Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Getting It Right: Title Ix's Role In Adjudicating Sexual Assault Claims, Mary Margaret "Meg" Penrose

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Sexual assault is a crime. We have a serious issue in the United States with sexual assault and sexual harassment. We are seeing this play out right now, and I think the “Me Too” campaign has brought important attention to this issue. An issue that impacts not only our college residence halls, but, as we have seen, the halls of Congress. Serious people are not debating whether sexual assault and sexual harassment pose a societal problem. Rather, serious people are debating how to adequately address these issues without compromising fairness to all involved.

Perspectives On Title Ix From A General Counsel's Office, Laurence Pendleton, Jeff Farrar

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2018 Symposium by Laurence Pendleton who serves as University Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees at Tennessee State University and Jeff Farrar who serves as the Associate University Counsel for Middle Tennessee State University discussing the role of the Department of Education in providing recommendations and advice to universities and the role of an attorney in the general counsel's office in interacting with Title IX.

Prosecuting And Defending Campus Assaults: Practitioners' Perspectives, Victor (Torry) S. Johnson, Richard Mcgee

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2018 Symposium by Victor S. (Torry) Johnson former District Attorney General for Davidson County and current Visiting Professor of Law at Belmont University College of Law and Richard McGee a criminal defense lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee in the Public Defender’s Office giving a practitioner's perspective on prosecuting and defending campus assaults.

Criminal Law In Practice Series: Jury Selection, Rob Mcguire

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the Criminal Law in Practice Series by Rob McGuire who currently serves as Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and an adjunct professor at Belmont University College of Law speaking on Jury Selection.

Criminal Law In Practice Series: Appellate Procedure Panel, Leslie Price, Jeff Devasher

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the Criminal Law in Practice Series by Leslie Price with the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and Jeff DeVasher with the Nashville Public Defenders Office discussing some appellate law issues.

State Of Tennessee V. Antoine Perrier, Nickolas Bolduc, Dakota Dexter

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Student comments on the Tennessee Supreme Court decision “State of Tennessee v. Antoine Perrier”. The law now holds that the Tennessee legislature intended that the phrase “not engaged in unlawful activity” contained in the self-defense statute constitutes a condition on an individual’s privilege to not retreat prior to exercising self-defense. Next, the trial court now possesses the duty of determining whether a defendant was engaged in unlawful activity at the time of the alleged self-defense as to negate the applicable instruction. Those holdings are the newest additions to Tennessee law.

State Of Tennessee V. Sedrick Clayton, Amanda Gentry, Kendahl Shoemaker

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Student comments on the Tennessee Supreme Court decision “State of Tennessee v. Sedrick Clayton”. All defendants charged with crimes deserve a competent and rigorous defense because of the higher stakes in a criminal matter, the loss of liberty, and none more so than in a capital punishment case where the stakes for the defendant are at the highest—the loss of life. This case and the Court’s subsequent analysis illustrates the incredible importance of compliance with all procedural requirements when mounting a defense on behalf of a defendant, as the failure to comply with certain procedural rules ultimately resulted in the …

Anything You Spit Can Be Use Against You, Juliana Lamar

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Rap lyrics have a high probative value when the lyrics tend to show a defendant’s destructive behavior and confrontational mindset, but the use of this evidence can be highly prejudicial to criminal defendants. Studies have shown graphic evidence leads jurors to experience negative emotional states, and to analyze evidence in accordance with those feelings. This suggests that if a defendant’s profane and violent lyrics are presented before the jury, there is a strong likelihood the jury will react more to the words in the lyrics in characterizing the defendant, rather than the defendant’s case as a whole. To avoid the …

How Defendant Characteristics Affect Sentencing And Conviction In The Us, Payton Kuenzli

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This research study analyzes whether or not there is any relationship between sentencing and conviction and certain defendant characteristics in the US legal system. In the midst of a time where the nation is strongly divided politically, the topic is often the center of research projects and discussions in academic journals. Specifically, this research explores the 3 characteristics- race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Within this article, multiple case studies from other journals are cited in which research and experiments have suggested that these factors do have influence on both whether or not a defendant gets convicted or for how long …

My Year Of Citation Studies, Part 3, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

In this third installment examining citation studies, Ms. Whisner looks at five articles from each of a sample of twenty-three journals published in 1982, and discovers some surprising results.

