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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Influence Of Algorithms: The Importance Of Tracking Technology As Legal Educators, Brian Sites
The Influence Of Algorithms: The Importance Of Tracking Technology As Legal Educators, Brian Sites
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Cases And Case-Lawyers, Richard A. Danner
Cases And Case-Lawyers, Richard A. Danner
Faculty Scholarship
In the nineteenth century, the term “case-lawyer” was used as a label for lawyers who seemed to care more about locating precedents applicable to their current cases than understanding the principles behind the reported case law. Criticisms of case-lawyers appeared in English journals in the late 1820s, then in the United States, usually from those who believed that every lawyer needed to know and understand the unchanging principles of the common law in order to resolve issues not found in the reported cases. After the Civil War, expressions of concern about caselawyers increased with the significant growth in the amount …
Law Libraries And Laboratories: The Legacies Of Langdell And His Metaphor, Richard A. Danner
Law Libraries And Laboratories: The Legacies Of Langdell And His Metaphor, Richard A. Danner
Faculty Scholarship
Law Librarians and others have often referred to Harvard Law School Dean C.C. Langdell’s statements that the law library is the lawyer’s laboratory. Professor Danner examines the context of what Langdell through his other writings, the educational environment at Harvard in the late nineteenth century, and the changing perceptions of university libraries generally. He then considers how the “laboratory metaphor” has been applied by librarians and legal scholars during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The article closes with thoughts on Langdell’s legacy for law librarians and the usefulness of the laboratory metaphor.
Influences Of The Digest Classification System: What Can We Know?, Richard A. Danner
Influences Of The Digest Classification System: What Can We Know?, Richard A. Danner
Faculty Scholarship
Robert C. Berring has called West Publishing Company’s American Digest System “the key aspect of the new form of legal literature” that West and other publishers developed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Berring argued that West’s digests provided practicing lawyers not only the means for locating precedential cases, but a “paradigm for thinking about the law itself” that influenced American lawyers until the development of online legal research systems in the 1970s. This article discusses questions raised by Berring’s scholarship, and examines the late nineteenth and early twentieth century legal environment in which the West digests were …
Legal Research Assessment, Simon Canick
Legal Research Assessment, Simon Canick
Faculty Scholarship
Legal research instructors seek to provide their students with a working knowledge of important research tools, strategies with which to develop a rational research plan, and the skill to conduct research efficiently, among other things. A well-conceived legal research class may utilize short-answer assignments, quizzes, and scavenger hunt exercises as a means to establish a baseline of knowledge with critical sources; a series of research problems, with grading based upon students' ability to describe a coherent and logical progression; and a pathfinder or process-oriented final exam, all depending on the instructor's goals. Ultimately, the variety of available assessment tools suggests …
Research Stories: Video Tales From The Summer Associate Workplace, Susan Herrick
Research Stories: Video Tales From The Summer Associate Workplace, Susan Herrick
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn
Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn
Faculty Scholarship
In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and …
Teacher, Coach, Cheerleader, And Judge: Promoting Learning Through Learner-Centered Assessment, Kristin B. Gerdy
Teacher, Coach, Cheerleader, And Judge: Promoting Learning Through Learner-Centered Assessment, Kristin B. Gerdy
Faculty Scholarship
The author explores the importance of learner-centered assessment and feedback in legal research instruction, and encourages legal research teachers to assist their students' quest to acquire practical legal research abilities by transitioning into the roles of coach, cheerleader, and judge.
Our Perspective On Irac, Christina L. Kunz, Deborah A. Schmedemann
Our Perspective On Irac, Christina L. Kunz, Deborah A. Schmedemann
Faculty Scholarship
In this brief article, the authors present their view of IRAC, an acronym for Issue, Relevant law, Application to facts, and Conclusion. The authors conclude that IRAC can be taught so that students understand not only why it is useful as a thinking and writing tool, but also that proper use of it requires judgment and creativity. When IRAC is presented this way, the authors assert, it can serve first-year students well as they study legal writing. And they will operate accordingly, even without being aware of its influence, during their years as practicing lawyers.