Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Notaries Public: A Pathfinder, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1065 (1999), Glenn-Peter Ahlers Sr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Attorney Hit With Sanctions For Poor Brief (New York Law Journal), Deborah Pines

News Articles

No abstract provided.

Doing Well & Doing Good: The Careers Of Minority And White Graduates Of The University Of Michigan Law School, 1970 - 1996, David L. Chambers, Richard O. Lempert, Terry K. Adams

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

In the last few yearsm affirmative action in higher education has faced increasing legal scrutiny, in part because of doubts about the kinds of graduates these programs produce. A few years ago, we and some of our colleagues at Michigan started asking whether we could learn the answers to these questions about the careers of our graduates. The Law School already possessed considerable information about our minority graduates - from the surveys we have conducted each year for over 30 years of our alumni five and 15 years after graduation. But, while the annual survey asks many questions about careers …

Confrontation Confronted, Richard D. Friedman, Margaret A. Berger, Steven R. Shapiro

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

The following article is an edited version of the amicus curiae brief filed with the Supreme Court of the United States in the October Term, 1998, in the case of Benjamin Lee Lilly v. Commonwealth of Virginia(No.98-5881). "This case raises important questions about the confrontation clause, which has been a vital ingredient of the fair trial right for hundreds of years," Professor Richard Friedman and his co-authors say. "In particular, this case presents the Court with an opportunity to reconsider the relationship between the confrontation clause and the law of hearsay." On June 10 the Court handed down a decision …

Controversial Speakers On Campus: Liberties, Limitations, And Common-Sense Guidelines, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

"Veritas vos liberabit," chanted the scholastics of yesteryear. The "truth will set you free," echo their latter-day counterparts in the academy, intoning the mantra reverentially but with increasingly more hope than confidence, more faith than conviction.... The real world of the academy, of course, is not quite that wonderful, nor nearly as bad as many would suggest. The ironies become palpable, however, when those self-same institutions, which almost universally view themselves as bastions of free speech, instead stifle debate that is perceived as politically incorrect or otherwise embarrassing. Academic administrators naturally shy away from conflict and contention. They shun controversy. …

Competent Legal Writing - A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Debra R. Cohen

Journal Articles

The legal profession is constantly evolving to keep pace with our increasingly complex society.' Today, the legal profession "is larger and more diverse than ever before." Despite this transformation, "the law has remained a single profession identified with a perceived common body of learning, skills and values." This common body of learning, skills, and values constitutes the fundamental elements of competent representation. Writing is one of the essential skills of competent representation.

"Law is a profession of words." Lawyers use words, both written and oral, in a wide array of contexts-to advise, to advocate, to elicit information, to establish legal …

Fuller And Language, Joseph Vining

Book Chapters

His style made him distinctive. His substance made him distinctive. The two crossed, were genetically related as we now say. Style and substance each drew on and was implied by the other. One point of their crossing was his sense of the nature of human language; what language was and could be, what it was not and could never be. In 1930, early in his work, Fuller took up the problem of language in a series of articles. Toward the end of his time he republished this initial ground-establishing effort as the little book we now have, Legal Fictions, …

Introduction: Critical Race Praxis And Legal Scholarship, Keith Aoki, Margaret Chon

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The publication of this symposium issue is an occasion for three distinct and yet related celebrations. First, we honor the Western Law Teachers of Color, whose sixth annual meeting on the sublime Oregon Coast in 1998 provided the occasion for organizing the papers published here. Dean Strickland's preface, as well as Professors Linda Greene's and Jim Jones's essays examine the historical significance of this occasion in greater detail. Second, we engage in a festschrift of a particular member of this group-Professor Eric K. Yamamoto -whose publication of a book this year is a significant capstone to fifteen years of scholarship …

From Tokenism To Emancipatory Politics: The Conferences And Meetings Of Law Professors Of Color, Linda S. Greene

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In this paper, the author traces the history of the First National Meetings and conferences since 1969. In Part II, this paper explores the range of meetings and conferences which outlined the development of a proactive agenda for minority student and faculty inclusion within mainstream historically White legal institutions and the evolution of this agenda from one of access to an agenda of security, retention, and the advancement of legal theory and scholarship within and without the established academy. Part III chronicles the maturation of this tradition of independent meetings and conferences of professors of color into a network of …

Writing And Reading In Philosophy, Law, And Poetry, James Boyd White

Book Chapters

In this paper I will treat a very general question, the nature of writing and what can be achieved by it, pursuing it in the three distinct contexts provided by philosophy, law, and poetry.

My starting-point will be Plato's Phaedrus, where, in a wellknown passage, Socrates attacks writing itself: he says that true philosophy requires the living engagement of mind with mind of a kind that writing cannot attain. Yet this is obviously a paradox, for Socrates' position is articulated and recorded by Plato in writing. How then can we make sense of what Plato is saying and doing? What …

Ignoring The Sexualization Of Race: Heteronormativity, Critical Race Theory And Anti-Racist Politics, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article, a third in a series of related works, explores the representation of sexual identity within Critical Race Theory and other forms of anti-racist discourse. I argue, after examining representative texts, that anti-racist discourse is often "heteronormative" -- or centered around heterosexual experiences. Most commonly, anti-racist heteronormativity occurs when scholars and activists in the field fail to analyze the homophobic dimensions of acts or conditions of racial inequality and when they dismiss, either implicitly or explicitly, the "morality" of gay and lesbian equality claims. This Article recommends that scholars in Critical Race Theory and related fields adopt a more …

