Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Exorcising The Exercised: A Response To Professor Gordon, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

I have always welcomed honest criticism of my work, as I hope other scholars do of theirs. If Robert W. Gordon's lengthy review of my book, Trembling in the Ivory Tower: Excesses in the Pursuit of Truth and Tenure, were the launching pad for a thoughtful essay on postmodern critical legal studies, I would not feel compelled to respond. Unfortunately, despite (and perhaps because of) Gordon's considerable notoriety as a CLS theorist, his disagreement with what I perceive to be the primary ills of the modern academy seriously misreads both the substance and satire of my book. More troubling still …

Georgia's Noble Revolution: Three Governors, Two Armies, The Georgia Supreme Court, And The Gubernatorial Election Of 1946, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In 1946, the governor-elect of Georgia died, sparking a constitutional battle that brought a state government to its knees and a state supreme court to the height of its power. As two armies drew up on the streets of Atlanta, fights erupted in the executive offices and two men stood head to head in a battle for the vacant governor's seat. Into this fray, however, came the rule of law in the form of the state courts, and what may have swelled into an armed conflict of unseen proportions in twentieth century American politics ended with the stirring strike of …

Plea Bargaining's Survival: Financial Crimes Plea Bargaining, A Continued Triumph In A Post-Enron World, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the war on financial crimes that began after the collapse of Enron in 2001. Although many believed that the reforms implemented following this scandal led to greater prosecutorial focus on financial crimes and longer prison sentences, an analysis of data from 1995 through 2006 reveals that little has actually changed. The statistics demonstrate that the government's focus on financial crimes has not increased and prison sentences for fraud have remained stagnant. How could this be the case? It is this author's hypothesis that although prosecutors could have chosen to use new statutes and amendments to the United …

Public Interest Research, Collaboration, And The Promise Of Wikis, Tom Cobb

Articles

One of my central goals in teaching law is to help students find ways to apply their emerging analytical powers and professional skills to promote the public interest.A related goal is to create an engaging learning experience in which students see each other—and other members of the legal community—as key resources in their education.

To help accomplish these goals, I have been formally and informally collaborating with clinics—the traditional home of public interest law and collaborative learning in most law schools— to find ways to infuse my legal writing classes with clinical methods and values. This article describes a class …

Creating Online Tutorials: Five Lessons Learned, Lauren M. Collins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contract Law And Distribution In The Age Of Welfare Reform, Daniela Caruso

Faculty Scholarship

This Article tracks the ongoing adaptation of U.S. contract law to the 1990s’ contraction of the welfare state. Some courts strive to compensate for the shortage of welfare services and to pursue redistributive goals. This Article provides examples of this trend and then analyzes the non-linear relation between doctrines, judicial redistribution, and welfare politics in both case law and scholarship. Finally, this Article discusses the role of socially sensitive judicial discourse in light of contemporary welfare politics and explains its continuing importance.

A Proposed Solution To The Scholarly Communication Crisis, Chad J. Schatzle

Scholarly Works

After reviewing the history and parameters of the scholarly communications crisis, particularly in regard to skyrocketing prices for journals in the natural sciences, the author reviews and rejects previously attempted solutions. He then employs the principles of game theory in proposing a new solution to the crisis.

Law In The Plays Of Elmer Rice, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

While novels, short stories, television shows, movies, and classic dramas are often analyzed for insights into the law, modern plays are seldom similarly examined. The plays of Elmer Rice, however, should be discussed by those interested in our legal system. Rice, although now largely forgotten, was a leading playwright of the last century. He was a law school graduate, and his work often incorporated legal themes. His plays provide provocative commentaries about the law and raise dilemmas about justice and ethics that resonate today. This essay explores the interplay between plays and the law by examining the life and work …

Wikipedia And The Future Of Legal Education, Beth Simone Noveck

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Blogging While Untenured And Other Extreme Sports, A. Christine Hurt, Tung Yin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Orthodoxy Of Format: Some Sketches On Legal Scholarship, William J. Aceves, James M. Cooper, Alejandro González, Pedro Egaña Marshall

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

2006 Talmadge Moot Court Competition Winning Brief, Tully Blalock, Emily Shingler

Competition Materials

No abstract provided.

Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Because your writing involves words, it might seem difficult to make your writing "transparent." However, speaking involves words too, and broadcasters employ several techniques to make their words transparent. Consequently, legal writers can look for guidance from the men and women "on the six o'clock news."

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Austin's Intentions: A Critical Reconstruction Of His Concept Of Legal Science, Richard T. Bowser, J. Stanley Mcquade

Campbell Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Federal Courts Of Appeals, Unpublished Decisions, And The "No-Citation Rule", Dione Christopher Greene

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Inside The Administrative State: A Critical Look At The Practice Of Presidential Control, Lisa Schultz Bressman, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Michigan Law Review

From the inception of the administrative state, scholars have proposed various models of agency decision-making to render such decision-making accountable and effective, only to see those models falter when confronted by actual practice. Until now, the "presidential control" model has been largely impervious to this pattern. That model, which brings agency decision-making under the direction of the president, has strengthened over time, winning broad scholarly endorsement and bipartisan political support. But it, like prior models, relies on abstractions - for example, that the president represents public preferences and resists parochial pressures that do not hold up as a factual matter. …

Cali Lessons In Legal Research Courses: Alternatives To Reading About Research, Elizabeth G. Adelman

