Law Commons^™

“The Longest Journey, With A First Step”: Bringing Coherence To Sovereignty And Jurisdictional Issues In Global Employee Benefits Law, Paul Secunda

Paul M. Secunda

One of the most neglected areas of employee benefits law in the United States today is the extraterritorial application of ERISA to U.S. employees in other countries. Additionally, the courts and legislature have not spent the necessary time to discuss ERISA coverage issues for foreign employees, both legal and illegal and both working for foreign government and non-government employers, in the United States. These are increasingly crucial areas of U.S. employee benefits law as the globalization of the world's workplaces continues apace.

After surveying the tangled web of ERISA law in this context, the article proposes two statutory fixes and …

Architects? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Architects, Jack Mcneill

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The author chronicles the participation of the Library staff in the renovation of Pace Law Library.

Peasants, Tanners, And Psychiatrists: Using Films To Teach Comparative Law, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

Films have proven to be a useful teaching tool for a course on Comparative Law. The films serve to introduce the class to the look and feel of legal proceedings from selected foreign legal systems and to illustrate particular aspects of how these legal proceedings differ from our own. The article summarizes the results of more than 10 years of experience in using films. It will be of interest to others who teach Comparative Law and also to lawyers, judges, and students who want a video means of oriented themselves to foreign legal traditions. The article discusses the limitations of …

Understanding The Socratic Method In Law School Teaching After The Carnegie Foundation's Educating Lawyers: Preparation For The Legal Profession, Joseph A. Dickinson

Joseph A Dickinson

For many committed law school teachers, the traditional Socratic pedagogy they practice is the irreducible core of legal education. For others its continued practice is a scandal and,more damning, an impediment to learning the practice of law. The Carnegie Foundation's Educating Lawyers: chose not to take a position in this debate, while framing it, thus leaving its call for reform ungrounded.

Rankings: A Dramatization Of The Incentives Created By Ranking Law Schools, Jeff Sovern

Jeff Sovern

Rankings: A Dramatization of the Incentives Created by Ranking Law Schools Sellers in a competitive market shift resources from attributes buyers don't care about to attributes buyers do care about. In markets in which buyers rely on imperfect signals for quality, sellers move resources away from improving the quality of their product to enhancing the illusion of quality. For example, before freshness dating, when consumers tested the freshness of bread by squeezing it, bakers reportedly added chemicals to bread to preserve its softness longer, thereby creating the illusion of freshness. Similarly, law school rankings encourage schools to shift resources away …

Why Every Law Student Should Be A Gunner, Robert M. Lloyd

Robert M Lloyd

This essay forcefully urges law students to stand up to peer pressure and volunteer frequently in class.

Why Every Law Student Should Be A Gunner, Robert M. Lloyd

Robert M Lloyd

This 2,200 essay tells law students why they need to stop being intimidated by their peers and talk in class. Some will find it offensive.

Holistic Approaches To Classroom Instruction, A Precursor To More Collaborative Lawyers: Reflections Of A Professor And Collaborative Lawyer, Kathy-Ann K. Hart

Kathy-Ann K Hart

Coupling of academia and practice in legal curricula can make programs of law study more holistic than many of them currently are. Encouraging law students to learn in more than one way in the classroom engages them as multi-dimensional learners or beings. As a collaborative lawyer I have a vested interest in increasing the numbers of lawyers who choose collaborative practice and I believe that peaceful, more co-operative ways of practicing law (like employing collaborative principles) can create future lawyers and a legal profession that’s healthier and happier. In this article, I reflect on my application of holistic approaches in …

Tales Of A Law Professor Lateral Nothing, Paul Secunda

Paul M. Secunda

This Essay seeks to uncover the mysterious world of the law professor lateral hiring market, which has become increasingly important in the last number of years as law schools seek to build their reputations in this U.S. News & World Report world through the hiring of prominent faculty members.

