Law Commons^™

Behind Closed Doors: Irb's And The Making Of Ethical Research, Xiaomeng Zhang

Law Librarian Scholarship

In the late 1700s, English physician Edward Jenner intentionally exposed his infant son to swinepox and an eight-year-old boy to cowpox in order to observe whether they would become immune to related smallpox, a disease. While modern history of human experimentation can be traced back to the eighteenth century, the topic did not engage significant public attention until 1946, when the Nuremberg trials disclosed horrific medical experiments carried out by Nazi scientists. Now, almost all research involving human subjects is subject to prior review and ongoing monitoring by institutional review boards, or IRBs. Behind Closed Doors: IRBs and the Making …

Learning From The Unique And Common Challenges: Clinical Legal Education In Jordan, Nisreen Mahasneh, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

Legal education worldwide is undergoing scrutiny for its failure to graduate students who have the problem-solving abilities, skills, and professional values necessary for the legal profession.1 Additionally, law schools at universities in the Middle East have found themselves in an unsettled environment, where greater demands for practical education are exacerbated by several factors such as high levels of youth unemployment. More specifically, in Jordan there is a pressing need for universities to respond to this criticism and to accommodate new or different methods of legal education. Clinical legal education is one such method.3 We use the term "clinical legal education" …

No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although there have long been black lawyers in South Africa, during apartheid only a handful joined the ranks of the country's large commercial firms. Now, in the post-apartheid period, these firms are keenly aware of a range of economic and political incentives to hire black attorneys, and most are doing so at a record pace. Very few black attorneys, however, are enduring the path to partnership in these firms. Based on more than seventy-five interviews conducted in South Africa in 1999 and 2000, this Article both documents and critically examines the reasons for black attrition. While firms' incentives to integrate …

Professional Responsibility, Nicholas Rine, Ly U. Meng

Books

The study of professional responsibility is, of course, critical to those who wish to practice as lawyers. Without a clear understanding of the expectations of the profession, no lawyer will function effectively. Beyond that simple practical need, however, new lawyers need to have a realistic perspective on the competence and the limitations of their profession.

But the study of legal ethics is a valuable undertaking even for those who have no intention of becoming lawyers. Many people see the legal system as a mysterious set of rituals which make little sense. (And that perspective is not completely unrealistic.) For any …

Children Of A Lesser God: Gdr Lawyers In Post-Socialist Germany, Inga Markovits

Michigan Law Review

In this essay, I want to investigate German vetting policies by looking at one particular subgroup of examinees: GDR lawyers. In Germany, no other former socialist elite has been submitted to so thorough an ideological cleansing process as the legal profession. After reunification, all GDR judges and prosecutors hoping to remain in office had to undergo investigations that by March 1994 had left only 9.2% of their former numbers in permanent positions. Virtually all East German law professors were removed from their university posts. More than 5000 attorneys in Germany's eastern half are currently being examined for former contacts with …

Strong Criticism Of The American System Of Trial By Jury, Yale Kamisar

Articles

I grieve for my country to say that the administration of the criminal law in all the states in the Union (there may be one or two exceptions) is a disgrace to our civilization.

Lawyers In Soviet Work Life, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Lawyers in Soviet Work Life by Louise I. Shelley

Appendix 3: Glossary Of Terms Defining The Function Of Legal Professionals In Various Countries, Michigan Journal Of International Law

Michigan Journal of International Law

Glossary of terms used in this volume.

Safeguarding Due Process In A Hostile Environment: Foreign Lawyers In South Africa, David S. Abramowitz

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this note briefly describes the effect of apartheid on human rights in South Africa. It then examines how liberal South African attorneys use procedural due process, as defined by the rule of law, to counter these effects. Part II discusses the methods used by foreign attorneys to support South African human rights lawyers. In particular, this section focuses on the activities of the International Commission of Jurists and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The note concludes that infusing fair process into the South African legal order is the most significant contribution foreign lawyers can …

Final Judgment: My Life As A Soviet Defense Attorney, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Final Judgment: My Life as a Soviet Defense Attorney by Dina Kaminskaya

Use And Non-Use Of Contract Law In Japan, Whitmore Gray

Articles

This article first defines the scope of enquiry, then surveys some of the existing literature, and finally, presents the results of my preliminary survey interviews and questionnaire. It is my hope that it will serve as a basis form discussion leading to better definition of the problems for research in this area, and will suggest ways to proceed to gather the information necessary for more sophisticated exposition and commentary.

Litigation Abuse And The Law Schools, John W. Reed

Articles

At the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in July, 1983, one session was devoted to a discussion of "Excessive Discovery: A Symptom of Litigation Abuse." (Without knowing, I would guess that a similar title appeared on just about every judicial conference program this year-and last year, and the one before that.) Frank Rothman, President of MGM/United Artists, addressed the subject from the point of view of a corporate client, and his remarks are printed in this issue, beginning at page 342. Judges and trial lawyers expressed their views. And I was asked to comment on the extent to which the law …

Governmental And Private Advocates For The Public Interest In Civil Litigation: A Comparative Study, Mauro Cappellitti

Michigan Law Review

This article examines the means by which public and group interests are represented in civil proceedings throughout the world. I have focused particular attention upon the Ministère public--a French institution imported by a large number of countries--and its analogues, the Attorney General in the common-law countries and the Prokuratura in the socialist world. The Ministère public is, and has been through its centuries-long history, an institutional method for assuring that the "public interest"--or the "collective" or "general interest,'' or the "social concern"--is adequately represented in civil litigation. Yet, other solutions have been utilized--to some extent, even in France--in lieu …

The Teaching Of Practice And Procedure In Law Schools, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Procedure is merely the means of co-ordinating effort, of harmonizing differences, of offering every one equality of opportunity in offense and defense before the law. Without it there would be confusion, favoritism, and injustice. If the subject were viewed in this fundamental way, and were studied conscientiously as an incident and aid to the development and determination of the merits of controversies, the criticisms now so fiercely directed against it would largely disappear. In its use it is indispensable, in its abuse only does it cause trouble. A professional conscience to curb that abuse, and professional learning and skill to …

Law As A Culture Study, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

That acute observer and commentator on American institutions, James Bryce, in an oft-quoted statement in his American Commonwealth, pays a high tribute to the efficiency of American law schools. "I do not know if there is anything," he writes, "in which America has advanced more beyond the mother country than in the provision she makes for legal education." In passing this generous judgment, in which many other eminent Englishmen have concurred, he views our law schools simply as institutions for developing technical proficiency among students destined to fill the ranks of the legal profession. And this is, indeed, the principal …