Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

The Pennsylvania Law Record (1879-1880), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

The Pennsylvania Law Record is another short-lived legal periodical/ newspaper published in Philadelphia for slightly over a year between June 3, 1879 and June 29, 1880.

Celebrating 600 Volumes Of The Pennsylvania State Reports: The Official Reports Of The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania (1845-2009), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

During the first week of November 2009, Volume 600 of the Pennsylvania State Reports was published, 165 years following the publication of the first volume in 1845.

The Lady, Or The Tiger? A Field Guide To Metaphor & Narrative, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Metaphor and narrative reassure us that things hang together, providing a sense of coherence to the patterns and paths we employ for perception and expression. In this field guide, I hope to illustrate - with images and stories when possible - how better understanding of metaphor and narrative can guide those engaged in legal rhetoric and persuasion.

The article briefly summarizes cognitive theory relating to metaphor and narrative, provides snapshots of their use in the field, in real-life legal persuasion, and suggests ways to adapt metaphor and narrative to a specific example of legal persuasion. In the field guide section, …

Using Discourse Analysis Methodology To Teach "Legal English", Craig Hoffman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this study, I propose a curriculum focused on raising students’ linguistic awareness through rigorous discourse analysis and reflective writing in a legal context. Students analyze authentic, full-text legal documents using discourse analysis methodology. By carefully analyzing the language in legal opinions, appellate briefs, law review articles, law school exams, typical commercial contracts, and statutes, students become experts in analyzing and evaluating legal texts. Students learn to manipulate legal language to achieve various desired linguistic and legal effects. This approach has three primary advantages. First, it forces the students to carefully read authentic legal texts. Second, it gives students the …

Research At Your Own Risk: Free Online Statutory Codes Are Widely Available But Are They Good Enough To Meet Users' Needs?, Paul Hellyer

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Why In Diy Book Scanning, Daniel Reetz

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Legal Academy As Dinner Party: A (Short) Manifesto On The Necessity Of Inter-Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship, Paul Stancil

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the need for an increase in inter-interdisciplinary legal scholarship, suggesting that legal scholars from different traditions and backgrounds need to sit down at the same table and start talking to one another. The author presents an argument in favor of an integrated model of legal scholarship in which norms of intellectual modesty and cooperation fuel the development of interdisciplinary work. He develops a functional hierarchy which allows scholars to start with the first, threshold question, then work down to the operational details as they carefully consider our accumulated learning about why and how people actually act. After …

Everday Research, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Law students and lawyers, like the rest of us, need to find information for their everyday lives. Ms. Whisner outlines ways that law students can use research to help them find jobs or decide what type of legal career they want to pursue.

Relevance, Choices, And The Goldilocks Problem, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Ms. Whisner ponders a core question in answering reference queries: How can we know whether what we find is relevant to what the questioner wants? Her article provides criteria to consider and some guidelines for choosing sources in response to a query.

Reshaping The Narrative Debate, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

In Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter, Joan Williams sets out to alter the terms of the public discussion about working, caregiving, and work-family conflicts. In doing so, Williams also reframes part of the conversation about the use of narratives in legal analysis and policy-making.

This essay describes the debate about narrative or storytelling in the legal academy. Two decades ago, a pitched jurisprudential battle surfaced in the pages of law reviews about the value of storytelling as legal scholarship. Since that time, narrative has sifted into academic texts: people are telling stories all over the place. …

D Is For Digitize: An Introduction, James Grimmelmann

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitution As An Exploding Cigar And Other “Historian’S Heresies” About A Constitutional Orthodoxy, R.B. Bernstein

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Celebrating 100 Years Of The Georgetown Law Journal, Sherman L. Cohn

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It was 1911. Georgetown Law was then forty-one years old. It was an undergraduate program, as a college degree was unnecessary. Indeed, it was only a dozen years or less since Georgetown had begun to require a high school diploma for admission and had expanded to a three-year program. The degree granted was an LL.B., a bachelor of law, usually the first academic degree the student received. The school had recently grown to over 900 students. It was time to move forward.

That year, three dynamic young men enrolled at Georgetown: Eugene Quay, Horace H. Hagan, and John Cosgrove. They …

Front Matter

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Front Matter includes Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Volume 6 (2011).

The Dogs That Did Not Bark: The Silence Of The Legal Academy During World War Ii, Sarah H. Ludington

Faculty Scholarship

During World War II, the legal academy was virtually uncritical of the government’s conduct of the war, despite some obvious domestic abuses of civil rights, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans. This silence has largely been ignored in the literature about the history of legal education. This Article argues that there are many strands of causation for this silence. On an obvious level, World War II was a popular war fought against a fascist threat, and left-leaning academics generally supported the war. On a less obvious level, law school enrollment plummeted during the war, and the numbers of full-time law …

Thinking About Technology – Watson, Answer Me This: Will You Make Librarians Obsolete Or Can I Use Free And Open Source Software And Cloud Computing To Ensure A Bright Future?, Darla Jackson

Other Faculty Publications

In February 2011, Watson, IBM's "smart" computer, defeated two former Jeopardy champions. While the application of the technology may support some legal research functions, the current state of the technology probably will not allow Watson to replace law librarians in the near future. Yet, given the economic realities of our firms and institutions, librarians do need to consider technologies that may reduce the considerable cost associated with discovering and maintaining access to legal information. Free and open source software and systems and cloud-based initiatives may provide innovative approaches librarians should consider.

Does Westlawnext Really Change Everything: The Implications Of Westlawnext On Legal Research, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters’ newest electronic research service, has been around for over a year now. Ron Wheeler shares his thoughts on how this service may impact various aspects of legal research, and he suggests further study and research are necessary to fully evaluate and comprehend the system.

Book Review, Derek Kiernan-Johnson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward The Study Of The Legislated Constitution, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Law schools, both innovative and traditional, cutting edge and hidebound, demand and therefore teach tolerance, civil respect for those whose views and dreams differ from our own, a commitment to the equal dignity of all persons, an awareness of the individuality of each of us, and the challenges that those differences and that equality pose to the generalizing impulse in law. Likewise, law schools, virtually everywhere, convey or should convey a sensitivity to bare or naked human vulnerability, mortality, weakness, and need, and therefore a sense in students of the moral need of all of us for law’s protection, as …

An Empirical Analysis Of Empirical Legal Scholarship Production, 1990-2009, Michael R. Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Inspired by the retirement of Professor Tom Ulen of the University of Illinois, the author considers the growth and development of empirical legal scholarship over two decades—a period of time that corresponds, not coincidentally, with Professor Ulen’s career. Starting in the 1990s when empirical scholarship had not yet “caught on,” the author first documents the increase in quantity of empirical scholarship over two decades. Next, the author applies a law and economics perspective to the recent surge in empirical scholarship, explaining that the trend has been fueled by an increase in the number of empirically trained scholars and also by …