Jurisprudence Commons^™

The Force Of Law: The Role Of Coercion In Legal Norms, Ekow N. Yankah

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Faith In The Rule Of Law, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This is an essay on Brian Z. Tamanaha's Law as a Means to an End: Threat to the Rule of Law (2006).

For all but the most unflinching consequentialist, "instrumentalism" tends to draw mixed reviews. So it does from Brian Tamanaha. His book, Law as a Means to an End: Threat to the Rule of Law, documents with measured diffidence the ascendancy and current reign of "legal instrumentalism," so entrenched an understanding of law that it is "taken for granted in the United States, almost a part of the air we breathe." Professor Tamanaha shows that in our legal theorizing, …

Whose Public, Whose Order? Imperium, Region, And Normative Friction, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

Theories of international law and politics are a product of their times. They focus on the issues of the day (or of the immediate past) and their assumptions are often the assumptions of the society in which they were born. Perhaps that it is why so many international relations scholars were surprised by the end of the Cold War: Their theories were so informed by bipolarity that they were unable to see the actual changes that would transform the state system. As international relations scholars are re-assessing their theories in a post-Cold War world, lawyers may do the same concerning …

Reforming Testamentary Undue Influence In Canadian And English Law, Fiona R. Burns

Dalhousie Law Journal

The traditional doctrine of testamentary undue influence developed in nineteenth century England. Its utility, however, is limited since the doctrine requires the person alleging undue influence to provide direct proof of coercion according to a high standard. In England the doctrine has remained static and there have been calls for reform. In Canada, some courts have ceased to apply the traditional doctrine so that today there is no one consistent and coherent doctrine of testamentary undue influence. This article explores two possible reforms of the doctrine both of which are evident in recent Canadian case law: a presumption of testamentary …

Formalism In American Contract Law: Classical And Contemporary, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

It is a universally acknowledged truth that we live in a formalist era—at least when it comes to American contract law. Much more than the jurisprudence of a generation ago, today's cutting-edge work in American contract scholarship values the formalist virtues of bright-line rules, objective interpretation, and party autonomy. Policing bargains for substantive fairness seems more and more an outdated notion. Courts, it is thought, should refrain from interfering with market exchanges. Private arbitration has displaced courts in the context of many traditional contract disputes. Even adhesion contracts find their defenders, much to the chagrin of communitarian scholars.

This is …

On The Potential Of Neuroscience: A Comment On Greene And Cohen’S "For The Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing And Everything", Theodore Y. Blumoff

ExpressO

In a recent article, Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen add their voices to an emerging discussion about the place of neuroscience in law and social policy. They argue convincingly that new data from the developing field of neuroscience will dramatically and positively change our legal system. I agree with their conclusions, but I believe that their commitment to a kind of neuroscientific determinism or essentialism is wrong, unnecessary, and even dangerous; it would move law in a direction that eliminates ongoing, normative decision-making. In the essay I have attached, I first set the stage by discussing the commitment of our …

How And Understanding Of The Second Personal Standpoint Can Change Our Understanding Of The Law: Hart's Unpublished Response To Exclusive Legal Positivism, Robin B. Kar

ExpressO

This Article describes recent developments in moral philosophy on the “second personal standpoint,” and argues that they will have important ramifications for legal thought. Moral, legal and political thinkers have, for some time now, understood important distinctions between the first personal perspective (of deliberation) and the third personal perspective (of observation, cause and effect), and have plumbed these distinctions to great effect in their thought. This distinction is, in fact, implicit the law and economics movement’s “rational actor” model of decision, which currently dominates much legal academic thought. Recent developments in value theory due to philosopher Stephen Darwall suggest, however, …

Juridical Discourse And Evolutionary Dynamics , Atahualpa Fernandez

ExpressO

Abstract: This article propose an explanation about Law that crosses the scales of space, time and complexity to, by uniting the apparently irreconcilable facts of the social and the natural, integrate the perception of a normative network, of a social adaptive strategy, that certainly was created and exists in function of its contributions to survival and reproductive success during the long period of our evolutionary history, that is, to resolve recurrent evolutionary problems in an essentially social species such as ours that otherwise would not have managed to prosper biologically.

