Other Law Commons^™

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing: Students, Scholars, And Sources In The Law Library, Jeanne Price

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: Examples And Model-Based Learning In The Law School Classroom, Terrill Pollman

Scholarly Works

Responding to a changing landscape of law practice, law schools are searching for ways to structure the classroom experience and broader curriculum to promote more efficient and better learning outcomes. Although imitation, modeling, and the use of examples have become pre-eminent features of modern legal education, these pedagogies have remained largely unexamined. This article shows the power of teaching with examples in both the traditional and legal writing classroom, as well as how skillfully to limit the use of such pedagogy for maximum effect. Specifically, this article applies the findings of cognitive load research and composition theory to show that …

The Lady, Or The Tiger? A Field Guide To Metaphor & Narrative, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Metaphor and narrative reassure us that things hang together, providing a sense of coherence to the patterns and paths we employ for perception and expression. In this field guide, I hope to illustrate - with images and stories when possible - how better understanding of metaphor and narrative can guide those engaged in legal rhetoric and persuasion.

The article briefly summarizes cognitive theory relating to metaphor and narrative, provides snapshots of their use in the field, in real-life legal persuasion, and suggests ways to adapt metaphor and narrative to a specific example of legal persuasion. In the field guide section, …

Building Communities, Changing Lives: Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic & Clinical Studies Program, Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School Of Law

Clinic Brochures

The brochure describes the offerings in clinical legal education available through the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic and the Clinical Studies Program at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Studying And Teaching “Law As Rhetoric”: A Place To Stand, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

This article proposes that law students may find a better fit within the legal culture of argument if they are introduced to rhetorical alternatives to counter narrowly formalist and realist perspectives on how the law works and how judges decide cases. To support this proposal, the article describes and evaluates an upper-level elective course in Law & Rhetoric, which I have offered at two law schools since 2003.

The article makes a two-part argument: first, introducing law students to rhetorical alternatives allows them to envision their role as lawyers as constructive, effective, and imaginative while grounded in law, language, and …

How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: An Analysis Of Metaphor, Narrative, And Imagination In Child Custody Disputes, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

We live in a time of radically changing conceptions of family and of the relationships possible between children and parents. Though undergoing "a sea-change," family law remains tethered to culturally embedded stories and symbols. While so bound, family law will fail to serve individual families and a society whose family structures diverge sharply by education, race, class, and income.

This article advances a critical rhetorical analysis of the interaction of metaphor and narrative within the specific context of child custody disputes. Its goal is to begin to examine how these embedded knowledge structures affect judicial decision making generally; more specifically, …

Law On The Street: Legal Narrative And The Street Law Classroom, Elizabeth L. Macdowell

Scholarly Works

This Article argues that the failure of anti-discrimination law to address the problems of subordination reflects the hegemonic perspective in legal narratives. For the lawyer concerned with social change, it is imperative to identify these narratives and the ways in which they not only inhibit deep social change, but may perpetuate the conditions of subordination. Yet, law school polices against the consciousness necessary for the lawyer to identify the hegemonic narrative in the law, and often instills attitudes, which are antithetical to the project of social change. In this context, Street Law - a practical law course taught by law …

Colloquy, Transactional Economics: Victor Goldberg’S Framing Contract Law, Keith A. Rowley, Mark P. Gergen, Victor Goldberg, Stewart Mcaulay

Scholarly Works

Panel discussion among law faculty who teach contracts of 2007 book authored by Victor Goldberg, which suggests that an economic approach to contract interpretation is appropriate.

“Kulturkampf[S]” Or “Fit[S] Of Spite”?: Taking The Academic Culture Wars Seriously, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

Polarization and heated debate within legal academia are nothing new. Some might argue that vigorous contentiousness, even if not always civil, is essential to a healthy intellectual culture. Others would note that lawyers, legal academics especially, are a highly contentious bunch with a reputation for aggressive behavior.

Fundamentally, this Article asks whether strife and disagreement are a necessary part of academic discourse. The Article describes the academic Kulturkampfs aimed at Critical Race Theory that have taken place in the last ten years both outside of and within the Critical Race Theory (CRT) movement. The Article particularly examines what it is …

Lawyers Should Be Lawyers, But What Does That Mean?: A Response To Aiken & Wizner And Smith, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

Lawyers should be more like social workers. That is the message of Law as Social Work, the provocative essay by Jane Aiken and Stephen Wizner (Aiken & Wizner) in the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy volume, which preceded the conference on Promoting Justice Through Interdisciplinary Teaching, Practice, and Scholarship, hosted by Washington University School of Law in March 2003. Almost as if in reply, Abbe Smith's contribution to the same pre-conference volume reasserts the importance of lawyers as zealous and partisan advocates, using the realities of the criminal defense context to argue for the value of the lawyer's …