Although the advice and guidance given in this essay are sometimes written with tongue firmly in cheek, I do attempt to accomplish two important objectives here. First, there has been scarcely anything written about the lateral hiring market for law professors, as opposed to the cottage industry that has been devoted …

Legal Studies: How To Narrow The Gap Between Law And Society, Leonardo J. Raznovich

Dr Leonardo J Raznovich

The main thesis of this paper is that the teaching of law should take a different approach to that of the current law degree. Students should be equipped with the various knowledge and competences that make them suitable to appreciate not only the theory of law but the interactions between law and society. This paper will conclude that a law degree that follows the socio-legal approach from a critical legal perspective should be the appropriate methodology because it exposes students to the influences and impacts made on legal theory by the social sciences as well as that made on society …

Student Evaluations Of Law Teaching Work Well: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, Arthur Best

Arthur Best

Academics in the fields of psychology and education generally describe student evaluations of teaching as reliable and useful. On the other hand, law professors often criticize them as unreliable and impaired by students’ biases. This Article considers resolving these discrepant views by paying close attention to the various purposes for which student evaluations of teaching are used. For some uses, such as guidance for students in course selection, shortcomings of the evaluations would be of slight consequence. For promotion or tenure decisions, despite law professors’ skepticism, schools should use the data to identify outlier instructors. Basing conclusions only on large …

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2008, Section 1

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2008, Section 2

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Gender And The Legal Profession: The Michigan Alumni Data Set 1967-2000, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Marc S. Galanter, Kaushik Mukhopadhaya, Kathleen E. Hull

Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

The entry of women into the legal profession has forever changed both lawyers and the profession. In the brief period since the 1970’s, women have gone from a few brave pioneers constituting 3% of the bar to almost half of all new law students and a third of practicing attorneys. Women have brought to the profession a different set of assets and problems than men, focusing attention on the problem of balancing work and family in a way not previously experienced by the profession. In this study, we use the University of Michigan Law School Alumni Data Set to undertake …

Legal Education Uk, Subhajit Basu

Subhajit Basu

No abstract provided.

When Theory Met Practice: Teaching Tort Law From A Practical Perspective, Prentice L. White

Prentice L White

WHEN THEORY MET PRACTICE: TEACHING TORT LAW FROM A PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE ABSTRACT When I initially entered the world of academia, I did so with the intention of not only teaching my students the black letter law, but I also envision an opportunity to share with them my experiences in the practice. My philosophy has always been “How can you teach what you have not learned.” Learning is an on-going process and it is not limited to the classroom—especially in professional school. That’s why it was so important for me to share a practical experience with my students as much as …

An Aesthetic Defense Of The Non-Precedential Opinion: The Easy Cases Debate In The Wake Of The 2007 Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Appellate Procedure, Caleb E. Mason

Caleb E. Mason

Abstract: In this article I extol the virtues of the short, nonprecedential opinions (NPOs) that make up more than 80% of the output of the courts of appeals. The recent amendment to Fed. R. App. Proc. 32.1(a), requiring that all circuits allow citation to nonprecedential opinions, has provoked considerable debate about how, and whether, to issue opinions in the class of cases currently resolved by NPOs. I defend the issuance of NPOs not as a necessary concession to overwork, but rather as a valuable decisional form that plays a useful if not vital role in inculcating in practitioners the perceptual …

Advanced Legal Studies And Research, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

Pamphlet highlighting history & alumni, internationalism, graduate programs, research programs, and the law school community at the University of Michigan Law School.

Stone Soup: Thoughts On Balancing A Deanship And Family Life After Twelve Years As Dean, Richard L. Aynes

Akron Law Faculty Publications

JUNE 30, 2007 marked the conclusion of my twelve-year service as Dean of the University of Akron School of Law. During that time the University of Toledo Law Review initiated its very successful “Leadership in Legal Education Symposium” and I benefited from reading articles in the prior symposia. It was inspiring to read about the efforts, thoughts, concerns, and accomplishments of fellow deans. Sometimes those essays gave me reassurance, raised my curiosity, provided new ideas, gave me an opportunity to think about old matters from a different perspective, and even prompted healthy disagreement.

Having benefited from the contributions of other …

The Case Against Mandatory Pro Bono Programs, Sydney Howe-Barksdale

Sydney Howe-Barksdale

No abstract provided.

Kuwait University, Civil Law And The Internet: Genesis Of A Dedicated Civil Law-Teaching Website (Being A Unesco Cited Project), Mashael Alhajeri

Mashael Alhajeri

No abstract provided.

Appendix B, Additional Reading,, Katie Brown

Kathleen (Katie) Brown

No abstract provided.