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Use It Or Pretenders Will Abuse It: The Importance Of Archival Legal Information, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Archival information about the legal system should inform policymaking. Despite claims of soaring civil damages awards, modem historical data show no to little growth in tort awards and no real growth in punitive damages awards. The data also show a dramatic forty-year decline in trial rates from more than ten percent of case dispositions to less than two percent. The decline needs to be explained in part by using archival data. Contrary to perceptions underlying the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, little systematic evidence exists that state and federal courts process class actions significantly different. These results contradict the …

Educating Students About The Critiquing Process In A Lawyering Skills Class, Joel Atlas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The extreme performance anxiety of first-year law students along with the alien experience of receiving copious comments on their writing creates a potent, and potentially paralyzing, potion for stress. With that as a backdrop, lawyering skills teachers ought to educate students about the process of critiquing they will experience in a lawyering skills course.

The Neglected Political Economy Of Eminent Domain, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Michigan Law Review

This Article challenges a foundational assumption about eminent domain- namely, that owners are systematically undercompensated because they receive only fair market value for their property. In fact, scholars may have overstated the undercompensation problem because they have focused on the compensation required by the Constitution, rather than on the actual mechanics of the eminent domain process. The Article examines three ways that "Takers" (i.e., nonjudicial actors in the eminent domain process) minimize undercompensation. First, Takers may avoid taking high subjective value properties. (By way of illustration, Professor Garnett discusses evidence that Chicago's freeways were rerouted in the 1950s to avoid …

Navigating Through The Fog: Teaching Legal Research And Writing Students To Master Indeterminancy Through Structure And Process, Spencer L. Simons

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Form And Substance: Standards For Promotion And Retention Of Legal Writing Faculty On Clinical Tenure Track, Melissa H. Weresh

ExpressO

This article compares standards for promotion and retention of legal writing faculty on a clinical tenure track. The article provides a brief history of legal writing professionals and examines specific employment criteria such as teaching, service, and scholarship. The article makes recommendations regarding those criteria based upon an assessment of institutional realities and the historical development of the profession.

Teaching In Reverse: A Positive Approach To Analytical Errors In 1l Writing, Lesley S. Kagan, Susan E. Provenzano

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price

ExpressO

In law schools today, first-year legal writing courses play a crucial role in helping students learn to communicate about the law. Many legal writing teachers approach legal writing education in a practical way, attempting to pass on their own experiences in law practice settings to students. Unfortunately, as other writers have observed, such reliance on personal knowledge about “what lawyers are like” may lead legal writing teachers to oversimplify a complicated matter – the needs and preferences of the audience for legal writing – and may even amount to indoctrination in stereotypes about law practice. This article offers a closer …

“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This is the final column in a series addressing reader expectations for objective legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I posted three samples of objective legal writing and asked readers to give me feedback through an online survey about which they preferreda nd why. The May and July columns provided analysis of reader responses to introductory and rule explanation paragraphs. This column reports on reader reactions as to what many lawyers would argue is the most important part of a legal analysis: application of the legal rule to a client's facts.

Learning To Writing In Code: The Value Of Using Legal Writing Exercises To Teach Tax Law, Scott A. Schumacher

ExpressO

Traditionally, law school tax courses have been taught using a mix of problems, class discussion, the Socratic method, and one end-of-term exam. The goal of these courses is to introduce students to key concepts of tax law and to teach them the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. This traditional method of instruction is an efficient and cost-effective way of transmitting a great deal of complex information to a large number of students. It is also a good vehicle to teach the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Code. However, the time …

[Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses And Misuses Of Popular Music Lyrics In Legal Writing, Alex B. Long

ExpressO

Legal writers frequently utilize the lyrics of popular music artists to help advance a particular theme or argument in legal writing. And if the music we listen to says something about us as individuals, then the music we, the legal profession as a whole, write about may something about who we are as a profession. A study of citations to popular artists in law journals reveals that, not surprisingly, Bob Dylan is the most popular artist in legal scholarship. The list of names of the other artists rounding out the Top Ten essentially reads like a Who’s Who of baby …

The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup

ExpressO

Increased communication between legal research and writing (“LRW”) programs and clinical programs is desirable because it provides students with a seamless learning experience, enhances faculty teaching in both departments, and creates opportunities for collaboration that benefits a law-school community generally. But barriers presently exist that hinder collaboration. Specifically, barriers that impact collaboration and integrated learning between LRW and clinical programs stem from: (1) differences in the development of the two disciplines and the resultant differences in teaching methodologies; and (2) other practical barriers including physical separation, status issues, lack of communication, competing demands within the law school and the reality …

Cite Unseen: How Neutral Citation And America's Law Schools Can Cure Our Strange Devotion To Bibliographical Orthodoxy And The Constriction Of Open And Equal Access To The Law, Ian Gallacher

ExpressO

This article looks at the phenomenon of legal citation and its unintended consequences. After considering the reasons for the American legal system’s devotion to precisely accurate and detailed citations and the history of American legal citation, the article looks at the effect the bibliographical orthodoxy promoted by the two leading citation manuals – The Bluebook and the ALWD Manual – has on open access to the law.

In particular, the article looks at how the required common law citation format prescribed by both of these manuals helps to consolidate the market position of West and LexisNexis, the duopoly of legal …