Anticipatory Repudiation Of Letters Of Credit, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

Letters of credit play a vital role in financing international transactions, and are becoming increasingly popular domestically as substitutes for more traditional secured financing. As such, they deserve substantially more scholarly attention than they receive outside of specialized treatises and banking trade publications. Moreover, as unilateral promises by issuers of the letters of credit to pay money to their beneficiaries, the fact that Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code and pre-UCC common law recognize the right of a beneficiary to sue for anticipatory repudiation is at odds with the prevailing rule in this country that a promisee cannot sue …

Do Best Practices In Legal Education Include Emphasis On Compositional Modes Of Studying Law As A Liberal Art?, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Reporter's Notes on "A Liberal Education in Law: Engaging the Legal Imagination through Research and Writing Beyond the Curriculum."

Biting Off What They Can Chew: Strategies For Involving Law Students In Problem-Solving Beyond Individual Client Representation, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

Problem-solving is most often taught in the context of representing individual clients in small manageable cases where students retain primary control and develop a sense of ownership. Increasingly, law school clinical programs are involving students in broader service projects designed to meet the needs of clients that go unaddressed by the legal system. Student involvement in these projects presents challenges for the traditional model of problem-solving taught in individual case representation. This article explores the challenges of translating the problem-solving techniques employed in direct representation of individual clients into the larger context of problem-solving for a client community by examining …

The William S. Boyd School Of Law Juvenile Justice Clinic, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

This article reviews the work of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

A Brief History Of Anticipatory Repudiation In American Contract Law, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

This article traces the evolution of the doctrine of anticipatory repudiation from its foundations laid years before the landmark case of Hochster v. De la Tour, 118 Eng. Rep. 922 (Q.B. 1853), through Hochster, its growing acceptance by American courts in the late-1800s and early-1900s, its canonization in the first Restatement of Contracts (despite the Restatement's principal Reporter's personal objections to the doctrine), its codification in the Uniform Commercial Code, its standardization in the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, and its inclusion in the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. This article devotes considerable attention not only …

Critical Race Theory And Autobiography: Can A Popular Genre Make A Serious Academic Contribution?, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

This Essay reviews “Notes of a Racial Caste Baby, Colorblindness and the End of Affirmative Action” by Bryan K. Fair, “How Did You Get to Be a Mexican? a White/Brown Man's Search for Identity” by Kevin R. Johnson, and “To be an American: Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation” by Bill Ong Hing. This Essay examines the potential contributions each book makes to legal scholarship and the popular press. The Essay first describes how each author uses the autobiographical narrative and what these narratives accomplish. The Essay examines each book's legal agenda and assesses how well each author achieves …

Forum Non Conveniens In Federal Statutory Cases, Keith A. Rowley, Lonny Sheinkopf Hoffman

Scholarly Works

This article, previously published in Volume 49 of the Emory Law Journal, examines the federal doctrine of forum non conveniens in cases in which the plaintiff asserts a right to relief under federal law. The arguments we advance - particularly our claim that the federal doctrine of forum non conveniens can be better understood not as turning on matters of convenience, as the formal doctrine suggests, but on an assessment of the relative sovereign interests in adjudicating the dispute - remain relevant to an understanding of the federal doctrine. The paper, thus, may be of interest to practitioners, academics and …

A Reflective Rhetorical Model: The Legal Writing Teacher As Reader And Writer, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Like most writing teachers, the legal writing teacher believes that his reading and response to student work is the most important thing he does, an importance that is underscored by the amount of time it takes. Yet, despite its importance and the hours it consumes, the rhetoric of teacher reading and writing remains relatively unexplored. This article proposes that we begin to apply what we have learned about student reading and writing to our own reading and writing. Our process of reading and responding to student work should be as reflective and rhetorical as the reading and writing process that …

Pro Bono Service At The William S. Boyd School Of Law, Mary E. Berkheiser, Christine Smith

Scholarly Works

The mission of the William S. Boyd School of Law is to serve Nevada, and the legal and academic communities by developing and maintaining an innovative educational program that will train ethical and effective lawyers and leaders for Nevada and for the legal profession. To put the school’s mission in motion, we have begun by stressing community service, professionalism and the roles, responsibilities, skills and values of lawyers, and by involving students and faculty in community service projects in ways that will benefit our state.

Comparative Law: Its Purposes And Possibilities, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Comparative law is much more than “matching laws.” Professor Grossfield’s short, lively book will certainly awaken its German reader to the value, indeed necessity, of comparative law and comparative insights in his or her own practice or scholarly work. This, he aims at the skeptic who may think of comparative law or foreign legal systems as arcane and useless fluff, too luxurious for the hard working “practical-minded” practitioner. Professor Grossfield throws the cold water of realization into this skeptic’s face. The message being that considering comparative approaches and theory about similar problems may indeed be as practical as one can …