Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Creac In The Real World, Diane B. Kraft

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will examine the extent to which common legal writing paradigms such as CREAC are used by attorneys in the “real world” of practice when writing on the kinds of issues law students may encounter in the first-year legal writing classroom. To that end, it will focus on the analysis of two factor-based criminal law issues: whether a defendant was in custody and whether a defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy. In focusing on “first-year” issues, the article seeks not to examine whether organizational paradigms are used at all in legal analysis, but to discover whether and how …

Indiana's Government Information Day Focuses On Change, Access & Continuity, Jennifer Morgan, Sally Holterhoff

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Front Matter includes Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Volume 10 (2015).

Intentionalism Justice Scalia Could Love, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

There is something useful, indeed beautiful, about a work that carefully and eloquently explores a new idea or reexamines an old one. The Nature of Legislative Intent is therefore useful and beautiful, and it offers much of philosophical value for textualist and non-textualist alike. but it offers little of practical consequence and is therefore unlikely to advance the ball outside of the hall of academia, not simply because of the failure of judges to take legal scholarship seriously (which is there loss, as well as sosciety's), but because on its own terms it cannot.

Orwell's Six Cures To Bad Writing, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

In a 1946 essay, George Orwell said among the many bad habits replete in written English are the use of dying metaphors, poor choice of appropriate verbs and nouns, pretentious dictions, and meaningless words. Sound familiar? He also offered ways to overcome these habits.

When The Story Is Too Good To Be True: A Lawyer's Role In Resisting The Lure Of Narrative, Jeanne Kaiser, Scott Brown

Faculty Scholarship

Storytelling is important in legal persuasion. The power of a good story is why an attorney strives to mold the facts of a case into a tale with clear heroes and villains. High profile bullying stories and the reaction to those stories by prosecutors, legislators, and the legal academy provide examples of lawyers’ susceptibility to the power of an emotional narrative. This Article explores how social problems, like those relating to Phoebe Prince, Tyler Clementi, and Meagan Meiers, are likely to seem more real and pressing when presented in human terms as opposed to the abstract consequences.

Where Truth And The Story Collide: What Legal Writers Can Learn From The Experience Of Non-Fiction Writers About The Limits Of Storytelling, Jeanne Kaiser

Faculty Scholarship

This Chapter examines what can be gained and what can be lost by using storytelling in legal writing. After reviewing some basic principles of legal storytelling, the Chapter reviews some lessons that can be learned from the experience of the New Journalists who adopted literary techniques in their non-fiction work. In the end, the Author concludes that while there is much value in using the tools of fiction in legal writing, it is only with a blend of narrative and analysis that we most successfully do our jobs as lawyers.

In Defense Of Empirical Legal Studies, Christina L. Boyd

Scholarship@WashULaw

The empirical legal studies movement, or ELS, is positioned to provide an important scholarly impact. As noted ELS scholar Theodore Eisenberg once put it, “[a]cross a broad range of legal issues, empirical studies can inform policymakers and the public. Legally trained social scientists have unique opportunities to enhance description and understanding of the legal system.” By all accounts, this influence is well underway. ELS scholarship has been present in law schools since at least the 1920s and is on the rise in recent years, with important empirical insights gained into legal subjects such as error rates in capital punishment convictions, …

Habermas, The Public Sphere, And The Creation Of A Racial Counterpublic, Guy-Uriel Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Jürgen Habermas documented the historical emergence and fall of what he called the bourgeois public sphere, which he defined as “[a] sphere of private people come together as a public . . . to engage [public authorities] in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor.” This was a space where individuals gathered to discuss with each other, and sometimes with public officials, matters of shared concern. The aim of these gatherings was not simply discourse; these gatherings …

John William Wallace (February 17, 1815-January 12, 1884): An Appreciation Upon The Two Hundredth Anniversary Of His Birth, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

In 2015 we celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of John William Wallace-librarian, court reporter, historian-who was born February 17, 1815 in Philadelphia and died on January 12, 1884. Known mostly as a reporter for the U.S. Supreme Court, this short biography tries to expand on some of the other accomplishments of his life. He was the son of John Bradford Wallace and Susan Binney, sister of the eminent Philadelphia lawyer, Horace Binney and descendant of the two famous printers in Pennsylvania, two William Bradfords in colonial Pennsylvania. Wallace studied law in his father's office and John Sergeant. …

Research Analysis And Planning: The Undervalued Skill In Legal Research Instruction, Robert M. Linz

Publications

This article describes a method of research analysis and planning for legal problems. It introduces the framework of research plan, log, and product and provides a detailed research plan and log that students can use as a template for learning research. The article suggests how to teach the method in legal research classes, shares some of the author's experiences in teaching the method, and addresses some possible criticisms of this approach.

