Socrates

Ah, the Socratic Method, pedagogical tool beloved of law students. NOT. Angus Kennedy examines some new books devoted to the life and legacy of Socrates here, who is supposed to have annoyed those around him with that device so much that they told him to begone permanently. Well, he did some other things that annoyed his neighbors too. Notes Mr. Kennedy, "In Plato’s Meno, Socrates offends a man called Anytus by suggesting that even great men such as Themistocles and Thucydides were not capable of teaching their sons to be good. Anytus warns him to be careful, that he is ‘too ready to speak evil of men’. It was Anytus who brought the prosecution against Socrates in 399 BC, on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, which led to Socrates’ execution."

Science and the Criminal Mind

In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Evan R. Goldstein reviews Douglas Starr's new book exploring the origins of criminology, The Killer of Little Shepherds.

Storytelling Across the Curriculum

Carolyn Grose, William Mitchell College of Law, has published Storytelling Across the Curriculum: From Margin to Center, from Clinic to the Classroom, in volume 7 of the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (2010). Here is the abstract.

Narrative theory and storytelling can be used throughout the law school curriculum, cutting across types of courses and types of lawyering. I teach skills, doctrinal, and clinical courses, and I use narrative theory and storytelling in all three, always with the same goal: to help students recognize that as lawyers, they are not only hearers and tellers of stories, but also, and perhaps most important, constructors of stories.

I use the term “narrative theory” to describe the study of story construction, which is different from - though clearly related to - story telling. Construction is the act of building: putting together the elements that comprise the story and then writing it down. Performance of the story - reading it, telling it, enacting it - comes later.

In this piece, I develop the idea of using storytelling across the curriculum to teach students critical thinking and reflection about their role as lawyers. In Part One, I describe the importance of storytelling and stories in the craft of lawyering. Part Two describes my own teaching in the context of narrative theory and practice, and it analyzes how and why this context achieves the goal of developing students’ critical thinking skills and reflective practice. The piece concludes with the suggestion that narrative theory and storytelling as a pedagogy used systematically across individual courses and the curriculum has the potential to transform a student’s experience of law school, resulting in her development as an empowered, reflective, and socially responsible member of the legal profession, regardless of the kind of law she practices or the kinds of clients she represents.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

The Magic of the Courtroom

The Eleventh Judicial Circuit and Miami-Dade County reached back--far back--to re-enact Al Capone's perjury trial. Partly out of nostalgia, and partly out of a sense of the importance of the law, the people involved took on key roles in the decades-old proceeding to bring key figures to life. In the peanut gallery, some adults with an interest in Capone, and in the historic, and some ninth graders who may now know who Al Capone was. Or not. More here from the New York Times.

The Trial

From the New York Times, an account of the legal battle over Franz Kafka literary legacy. The parties: the National Library of Israel and the heirs of Max Brod, who handled Mr. Kafka's estate.

Camus' "The Outsider" and Criminal Punishment Theory

Emlyn Walter Cruickshank, Australian National University College of Law, has published Dialogues of Indifference: Albert Camus' 'The Outsider' and Criminal Punishment Theory , as ANU College of Law Research Paper No. 10-29. Here is the abstract.

This paper was written as an honours paper under the supervision of Dr Tony Connolly.

Upon reading Albert Camus’ 'The Outsider', the curious feeling arises that despite his indifference at having killed a man, Meursault is not the real villain of the story. The villains are those who punish him and the institution through which this punishment is administered. This feeling rests upon a strong sense of injustice – a sense that the institution of law did not treat Meursault as it could have, and certainly not as it should. Camus thereby raises genuine issue that philosophers of criminal punishment ought to be concerned with.

Camus articulates an improper and absurd administration of punishment. In so doing he gives an alternate framework with which to appraise prevailing theories of criminal punishment. My primary thesis is that those sympathetic to Camus' existentialist concern should be more inclined toward punishment justified as communicative retribution. The theories of utilitarianism and other variants of retributivism - intrinsic desert, unfair advantage and censure - are either disinterested in the behaviour of Camus' court or implicitly condone it.

