Legal Education Commons^™

Learning From Others: Sustaining The Internationalization And Globalization Of U.S. Law School Curriculums, James Maxeiner

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This address has three principal points: (1) An overview of how we are going about internationalizing the law school curriculum today in the United States; (2) Whether we are making as much progress as we should and how learning from others is central to sustaining our progress such as it is; and (3) What some of the obstacles to such learning are.

The 'Double Feature' Of Hearsay And The Confrontation Clause, Plus Coming Attractions, Lynn Mclain

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Class handout outlining the interaction between the evidence rule of hearsay and the Confrontation Clause of the Constitution.

The Ethical And Legal Basis For Student Practice In Clinical Education In The United States And Japan: A Comparative Analysis, Robert Rubinson

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Clinical legal education is currently undergoing a surge of interest and development in Japan. This raises numerous opportunities as well as difficulties. One of the most vexing issues concerns the scope of work a clinic student in Japan can do. This issue is particularly difficult given that in Japan there are currently no "student practice rules" so common in the United States.

The norms and rules governing what activities law students can perform in the United States might assist those interested in clinical education in Japan as they work through these issues. This article will attempt to do this. I …

A Tribute To Roger D. Groot: Always Mr. Groot, J. Amy Dillard

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No abstract provided.

Integrating Practical Training And Professional Legal Education: Three Questions For Three Systems, James Maxeiner

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This address deals with integrating theory and practice in practical professional training in US, German and Japanese systems of legal education.

Exorcising The Exercised: A Response To Professor Gordon, Kenneth Lasson

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I have always welcomed honest criticism of my work, as I hope other scholars do of theirs. If Robert W. Gordon's lengthy review of my book, Trembling in the Ivory Tower: Excesses in the Pursuit of Truth and Tenure, were the launching pad for a thoughtful essay on postmodern critical legal studies, I would not feel compelled to respond. Unfortunately, despite (and perhaps because of) Gordon's considerable notoriety as a CLS theorist, his disagreement with what I perceive to be the primary ills of the modern academy seriously misreads both the substance and satire of my book. More troubling still …

Educating Lawyers Now And Then: Two Carnegie Critiques Of The Common Law And The Case Method, James Maxeiner

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The 2007 Carnegie Foundation report on legal education, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law, is eerily reminiscent of the Foundation's 1914 Report, The Common Law and the Case Method in American University Law School. This article compares the two reports. It commends the 1914 report for its broad comparative civil/common law perspective that is unsurpassed to this day. It shows how the two reports view the case method similarly, but with significantly different emphases. The 2007 report counts the case method as academic, while the 1914 report sees it as practical. It shows how the two reports, while …

Two Rules For Better Writing, Amy E. Sloan

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No abstract provided.

'"You Have Been In Afghanistan": A Discourse On The Van Alstyne Method, Garrett Epps

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This essay pays tribute to William Van Alstyne, one of our foremost constitutional scholars, by applying the methods of textual interpretation he laid out in a classic essay, "Interpreting This Constitution: On the Unhelpful Contribution of Special Theories of Judicial Review." I make use of the graphical methods Van Alstyne has applied to the general study of the First Amendment to examine the Supreme Court's recent decisions in the context of the Free Exercise Clause, in particular the landmark case of "Employment Division v. Smith". The application of Van Alstyne's use of the burden of proof as an interpretive tool …

Legal Writing And Academic Support: Timing Is Everything, Dionne L. Koller

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The conventional wisdom is that legal writing and academic support go hand-in-hand. Most law schools assume that struggling students can be reliably identified for academic support through their first-year legal writing course, and that first-year legal writing instructors can fairly easily and effectively provide this support. Indeed, this is the prevailing view in current academic support and legal writing scholarship. Professor Koller's article challenges the conventional wisdom and instead points out several issues that should be considered if a law school relies on the first-year legal writing course as a component of, or in lieu of, an academic support program. …

An Experiment In Integrating Critical Theory And Clinical Education, Margaret E. Johnson

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Critical theory is important in live-client clinical teaching as a means to achieve the pedagogical goals of clinical education. Feminist legal theory, critical race theory, and poverty law theory serve as useful frameworks to enable students to deconstruct assumptions they, persons within institutions, and broader society make about the students' clients and their lives. Critical theory highlights the importance of looking for both the "obvious and non-obvious relationships of domination." Thus, critical theory informs students of the presence and importance of alternative voices that challenge the dominant discourse. When student attorneys ignore or are unaware of such voices, other voices …

Ignacio Gomez Palacio, With A Note In My Hand (El Pagaro En La Mano), Garrett Epps

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No abstract provided.

