perhaps we are underappreciative of the value discomfitting silence has, but we generally prefer that the conversation continue, that we miss the opportunity to feel simultaneously smug and uncomfortable, and that students …

Teaching Upperclass Writing: Everything You Always Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

A survey conducted as part of this project reveals that law schools generally require their students to have an upperclass writing experience taught or supervised by non-writing tenured or tenure-track faculty. These teachers currently bear the responsibility for assigning, supervising, reviewing, and evaluating most of the writing by upperclass students, either through substantive seminars or independent study projects. In almost all schools there is no major curricular planning, systematic instruction, faculty training, or institutional support for upperclass writing.

Playing Beyond The Rules: A Realist And Rhetoric-Based Approach To Researching The Law And Solving Legal Problems, Thomas Michael Mcdonnell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The proposed realist and rhetorical approach to legal research applies to every conceivable legal problem and provides the student a conceptual foundation not only for solving any legal dispute, but for successfully completing any transactions with which he or she will be confronted. Part I of this article will demonstrate why law students should learn to research the relevant audiences in the legal drama and to research the unpublished and often unwritten rules and practices that these audiences follow. Part II will show how. Part III will present a comprehensive legal problem solving model that integrates these new dimensions of …

Creating Effective Legal Research Exercises, Amy E. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law And The Wisconsin Idea, Erika Lietzan, Paul D. Carrington

Faculty Publications

We recall a summer of contentment when American law was suffused with optimism, a season ending a long winter of despair and disorder. For the first fifteen years of this century, many (and perhaps most) American lawyers were filled with confidence that America had healed the wounds of civil war and was healing those of class struggle. We could, and we would, overcome all obstacles to peace and prosperity, not only for our people but for all mankind. This, it was widely believed, would be our century. As early as 1879 Daniel Coit Gilman, the premier educator of his time, …

Inclusive Teaching Methods Across The Curriculum: Academic ·Resource And Law Teachers Tie A Knot At The Aals, David Dominguez, Laurie Zimet, Fran Ansley, Charles Daye, Rodney O. Fong

Publications

This article describes an educational journey of seven diverse law teachers, located in different parts of the country, at various stages of our careers, who, in the course of preparing a simple panel, found that we had created a truly rewarding experience of our own. We write with the conviction that we need to share what we learned from those four months of "schoolwork" and from the AALS program we eventually presented in January, 1997. As we reconstruct our collaboration on inclusive teaching methods and ponder where it is taking us, we find we worked through the following stages of …

Inclusive Teaching Methods Across The Curriculum: Academic Resource And Law Teachers Tie A Knot At The Aals, Fran Ansley

Scholarly Works

In September 1996, Laurie Zimet, Director of the Academic Support Program at the University of California at Hastings College of the Law, proposed to the rest of us – four law professors and two other academic support teachers – that we plan the Academic Support Section presentation at the 1997 Association of American Law Schools Annual Conference. Our panel topic, “Inclusive Teaching Methods Across the Curriculum,” would draw deeply from our common passion for the subject and from our diverse experiences in innovative pedagogy. But could seven of us, three of us speaking one dialect of legal education (academic support …

Innovative Teaching Methods And Practical Uses Of Literature In Legal Education, Karin M. Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Because I believe a breadth of reading enhances one's ability to think and write, throughout the years I have tried to encourage extra curricular and diversified reading to be done in conjunction with my Legal Writing class. Unfortunately, yet understandably, law students generally only do the required work, but not more. As a consequence, I have discovered, over time, that the "readers" in my classes continue to read while the "non-readers" never take the opportunity to discover what advantage there might be in taking my advice. Because no change has occurred in students' overall attitudes, I decided to make life …

Hiram F. Stevens And The Founding Of The St. Paul College Of Law, Douglas R. Heidenreich

Faculty Scholarship

The St. Paul College of Law, one of William Mitchell College of Law's predecessor institutions, was established by five attorneys in 1900. Especially prominent among these attorneys was Hiram F. Stevens (1852-1904), who served as the first dean and was also a legislator, teacher, scholar, popular orator, and a founding member of the American Bar Association.

Keynote Address: Redefining Our Roles In The Battle For Inclusion Of People Of Color In Legal Education, Phoebe A. Haddon

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Researching For Democracy And Democratizing Research, Fran Ansley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Teaching In The Shadow Of The Bar, Joan W. Howarth

Scholarly Works

This Essay is a memorial tribute to Professor Trina Grillo. Trina took seriously what many of us know but find too hard to remember: the student who is academically disqualified or who fails the bar examination might be the most brilliant in the class or the most needed within the profession. When we conceive of the bar exam as a particularly grueling and potentially unfair rite of passage between law school and the practice of law, we collude in hiding the pervasive and often negative power of the bar exam. The bar examination permeates and controls fundamental aspects of legal …

Foreword: Under Construction- Latcrit Consciousness, Community, And Theory, Francisco Valdes

Articles

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Langdell, W. Burlette Carter

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article traces the development of the modern American law school curriculum including the case method, as designed by Christopher Columbus Langdell and the Socratic method as implemented by James Barr Ames; discusses early tensions between law schools and the American Bar Association and the ultimate triumph of law schools as the primary method of law study and frames the Langdell legacy for a modern time.

