Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Seeing Beyond The Words: What Interdisciplinary Methodologies Reveal About International Law, Matthew S. Erie, Mark Pollack, Wolfgang Alschner, Beth Simmons, Katerina Linos

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INTRODUCTION: On April 24, 2025, the International Law and Social Science Interest Group debuted at the ASIL Annual Meeting with a panel that posed a deceptively simple question: how can social science tools advance the work of international lawyers? Chaired by Chantal Thomas, the session brought together Matthew Erie, Wolfgang Alschner, Beth Simmons, and Katerina Linos— scholars who bridge doctrinal and empirical inquiry—to show how ethnography, computational text analysis, counterfactual inference, and mixed-method design can illuminate legal puzzles that doctrine alone cannot solve. The four short essays in this symposium provide parallel illustrations of this core theme: Erie’s ethnographic approach …

Panel Discussion: So You Want To Publish A Book?, Suzanne Kim, Steven W. Bender, Angela J. Davis, Susan D. Carle, Clara Platter, Katheryn Russell-Brown

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Reaching wide and varied audiences for our academic work through book publishing served as the focus on this pipeline program panel. Through a dynamic conversation among leaders in book publishing from the academic and editorial sectors, we discussed the nuts and bolts of book publishing.

We are indebted, for this important dialogue, to American University Washington College of Law, NPOC, and all the conference’s co-sponsoring schools. We particularly want to thank Vice Dean Susan Carle of American University Washington College of Law, whose idea it was to host this panel. We were joined by the following expert book authors for …

From The Editors, Robert Dinerstein, Ezra Rosser

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This issue includes articles, conference transcripts, and book reviews that date to 2019. The woeful delay is solely the result of our own editorial failure, and we wish to apologize on behalf of the Journal to our readers and to the many contributing authors who put their trust in us. Rest assured that procedures have been established to prevent reoccurrence of such unacceptable time lags. But do know that we appreciate having fallen far short of professional standards in this instance.

Panel Discussion: Balancing Scholarship, Teaching And Service To Succeed On The Tenure Track – A Workshop For Pretenure Colleagues And Faculty Aspirants, Brenda Smith

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In imagining the National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, the planning committee brainstormed about the theme of the conference and the scope of panels and opportunities that would capture the breadth and vibrancy of scholarship by faculty of color. An antecedent, however, to that scholarship is the entry, success, and thriving of faculty of color in the academy.

Searching For Justice: Incorporating Critical Legal Research Into Clinic Seminar, Priya Baskaran

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This Article provides educators with a roadmap for incorporating Critical Legal Research into Clinical Pedagogy. Critical Legal Research is a social justice-oriented critical intervention that provides a theoretical framework and practical application. Critical Legal Research provides lawyers with tools to deconstruct but also reconstruct legal research and analysis modes to engender more just, client-focused outcomes that fall outside dominant legal narratives. The problematic advent of ChatGPT and the broader incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the legal research regime has made the Critical Legal Research project more urgent than ever. Ultimately, introducing Critical Legal Research in the clinic seminar is …

The Art Of Discovery: Part 2, David Spratt

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Form discovery is undeniably useful, particularly for seeing the types of questions or documents that are usually asked in a certain type of case. Unfortunately, many form interrogatories and document requests are outdated and do not follow effective writing strategies of clarity and precision. Many of the sample discovery requests are full of legalese, which often results in ambiguity. Grab your comb and razor, as we work together to “clean up” your discovery requests.

Debunking The Efficacy Of Standard Contract Boilerplate: Part V, David Spratt

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After five installments, we can end our discussion of contract boilerplate. We have slashed the outdated language and emerged as a clear and contemporary legal writer. Be willing to adapt what has worked well in the past because change is the foundation of human ingenuity.

Debunking The Efficacy Of Standard Contract Boilerplate: Part Iv, David Spratt

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We have belabored the archaic and prohibited use of "said" as a synonym for "the." But this paragraph needs more work. First, the phrase "irrespective of the fact that" is wordy and could be replaced with the plain language alternative of "even though." Second, "one or more of the parties now is, or may become, a resident of a different state" also could be streamlined. The phrase is easy enough to understand but cut to the chase. Replacing this phrase with "either party now or later resides in a different state" does the trick.

What Inclusive Instructors Do Book Review, Jamie Abrams

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Inclusive teaching is not just an aspirational goal. It is our ethical obligation to students. Our students can spend years dreaming of attending law school and working to achieve that goal. They can spend decades paying off the costs of attendance. Law faculty owe every student of all backgrounds, races, religions, genders, learning abilities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, immigration statuses, and military statuses an environment in which they feel like they belong and can thrive. WHAT INCLUSIVE INSTRUCTORS Do powerfully reminds us that inclusive teaching is not identified by obscenity law's "I know it when I see it" murkiness. Rather, it …

The Dream Of Property Professors, Ezra Rosser

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Michael Heller and James Salzman's new book, Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives, is a dream come true for property professors.

