Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Institution
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Law
Correlation Versus Causality: Further Thoughts On The Law Review/Law School Liaison, Ronen Perry
Correlation Versus Causality: Further Thoughts On The Law Review/Law School Liaison, Ronen Perry
Ronen Perry
This Essay is the third in a series of articles discussing the relative value of American law reviews, and a response to Professor Alfred Brophy's elaboration of my initial study of the high mathematical correlation between law review quality, as manifested in citation-based measures, and law school reputation. Given my prior interest in the relative value of American law reviews, I have used the abovementioned correlation as a means to explain some of the variance in quality among law reviews. Brophy's empirical findings overlap mine, yet the extent of his analysis, as well as his interpretation and utilization of the …
The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: Refinement And Implementation, Ronen Perry
The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: Refinement And Implementation, Ronen Perry
Ronen Perry
This Article complements a recently published paper in which I discussed the theoretical and methodological aspects of law review rankings. The purpose of this Article is twofold: refinement of the theoretical framework, and implementation. It proposes, defends, and implements a complex ranking method for general-interest student-edited law reviews, based on a judicious weighting of normalized citation frequency and normalized impact factor. It then analyzes the distribution of journals’ scores, and the diminishing marginal difference between them. Finally, it examines the correlation between law schools’ positions in the U.S. News & World Report 2006 ranking and their flagship law reviews’ positions …
Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier
Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Because your writing involves words, it might seem difficult to make your writing "transparent." However, speaking involves words too, and broadcasters employ several techniques to make their words transparent. Consequently, legal writers can look for guidance from the men and women "on the six o'clock news."
The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: A Critical Appraisal Of Ranking Methods, Ronen Perry
The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: A Critical Appraisal Of Ranking Methods, Ronen Perry
Ronen Perry
Ranking law reviews is not a novel initiative. Data regarding the relative value of legal periodicals was first published in 1930, in an article primarily concerned with the overall contribution of legal periodicals to the development of positive law. Since then many attempts have been made to rank American law reviews by various criteria. This Article, however, focuses not on actual rankings but on ranking theory and methodology. It offers an introductory discussion of the goals of law review rating, and the essential attributes of reliable and beneficial ranking methods, followed by a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the advantages …
Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers And Merlin: Telling The Client's Story Using The Characters And Paradigm Of The Archetypal Hero's Journey, Ruth Anne Robbins
Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers And Merlin: Telling The Client's Story Using The Characters And Paradigm Of The Archetypal Hero's Journey, Ruth Anne Robbins
Ruth Anne Robbins
This article hypothesizes that lawyers should consider heroic archetype when strategizing the client's story. The article speaks more to storytelling for a judge as factfinder rather than a jury.
Using Dvd Covers To Teach Weight Of Authority, Michael J. Higdon
Using Dvd Covers To Teach Weight Of Authority, Michael J. Higdon
Scholarly Works
Using various examples, this essay explores how the movie critic quotes that companies select to grace the cover of DVDs (and ultimately help sell the product) can actually be used to teach students about weight of authority.
Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price
Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price
ExpressO
In law schools today, first-year legal writing courses play a crucial role in helping students learn to communicate about the law. Many legal writing teachers approach legal writing education in a practical way, attempting to pass on their own experiences in law practice settings to students. Unfortunately, as other writers have observed, such reliance on personal knowledge about “what lawyers are like” may lead legal writing teachers to oversimplify a complicated matter – the needs and preferences of the audience for legal writing – and may even amount to indoctrination in stereotypes about law practice. This article offers a closer …
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
This is the final column in a series addressing reader expectations for objective legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I posted three samples of objective legal writing and asked readers to give me feedback through an online survey about which they preferreda nd why. The May and July columns provided analysis of reader responses to introductory and rule explanation paragraphs. This column reports on reader reactions as to what many lawyers would argue is the most important part of a legal analysis: application of the legal rule to a client's facts.
The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup
The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup
ExpressO
Increased communication between legal research and writing (“LRW”) programs and clinical programs is desirable because it provides students with a seamless learning experience, enhances faculty teaching in both departments, and creates opportunities for collaboration that benefits a law-school community generally. But barriers presently exist that hinder collaboration. Specifically, barriers that impact collaboration and integrated learning between LRW and clinical programs stem from: (1) differences in the development of the two disciplines and the resultant differences in teaching methodologies; and (2) other practical barriers including physical separation, status issues, lack of communication, competing demands within the law school and the reality …
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
This column is the second in a series analyzing feedback from readers about what they believe is good legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I provided a survey containing writing samples for three parts of an objective legal analysis. The survey questions asked readers to indicate which samples they preferred and why, and to comment on specific devices used in the samples.
“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier
“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
In the January 2006 Scrivener, I sought advice from my readers: Is the perception of what constitutes good legal writing in the eye of the beholder? By measuring reader reflections of the samples I posted in a survey online, I am attempting to answer this question.
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 …
Maccrate (In)Action: The Case For Enhancing The Upper-Level Writing Requirement In Law Schools, Kenneth D. Chestek
Maccrate (In)Action: The Case For Enhancing The Upper-Level Writing Requirement In Law Schools, Kenneth D. Chestek
ExpressO
In 2001, the American Bar Association amended the Standards for Accreditation of Law Schools to require, for the first time, a “rigorous writing experience after the first year.” During the summer of 2004 the author conducted a nationwide survey to determine how law schools responded to this change. The author found that most schools did little more than to require students to take at least one course which was evaluated by means of an academic paper rather than an examination. The author concludes that this is probably not the response the ABA had hoped for, but suggests that a 2005 …
Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier
Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Fortunately, some universals about legal audiences help make the task of defining good legal writing easier than defining good fiction writing. Legal writing must be utilitarian, so the emphasis should be on the message rather than on the writing itself. Consequently, to avoid distracting or turning off readers, my students must concentrate as much on what they should not write as on what they actually do write.
When A Rose Isn’T “Arose” Isn’T Arroz: A Guide To Footnoting For Informational Clarity And Scholarly Discourse, William B.T. Mock
When A Rose Isn’T “Arose” Isn’T Arroz: A Guide To Footnoting For Informational Clarity And Scholarly Discourse, William B.T. Mock
International Journal of Legal Information
The essence of footnoting is communication with the reader, but footnote communication that is literally subordinate to the primary text. What a footnote communicates therefore depends upon and extends what the primary text communicates, from telling the reader where to find the source of a reference made in the text through guiding the reader to the different ideas of other members of the invisible college of scholars in the field. By remaining sensitive to the purposes of different footnotes and the needs of the reader, effective footnoting can make a valuable contribution to scholarship.
Blogging And The Transformation Of Legal Scholarship, Lawrence B. Solum
Blogging And The Transformation Of Legal Scholarship, Lawrence B. Solum
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Does blogging have anything to do with legal scholarship? Could blogging transform the legal academy? This paper suggests that these are the wrong questions. Blogs have plenty to do with legal scholarship--that's obvious. But what blogs have to do with legal scholarship isn't driven by anything special about blogs qua weblogs, qua collections of web pages that share the form of a journal or log. The relationship between blogging and the future of legal scholarship is a product of other forces--the emergence of the short form, the obsolesce of exclusive rights, and the trend towards the disintermediation of legal scholarship. …