Introduction, Barbara J. Pariente

St. Thomas Law Review

Attorneys as collaborators and counselors. Judges who promote resolution of conflict. Law as a healing agent and court proceedings that minimize rather than exacerbate harm. Problem-solving courts. Restorative justice. Collaborative law.

Using Therapeutic Jurisprudence In Teaching Lawyering Skills: Meeting The Challenge Of The New Aba Standards, Bruce J. Winick

St. Thomas Law Review

At some law schools, existing courses already involve a simulation component. Some use a problem method approach whereby students are provided with written problems in advance and asked to come to class prepared to role play attorneys solving the problems or presenting opposing arguments concerning them. In the past, when I taught courses in Administrative Law and Federal Courts, I used a problem method approach that sought to blend skills training with doctrinal learning. For many years I have taught, and continue to teach, a course in Advanced Criminal Procedure using a variety of problems crafted over the years that …

Reflections On The Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Creative Problem Solving, And Clinical Education In The Transactional Curriculum, Edward A. Dauer

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence In An Interprofessional Practice At The University Of St. Thomas Interprofessional Center For Counseling And Legal Services, Jennifer L. Wright

St. Thomas Law Review

The Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services (the "Center" or "Interprofessional Center") is a joint effort by the School of Law, the School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas' in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the Center, law, social work and psychology students gain practice skills by working with clients under the supervision of experienced supervisors. The Center provides pro bono professional services to low-income, working poor and other underserved populations who would otherwise have no access to such assistance. The same can be said of many clinical programs. In addition, …

Taking Hold Of The Elephant In Child Dependency And Neglect Cases, Christina A. Zawisza

St. Thomas Law Review

In order to place this article in context, I will first describe Tennessee's practice rule for attorneys representing children as Guardians ad Litem. It is an example of the "Elephant," the many component parts of a child's life that the child's lawyer is required to bring together to represent the child holistically. In Part II, I will describe and apply three developing jurisprudential movements that embrace the techniques I utilize: interdisciplinary practice, creative problem-solving and Therapeutic Jurisprudence. In Part III, I will provide an overview of ecomaps and genograms as they are commonly used in the social sciences. In Part …

George's Story: Voice And Transformation Through The Teaching And Practice Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence In A Law School Child Advocacy Clinic, Bernard P. Perlmutter

St. Thomas Law Review

In recent years, the Therapeutic Jurisprudence and preventive law model has begun to penetrate legal education. As this article attempts to show, this model has much to offer clinical legal education and child advocacy clinics, in particular. This article describes how Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Therapeutic Jurisprudence/preventive law model are used in the Children & Youth Law Clinic, and demonstrates their value in the context of representing one foster care client of the Clinic. Specific examples of our activity are rewound to analyze the strategies or techniques the Clinic used or, in retrospect, should have used, to address or prevent …

Therapeutic Jurisprudence And The Rehabilitative Role Of The Criminal Defense Lawyer, David B. Wexler

St. Thomas Law Review

In the present article, I will identify the potential rehabilitative role of the attorney from the beginning stages-possible diversion, for example through sentencing and even beyond-through conditional or unconditional release, and possible efforts to expunge the criminal record. This article has two principal purposes; first, to call for the explicit recognition of a TJ criminal lawyer, and to provide, in a very sketchy manner, an overview of that role; second, to propose an agenda of research and teaching to foster the development of the rehabilitative role of the criminal lawyer. While much of the proposed research would discuss the rehabilitative …

Validation Through Other Means: How Immigration Clinics Can Give Immigrants A Voice When Bureaucracy Has Left Them Speechless, Evelyn H. Cruz

St. Thomas Law Review

To better frame this discussion, I will first describe the immigration process and its anti-therapeutic effects on immigrants in some detail. I will then proceed to discuss the use of community presentations and contextual representation practices to preserve a client's voice and validation in the immigration process. Throughout this article, and more specifically in my conclusion, I will examine how students who understand the need to address "psycho-legal soft spots" naturally gravitate to client-centered representation, thereby becoming empathetic and competent practitioners.

