SelectedWorks @ Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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Accomplishing Your Scholarly Agenda While Maximizing Students’ Learning (a.k.a., How to Teach Legal Methods and Have Time to Write Too)
No full textIn response to the demands of prospective law students, pressure from outside law organizations, and forces from within the legal academy, law schools are offering more skills training for students and more job security for Legal Methods professors. As a result, Legal Methods professors’ primary responsibilities in the legal academy are changing from a single focus of teaching to a dual focus of teaching and scholarship. Although the changes are welcomed, the task of producing scholarship remains especially difficult for Legal Methods professors because in many instances they still lack the necessary funding and time to fulfill this new obligation. The modest salaries many Legal Methods professors earn, and the weighty teaching responsibilities all Legal Methods professors carry, present obstacles that need and can be overcome to enable the production of meaningful scholarship. The article articulates the dilemma facing Legal Methods professors and law schools as more job security and writing opportunities become available. By rethinking teaching methodologies and highlighting ways to produce scholarship, the article proposes solutions that can enrich students’ learning and the teaching, scholarship, and discipline of Legal Methods
The Natural and the Familiar in Politics and Law
No full textThe most direct influence on my style as a teacher was my experience as a law student. In my last semester, I took the course on the Law of Democracy and was forever smitten with the subject. I had already been interested in politics and constitutional law, so it was not surprising that I would enjoy a subject that combined them. But the class itself—the areas of the law that were covered and the way in which they were covered—showed me howexciting law could be. Here was a subject that was crucial to every substantive area of law because it focused on the rules for selecting policymakers. It presented fundamental questions of federalism, separation of powers,individual rights, and equal protection, all in the context of high-stakes politics. What could be more fun
Preparing for Practice From Behind the Bench: Opinion Writing as the Heart and Soul of the First Semester of Legal Writing
No full textThe traditional office memorandum is the heart and soul of most first-semester legal writing courses; however, the traditional memo appears to be on life support in practice. In response to evidence of the declining use of the office memo by attorneys, some professors are exploring different vehicles through which to teach objective writing. A viable alternative to the memo is a judicial opinion, which allows students to gain experience with a document they will use to both study and practice law. This article explores how a judicial opinion accomplishes the same learning objectives as the office memo while delivering unique benefits to new law students. By writing an opinion, students develop additional critical-reading, research, and decision-making skills beyond what they would have gained writing the memo. Also, students gain insights into judges as the audiences of the students’ future writing, thereby, developing an appreciation for how to tailor their writing to a specific reader. The final part of this article considers the practicalities of replacing the memo with an opinion and provides suggestions on how to make the switch
Specific Authorization to File Under Chapter 9: Lessons from Harrisburg
No full textUnder a mountain of incinerator debt and after months of fighting within its city council, the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania filed a petition under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code in October 2011. The dismissal of Harrisburg’s case the following month illustrates an important limit on a city’s ability to use Chapter 9 to resolve its financial problems: a municipality must be “specifically authorized, in its capacity as a municipality or by name” to be a debtor under Chapter 9. Although Harrisburg had been authorized by statute to do so prior to June, 2011, the state legislature’s enactment of legislation removing that authorization was held to be effective by the bankruptcy court. This article will explain the events leading up to Harrisburg’s filing and the decision dismissing the case, and conclude with some thoughts about the desirability of eliminating a city’s ability to seek protection under Chapter 9
The Unfinished Story of the Rio Plus 20 Conference
No full textReporting on the 2012 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (or Rio+20 conference) has generally followed two lines: the conference was essentially a failure because of its tepid official response to the enormous and related problems of global environmental degradation and global poverty; and the conference successfully managed to mobilize hundreds of voluntary commitments and at least $513 billion for specific sustainability goals. A third story line has received little attention, however, and may redeem the account of official failure. This article addresses that story line, reviewing a series of processes set in motion by the parties to the conference that in the next few years could substantially affect how sustainability is addressed globally
Administrative Law Through the Lens of Immigration Law
No full textImmigration law does lag behind in the advancement of public law, but not in all respects. While immigration law is idiosyncratic in many ways, this article finds immigration law in the administrative law mainstream when it comes to its troubles with nonlegislative rules (sometimes called guidance documents). There are concerns throughout administrative law that agencies use such rules to bind regulated parties practically, even if not legally, without the procedural protections of notice and comment.This article analyzes immigration troubles with nonlegislative rules and makes three main contributions. First, it casts new light on the negative effects of guidance documents by viewing administrative law through the lens of immigration law. In immigration law, the cons of guidance documents play out in the context of some of life’s most fundamental questions: where and with whom to live and to work. Second, by showing how administrative law manifests in immigration law, this article concludes that immigration law’s troubles cannot be divorced from the mainstream administrative law debate over nonlegislative rules. Third, this article also evaluates a procedure new to immigration law: the draft memorandum for comment. Through the draft memorandum for comment procedure, the public may comment on draft guidance documents, but is not afforded the full protections of notice and comment rulemaking. While the new procedure is a pragmatic and positive step for immigration law, this article highlights that nonlegislative rules are not the only administrative tool available and argues for greater priority for notice and comment rulemaking in immigration law
Next Generation Recycling and Waste Reduction: Building on the Success of Pennsylvania\u27s 1988 Legislation
No full textSustaining America
No full textThis essay summarizes U.S. sustainability efforts over the two decades since the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth Summit) in 1992. It also summarizes basic findings and recommendations from Acting as if Tomorrow Matters: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainability (Environmental Law Institute 2012). Drawing on the expertise of more than four dozen sustainability practitioners in a variety of fields, the book teases from the limited progress made in the United States over the past two decades the overall patterns for that progress. It also reviews the most significant obstacles to sustainability, again showing patterns in those obstacles across a wide variety of areas. Finally, and building on this framework, the book explains in detail how to accelerate progress and overcome obstacles, providing a checklist of ideas and opportunities that can be used now in any sector or place