The New Japanese Law Schools: Putting The Professional Into Legal Education, James Maxeiner, Keiichi Yamanaka

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In April 2004, more than sixty law schools began operation in Japan. Legal education, previously treated as a combination of undergraduate education in law and extra-university training in professional skills, will now be concentrated in new professional law schools. The reforms of Japanese legal education are intended both to produce more attorneys in a nation that has a shortage of legally trained professionals, and to help increase the role of law in Japanese society generally.

In order for Japan's new Jaw schools to achieve their educational objectives, they must successfully address a host of conceptual, pedagogical and organizational challenges. Foremost …

The Rule Of Law In The Reform Of Legal Education: Teaching The Legal Mind In Japanese Law Schools, James Maxeiner

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• a. The Rule of Law is at the heart of the present legal reform.
• b. There is an international consensus about basic elements of the Rule of Law.
• c. Legal methods are central to the Rule of Law. But different legal methods are used to realize the Rule of Law.
• d. Teaching legal methods, i.e., teaching to think like a lawyer, is at the heart of that which is professional in legal education.
• e. The present legal reform invites Japanese law schools to teach legal methods.

Understanding Family Law In Context: The Court Observation Assignment, Jane C. Murphy

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No abstract provided.

Are Your Click-Wrap Agreements Valid?—Internet Contracting In The Global Electronic Age: Comparative Perspectives For Taiwan, James Maxeiner

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Addresses the issue of standard terms in click-wrap and shrink-wrap licenses generally and in some detail how the laws of Taiwan, Germany, the European Union, the United States and Japan.

"Quick-Takes" On A Few Recent Decisions In Evidence Law ... And Rule 5-407, Lynn Mclain

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Handout from the State and Local Government Law Institute covering recent (2003) Maryland evidence cases.

American Law Schools As A Model For Japanese Legal Education? A Preliminary Question From A Comparative Perspective, James Maxeiner

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Law faculties in Japan are asking whether and how they should remake themselves to become law schools. One basic issue has been framed in terms of whether such programs should be professional or general. One Japanese scholar put it pointedly: "[a] major issue of the proposed reform is whether Japan should adopt an American model law school, i.e., professional education at the graduate level, while essentially doing away with the traditional Japanese method of teaching law at university." American law schools are seen as having as their fundamental goal "to provide the training and education required for becoming an effective …

The Professional In Legal Education: Foreign Perspectives, James Maxeiner

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Japan is about to change its system of legal education. In April 2004 Japan will introduce law schools. Law schools are to occupy an intermediary place between the present undergraduate faculties of law and the national Legal Training and Research Institute. The law faculties are to continue to offer general undergraduate education in law, while the law schools in combination with the national Institute are to provide professional legal education. A principal goal of the change is to produce more lawyers. Law schools are charged with providing "practical education especially for fostering legal professionals." But just what is professional legal …

Law Schools Explore Three-Semester Writing Programs, Eric Easton

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No abstract provided.

An Introduction To The Rules Of Evidence Applicable To Collection Cases In Maryland Trial Courts, Lynn Mclain

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This class handout introduces students to the basic concepts of evidence using examples and language from the Maryland Rules of Evidence.

Introduction To Erasing Lines: Integrating The Law School Curriculum, Amy E. Sloan

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Our goal at this conference is to begin the process of erasing the often artificial lines that presently exist between "doctrinal" and "skills" courses, between education focused on the acquisition of knowledge and education focused on the practical application of that knowledge. The lines that have been drawn are more a matter of perception than reality. If we were to deconstruct the pedagogical goals in both of these types of courses, we would find that they have as many similarities as they have differences.

