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Full-Text Articles in Law
Reimagining Langdell's Legacy: Puncturing The Equilibrium In Law School Pedagogy, Laura A. Webb
Reimagining Langdell's Legacy: Puncturing The Equilibrium In Law School Pedagogy, Laura A. Webb
Law Faculty Publications
For more than 150 years, legal education has largely followed the course charted by Christopher Columbus Langdell when he became dean of Harvard Law School in 1870. Langdell’s innovations included the case method, high-stakes summative assessments, and preferences for faculty members with experience in “learning law” rather than practicing it. His proposals were innovative and responsive to challenges in legal education at the time, but this Article argues that taking Langdell’s approach to reform—including a willingness toimplement radical changes in the face of institutional shortcomings—requires reimagining his methods for the benefit of today’s students. We identify key deficiencies of the …
Why Legal Writers Should Think Like Teachers, Laura A. Webb
Why Legal Writers Should Think Like Teachers, Laura A. Webb
Law Faculty Publications
This article proposes that new legal writers can improve their work by “thinking like teachers.” I assert that legal writing is fundamentally educative. Good writing thus requires good teaching. The article discusses the “curse of knowledge,” which makes it difficult for a writer who fully understands her topic to remember how a reader who is less knowledgeable about the topic will approach the material. It then explores three concepts from the science of learning — context, chunking, and connections — and discusses how a writer can use these concepts to effectively teach her readers.
Should Your Law Review Article Have An Abstract And Table Of Contents?: An Empirical Analysis, Christopher A. Cotropia
Should Your Law Review Article Have An Abstract And Table Of Contents?: An Empirical Analysis, Christopher A. Cotropia
Law Faculty Publications
A review of the relevant literature turned up no studies examining the influence of abstracts on citation to law review articles. Nor were studies found examining the influence of tables of contents. To chart this territory, we explore whether abstracts and tables of contents impact the scholarly influence of academic work in the field of legal studies by using a large sample of law review articles published in top 100 law reviews. Part I describes our methodology while Part II reports the results. Part III summarizes the results and discusses them in view of the title question: should your law …
Education & Practice (Newsletter Of The Section On Education Of Lawyer, Virginia State Bar) - V. 23, No. 1 (Fall 2014), Dale Margolin Cecka
Education & Practice (Newsletter Of The Section On Education Of Lawyer, Virginia State Bar) - V. 23, No. 1 (Fall 2014), Dale Margolin Cecka
Law Faculty Publications
Contents
Learning Styles and Problem-Solving: What Difference Does Our Teaching Make?, by Eric DeGroff, Professor of Law at Regent University
Chair’s Column, by Professor Jim Moliterno
Section’s Website Update
Law Faculty News
News and Events Around the Commonwealth
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS William R. Rakes Leadership in Education Award
2014-2015 Board of Governors
Public Policy Research & Drafting: A Pro Bono And Law Library Collaboration, Tara L. Casey, Suzanne B. Corriell
Public Policy Research & Drafting: A Pro Bono And Law Library Collaboration, Tara L. Casey, Suzanne B. Corriell
Law Faculty Publications
As the Carrico Center for Pro Bono Service at the University of Richmond School of Law continued to grow its programs, forays into the areas of public policy and advanced legal research grew as well. for a number of years, our law students volunteered with nonprofit organizations during the General Assembly session, learning firsthand how issues develop into policy, which sometimes then develops into Jaw. This experience required our students to expand their legal research and writing skills beyond the traditional case law and brief writing methods. Furthermore, a growing number of students were interested in pursuing legislative or public …
The Dominance Of Teams In The Production Of Legal Knowledge, Christopher A. Cotropia
The Dominance Of Teams In The Production Of Legal Knowledge, Christopher A. Cotropia
Law Faculty Publications
While collaboration is familiar to some legal researchers, the field, for the most part, does not seem to implicate the large-scale complexity and cost that has become associated with big science. These logistical differences, combined with a very strong cultural preference in legal academic circles for solitary work, could potentially keep team research from dominating the production of legal knowledge to the same extent that it has come to dominate the production of knowledge in other areas. On the other hand, the dominance of team research outputs and a shift towards team research has been observed in social sciences and …
Techniques Of Legal Drafting: A Survival Manual, Peter N. Swisher
Techniques Of Legal Drafting: A Survival Manual, Peter N. Swisher
Law Faculty Publications
The purpose of this article is to identify and demonstrate various legal drafting concepts and techniques in order to give the law student and legal practitioner a working knowledge of the fundamental principles of legal drafting. Although this article does not purport to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject, it is offered to law students and practitioners alike for what it is-a basic survival manual for the aspiring legal draftsman.
Teaching Legal Reasoning In Law School, Peter N. Swisher
Teaching Legal Reasoning In Law School, Peter N. Swisher
Law Faculty Publications
With the understanding that reasonable scholars and critics may differ, it is nevertheless this article's contention that law schools today must still strive to teach the basic logical principles-and process-of legal reasoning. By analogy, a swimmer must learn at least a few basic strokes in order to survive in his new environment. The same is true with law students and legal reasoning. An elementary foundation in legal reasoning skills, limited though it may be, is still better than nothing at all-especially when the latter alternative offers only confusion and misunderstanding.
The purpose of this article is to discuss one such …