My Year Of Citation Studies, Part 2, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

In this second installment examining citation studies, Ms. Whisner looks at citation patterns of articles versus student works, as well as patterns across journals.

My Year Of Citation Studies, Part 1, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Ms. Whisner begins a year of exploring how legal scholarship citation counts are created and viewed. What works do authors actually cite? Which legal sources are included? She shares her findings here.

Externship Assessment Project: An Empirical Study Of Supervisor Evaluations Of Extern Work Performance, Margaret Reuter

Faculty Works

Field supervisors’ evaluations of their student externs are packed with lively stories. They deliver a fly-on-the-wall perspective, giving us color about the work entrusted to our students, the behaviors our students exhibited, and the enjoyment the attorneys reaped. The authors decided the evaluations were so fertile that they should be systematically scrutinized to seek meaningful, reliable insights about the extern experience, especially regarding the variety, complexity, and responsibility levels of their work. We also saw a prime opportunity to assess an externship program and find ways to improve it. Thus, the Externship Assessment Project was born. We deployed qualitative data …

Bluebooking Environmental Resources, Deborah Heller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Five-page tip sheet presented as a table covers how to properly cite environmental material according to the Bluebook. It includes federal and state bills, legislation, and regulations, federal and state administrative adjudications and other administrative material.

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

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

State Of Tennessee V. Kevin E. Trent, Ben Raybin, Juliana Lamar

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Student comments on the Tennessee Supreme Court decision “State of Tennessee v. Kevin E. Trent”. The central holding vacating the sentence in this case did not establish a new doctrine of law but merely reiterated the holding in Travis that the essential elements of the offense alone cannot justify denial of probation in a probation-eligible offense. The Trent decision should be viewed by trial judges and practitioners primarily as a reminder of that principal. On the other hand, the court broke some new ground in appellate review. Prior decisions established that appellate courts can only uphold a sentence if the …

The Gap Between Martinez And Davila: Serving The Next Generation Of Federal Habeas Corpus Cases, Lexie Ward

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

During the summer of 2017, the United States Supreme Court announced a decision in Davis v. Davila, which bars substantial claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel that have been procedurally defaulted. However, despite the merits of limiting the number of cases which were not diligently pursued by an inmate, the Court states its conclusion too broadly and now effectively bars a prisoner from bringing claims of significant trial error in front of any court. A prisoner’s claim that was not available until a trial-level appeal, and was then avoided due to ineffective post-conviction counsel, may now be dodged by …

#Iceoffourcampus: The Liability And Responsibility Of Colleges And Universities For The Educational Attainment Of Dreamers, David H.K. Nguyen

Belmont Law Review

This law review article will: (1) examine the current state of affairs in educational attainment of undocumented students, (2) examine the federal and state policies that impact higher education access to undocumented students, including, but not limited to, state legislation, state action, institutional policies, and federal executive orders, and (3) provide a history of the sanctuary movement, an examination of various campus sanctuary policies, and an analysis of the legality of this debate. By understanding this policy maze and the lack of federal intervention for comprehensive immigration reform, this background forms the foundation to examine the liability and responsibility of …

Capitán América: The Impact Of Trips On The Cultural Trade Balance In Latin America, Laurann Johnson Kirschner

Belmont Law Review

This Note will discuss the cultural implications of TRIPS-mandated copyright structures on developing countries in Latin America and suggest implementation of co-production schemes across the region which will capitalize on Latin American countries’ particular strengths in common language and cultural proximity. Part I will discuss the terms of TRIPS itself, and shed light on how it changed the landscape of trade in cultural goods around the world. In turn, Part II will demonstrate how TRIPS contributes to the homogenization of cultural goods consumption by making it increasingly expensive for developing countries to compete on the world market, thereby creating an …

