Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Law And Religion In U.S. Legal Scholarship: An Empirical Examination, 2008–2012, James Cleith Phillips

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Digital Commons And Ssrn: Turning Perceived Conflict Into Real Synergy, James M. Donovan, Carol A. Watson

Presentations

Covers the history of SSRN and the development of institutional repositories, how to positively address faculty concerns about losing SSRN download statistics, statistical analysis of downloads on each platform and research behavior, and an overview of the strengths and advantages of each platform.

George Orwell's Classic Essay On Writing: The Best Style Handbook For Lawyers And Judges, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

As Orwell's title intimates, the essay included criticism of political writing done by government officials and private observers. The essay's staying power, however, transcends the political arena. By calling on writers of all persuasions to "simplify your English," Orwell helped trigger the plain English movement, which still influences legislators, courts, administrative agencies, and law school legal writing classes.

This article proceeds in two parts. First I describe how judges, when they challenge colleagues or advocates in particular cases, still quote from Orwell's plea for clear expression and careful reasoning. Then I present Orwell's diagnosis of maladies that plagued contemporary prose, …

Writing (And Reading) Appellate Briefs In The Digital Age, Mary Beth Beazley

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Ten Items Or Less: A Reflection On The Third Edition Of Bryan Garner's The Winning Brief, Carl S. Kaplan

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

What Books On Law Should Be, Richard A. Posner

Michigan Law Review

I have thought it might be useful to our profession, and appropriate to a foreword to a collection of reviews of newly published books on law, to set forth some ideas on how books can best serve members of the different branches of the legal profession — specifically judges, practicing lawyers, law students, and academic lawyers — plus persons outside the legal profession who are interested in law. I am not interested in which already published books should be retained and which discarded, but in what type of book about law should be written from this day forward. I will …

Writing Lessons From Abroad: A Comparative Perspective On The Teaching Of Legal Writing, Adam Todd

School of Law Faculty Publications

With a few exceptions, American legal writing pedagogy has not been adopted in any meaningful way in foreign countries. At most, it has garnered some attention in Legal English courses, but has otherwise received scant reception in foreign universities and little academic interest by continental and other civil law academics.

The reason transplantation, or “borrowing,” of American legal writing pedagogy has not occurred is due to the deep structural differences between the American legal education system and the education system found in most other countries, especially civil law countries. For example, many law schools in Western Europe require up to …

Fighting Legal Innumeracy, Edward K. Cheng

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

An old joke quips that lawyers go to law school precisely because they never liked math or were never good at math – and that therefore medical school (or these days, Wall Street) was not an option. While this tired joke may have a kernel of truth, I want to suggest that we should be very wary of internalizing it. Numeracy is a fundamental skill for any intelligent, engaged participant in society, and we lawyers ignore it at our peril. The term “innumeracy” was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in a 1982 article in Scientific American and perhaps made famous by …

Preface, Ken I. Kersch, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

In an essay in the Texas Law Review not too long ago, Sandy Levinson lamented the degree to which law reviews—most prominently the Michigan Law Review—were sharply cutting down on the space they were devoting to book reviews. This was especially unfortunate as law professors were publishing more and more books. The publication of a book, as opposed to a journal article, was for many a deliberate choice involving an effort to address subjects at greater length, in greater depth, and on a broader scale for a wider scholarly (and perhaps educated popular) audience. Thematic review essays on books, whether …

When You Need To Know, These Are The Places To Go: Investigative Research On The Web, Suzanne R. Graham

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Provides an overview of the kind of publicly-available information on the Web. Includes tips for how to find vital data about a person (birth and death dates and contact information), about investment and salary, and about prior interactions with court system.

Listicles Of Legal Websites, Wendy Moore

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Contains 52 carefully selected websites to help legal professionals stay current on legal issues and to help them engage in effective legal research online. Includes blogs, portals, databases, news sites, and general websites.

Savvy Web Searching With Advanced Tools And Techniques, Anne Burnett

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Discusses several web-searching sites, like Google and Bing, and shows power-searching tips and strategies for crafting effective queries.