Striving To Teach “Justice, Fairness, And Morality”, Jane H. Aiken

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The MacCrate Report has reinvigorated legal education by identifying fundamental skills and values that are essential to effective lawyering. As we go through the process of ensuring that we train students in these fundamentals, we should not ignore the values identified in the report. At the heart of these values is the injunction that lawyers should strive to promote justice, fairness, and morality. Law schools and law teachers can play a significant role in instilling in our students a passion to ensure justice.

Why Are U.S. Lawyers Not Learning From Comparative Law?, Ernst C. Stiefel, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Address the problem of comparative law in the United States. Explains why comparative law matters. Gives reasons why U.S. lawyers are not learning from comparative law. These include lack of skills, lack of institutional supports, and legal structures that resist comparative law and an attitude that comparative law has little to teach.

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights Through Civil Litigation: A Symposium, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

On September 30, 1996, nineteen lawyers, law professors and judges from the People's Republic of China began a six-week program of classroom study, practical experience, and scholarly exchange that focused on the American system of protecting intellectual property rights through civil litigation. The program was funded by a $107,000 grant from the United States Information Agency's Office of Citizen Exchange Programs to the University of Baltimore's Center for International and Comparative Law, in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

The initial, two-week phase of the program included field trips to the U.S. Copyright Office, the Patent …

The Impact Of The Americans With Disabilities Act On Legal Education And Academic Modifications For Disabled Law Students: An Empirical Study, Donald H. Stone

All Faculty Scholarship

Law schools face the challenge of providing disabled students with reasonable accommodations in their academic setting in a fair and equitable manner. Disabled law students continue to demand academic modifications in course examinations by claiming to be persons with mental or physical disabilities. Law schools are also beginning to see requests for extension of time for degree completion, priority in course registration, and authorization to tape record classes, all by virtue of an entitlement under the mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Persons with a wide range of disabilities are seeking academic modifications from their law schools. What …

The Revolving Door Part I: A Federal Prosecutor Returns To School, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Law teaching is hard work. To my trial lawyer friends who expressed envy at the easy life I must be enjoying, I often said they should imagine having to prepare and present five or six oral arguments a week, every week, for months on end. To the novice teacher presenting several courses for the first time, the task often feels just that daunting. As practicing lawyers, we flatter ourselves that we are "experts" in our fields, and thus that it would be a simple matter to step over to the local law school and, with minimal preparation, unburden ourselves of …

The Use And Effectiveness Of Various Learning Materials In An Evidence Class, Stephen J. Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

Like many law teachers, I take reasonable care in selecting the outside materials I require my students to use (or recommend to them) in preparing for class and studying for the exam. I base my choice on my own notions of what would be most helpful to them in learning the material, preparing for class, succeeding on the exam, and preparing to be lawyers. I carefully weigh such matters as length of assignment, interest to the students, and active versus passive learning.

My assessment, however, is based almost entirely on my own notions of what the students will find most …

Books Vs. Non-Book Information, Betty W. Taylor

UF Law Faculty Publications

Book survival, particularly in the field of law, is faced with various challenges in this modern age of computer technology." Are law librarians at the crossroads where we have chosen non-book resources over books because of their superiority in content and value? Will books survive? Will only some types of books survive? These questions serve as fodder for futurists, happy solutions for financial woes of administrators, and concern of librarians about service, space, and, perhaps most important of all, their own survival.

A Decade Of Developments In Performance-Based Legal Education, Deborah A. Schmedemann, Christina L. Kunz

Faculty Scholarship

This tribute summarizes some of the accomplishments of William Mitchell college of Law in performance-based learning in legal education between 1986 and 1996. It first chronicles developments in the first-and second-year performance-based courses and then turns to upper-level curricular developments. At each point, it touches on course development and scholarship--the parallel tracks pursued by faculty focusing on performance-based legal education. As a result of these developments, the college is well positioned to contribute to the growth of performance-based learning in legal education nationally.

Confronting Expectations: Women In The Legal Academy, Christine Haight Farley

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A seemingly insurmountable barrier to women's success in legal academia is the way they are perceived. Numerous studies have shown that women are perceived as less competent than men and that the same work is evaluated more critically when it is thought to have been done by a woman than by a man. This problem exists in all aspects of life, but it is especially acute for women in professional roles, such as academics. Legal academia, however, seems to be particularly resistant to viewing women as equally competent. The article presents original empirical research that shows that student evaluations of …

Ethical Commitments, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Chaotic Pseudotext, Paul F. Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.