Presidential Powers, Immunities, And Pardons, Alberto R. Gonzales

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article intends to clarify some of the more difficult legal issues in our nation’s separation of powers jurisprudence. In order to afford the President the flexibility and discretion necessary to discharge presidential duties, the courts are almost certainly going to recognize total immunity from the criminal process for the President with respect to official conduct. The treatment of unofficial conduct is less predictable. Based on precedent and our nation’s founding principles of equal justice and fairness, the courts are likely to hold that a sitting President is not above the law and thus does not enjoy immunity from criminal …

Framing Failure In The Legal Classroom: Techniques For Encouraging Growth And Resilience, Kaci Bishop

Working Papers

This Article argues that law schools should endeavor to help students maximize their learning and their potential as attorneys by helping them accept and learn from failure.

Citation Literacy, Alexa Z. Chew

Working Papers

New lawyers and law students spend a lot of time worrying about legal citation. But most of that time is spent worrying about the wrong thing—formatting. The primary purpose of legal citation is to communicate information to the reader. Thus, legal citations are integral parts of the legal documents that lawyers read and write. But rather than viewing citation as communication, law students, and the new lawyers they become, tend to view it as a formatting sideshow dictated by the Bluebook or other citation style guides. This view is both inaccurate and counterproductive.

I argue that the reason for this …

Stranger Than Fiction: How Lawyers Can Accurately And Realistically Tell A True Story By Using Fiction Writers’ Techniques That Make Fiction Seem More Realistic Than Reality, Cathren Page

Articles

This Article differs from other articles on related topics in that it focuses broadly on including specific details to establish an overall sense of reality. In contrast, in his article, This is Not the Whole Truth, Professor Steve Johansen discusses those details that can ethically be omitted; this Article, however, is about which select details to include rather than to omit. Although some articles have focused on details regarding specific objects, such as an obtuse object or an endowed object, this Article covers a wider category of details that applies throughout the narrative as opposed to details that surface only …

Telling Tales The Transactional Lawyer As Storyteller, Karen J. Sneddon

Articles

Transactional lawyers are storytellers, although they may not think of themselves as such. They work with provisions and clauses to build trans-actional documents that encapsulate the wishes, hopes, and fears of the transacting parties to promote, guide, and control the relationship of those parties. Narratology, the theory of narrative, can provide a resource to transactional lawyers that facilitates the construction of a wide range of transactional documents, which can themselves be considered narratives.

The form documents that transactional lawyers use as starting points in the drafting process are already rife with narrative characteristics; they are embedded with characters and plots, …

Applying Daubert To Flaubert: Standards For Admissibility Of Testimony Of Writing Experts, Heidi K. Brown

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Review (1960-2009): A Bibliometrical Study, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Supreme Court Review is a faculty-edited legal periodical published by the University of Chicago Law School. This periodical is a highly read and cited law review in law, history and political science. This article applies bibliometrics to a study of the 438 articles that are published in the periodical over a 50-year period. It is analysis of the number of articles by volume, pages, footnotes, authorship by sex, by individual, by institution, and most-cited articles.

So Ordered The Techniques Of Great Judicial Stylists, Jill Barton

Articles

Judges are writers first. And many write exceptionally well, lacing their prose with artful passages, vivid descriptions, stinging rebukes, and clever turns of phrase. What's even more remarkable is that they do all this while crafting the law.

The goal of great legal writing has always been plain language. James Madison called for concise, straightforward language when defending the U.S. Constitution, writing that it "will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot …

Front Matter

St. Thomas Law Review

Front Matter includes the Table of Contents for St. Thomas Law Review Volume 30, Issue 2, Spring 2018.

Access To Print, Access To Justice, Kimberly Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article examines the relationship between self-represented litigants and digital literacy and how this particularly vulnerable patron group stands to be harmed by the elimination of print materials from public law libraries. An examination of the literature and a survey help to shed light on this growing problem.

Remembering Ilene Barshay—Classmate, Colleague And Friend, Joseph B. Rosenberg

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.