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2013

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Articles 121 - 141 of 141

Full-Text Articles in Legal Writing and Research

Teaching Legal History Through Legal Skills, Howard Bromberg Jan 2013

Teaching Legal History Through Legal Skills, Howard Bromberg

Articles

I revolve my legal history courses around one methodology: teaching legal history by means of legal skills. I draw on my experience teaching legal practice and clinical s.kills courses to assign briefs and oral arguments as a means for law students to immerse themselves in historical topics. Without detracting from other approaches, I frame this innovation as teaching legal history not to budding historians but to budding lawyers.

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Hydraulic Fracturing: Sources Of Law And Information, Barbara H. Garavaglia Jan 2013

Hydraulic Fracturing: Sources Of Law And Information, Barbara H. Garavaglia

Articles

Hydraulic fracturing—also known as fracking—has become increasingly controversial in the United States over the past several years, especially in states such as Michigan with large shale gas deposits that were previously unextractable. In 2012, a Michigan fracking ban initiative failed to make it onto the November statewide ballot, but citizens groups are presently collecting signatures in an attempt to get the initiative onto the November 2014 ballot as an “initiated state statute.” And, more recently, state auctions of drilling permits have been the scenes of citizen protests driven by concerns about the potential environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing.

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Transactional Drafting: Using Law Firm Marketing Materials As A Research Resource For Teaching Drafting, Edward R. Becker Jan 2013

Transactional Drafting: Using Law Firm Marketing Materials As A Research Resource For Teaching Drafting, Edward R. Becker

Articles

Since I started teaching drafting, I would like to think that I have continued to learn some lessons about teaching both the substance and the skills of transactional drafting. One of those lessons that I am going to be talking about today is one that I stumbled across by happy accident rather than one that I consciously sought. Specifically, I want to talk about and highlight the ways that law students can use law firm marketing materials to increase their understanding of both drafting and lawyering skills in law school and, hopefully, in practice.

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Research Strategies, Maureen Moran Jan 2013

Research Strategies, Maureen Moran

Law Faculty Publications

It is 3 a .m. and you are up, prepping for class. Again. You have reading to do for Torts, for Contracts, and for Civil Procedure, and if you fall behind even one day, you will be spending hours late at night for the next few days trying to catch up. Or, worse, you will be unprepared and that will be the day your professor will call on you. And to add to your stress, you have a research project for your legal writing class due in less than two days, and you have not even started. Your professor told …

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Foreign And International Legal Research, Maureen Moran Jan 2013

Foreign And International Legal Research, Maureen Moran

Law Faculty Publications

As you have been learning, the American legal system is only one of hundreds in the world. Each of those legal systems has its own rules, sources, and authorities. But these systems do not exist in a vacuum. What rules govern when two or more States or entities interact? What are the enforcement mechanisms? The study of these questions comprises the fields of foreign law and international law. The purpose of this chapter is not to give you a comprehensive review of all the resources available for researching this vast field of law. Rather, the goal is to give you …

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Pointing Out The Power Of Prezi, Part Ii: Learning To Use Prezi, Paul M. Birch Jan 2013

Pointing Out The Power Of Prezi, Part Ii: Learning To Use Prezi, Paul M. Birch

Law Faculty Publications

This article introduces Prezi, the online presentation software which has emerged as a most promising alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. Part II provides a tutorial designed to acquaint the user with the basic steps in creating a presentation, and offers additional advice for effective use of Prezi.

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Legal History In Context, Logan E. Sawyer Iii Jan 2013

Legal History In Context, Logan E. Sawyer Iii

Scholarly Works

The author examines the teaching methodologies involved in historical education and legal education.

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The Missing Link: Making Research Easier With Linked Citations, Nick Harrell Jan 2013

The Missing Link: Making Research Easier With Linked Citations, Nick Harrell

Publications

No abstract provided.

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Self-Congratulation And Scholarship, Paul Campos Jan 2013

Self-Congratulation And Scholarship, Paul Campos

Publications

Professor Jay Silver’s criticism of the reform proposals put forward in Brian Tamanaha’s book Failing Law Schools displays some characteristic weaknesses of American legal academic culture. These weaknesses include a tendency to make bold assertions about the value of legal scholarship and the effectiveness of law school pedagogy, while at the same time providing no support for these assertions beyond a willingness to repeat self-congratulatory platitudes about who professors are and what we do. The high costs for our students of the current scholarly expectations at American law schools are clear. What is not clear is whether those costs are …

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Between England And France: A Cross-Channel Legal Culture In The Late Thirteenth Century, Thomas J. Mcsweeney Jan 2013

Between England And France: A Cross-Channel Legal Culture In The Late Thirteenth Century, Thomas J. Mcsweeney

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Safe To Be Open: Study On The Protection Of Research Data And Recommendations For Access And Usage, Lucie Guibault, Andreas Wiebe Jan 2013

Safe To Be Open: Study On The Protection Of Research Data And Recommendations For Access And Usage, Lucie Guibault, Andreas Wiebe

Books

Openness has become a common concept in a growing number of scientific and academic fields. Expressions such as Open Access (OA) or Open Content (OC) are often employed for publications of papers and research results, or are contained as conditions in tenders issued by a number of funding agencies. More recently the concept of Open Data (OD) is of growing interest in some fields, particularly those that produce large amounts of data – which are not usually protected by standard legal tools such as copyright. However, a thorough understanding of the meaning of Openness – especially its legal implications – …

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A Tale Of Three Hoaxes: When Literature Offends The Law, Molly Guptill Manning Jan 2013

A Tale Of Three Hoaxes: When Literature Offends The Law, Molly Guptill Manning

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

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Research Strategies And Organization, Courtney L. Selby Jan 2013