Slides: Best Management Practices For Oil And Gas Development And Comparative Water Quality Database Of Regulations Relating To Shale Oil And Gas, Matt Samelson, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Presenter: Matt Samelson, J.D., Attorney, Consultant for Intermountain Oil and Gas Best Management Practices (BMP) Project, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School

34 slides

Guest Blog On Skills: Professor Jan Levine's Legislative Drafting Course At Duquesne, Jan M. Levine

Law Faculty Publications

For more than two decades, at three law schools, I have been teaching an advanced legal writing course that builds upon the foundation created in the first-year writing courses and introduces students to new drafting skills, focusing on statutes and statutory drafting. The final project in the course requires students to solve a personally-identified legal or quasi-legal problem by drafting a report and a statute, ordinance, regulation, procedural rule, or a similar solution.

In Search Of Justice: An Examination Of The Appointments Of John G. Roberts And Samuel A. Alito To The U.S. Supreme Court And Their Impact On American Jurisprudence, Alberto R. Gonzales

Law Faculty Scholarship

During 2005, President George W. Bush appointed Federal Circuit Court Judges John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. These appointments were the culmination of years of examination of the work, character, and temperament of both men commencing during the 2000 presidential transition. Our evaluation included face-to-face interviews; an analysis of judicial opinions, speeches, and writings; and conversation with friends, colleagues, and court experts. Based on this work, a select group of Bush Administration officials developed a set of predictors that formed the basis of our recommendation to President Bush that he elevate Circuit Court Judges …

One Small Step For Legal Writing, One Giant Leap For Legal Education: Making The Case For More Writing Opportunities In The "Practice-Ready" Law School Curriculum, Sherri Lee Keene

Mercer Law Review

While the practice of law is often equated with writing, many law courses involve little or no writing during the semester, and often only require writing in student assessment. While accredited law schools are required to offer both first-year legal writing instruction and a rigorous writing experience during the second or third year,2 few law schools infuse legal writing throughout a student's three years of law school matriculation. While significant attention is given to the breadth of law taught in law school, more attention must be given to the depth of this knowledge and the application of this knowledge to …

A Bibliography Of University Of Nebraska College Of Law Faculty Scholarship 1892–2013, Marcia L. Dority Baker, Stefanie S. Pearlman

Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library: Faculty Publications

This bibliography attempts to include all faculty members at the College of Law beginning in 1892 through the faculty members of the 2012–2013 academic year. We included publications from tenure-track law, law library, and law clinical faculty members and visiting faculty members who were at the College of Law for three or more years. Although we did not include the scholarship of faculty members who visited for less than three years or adjunct faculty, we did include a list of those faculty members for historical purposes. We used the Official Bulletin of Nebraska Law and the Nebraska Law Review to …

Vol. 46, No. 02 (January 27, 2014)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Vol. 46, No. 01 (January 20, 2014)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Report Of The Aals Committee On Libraries And Technology, Subcommittee On Law Library Reporting Structures, Aals Committee On Libraries And Technology, Subcommittee On Law Library Reporting Structures, Anne Klinefelter, Kay L. Andrus, Joanne A. Epps, Frank Liu, Susan Nevelow-Mart, Spencer Simons

Faculty Publications

The reporting structure for academic law libraries is a topic of renewed debate. Tradition and accreditation standards for law schools have supported law school oversight of law libraries to ensure that library services would focus on the goals of the law school. Because legal research has been considered a bedrock component of legal education and legal practice, law libraries have long been closely aligned with law schools. However, new information technologies, increased pressures for efficiencies, growing interest in interdisciplinary work, and growing interdisciplinary demand for lawyer librarian expertise in information law have inspired questions about potential advantages of strengthening the …

When The Aba Comes Calling, Let’S Speak The Same Language Of Assessment, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

There has been much discussion recently in legal education circles about the need for improvements in assessment. Recently, the American Bar Association has responded by adding an assessment requirement to the accreditation standards, making the subject even more urgent. Because most of us in the legal academy are new to the language and methods of assessment, there have been misunderstandings. And further, because there are different levels of assessment and each level usually has different goals, sometimes the discussion can become confused. It is imperative that we understand the different levels and goals of assessment projects, so we may communicate …