I suspect that many of us have moments when we think to ourselves, "wow, this stuff is really interesting," imagining that property law could somehow be of general interest. Too often that dream is killed when the eyes of non-lawyers, including family members, start to glaze over when they hear words like rule against perpetuities or trademark. Heller and Salzman have succeeded in making the stories property professors tell the stuff of a bestseller. They …

Debunking The Efficacy Of Standard Contract Boilerplate: Part Iii, David Spratt

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There are several things wrong with this paragraph. First, the heading "Knowledge of Residence" is underinclusive, as the paragraph concerns more than where each party lives. A more inclusive and effective heading would be "Knowledge of Contact Information." Second, the introductory phrase is ambiguous, as one could read "for so long as the minor children are less than eighteen years of age" as requiring the parties to exchange information only until one of the parties' children turns 18. Moreover, "eighteen years of age" is archaic and clunky legalese. Keep it simple, solicitors: "eighteen" or "age eighteen" would suffice. Applying these …

Improve Recitals And Consideration Clauses With Plain Language, David Spratt

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As used in a "WHEREAS" clause, the term "whereas" simply means "considering that" or "that being the case." There is no legal effect to the word "whereas." It, like many other words used in standard contract boilerplate, is left over from some long-forgotten era of legal writing when lawyers used big words and legalese to impress clients with their intelligence and to justify their bills. These times have (or at least should have) passed. Today, documents must be accessible to those who use them: in most cases the clients for whom such documents are drafted.

Debunking The Efficacy Of Standard Contract Boilerplate: Part I, David Spratt

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Many contracts start with an introductory paragraph like this one: THIS AGREEMENT is made and entered into said 5th day of June, 2020, by and between JOHN JONES (hereinafter referred to as "Jones") and MARY SMITH (hereafter referred to as "Smith"), hereinafter referred to together as "the parties." Where do I find my red pen? There are so many problems with this introduction, I might run out of ink.

The Deconstructed Issue-Spotting Exam, Jamie Abrams

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This article proposes a teaching technique for use in large, Socratic-style law school classes to embed exam preparation, formative assessment, and lawyering simulations in the course without overburdening the professor or students. This technique is sustainable, yet highly efficacious for students.

Law schools nationwide are implementing new reforms pushing law schools toward stronger assessment techniques and client-based simulations better preparing students for the practice of law. Many law schools have implemented these reforms around the margins or outside of the traditional doctrinal course. Law schools have generally added new classes with experiential learning components or with simulations integrated into the …

Take Inventory Each Year, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Narrative Understanding: Revisiting The Stories Of Lay Lawyering, Ann Shalleck

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This article examines the tentative beginnings of Gerald Lopez's decades-long project of using storytelling as a method to describe, understand, and analyze the work of lawyers. It evaluates his 1984 article, Lay Lawyering, for its contributions to the development of narrative as a descriptive, explanatory, and critical device for compre­hending the complex and fraught work of lawyers. It begins with a detailed critique of the four parts of Lay Lawyering. In the article, Lopez first identifies problem solving and stock stories as the key concepts defining the work of the lawyer and then tells three stories from three perspectives about …

"And/Or" And The Proper Use Of Legal Language, Ira P. Robbins

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The use of the term and/or is pervasive in legal language. Lawyers use it in all types of legal contexts—including statutes, contracts, and pleadings. Beginning in the 1930s, however, many judges decided that the term and/or should never be used in legal drafting. Ardent attacks on the term included charges that it was vague, if not meaningless, with some authorities declaring it to be a “Janus-faced verbal monstrosity,” an “inexcusable barbarism,” a “mongrel expression,” an “abominable invention,” a “crutch of sloppy thinkers,” and “senseless jargon.” Still today, critics maintain that the construct and/or is inherently ambiguous and should be avoided …

Best Practices For Teaching Advanced Legal Research Asynchronously Online, Khelani Clay, Shannon M. Roddy

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No abstract provided.

Practice And Fitness Making Writing Perfection More Nearly Attainable, Heather Ridenour, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Freeing The Law, Khelani Clay

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No abstract provided.

Experiential Learning And Assessment In The Era Of Donald Trump, Jamie Abrams

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Law teaching is turning a critical corner with the implementation of new ABA accreditation standards requiring greater skills development, experiential learning, and student assessment. Years of debate and discourse preceded the adoption of these ABA Standards, followed by a surge in programming, conferencing, and list-serv activity to prepare to implement these standards effectively. Missing from the dialogue about effective implementation of standards has been thoughtful consideration of how implementing these requirements will intersect with the challenges, realities, opportunities, and complexities of political divisiveness and polarization so prevalent in society and university campuses today.

Law schools are notably implementing these pedagogical …

Can't Get There From Here: Recalculate Into Better Legal Writing, Heather Ridenour

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No abstract provided.

The Fact Of The Matter, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Reframing The Socratic Method, Jamie Abrams

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While innovations in law teaching are everywhere, these innovations are being constructed upon and limited by the ancient architecture of the case-based Socratic method, which still endures and persists throughout first-year and upper-level courses. This article highlights how the Socratic method limits the depth and breadth of innovations in law teaching and can be reframed to better catalyze other teaching innovations, create more practice-ready lawyers, and cultivate more inclusive and inviting law classrooms. Within the existing framework of law teaching – the same casebooks, class sizes, and teaching style – the case-based Socratic method can be reframed in three straight-forward …

Speaking With Conviction: The Importance Of Effective And Precise Communications, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Playing To The Audience, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Why Punctuation Matters: Part Three, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Giving Purpose To Your Life As A Legal Writer, David Spratt

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No abstract provided.

Teaching Rule Synthesis With Real Cases, Paul Figley

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Rule synthesis is the process of integrating a rule or principle from several cases. It is a skill attorneys and judges use on a daily basis to formulate effective arguments, develop jurisprudence, and anticipate future problems. Teaching new law students how to synthesize rules is a critical component in training them to think like lawyers.

This article suggests how rule synthesis might be taught in one classroom session using real cases. It advocates a three-part approach. First, explain the nature of rule synthesis to the students. Second, do a whimsical exercise with them to show how rule synthesis works. Finally, …

Legal Education And Civility, Mark Niles

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No abstract provided.