Content And Quality Of Legal Information And Data On The Internet With A Special Focus On The United States, Claire M. Germain

UF Law Faculty Publications

In the United States today, digital versions of current decisions, bills, statutes, and regulations issued by federal and state governments are widely available on publicly accessible Web sites. Worldwide, official (defined as "authoritative," or "the official" word of the law) legal information issued by international organizations and foreign governments is also becoming available on the Web. However, there are currently no standards for the production and authentication of digital documents. Moreover, the information is sometimes available only for a short time and then disappears from the site. No guidelines exist either to promote a uniform way to cite to digital …

Legal Research Tools: In Search Of The Best Format, Robin Schard

Articles

No abstract provided.

Introduction And Dedication, J. Thomas Sullivan

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, introduction

The Uncertain Status Of Citation Reform: An Update For The Undecided, Coleen M. Barger

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

This article addresses the purpose of legal citations and presents a case for reforming citations in order to better fulfill the purposes of legal citations.

Focus On The Crucial Issue, Myron H. Bright

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

A Senior Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit addresses the importance of saving valuable time by focusing on the core issues when arguing a case. The essay also provides guidance on identifying core issues.

The Uncertain Status Of Citation Reform: An Update For The Undecided, Coleen M. Barger

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Semiotics, Analogical Legal Reasoning, And The Cf. Citation: Getting Our Signals Uncrossed, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Bluebook’s introductory citation signals are essential to effective legal discourse. The choice of signal can influence not only the interpretation of cited cases, but also the path of the law. In this Article, Professor Ira Robbins examines one commonly used signal: the cf. After exploring its semiotic function, he details the multitude of ways in which this signal has been used and misused. He argues that lawyers’ and judges’ careless use of the cf. leads to confusing and often incoherent developments in the law, and concludes by proposing a precise working definition for this irksome, but potentially powerful, citation …

The Bard And The Bench: An Opinion And Brief Writer's Guide To Shakespeare, Robert Peterson

Faculty Publications

This work is a legal brief writer's and opinion drafter's guide to Shakespeare. It collects and catalogues by topic citations to plays, poems, or passages that are actually found in judicial opinions. This essay also suggests a few uncited orphans deserving a home in brief or opinion. The catalogue is web based; the reader may search it in its electronic format or download it for old-fashioned browsing.

Resisting The Allure Of Better Rule Of Law, Gary J. Simson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Closing One Gap But Opening Another?: A Response To Dean Perritt And Comments On The Internet, Law Schools, And Legal Education, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Three's A Crowd: Law, Literature, And Truth, Marianne Wesson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Researching In An Imperfect World, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Responding to a request for assistance in using Legal Resource Index leads the author to ponder how the imperfections in the reference tools we use on a daily basis lead to the inescapable conclusion that intelligent, informed compromise is an inherent part of research.

Golf Buddy Reference Questions, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Responding to a reference question that began as a casual dispute between a golfer and his buddy about legal procedure leads Ms. Whisner to consider the appropriate way to respond to inquiries from public patrons.

Commenting On Student Writing, Beth Cohen, Jocelyn Cuffee, Harris Freeman, Jeanne Kaiser, Myra Orlen

Media Presence

This Article, written by the five-person faculty in the legal research and writing program at Western New England College, discusses the process of critiquing student work. They share some ideas they have discussed in order to promote good legal writing.

English Ideas On Legal Education In Virginia, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

In 1700 the only methods of legal education in England and Virginia were apprenticeship to a practising lawyer, either a barrister, a solicitor or a court clerk, and independent reading of law books; most persons seeking active membership in the legal profession did an apprenticeship supplemented by reading and observing the courts in action. In 1700 the inns of court had long since ceased to provide legal instruction, and the universities in England and Virginia had not yet begun to do so. The obvious importance of legal education was, however, not overlooked on either side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Applying New Rhetoric To Legal Discourse: The Ebb And Flow Of Reader And Writer, Text And Context, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Applying New Rhetoric to law school pedagogy, this article suggests an ebb and flow of reader and writer, text and context drawn from New Rhetoric theory, research, and teaching practices. Almost all legal writing scholarship now focuses on some aspect of New Rhetoric. Yet it is likely that the product approach still prevails in the places where the papers are graded, in part because it is the more familiar and straightforward way that papers have always been graded. What follows is an initial attempt to more fully apply New Rhetoric theory and research to the teaching of legal reading and …

Commenting On Student Writing, Beth Cohen, Jocelyn Cuffee, Harris Freeman, Jeanne M. Kaiser, Myra G. Orlen

Faculty Scholarship

The Authors from Western New England College School of Law discuss perspectives on and approaches to responding to student writing.

What Law Librarians Collect, Penny Hazelton

Articles

No abstract provided.

The West Digest System: The Ninth Circuit And The Montana Supreme Court, Fritz Snyder

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article analyzes the West Digest System. The article first describes the West Digest System. Next, the article compares Montana jurisprudence with that of the Ninth Circuit in light of numerical analysis of the West Digest System. Then the article discusses certain digest topics as reflections of American law. Finally, the article examines the curious symbiotic relationship between the West Digest System and the growth of American jurisprudence.