Lights! Camera! Law School?: Using Video Interviews To Enhance First Semester Writing Assignments, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Meeting The Challenges Of Instructing International Law Graduate Students In Legal Research, Nina E. Scholtz, Femi Cadmus

Cornell Law Librarians' Publications

Teaching international LL.M. students legal research offers its own peculiar challenges. The brevity of the LL.M. program and the limited time available for thoroughly introducing basic research concepts have made it particularly difficult, but the innovative and creative methods of instruction highlighted in this article have provided good solutions.

One Small Step For Legal Writing, One Giant Leap For Legal Education: Making The Case For More Writing Opportunities In The "Practice-Ready" Law School Curriculum, Sherri Lee Keene

Faculty Scholarship

Legal writing is more than an isolated practical skill or a law school course; it is a valuable tool for broadening and deepening law students’ and new attorneys’ knowledge and understanding of the law. If experienced legal professionals, both professors and practitioners alike, take a hard look back at their careers, many will no doubt remember how their work on significant legal writing projects advanced their own knowledge of the law and enhanced their professional competence. Legal writing practice helps the writer to gain expertise in a number of ways: first, the act of writing itself promotes learning; second, close …

Erasing Boundaries: Inter-School Collaboration And Its Pedagogical Opportunities, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tennessee’S Unique Religious Protections In Employment: Do They Mean What They Say?, Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., Brian A. Pierce

Belmont Law Review

Tennessee has a long history of strongly held and diverse religious beliefs and practices. Equally firmly established is its “at-will” employment rule that allows businesses to create and control their workforces to maximize operations and profits to the benefit of employers and employees. When an employee’s religious beliefs conflict with his obligations to his employer, state and federal laws resolve the tension. Employees who experience this tension and feel they have been discriminated against based on their religion generally have the choice to bring their claims of discrimination under federal law, state law, or both. Because claims under federal law …

Medicaid Expansion By Any Other Name: Exploring The Feasibility Of Expanded Access To Care In The Wake Of Nfib V. Sebelius, Michele Johnson, Kristin Ware

Belmont Law Review

This Article will examine aspects of the Tennessee Plan for Medicaid coverage in order to make the argument that Tennessee must either accept the Medicaid expansion as codified in the Affordable Care Act, or make modifications to the Tennessee Plan that better comport with the federal waiver program, the central goals of Medicaid, the United States Constitution, and the spirit of cooperative federalism.

Judicial Selection In Tennessee: Deciding “The Decider”, Margaret L. Behm, Candi Henry

Belmont Law Review

This article includes an overview of judicial selection in Tennessee, as well as providing the author's personal perspectives on the subject. The quality of judges and the manner of selecting them matters; this is a basic premise underpinning the rule of law in the United States. From the inception of the United States’ democratic system, the judiciary’s Damoclean Sword has been the threat of subrogation at the hands of the Legislature, and perhaps the easiest way to rattle the sword has been to legislatively interfere with judicial selection — whether by changing the manner of appointment or by simply refusing …

Judicial Panel: Tennessee Legal Reform From A Judicial Standpoint, Cornelia A. Clark, Martha Craig Daughtrey, William C. Koch Jr.

Belmont Law Review

A transcript of the judicial panel discussion held at the Belmont University College of Law Symposium, "Tennessee Legal Reform."

An Examination Of Federal Sentencing Guidelines’ Treatment Of Mdma (“Ecstacy”), Alyssa Hennig

Belmont Law Review

This Note analyzes the MDMA drug equivalency ratio under the current Guidelines and argues that the ratio is based on incomplete and inaccurate information. Part I of this Note provides an overview of the United States Sentencing Commission (“the Commission”) and the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“the Guidelines”). Part II discusses the rise of MDMA and the legislative response. It also summarizes the Commission’s findings regarding the social and physiological harms of MDMA that formed the basis for the Commission’s decision about the appropriate MDMA drug equivalency ratio. Part III examines the errors in the Commission’s empirical analysis of the …