Law Commons^™

The Importance Of Comparative Law In Legal Education: United States Goals And Methods Of Legal Comparisons, Hugh J. Ault, Mary Ann Glendon

Hugh J. Ault

This Essay discusses the gradual changes occurring within legal education, which are finding wide acceptance in law schools throughout the United States. These changes include greater attention to other disciplines, primarily economics and behavioral sciences, and the contributions they make to a fuller understanding of the legal system. In addition, law schools are increasingly exploring the ways in which the law in textbooks may differ from the law in action. Nearly every law school, therefore, is seriously investigating the social and economic background of legal rules and their consequences through clinical legal education, which attempts to provide a real or …

Emerging Models For Alternatives To Marriage, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

Perhaps one of the most important changes in family law in the past thirty years has been the inclusion of certain kinds of friendships in the range of relationships from which rights and responsibilities can flow. Domestic partnership laws, a phenomenon of the 1990s, may be seen as a natural development from the judicial recognition of contract cohabitation and the legislative and judicial response to same-sex couples who, unable to meet statutory requirements for marriage, have sought official recognition of their relationships. This essay discusses an aspect of certain kinds of domestic partnership laws-their formal requirements and the extent to …

Beyond The Ada: How Clinics Can Assist Law Students With “Non-Visible” Disabilities To Bridge The Accommodations Gap Between Classroom And Practice, Alexis Anderson, Norah Wylie

Norah Wylie

This article examines how best to educate law students with disabilities so that they can successfully transition from classroom to practice. At the very time that the importance of experiential learning is being trumpeted as critical to the preparation of all law students for practice, all too little attention has been given to the role of clinical education in helping students with non-visible disabilities succeed in their chosen careers. Increasingly, law students are seeking accommodations for a range of mental health, cognitive, and learning disabilities. Law schools have become more adept at providing accommodations in academic classes to qualified students …

Why I Teach (A Prescription For The Post-Tenure Blues), R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

In this brief essay from a collection of articles designed to demonstrate the scope and breadth of issues in legal pedagogy, Professor Michael Cassidy explores an important psychological event for many in the legal academy - the post-tenure blues. He offers reasons to keep doing what we do - teach with joy, inspiration and a sense of purpose for the next generation. He encourages us to think of our own reasons for what keeps us going in an occupation that many of us think is one of the best in the world.

"The Purer Fountains": Bacon And Legal Education, Daniel R. Coquillette

Daniel R. Coquillette

Today, the classical underpinnings of American legal education are under intense critical review. The dominant pedagogy, the case book and the Socratic method, were established by Christopher Columbus Langdell (1806-1906) at Harvard Law School more than a century ago. Together with Langdell's first year curriculum, which was exclusively focused on Anglo-American common law doctrine, and his emphasis on a competitive, anonymous graded meritocracy, this system still exercises an incredible grip on elite American law schools. But Langdell's 19th Century model has now been challenged by many rivals, including critical legal studies, law and economics empiricism, global curriculums, and clinical instruction. …

Environmental Law And Three Economies: Navigating A Sprawling Field Of Study, Practice, And Societal Governance In Which Everything Is Connected To Everything Else, Zygmunt J.B. Plater

Zygmunt J.B. Plater

The vast sprawl of the environmental law field makes it a bemusing and confounding puzzle even to those who pursue it as their primary academic vocation. The amorphous breadth and intricate depths of environmental law present special challenges to anyone who tries to navigate the field. This Article addresses several of these challenges, briefly analyzing how environmental curricula are designed, and then suggests a potentially useful new way to conceptualize the realm of environmental law.

The Law School Firm, Bradley T. Borden, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This Article introduces the concept of the law school firm. The concept calls for law schools to establish affiliated law firms. The affiliation would provide opportunities for students, faculty, and attorneys to collaborate and share resources to teach, research, write, serve clients, and influence the development of law and policy. Based loosely on the medical school model, the law school firm will help bridge the gap between law schools and the practice of law.

Ethical Issues In Business And The Lawyer's Role, Robert J. Rhee, Carol Morgan, Tamar Frankel, Mark Fagan

Robert Rhee

No abstract provided.

"Learning" Research And Legal Education: A Brief Overview And Selected Bibliographical Survey, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

What Are Professional Skills And Why Should Law Schools Teach Them?, Donald G. Gifford

Donald G Gifford

No abstract provided.

How Does The Dean Resemble The Islets Of Langerhans?, Donald G. Gifford

Donald G Gifford

In this essay, I suggest an admittedly bizarre analogy between the roles played by an effective dean and the functions of an obscure component of the human body.

Educating Lawyers With A Global Vision, Phoebe Haddon

Phoebe A. Haddon

This article is based on a presentation made at Justice & the Global Economy, a conference celebrating the appointment of Phoebe A. Haddon as the ninth Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law, October 3, 2009.

