Law Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

Economic Analysis Of Law In North America, Europe And Israel, Oren Gazal-Ayal

Oren Gazal-Ayal

What explains the popularity of law and economics (L&E) in some academic communities and the scarcity of such scholarship in others? Many explanations have been given for the centrality of economic analysis in American legal thought and its marginality in Europe. This article examines what drives scholars to select L&E as a topic for research. It does so by implementing the methodology of many papers in the field – by assuming that regulation and incentives matter. Legal scholars face very different academic incentives in different parts of the world. In some countries, the academic standards for appointment, promotion and tenure …

China's Future Lawyers: Some Differences In Education And Outlook, Patricia Ross Mccubbin, Malinda L. Seymore, Andrea Anne Curcio, Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons

Patricia Ross McCubbin

In this short essay, four U.S. professors who recently served as Fulbright Lecturers in Law in China share important observations about China's future lawyers. The authors discuss key differences in the legal education systems of the two countries, noting that the most significant difference is the lack of Chinese training in the critical legal analysis so familiar to U.S.-trained lawyers. The authors also discuss Chinese law students' limited knowledge of the U.S. legal system and U.S. culture generally. This essay seeks to help members of the U.S. legal community understand the different skill sets and information that Chinese lawyers may …

Calling For Stories, Nancy Levit, Allen Rostron

Nancy Levit

Storytelling is a fundamental part of legal practice, teaching, and thought. Telling stories as a method of practicing law reaches back to the days of the classical Greek orators. Before legal education became an academic matter, the apprenticeship system for training lawyers consisted of mentoring and telling war stories. As the law and literature movement evolved, it sorted itself into three strands: law in literature, law as literature, and storytelling. The storytelling branch blossomed.

Over the last few decades, storytelling became a subject of enormous interest and controversy within the world of legal scholarship. Law review articles appeared in the …

Educación Jurídica: Ejercicio Político Desde La Técnica, Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Los estudiantes de primer semestre de una facultad de derecho se diferencian radicalmente de los que se encuentran en los últimos semestres, no sólo por la experiencia de cinco años más de carrera y conocimiento, sino también por la falta de fe de estos últimos y la esperanza de los primeros. La actitud de la falta de fe se refiere a una persona que está altamente capacitada para la labor mecánica del derecho, pero sin mucha esperanza de que a través del ejercicio del derecho pueda hacer una transformación social. Es un gran técnico del derecho. Por su parte el …

Building A Curriculum Framework: Law, Lawyers And Society, Alex Steel, Glen Jeffreys

Alex Steel

This report describes the development a model for sustainable curriculum development and re-invigoration in the School of Law, using LAWS 6210 Law, Lawyers and Society as a case study. In many approaches to curriculum review, there is an assumption that the rationale for the course is already determined and the review process is merely about deciding which teaching materials, or mode of teaching, are the best methods by which to achieve the aims. However, the approach described in this report allows each participant to share their understanding of what the course meant to them, therefore providing a much richer understanding …

Debate: La Revolución Jurídica Del Derecho Informático, Juan Pablo Pampillo Baliño

Juan Pablo Pampillo Baliño

No abstract provided.

Criterion Rubric For Research Essays, Alex Steel

Alex Steel

A detailed criterion rubric for legal research essays.

Toward A Rule Of Law Society In Iraq: Introducing Clinical Legal Education In Iraqi Law Schools, Haider Ala Hamoudi

Haider Ala Hamoudi

No abstract provided.

Orígenes, Desenvolvimiento, Crisis Y Alternativas De La Universidad Contemporánea, Juan Pablo Pampillo

Juan Pablo Pampillo Baliño

No abstract provided.

Los Valores De La Escuela Libre De Derecho. Tradición, Actualidad Y Perspectivas, Juan Pablo Pampillo Baliño

Juan Pablo Pampillo Baliño

No abstract provided.

Law School Enters The Matrix: Teaching Critical Legal Studies, Jerry L. Anderson

Jerry L. Anderson

Critical legal theory should be more widely taught as a useful way of analyzing the law. Recent critiques of CLS do not diminish its usefulness as a tool for teaching critical thinking. Many professors, however, find it difficult to convey the essential concept of CLS in a way students can grasp. This article suggests that the popular movie "The Matrix" may provide a method of explaining critical theory to students.

An Explicit Connection Between Faith And Justice In Catholic Legal Education: Why Rock The Boat?, Amelia J. Uelmen

Amelia J Uelmen

No abstract provided.

A New Image In The Looking Glass: Faculty Mentoring, Invitational Rhetoric, And The Second-Class Status Of Women In U.S. Academia, Carlo A. Pedrioli

Carlo A. Pedrioli

This article maintains that because Title VII alone does not have the ability to further the progress women have made in academic hiring, retention, and promotion, looking to remedies in addition to Title VII will be advantageous in helping to improve the status of women in U.S. academia. The article suggests as an additional remedy the implementation of faculty mentoring opportunities for junior female faculty members. A key way of initiating and furthering such mentoring opportunities is a type of discourse called invitational rhetoric, which is “an invitation to understanding as a means to create...relationship[s] rooted in equality, immanent value, …

¿Sirve La Discusión De Casos En Las Aulas Para La Formación Jurídica?, Jorge Carlos Adame

Jorge Adame Goddard

No abstract provided.

Learning More Than Law From Maryland Decisions, Ian Gallacher

Ian Gallacher

This short article describes the fight for freedom waged in Maryland's courts during the 1850s by two slaves, known only as Jerry and Anthony. Although their owner intended to free them, and the other slaves on his plantation, when he died, his son had his father's will declared invalid and the slaves brought a legal action to force their freedom. Although remembered in Maryland law as one of the first cases to discuss intra-state transfer from one jurisdiction to another, and although acting as Maryland's first published civil rights class action, the case also has a great deal to teach …

Use And Limits Of Syllogistic Reasoning In Briefing Cases, Wilson R. Huhn

Wilson R. Huhn

During the nineteenth century, law was equated with science, and legal reasoning was thought to be a species of deductive logic. Consistent with this notion, judicial opinions have traditionally been summarized in the form of syllogisms, that is, as arguments of deductive logic. More specifically, judicial opinions have been described as chains of syllogisms, reasoning from base premises to ultimate conclusions. The principal thrust of this article is to demonstrate that in hard cases, judicial reasoning proceeds not by way of deduction, but by evaluation and balancing.

Accordingly, Part II of this article compares law with science. Historically, law was …

Field Of Deans, Richard Gershon

Richard Gershon

No abstract provided.

Teaching Legal Analysis Using A Pluralistic Model Of Law, Wilson R. Huhn

Wilson R. Huhn

The purpose of this Article is to describe a pluralistic model of reasoning that may be used to teach the skills of legal analysis. There are different ways to categorize legal arguments. Perhaps the most common method is to identify different legal arguments with specific schools of jurisprudence or moral philosophy. This is the standard approach followed by leading scholars such as Lon Fuller. In a classic article, Fuller illustrated how a murder case could be analyzed utilizing jurisprudential frameworks such as positivism, natural law, social contract, practical wisdom, and legal realism. Another example of this method of characterizing legal …

Applying New Rhetoric To Legal Discourse: The Ebb And Flow Of Reader And Writer, Text And Context, Linda L. Berger

Linda L. Berger

No abstract provided.