Law Commons^™

Learning To Write In Code: The Value Of Using Legal Writing Exercises To Teach Tax Law, Scott A. Schumacher

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Traditionally, law school tax courses have been taught using a mix of problems, class discussion, the Socratic method, and one end-of-term exam. The goal of these courses is to introduce students to key concepts of tax law and to teach them the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. This traditional method of instruction is an efficient and cost-effective way of transmitting a great deal of complex information to a large number of students. It is also a good vehicle to teach the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Code. However, the time …

Standing For Excellence, Reaching For Justice, Kellye Y. Testy

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Commemorating thirty volumes of the Seattle University Law Review.

Telling Stories About Health Insurance: Using New Films In The Classroom, Elizabeth Pendo

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In keeping with the theme of "The Mass Media's Influence on Health Law and Policy," this essay is designed to share my experience using clips from three recent popular films as a method of enhancing coverage and discussion of legal and policy issues surrounding the private health insurance system, and to provide some practical advice for others interested in doing the same. It builds upon a presentation that I gave along with Professors Timothy S. Hall and Ross D. Silverman at the 2004 Health Law Teachers Conference entitled "Health Law, Policy and Media," and was inspired by Professor Paul Bergman's …

The Process For Becoming A Law School Professor In The United States, Daniel H. Foote

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As the process of legal education reform in Japan, centered on the establishment of a new tier of professional graduate schools in law, moves forward, one issue that has arisen is how law professors will be trained in coming years. In that connection, I am frequently asked what the typical route is for training law school professors in the US. Based in part on an examination of the backgrounds prior to entering law teaching for over 500 law professors at eight US law schools and on personal experiences (including serving for three years on the appointments committee at the University …

Whose Deal Is It? Teaching About Structural Inequality By Teaching Contracts Transactionally, Kellye Y. Testy

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Although Scott Burnham and others have urged the use of more contracts to teach Contracts for some time,'9 it is safe to say that the majority of Contracts courses in the United States do not put actual contracts front and center. While particular phrases or provisions surely are referenced in the steady diet of appellate decisions that comprise the first-year course, those decisions very rarely include the actual contract at issue for study. Moreover, in the increased compression of the first year course," few professors believe they can justify the time for transactional exercises or simulations in the rush to …

Probability And Statistics In The Legal Curriculum: A Case Study In Disciplinary Aspects Of Interdisciplinarity, Michael Townsend

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This Article considers interdisciplinarity and the legal curriculum in the context of probability and statistics. Section D of Part II begins the discussion by sketching some multidisciplinary, pluridisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches. Part III is the workhorse of this Article. The particular example used here is the well-known jury discrimination case of Castaneda v. Partida as described in Section A. This "case study" provides the basis for a crossdisciplinary experience that offers students an opportunity to think about law as a discipline. It is difficult for students to step back and look at law as a discipline when there is …

Victimized Twice -- The Intersection Of Domestic Violence And The Workplace: Legal Reform Through Curriculum Development, Lea B. Vaughn

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Domestic violence is at least a two-fold problem for American society. On the one hand, it is one of the leading causes of violence at the workplace against women. On the other, it prevents many women from attaining the economic security that would enable them to escape violence. After describing the background of this problem, this paper will canvass current legal remedies that are available to help battered women achieve economic security. This survey leads to the conclusion that the current pastiche of remedies is often ineffective because of their piecemeal approach to the problem, or because current doctrine does …

Kathleen A. Sullivan: A True Teacher's Teacher, Christine N. Cimini

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This essay is part of a group of five memorial tributes to Professor Kathleen A. Sullivan of the Yale Law School. The group of tributes reflect on the numerous contributions Professor Sullivan made to her colleagues, students, clients and the clinical education community. In this memoriam tribute, the authors explore three themes that Professor Sullivan cared deeply about: thinking critically about confidentiality, privacy and autonomy; incorporating issues of difference into our teaching and practices; and encouraging people (students, clients and colleagues) to find and assert their own voices, even – and especially – when those voices are different than ours.