Must We Bankrupt The Spirit Also: The Benefits Of Incorporating Therapeutic Jurisprudence Into Law School Bankruptcy Assistance Programs, Michael L. Stines

St. Thomas Law Review

This paper will examine the psychological effects associated with filing for consumer bankruptcy and techniques that can be learned by law students and young lawyers to help soften the blow for those who will inevitably experience those effects. First, the progression of bankruptcy will be discussed, tracking changes from its origins to modem times and the effect those changes may have had on those attempting to take advantage of the system's benefits. Second, the actual process of filing for bankruptcy will be examined, pointing out the aspects that cause damage to an individual's mental health. Third, this paper will analyze …

Practicing (And Teaching) Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Importing Social Work Principles And Techniques Into Clinical Legal Education, Susan L. Brooks

St. Thomas Law Review

Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence ("TJ") requires proponents to advance a particular normative framework. As a clinical social worker turned lawyer, who is now also a clinical law teacher, I believe strongly that the field of social work provides a useful framework for legal education and practice. As I will demonstrate through examples from my teaching and my students' practice experiences, the role of the clinical law teacher is uniquely and well suited to apply social work values, principles, concepts, and techniques. By importing these core social work elements into the clinical legal education, faculty can truly teach future lawyers to practice …

Therapeutic Jurisprudence And Preventative Law In The Thomas M. Cooley Sixty Plus, Inc., Elder Law Clinic, Cindy E. Faulkner

St. Thomas Law Review

Gertrude Smith phones the SixtyPlus, Inc., Elderlaw Clinic ("Clinic") to schedule an appointment. She informs the receptionist that she wants to come to the Clinic so she can "get a trust." Ms. Smith is scheduled for an intake appointment to meet with two student legal interns ("interns"). Ms. Smith arrives for her appointment, is introduced to the interns, and agrees to be interviewed. The senior intern (a student in her second term at the Clinic) begins the interview by asking Ms. Smith what brought her to the Clinic. Ms. Smith reiterates that she "wants a trust because it is the …

From Violence And Victimization To Voice And Validation: Incorporating Therapeutic Jurisprudence In A Children's Law Clinic, Carolyn S. Salisbury

St. Thomas Law Review

This article discusses our Clinic's Voice Project and examines the application of Therapeutic Jurisprudence principles to the group of foster children who created the Trapped mural: girls who are victims of abuse and who are committed to psychiatric facilities. In their self-expression, an overwhelming number of the girls focused on their experiences of being sexually abused and feeling re-victimized within the psychiatric and legal systems. Unfortunately, "[u]nlike most victims of other sexualized violence, the victims of child sexual abuse have had little or no voice, creating a literal as well as figurative absence of narrative about the harm." In this …

Therapeutic Jurisprudence - An Australian Perspective, George Hampel Qc

St. Thomas Law Review

At a recent conference in Crete on Ethics and Professional Responsibilities, I had the privilege of meeting David B. Wexler and hearing his presentation on Therapeutic Jurisprudence. I also had the advantage of reading his article entitled Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Rehabilitative Role of the Criminal Defense Lawyer. Over a cup of good Greek coffee, Mr. Wexler asked me about developments in this area in Australia and suggested I might contribute to a forthcoming publication. The short answer is that there has been little development in academic circles compared to the work being done by Mr. Wexler and others in …

Making The Case: Therapeutic Jurisprudence And Problem-Solving Practices Positively Impact Clients, Justice Systems And Communities They Serve, Cait Clarke, James Neuhard

St. Thomas Law Review

What is becoming known as Therapeutic Jurisprudence or client-centered representation is new to most line-lawyers or leaders of traditional public defense programs. However, many of these practices have been incorporated into the daily practices within defender offices for decades. Strategies that secure better bonds or sentences lead many public defense programs to seek early entry into the jails and to verify client information. Efforts to learn about "beds" for their clients that were unknown to swamped probation programs have lead offices and individual defenders to actively participate and create alternative treatment programs. Overworked offices hire less expensive sentencing specialists or …

Law's Box: Law, Jurisprudence And The Information Ecosphere, Paul D. Callister

Faculty Works

For so long as it has been important to know what the law is, the practice of law has been an information profession. Nonetheless, just how the information ecosphere affects legal discourse and thinking has never been systematically studied. Legal scholars study how law attempts to regulate information flow, but they say little about how information limits, shapes, and provides a medium for law to operate.

