SelectedWorks @ Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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Should Pennsylvania Amend Its Constitution? The Pennsylvania Bar Association Considers Calls for Reform
No full textWhen You\u27re the Editor: Editing the Writing of Other Lawyers Uses Skills Similar to Those Applied in Editing Your Own Writing but Also Requires \u27Additional Roles\u27
No full textThis article provides editing tips and advice for editors of other people’s writing. It starts with the premise that editing other writers’ work requires many of the same skills as self-editing. It goes on to suggest, however, that in addition to using those skills, editors should adopt several unique strategies to more efficiently revise other writers’ drafts. It recommends that lawyers as editors take on the roles of reader, manager, coach, and copy editor. The article also provides editing advice for lawyers to follow as they comment on other writers’ drafts
China\u27s Evidentiary and Procedural Reforms, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the Harmonization of Civil and Common Law
No full textChina’s People’s Supreme Court has stated its commitment to reform its judicial system, and the linchpin of the reform effort is the Uniform Provisions of Evidence, which are in the process of becoming China’s first procedural and evidentiary code. Incongruously, China, a civil law country, has modeled the Uniform Provisions upon the United States’ Federal Rules of Evidence and incorporated into the Uniform Provisions principles of United States’ criminal and civil procedure. The parallels between the Uniform Provisions and the Federal Rules of Evidence are striking and the adoption of F.R.E. language extraordinary.After setting out the traits that distinguish civil law countries, including China, from common law countries, I discuss how the adoption of a common law code, although incongruous, serves China’s reform effort and may ameliorate many of the problems with China’s judicial system. I also discuss how the Uniform Provisions, while maintaining Federal Rules of Evidence language, will be read differently in the new institutional setting. In making this argument, I discuss the civilian “free evaluation” principle, the Chinese concept of “objective justice,” and the influences of Confucianism and the harmonious society on the application of the Uniform Provisions. The article also describes in detail the Uniform Provisions and compares them with their antecedents in the Federal Rules of Evidence.While China’s previous reform efforts have been disappointing, the article ends with the expectation that the seriousness of this reform effort combined with China’s re-emergence as a global power will create a much improved judicial system
Why I Teach
No full textDesigned for law teachers who want to improve their teaching and students\u27 learning, this book offers general teaching principles and dozens of concrete ideas. The first two chapters present foundational principles of learning and instruction as well as insights from students. The next 12 chapters address classroom dynamics, technology, questioning, discussion, collaborative learning, experiential learning, feedback, assessment, and continued development for teachers. Each of these 12 chapters introduces the topic based on educational research and then offers classroom-tested exercises, approaches, material, and methods contributed by veteran teachers
The Cash for Clunkers Program: A Sustainability Evaluation
No full textThis article describes and evaluates the effectiveness of the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009, also known as the “Cash for Clunkers” legislation. Under this law, Congress authorized persons trading in older and less fuel-efficient motor vehicles for newer and more fuel-efficient vehicles to receive a voucher worth up to $4,500 toward the purchase of the new vehicle. The article reviews various studies assessing the effectiveness of this legislation based on economic, social, and environmental criteria. Because these criteria are consistent with the goals of sustainable development, the legislation provides important lessons for future efforts to achieve sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
The Essential and Growing Role of Legal Education in Achieving Sustainability
No full textThis article suggests that law schools need to play a leading role in the national and global effort to achieve sustainability, including the effort to address climate change. The article first describes the various drivers for sustainability in law schools. Clients are increasingly demanding that their lawyers \u27walk the talk,\u27 as many businesses and corporations already are. The universities that provide an institutional home for most law schools are also adopting sustainability policies and practices that influence their law schools. Within the legal profession, the American Bar Association, as well as many state and local bar associations, have adopted a number of sustainability policies and practices, and a growing number of law firms and other law organizations are doing the same. The article then describes a broad and growing range of sustainability activities - especially in curriculum and scholarship, but also in buildings and operations; outreach and service; student life; institutional mission, policy, and planning; and external stakeholders. The article also raises - and tentatively suggests some partial answers to answers to - a set of normative questions about precisely what law schools should be doing
Murky Immigration Law and the Challenges Facing Immigration Removal and Benefits Adjudication
No full textImmigration adjudication is more diverse than it may seem. Scholars tend to focus on one aspect of administrative immigration adjudication, the decision-making process established to determine whether an individual may be removed (deported) from the United States. But there is a whole other function of administrative immigration adjudication that relatively is ignored in the legal literature. Immigration adjudicators are also tasked with determining whether to grant immigration benefits, such as whether to grant lawful permanent resident (green card) status.Both types of administrative immigration adjudication, removal and benefits, are in crisis. This article explores the challenges facing each and argues that both crises are linked to a lack of transparency in immigration law. In the removal context, the lack of transparency is exemplified by the complexity of the law and by the negative discretion infused into the law. In the benefits context, the lack of transparency is exemplified by the use of administrative guidance to adjudicate benefits applications and by the obscurity of the administrative appellate adjudicating body, the Administrative Appeals Office.This lack of transparency presents big challenges for both removal and benefits adjudication, and once recognized, opens new lines of inquiry. In the removal context, the lack of transparency: (1) must be considered as a contributor to overwhelming caseloads; (2) highlights a lack of decisional independence for immigration adjudicators; (3) must be considered as a factor in the extreme lack of lawyers in the system; and (4) adds to the negative mystique surrounding immigration law. In the benefits context, the use of administrative guidance and the obscurity of the Administrative Appeals Office help to explain the confusion, uncertainty and extreme lack of confidence characteristic of the benefits adjudication system.The opacity of immigration law presents challenges to both removal and benefits adjudication. This connection suggests that the lack of transparency in immigration law is a broad and deep problem, and that this murkiness must be considered in crafting any reform
Why Civil Recourse Theory Is Incomplete
No full textThe latest prominent theory of torts is the rich “civil recourse” theory of Professors John C. P. Goldberg and Benjamin C. Zipursky. Pursuant to civil recourse, tort is a law of wrongs. Specifically, tort law’s purpose is “providing victims with an avenue of civil recourse against those who have wrongfully injured them.” As such, Goldberg & Zipursky, with certain de minimis exceptions, deny that tort’s purpose is to serve as an instrument to achieve social and public policy goals.Although I agree with Goldberg & Zipursky that wrongs are an essential component of tort law, their exclusion of instrumentalist concerns, such as deterrence, loss spreading, and administrative efficiency, is overly broad.Using tort reform as a perspective by which to examine torts, I chronicle the growth of instrumentalism in tort law. All of the major tort reforms over the last century were based in instrumentalism. Moreover, when the reforms are viewed chronologically, a pattern develops: In each successive reform, instrumentalism made increasing inroads into tort.Thus, as a positive account of tort law, civil recourse is incomplete. Tort law, as a positive matter, is about wrongs, but not exclusively wrongs. It is pluralist, including elements of instrumentalism as well
A Broader View of the U.S. Immigration Adjudication Problem
No full textImmigration adjudication is ailing. A combination of problems within the administrative system and steady efforts to narrow the role of the federal courts has resulted in a system subject to much criticism. It is not unusual to find court of appeals judges describing the administrative adjudication system as dysfunctional