Integrating Alternative Dispute Resolution (Adr) Into The Curriculum At The University Of Washington School Of Law: A Report And Reflections, Lea B. Vaughn

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The essay is framed in two basic parts. In the first part, it describes the program of integration that was undertaken at the University of Washington during the 1995-1997 period of the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) grant. After describing the context in which these curricular changes were made, it describes the changes in years one and two of the grant program. Additional changes that have occurred subsequent to the final grant report in October 1997 also will be summarized. One of the lessons that emerges from our experience is that change will be an incremental, long …

Gasshūkoku Ni Okeru Hōgakkai To Hōjitsumukai [The Worlds Of Academics And Legal Practice In The United States], Daniel H. Foote

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I prepared this paper for a symposium entitled, "Academics and Practitioners in Japan and the United States: Can the Two Worlds Ever Meet?" When I saw the symposium title, my first reaction was that it might seem strange to ask whether the worlds of academics and legal practice can ever meet in the United States. After all, to a large degree the history of the law school in the United States has been that of an institution dedicated to the training of legal practitioners; the vast majority of US law professors are members of the bar; and many, if not …

Professor Cornelius J. Peck: A Man Of Many Talents, Ralph W. Johnson

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Outstanding teacher, authoritative writer, master winemaker, successful labor arbitrator, durable bicyclist, avid gardener, occasional portrait painter, and more. Meet University of Washington School of Law Professor Emeritus Cornelius J. Peck. Born in Calumet, Michigan, he attended public schools in Iron Mountain, Michigan, and found his way east to Harvard, where he received a B.S. degree in 1944 and an LL.B. in 1949. He was a Harvard National Scholar while he worked on his B.S. and law degrees. He held two jobs with the U.S. Department of Justice and one with the National Labor Relations Board before joining the University of …

The Fletcher Years, Ralph W. Johnson

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How would you best describe Robert L. Fletcher, I asked my colleagues. He is, they said, thoughtful, a man of integrity, a delightful and companionable gentleman, sincere of purpose, hard-working, reliable, exceedingly thorough, a respected scholar and teacher. By habit he examines all aspects of a proposal before acting on it, reserves judgment until "all the evidence is in." Reputedly he enjoys ferreting out arcane future interests that violate the Rule Against Perpetuities in trust and real estate documents. Bob Fletcher practiced law for nine years in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, before entering teaching in 1956. Before that he was …

Some Thoughts On Legal Education In Japan, Daniel H. Foote

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This piece is based upon a talk given at the Harvard Law Association of Japan meeting on December 4, 1985, by Daniel H. Foote.

Published in Japanese - English original draft provided.

Professional Responsibility: Education And Enforcement, Robert H. Aronson

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The fallout from the Watergate scandals has had a profound effect upon the legal profession because many of the prominent offenders were attorneys. The severity of the conduct involved and the suspicion that the activities publicized represent merely the tip of the iceberg have caused the American Bar Association, state and local bar committees, and law schools to seek new ways of educating prospective lawyers with respect to their ethical duties, and to seek more effective sanctions against ethically deficient attorneys. It is ironic, however, that increased awareness and activity in the area of legal ethics should be motivated by …

The Law Library In A New Law School, Marian G. Gallagher

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Law school faculty members have a reputation for paying attention to their libraries. They achieved that collective reputation long ago through insistence on autonomous library administration by their own kind, and they have nurtured it by exhibiting greater dependence on libraries than the members of any other discipline. Expressions of their concern and involvement are recorded repeatedly in annual reports, budget justifications, fund-raising brochures, and the proceedings of ceremonial cornerstone layings. Some have gone far beyond expressions of concern, demonstrating compulsion to devote more time to the functioning of their law libraries than has seemed necessary or interesting to the …

Armchair Tour Of The University Of Washington Law Library, Marian G. Gallagher

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Bibliomania is a rare disease. Contrary to popular belief, the germ breeds, not on ancient vellum bookbindings, but on the inside pages of hard-to-locate, bound or unbound, published or unpublished, material. Consequently, the infection is not apt to spread to the practicing attorney who has too many clients and too many cases for a seven-day week. While it may be the secret hope of every librarian that years of exposure (to the bindings when help is scarce, to the inside pages when help is plentiful) will cause him to become infected, he does not lose sight of the fact that …