Part I of the paper introduces a holistic approach to medium theory - the idea that methods of communication influence social development and ideology - and applies the theory to the development of legal …

Rediscovering Williston, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

This Article is an intellectual history of classical contracts scholar Samuel Williston. Professor Movsesian argues that the conventional account of Williston's jurisprudence presents an incomplete and distorted picture. While much of Williston's work can strike a contemporary reader as arid and conceptual, there are strong elements of pragmatism as well. Williston insists that doctrine be justified in terms of real-world consequences, maintains that rules can have only presumptive force, and offers institutional explanations for judicial restraint. As a result, his scholarship shares more in common with today's new formalism than commonly supposed. Even the under-theorized quality of Williston's scholarship—to contemporary …

Measure For Measure: Two Misunderstood Prinicples Of Damages, Exodus 21:22-25 Life For Life, Eye For Eye And Matthew 5:38-39 Turn The Other Cheek, Andrew R. Simmonds

St. Thomas Law Review

The most important measure of damages is measure for measure: the rule of proportional damages, which in its most famous iteration is the rule of "eye for eye." Found most prominently in the biblical Book of the Covenant in Exodus 21:22-25, the rule states that where two men fight and in the course of their fight a pregnant woman and her fetuses are killed the penalty shall be "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, stripe for stripe." The biblical maxims "eye for eye" and "you have heard it …

Modern Trends In Veterinary Malpractice: How Our Evolving Attitudes Toward Nonhuman Animals Will Change Veterinary Medicine, Mary Margaret Mceachern Nunalee, G. Robert Weedon

Animal Law Review

The purpose of this article is to trace the historical trends in the attitudes of humans toward non-human animals generally and apply that analysis to recent and predicted future trends in veterinary malpractice jurisprudence. This article is also designed to assist attorneys representing owners and veterinarians in spotting the myriad legal issues that have arisen from these trends in order to more effectively represent parties to malpractice actions.

The Future Of Veterinary Malpractice Liability In The Care Of Companion Animals, Christopher Green

Animal Law Review

This comment investigates the factual bases of arguments from the veterinary community and of those that support increasing the malpractice liability of veterinarians. Combining law and economics theory with basic mathematics to evaluate the validity of these positions, it then suggests specific measures for legislatively addressing those parties’ concerns.

Tracking The Circulatory Of Confession Jurisprudence After Massiah & (And) Miranda: Can A Superficial Application Of Property Law Make Sense Out Of Nonsense?, Rory Bahadur

St. Thomas Law Review

After Miranda v. Arizona and Massiah v. United States, there were arguably three doctrinally separate methodologies for determining the admissibility of confessions in criminal proceedings. The interaction of these three doctrines has generated a complex, contradictory, somewhat inexplicable, and chaotic jurisprudence. This paper re-examines the post- Miranda interaction of the three doctrines, and argues that basic property law provides a conceptual framework for reconciling what appears to be an otherwise arbitrary and unpalatable collection of Supreme Court decisions. Section one briefly examines the totality of the circumstances test and the Miranda and Massiah decisions themselves, not from the standpoint of …

The Role Of Comparative Law In Statutory And Constitutional Interpretation, Jens C. Dammann

St. Thomas Law Review

This article argues that comparative law can legitimately be used as a standard tool in the context of legal interpretation. Part I establishes a terminological framework for the analysis undertaken in this article. Part II examines existing attempts at justifying the use of comparative arguments in legal interpretation. It is shown that the approaches in question can only legitimize the use of comparative law in specific circumstances but fail to provide a general basis for the use of comparative reasoning. Part HI identifies possible objections to the legitimacy of comparative justification. To do so, it analyzes both the relevant literature …

Voluntary Intoxication In Florida: Public Policy Versus Due Process And Why Florida's Intoxication Statute Cannot Withstand A Constitutional Challenge, Michael L. Elkins

St. Thomas Law Review

This comment examines the substance of the opinions in Egelhoff and juxtaposes the Florida statutory scheme against the proper constitutional analysis. The Egelhoff majority has done little to provide a workable constitutional backdrop from which other state statutes banning evidence of voluntary intoxication may be categorized. Part II of this comment provides the historical background for the voluntary intoxication defense. Part I initially examines the factual and legal background of the Egelhoff case as set forth by the Montana Supreme Court. Part IV then provides an analysis of the opinions authored by the United States Supreme Court. This section will …