Research Strategies And Organization, Courtney L. Selby

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Each research project is by nature unique, and thus it requires that a distinctive strategy be applied. This chapter explores the ways in which a savvy researcher can take the essential elements of a fresh search, examine answers to some critical questions related to the issue(s) at hand, develop a strategy for approaching the research process that fits the unique problem, and implement that strategy in a cost- effective and efficient way. It culminates in recommendations for organizing the information gathered so that you may convey your findings in a clear, thoughtful, and useful manner. The chapter concludes with tips …

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Witness Recantation Study: Preliminary Findings, Alexandra E. Gross, Samuel R. Gross Jan 2013

Witness Recantation Study: Preliminary Findings, Alexandra E. Gross, Samuel R. Gross

Other Publications

In September 2012, the National Registry of Exonerations began a research study of all the cases in our database that involve post-conviction recantations by witnesses or victims. This is the first systematic study of recantations ever conducted. Its purpose is to identify patterns and trends among these cases, with a particular focus on the circumstances that first elicit the false testimony, and on the official reactions to the recantations by judges and other authorities. Our data set includes all the cases in the Registry as of February 28, 2013 – a total of 1,068 cases, 250 of which involve recantations. …

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Post-Crawford: Were Recent Changes To State Voter Id Laws Really Necessary To Prevent Voter Fraud And Protect The Electoral Process?, Tracey Carter Jan 2013

Post-Crawford: Were Recent Changes To State Voter Id Laws Really Necessary To Prevent Voter Fraud And Protect The Electoral Process?, Tracey Carter

Law Faculty Scholarship

Voter identification (ID) was the hottest topic in election law debates in numerous state legislatures throughout 2011 and 2012. In fact, in 2012, voter ID legislation was introduced in 32 states. The 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board served as the impetus for the flurry of recent changes in state voter ID laws across the country. In the Crawford decision, the Supreme Court upheld restrictions on voting, specifically upholding strict photo identification requirements when voting in person at the polls on Election Day. This article discusses the right to vote, recent voter photo ID …

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Discovering E-Discovery: A Resources Guide, Timothy L. Coggins Jan 2013

Discovering E-Discovery: A Resources Guide, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

E-discovery refers to discovery in civil litigation that focuses on the exchange of information in electronic form. Lainie Crouch Kaiser, a litigation attorney with McDermott Will & Emery, writes that “e-Discovery can be used as an umbrella term for both the legal and operational considerations related to how electronically stored information (ESI) is used in the modern day practice of law.”There are many types of ESI, including e-mail and office documents, voicemail, photos, video, and databases. Attorneys and others who write about e-discovery also include “raw data” as discoverable information. Ronald J. Hedges of Nixon Peabody writes that “[t]echnically, documents …

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Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence Of Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem, Vanessa Edkins, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2013

Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence Of Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem, Vanessa Edkins, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

We investigated plea bargaining by making students actually guilty or innocent of a cheating offense and varying the sentence that they would face if found ‘guilty’ by a review board. As hypothesized, guilty students were more likely than innocent students to accept a plea deal (i.e., admit guilt and lose credit; akin to accepting a sentence of probation) (Chi-square=8.63, p<.01) but we did not find an effect of sentence severity. Innocent students, though not as likely to plead as guilty students, showed an overall preference (56% across conditions) for accepting a plea deal. Implications and future directions are discussed.

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The Innocent Defendant’S Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study Of Plea Bargaining’S Innocence Problem, Lucian E. Dervan, Vanessa Edkins Jan 2013

The Innocent Defendant’S Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study Of Plea Bargaining’S Innocence Problem, Lucian E. Dervan, Vanessa Edkins

Law Faculty Scholarship

In 1989, Ada JoAnn Taylor was accused of murder and presented with stark options. If she pleaded guilty, she would be rewarded with a sentence of ten to forty years in prison. If, however, she proceeded to trial and was convicted, she would likely spend the rest of her life behind bars. Over a thousand miles away in Florida and more than twenty years later, a college student was accused of cheating and presented with her own incentives to admit wrongdoing and save the university the time and expense of proceeding before a disciplinary review board. Both women decided the …

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Black Armbands, 'Boobies' Bracelets And The Need To Protect Student Speech, David L. Hudson Jr. Jan 2013

Black Armbands, 'Boobies' Bracelets And The Need To Protect Student Speech, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Discusses the precedential value of the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District decision in the current Boobies Bracelets debate.

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White Collar Over-Criminalization: Deterrence, Plea Bargaining, And The Loss Of Innocence, Lucian E. Dervan Jan 2013

White Collar Over-Criminalization: Deterrence, Plea Bargaining, And The Loss Of Innocence, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Overcriminalization takes many forms and impacts the American criminal justice system in varying ways. This article focuses on a select portion of this phenomenon by examining two types of overcriminalization prevalent in white collar criminal law. The first type of over criminalization discussed in this article is Congress’s propensity for increasing the maximum criminal penalties for white collar offenses in an effort to punish financial criminals more harshly while simultaneously deterring others. The second type of overcriminalization addressed is Congress’s tendency to create vague and overlapping criminal provisions in areas already criminalized in an effort to expand the tools available …

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Applying Mathematical Set Theory To Statutory Construction Of Municipal Sign Laws, Ann L. Nowak Jan 2013

Applying Mathematical Set Theory To Statutory Construction Of Municipal Sign Laws, Ann L. Nowak

Scholarly Works

This case illustrates why municipal lawyers might want to review their high school mathematics lessons about set theory before drafting statutes. The application of set theory—particularly in the form of Venn diagrams—can help to prevent ambiguity of language in statutory construction. It is this ambiguity that gives rise to differences in interpretation, and these differences frequently lead to litigation over the meaning of a statute.

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