Business Lawyer, Woman Warrior: An Allegory Of Feminine And Masculine Theories, Barbara Ann White

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The first part of this essay is a discourse on how two of the last half century’s most influential contributions to legal thinking: Law and Economics Jurisprudence and Feminist Legal Theory, whose adherents are normally adversaries, can function synergistically to create a greater analytic power. Using business law issues as an example - historically law and economics’ terrain but recently explored by feminism - I comment on how each can unravel different knots but each standing alone leave other conundrums unresolved.

Expanding on the feminist concept of “masculine thinking,” I discuss how, just as law and economics’ analytic style (i.e., …

Teaching First-Year Civil Procedure And Other Introductory Courses By The Problem Method, Stephen J. Shapiro

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I have been teaching the first-year course in Civil Procedure for twenty years, first for five years at Ohio Northern University, and for the last fifteen years at the University of Baltimore, where I also teach a required second-year course in Evidence. When I first started teaching Civil Procedure, I used a fairly typical case method. I was never very happy with this approach for teaching a course in which one of my major goals was getting the students to learn to read, interpret and apply the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Federal Rules”). Gradually, I began to develop sets …

The Incredible Shrinking Law School, Phillip J. Closius

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The University of Toledo College of Law faculty and administration performed a task that may be unprecedented in modern American legal education. During a series of luncheon meetings we focused on the topic of enrollment--what size student body should we have given the realities of our market and the pedagogical goals we wish to achieve. We analyzed this issue without either an extensive reliance on our revenue stream or the risk of losing resources if we admitted fewer students. Since we administer both a full- and part-time (mainly evening) program, we also discussed our obligation to serve our metropolitan community …

Evidentiary Considerations In Civil Cases, Lynn Mclain

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Handout from a presentation at the Maryland Judicial Institute outlining character evidence and providing the text of the applicable Rules.

What Law Schools Are Doing To Accommodate Students With Learning Disabilities, Donald H. Stone

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The year 2000 marks the tenth anniversary of the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). It also marks a quarter century since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (“EAHCA”). The EAHCA opened the doors for disabled children to receive a free and appropriate education. As a result of this special education law, many disabled young people were able to succeed and are now knocking at law schools' doors seeking admission.

On July 26, 1990, Congress enacted the ADA, a landmark civil rights bill designed to open up all aspects of American life to …

Constructions Of Client Competence And Theories Of Practice, Robert Rubinson

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An entrenched stereotype about the elderly is that they inevitably experience a progressive decline in cognitive function - what the Article calls the "idea of decrement." The vast majority of elderly, however, do not experience declining competence for most or all of their lives. Nevertheless, attorneys interpret much of what elderly clients say and do as the product of cognitive impairment, and sometimes even the elderly themselves construct stories about the world and their circumstances in line with the idea of decrement. These attitudes and social constructions, interacting in complex ways, can distort the ability of attorneys to represent elderly …

Controversial Speakers On Campus: Liberties, Limitations, And Common-Sense Guidelines, Kenneth Lasson

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"Veritas vos liberabit," chanted the scholastics of yesteryear. The "truth will set you free," echo their latter-day counterparts in the academy, intoning the mantra reverentially but with increasingly more hope than confidence, more faith than conviction.... The real world of the academy, of course, is not quite that wonderful, nor nearly as bad as many would suggest. The ironies become palpable, however, when those self-same institutions, which almost universally view themselves as bastions of free speech, instead stifle debate that is perceived as politically incorrect or otherwise embarrassing. Academic administrators naturally shy away from conflict and contention. They shun controversy. …

Denial On The Campuses Demonstrably False Ideas Should Not Necessarily Be Protected By Bill Of Rights, Kenneth Lasson

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At Hopkins and elsewhere, the issue of granting historical revisionists equal access to curricula and classrooms is difficult enough, but it is complicated acutely when student editors become entangled in the black and nefarious thickets of Holocaust denial masquerading as "scholarship." The Johns Hopkins News-Letter is only the most recent university paper to succumb to the blandishments of a group calling itself the "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust," which promulgates claims that a plan to systematically rid Germany or Europe of Jews never existed, that no gas chambers ever operated and that the number of Jewish victims has …