Transnational Study Programs And The Global Law School, Luca C.M. Melchionna

Luca Melchionna

TRANSNATIONAL STUDY PROGRAMS AND THE GLOBAL LAW SCHOOL. Luca C. M. Melchionna ABSTRACT The “knowledge-based” economy, namely the new world economy based on the exploration, production, sharing and protection of knowledge, is growing. Europe and the U.S. are the leading destinations for U.S. and international students seeking to study or work abroad. However, still today less than 1% of the current U.S. student body decides to temporarily go abroad during college or graduate school. Aware of the importance of international education, Congress is in the process of enacting the Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act with the aim of sending …

Employment As Transaction, Rachel S. Arnow-Richman

Rachel S. Arnow-Richman

This paper offers a fresh perspective on the upper-level employment law class based on the theme of employment as transaction. Like much of law school, employment law is often taught from a public advocacy perspective in which the primary role of the lawyer is to vindicate workers’ rights or defend managerial action. As a doctrinal matter, however, courts are showing increased attention to the role of private ordering in defining workplace rights and assessing liability. Courts routinely examine employers’ efforts to redress unlawful behavior under antidiscrimination law and consistently sanction the use of arbitration agreements waiving rights to a federal …

Happy Law Students, Happy Lawyers, Nancy Levit, Douglas Linder

Nancy Levit

This article draws on research into the science of happiness and asks a series of interrelated questions: Whether law schools can make law students happier? Whether making happier law students will translate into making them happier lawyers, and the accompanying question of whether making law students happier would create better lawyers? After covering the limitations of genetic determinants of happiness and happiness set-points, the article addresses those qualities that happiness research indicates are paramount in creating satisfaction: control, connections, creative challenge (or flow), and comparisons (preferably downward). Those qualities are then applied to legal education, while addressing the larger philosophical …

A Tiny Heart Beating: Student-Edited Legal Periodicals In Good Ol' Europe, Luigi Russi, Federico Longobardi

Bocconi Legal Papers

This paper has a twofold aim: to analyze the possible opportunities disclosed by the observed growth of student- edited law reviews in Europe and to propose an innovative model of student participation to legal publication.

The first part explores the phenomenon of student-edited law reviews in the U.S., focusing on its recognized educational benefits. Among others, it is observed that participation in student-edited law reviews might promote greater scholarly maturity among J.D. students, who might in turn be better equipped for a career in the academia after finishing law school, in comparison to their same-age European peers. Hence, there follows …

Discusiones Sobre La Educación Legal: ¿Cuál Es La Puerta De Entrada?, Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Considero que hay diferentes puntos de entrada al tema de la educación legal (o jurídica). Este artículo hace un mapa sobre 4 propuestas en el marco de la educación legal que más me interesan y que se han presentado de manera constante durante los últimos cincuenta años en diferentes latitudes. En ese sentido, lo que a continuación ofrezco es una guía de algunas de las escuelas jurídicas que, en su momento, han realizado una crítica a la educación legal imperante en su contexto. Al final de la exposición de ellas plantearé una reflexión que creo útil para el estado actual …

A Tiny Heart Beating: Student-Edited Legal Periodicals In Good Ol' Europe, Luigi Russi, Federico Longobardi

ILSU Working Paper Series

This paper has a twofold aim: to analyze the possible opportunities disclosed by the observed growth of student- edited law reviews in Europe and to propose an innovative model of student participation to legal publication.

The first part explores the phenomenon of student-edited law reviews in the U.S., focusing on its recognized educational benefits. Among others, it is observed that participation in student-edited law reviews might promote greater scholarly maturity among J.D. students, who might in turn be better equipped for a career in the academia after finishing law school, in comparison to their same-age European peers. Hence, there follows …

Stone Soup: Thoughts On Balancing A Deanship And Family Life After Twelve Years As Dean, Richard L. Aynes

Richard L. Aynes

JUNE 30, 2007 marked the conclusion of my twelve-year service as Dean of the University of Akron School of Law. During that time the University of Toledo Law Review initiated its very successful “Leadership in Legal Education Symposium” and I benefited from reading articles in the prior symposia. It was inspiring to read about the efforts, thoughts, concerns, and accomplishments of fellow deans. Sometimes those essays gave me reassurance, raised my curiosity, provided new ideas, gave me an opportunity to think about old matters from a different perspective, and even prompted healthy disagreement. Having benefited from the contributions of other …

When Big Brother Is Watching [Out For] You: Mentoring Lawyers, Choosing A Mentor, And Sharing Ten Virtues From My Mentor, Julie Oseid

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.