Research Strategies Using Headnotes: Citators And Relevance, Susan Nevelow Mart

Publications

No abstract provided.

Cu Law Library Launches New Resource For Historical Colorado Statutory Research, Robert M. Linz

Publications

No abstract provided.

International And Foreign Tax Research, Jason Zarin

Law Faculty Publications

Tax research often strikes fear in the heart of lawyer and librarian alike, and foreign and international tax research, doubly-so. Fortunately, the resources available for tax research are top-notch, which should enable your research to proceed painlessly.

This article will look at resources and tools for finding model and in-force bilateral tax treaties; foreign tax law in both English and vernacular; and newsletters for keeping abreast of current issues in international and foreign tax law.

Law School Culture And The Lost Art Of Collaboration: Why Don't Law Professors Play Well With Others, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

I have an Erdős number. Specifically, I have an Erdős number of 5. For the uninitiated, the concept of an “Erdős number” was created by mathematicians to describe how many “degrees of separation” an author of an article is from the great mathematician Paul Erdős. If you coauthored a paper with Erdős, you have an Erdős number of 1. If you coauthor a paper with someone with an Erdős number of 1, you have earned an Erdős number of 2. Coauthoring a paper with someone with an Erdős number of 2 gives you an Erdős number of 3, and so …

The 95 Theses: Legal Research In The Internet Age, Amy E. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Analysis, Research, And Communication In Skills-Focused Courses, Ruth Anne Robbins, Amy E. Sloan, Kristen Konrad Tiscione

All Faculty Scholarship

Since the Carnegie Report and Best Practices for Legal Education were published, a new focus has emerged on building students’ traditional foundational skills through increased opportunities for experiential education, including legal research and writing instruction. Although the Carnegie Report explored legal writing pedagogy in some detail, Best Practices devoted little attention to how foundational analytical, research, and writing skills are or should be taught with specificity, which provided the impetus for more extended treatment here. This section identifies some “better practices” being used and urges adoption of best practices.

In skills-focused courses, legal analysis, research, and writing should be taught …

Research Analysis And Planning: The Undervalued Skill In Legal Research Instruction, Robert Linz

Faculty Articles

This article describes a method of research analysis and planning for legal problems. It introduces the framework of research plan, log, and product and provides a detailed research plan and log that students can use as a template for learning research. The article suggests how to teach the method in legal research classes, shares some of the author's experiences in teaching the method, and addresses some possible criticisms of this approach.

Fearful Asymmetry: How The Absence Of Public Participation In Section 7 Of The Esa Can Make The 'Best Available Science' Unavailable For Judicial Review, Travis O. Brandon

Law Faculty Scholarship

Recent empirical studies have shown that public participation is an essential part of the listing process of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) because it provides the wildlife agencies with valuable scientific information regarding candidate species and forces agencies to make politically unpopular decisions to protect species standing in the way of development interests. However, the crucial agency-forcing mechanism of public participation is lacking in the interagency consultation process in section 7 of the ESA, one of the most important provisions by which the ESA’s protections for listed species are enforced. This Article explains how the absence of public input through …

From Youth Sports To Collegiate Athletics To Professional Leagues: Is There Really 'Informed Consent' By Athletes Regarding Sports-Related Concussions?, Tracey Carter

Law Faculty Scholarship

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health issue in the United States. A sports-related concussion is a form of TBI that can occur from participation in both contact and non-contact sports and recreational activities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.6 to 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur in the United States every year. This article emphasizes the serious impact of TBI on youth, collegiate, and professional athletes, explores whether athletes are really “informed” regarding sports-related concussions, and provides recommendations to better protect athletes and to decrease the number of sports-related concussions.