Back To The Future In Law Schools, William Reynolds

William L. Reynolds

This paper first argues for the maintenance of the traditional first-year curriculum. It does so in the context of an examination of what most lawyers do in practice and, therefore, what most lawyers should know. This portion includes a defense of the Socratic Method. The paper then addresses contemporary concerns about legal education, including the devaluation of courses in the private law curriculum, and considers why legal academics are not interested in private law.

Student Film- In Re: Baby M, Heather Cole, John Nicodemo, Julie Perlina, Jessica Bryant, Rachel Zoltowsky, Alana Hassel, Deborah Post

Deborah W. Post

No abstract provided.

On Legal Education And Reform: One View Formed From Diverse Perspectives, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This article identifies two interconnected problems in legal education. First, legal education and practice are more disconnected than they should be, a reality which distinguishes law schools from other professional schools. The major flaw of legal education as the failure to produce more market-ready lawyers who have a mix of skills and knowledge to add value in a complex and challenging practice environment. Second, law school imposes large direct and opportunity costs on its students. These costs combine with the problem of a deficiency in academic training and post-graduation financing of additional training in the workplace to impose a growing …

Learning By Magic - It Is Not A Trick, Stephen Gerst

Stephen A Gerst

No abstract provided.

Those Who Can't, Teach: What The Legal Career Of John Yoo Tells Us About Who Should Be Teaching Law, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

Perhaps no member of the legal academy in America is more controversial than John Yoo. For his role in producing legal opinions authorizing what is thought by many to be abusive treatment of detainees as part of the Bush Administration’s “Global War on Terror,” some have called for him to be subjected to professional discipline, others have called for his criminal prosecution. This paper raises a different question: whether John Yoo – and his like – ought to be teaching law.

John Yoo provides something of a case study in the problems in legal education today. As a scholar, Professor …

The Variable Value Of Us Legal Education In The Global Legal Services Market, Carole Silver

Carole Silver

Many U.S. law firms now claim to be global organizations, and they seek to occupy the same high status everywhere they work. In part, simply supporting overseas offices is an indication of status for U.S.-based firms. But firms want more than this and they strive for recognition as elite advisors around the world. In this pursuit, have firms identified a set of common characteristics and credentials that define a “global lawyer?” That is, is there a uniform and universal profile, or perhaps a set of assets that comprise global professional capital, which are emerging as the indicia of credibility and …

Teaching Values And Lawyering Skills, John Capowski

John J. Capowski

No abstract provided.

Why I Teach, Amanda Smith

Amanda Smith

No abstract provided.

Growin’ Up: An Assessment Of Adult Self-Image In Clinical Law Students, Judith Ritter

Judith L Ritter

My thesis is that a majority of law students do not view themselves as adult professionals. When upper-class law students participate in live-client clinical programs, their lack of an adult self-image presents a barrier to effectiveness.

This article draws upon theories of psychological and moral development to explore the ingredients of being an adult and having an adult self-image. It examines the obstacles to development confronted by contemporary law students. The article explains the ways in which having an adult self-image is so important to the success of the student lawyer and how lacking an adult self-image can diminish the …

How Students’ Gratitude For Feedback Can Identify The Right Attitude For Success: Disciplined Optimism, Anna Hemingway

Anna P. Hemingway

Animal Law Unit Outline, Anne Louise Schillmoller

Anne Schillmoller

As a significant growth area of law, the central aim of this unit is to enable students to identify and evaluate the legal frameworks which regulate various types of human-animal interaction and to consider the ways in which these frameworks impact upon the interests of animals. In addition, the unit provides an opportunity for students to identify and critique the ways in which animals are conceptualised in law, including the philosophical, scientific and economic assumptions which inform the law relating to animals. Finally, the unit will enable students to reflect upon the adequacy of laws relating to animals and to …

Clinical Professors' Professional Responsibility: Preparing Law Students To Embrace Pro Bono, Douglas L. Colbert

Douglas L. Colbert

This article begins by examining the current crisis in the U.S. legal system where approximately three out of four low- and middle-income litigants are denied access to counsel's representation when faced with the loss of essential rights - -a home, child custody, liberty and deportation - - and where most lawyers decline to fulfill their ethical responsibility of pro bono service to those who cannot afford private counsel. The article traces the evolving ethical standards of a lawyer's professional responsibility that today views every attorney as a public citizen having a special responsibility to the quality of justice.

The author …

Law 10487 Animal Law 2nd Edition, Anne Louise Schillmoller, Amber Hall

Anne Schillmoller

To some extent, the name of this unit, ‘Animal Law’, is a misnomer. While the central concern of this unit is with the well-being and protection of non-human animals, its practical focus is upon the ways in which humans and human institutions, including the apparatus of law, regard, regulate, and interact with non-human beings. Such a focus exhorts ‘we’ humans to reflect upon our behaviours, practices, attitudes and responsibilities towards non-human animals. Specifically, it requires us to interrogate and challenge the assumed sovereignty of humans over animals, the ways in which human interests are routinely privileged over those of animals, …

Teaching Transactional Skills In Partnership With The Bar, Carl J. Circo

Carl J. Circo