Secondarily, and by necessary implication, I advocate the worth of an interdisciplinary approach to the development of jurisprudential thought generally. Building upon the Law and Literature movement, this paper impresses the value in using critical images of the law cast by existentialist literature in order to determine the theoretical framework which best justifies the existence of a legal practise and regulates the adjudicative processes through which it is administered. Further, it examples how this can be achieved.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.

Prison, Hip Hop, and Islam

SpearIt, Saint Louis University School of Law, has published Spreading the Faith: Music and Culture, in Muslims in U.S. Prisons (Nawal Ammar, ed.; Lynne Rienner Publications) (forthcoming). Here is the abstract.

This chapter argues that prison and hip hop culture are major factors in the popularity and growth of Islam in the United States. The connections among Islam, prisons, and hip hop culture are profound, and all three share a deeply intertwined history; the more one studies Islam in the U.S., the student will be led to the powerful sanctuaries of prisons and hip hop culture, where Islam’s presence is pronounced. This work combines textual analysis of musical cultural productions and scholarly research on prison culture to show hip hop and prison culture as two primary sites of religious conversion. In these cultural spheres, Islam has found a steady stream of new recruits which contribute to Islam as the fastest growing religion in the United States.

The full text is not currently available from SSRN.

New Legal Literary Prize

The University of Alabama School of Law is launching a prize to honor the best book in legal fiction published in the year. It is named after Harper Lee, the author of the iconic To Kill a Mockingbird. The first prize will be given out next year, to the book published in 2010 that "best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society and lawyers' power to effect change."

More here.

"Wired" At Harvard

Two instructors at Harvard are using HBO's "The Wire" as fodder for a course in urban inequality. One of them, William Julius Wilson, wrote the book that serves as inspiration for the show's second season. More here, picked up by the Washington Post.

Julien Mezey Dissertation Awards: Submissions for Nominations Open

Julien Mezey Dissertation Award
NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 1/11/11

The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities invites submissions for its 2011 Julien Mezey Dissertation Award. This annual prize is awarded to the dissertation that most promises to enrich and advance interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of law, culture and the humanities. The award will be presented at the Association's 2011 annual meeting, which will be hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on March 11-12.

The Association seeks the submission of outstanding work from a wide variety of perspectives, including but not limited to law and cultural studies, legal hermeneutics and rhetoric, law and literature, law and psychoanalysis, law and visual studies, legal history, legal theory and jurisprudence. Scholars completing humanities-oriented dissertations in SJD and related programs, as well as those earning PhDs, are encouraged to submit their work. Applicants eligible for the 2011 award must have defended their dissertations successfully between September 1, 2009 and August 31, 2010.

The deadline for nominations for the 2011 award is November 1, 2010. On or before that date, each nominee must submit the following:

1) a letter by the nominee detailing the genesis, goal, and contribution of the dissertation;
2) a letter of support from a faculty member familiar with the work;
3) an abstract, outline, and selected chapter of the dissertation;
4) contact information for the nominee.

All materials should be sent to:
Professor Tucker Culbertson, tbculber@law.syr.edu

Award finalists will be notified by December 1, 2010. Finalists must then submit an electronic version of the entire dissertation. The winner will be determined by early February and invited to the 2011 ASLCH annual meeting in Tempe. ASLCH will pay travel and lodging costs.

Questions should be addressed to Professor Tucker Culbertson, tbculber@law.syr.edu

The "Dexter" Defense

Lewis Unglesby, the defense attorney for a seventeen year old Louisiana man accused of murder, says viewings of the Showtime series "Dexter" influenced his client. Police seized DVDs of the show at the defendant's home. Mr. Unglesby entered a "not guilty by reason of insanity" plea for his client in early July. More here from the Baton Rouge Advocate.

The problem? Dexter is a serial killer who eliminates other serial killers. Mr. Unglesby's client is accused of murdering an eight-year-old.

Call For Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS

11th International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law

‘Intercultural Awareness in Legal Language’

Conference Venue: Public Law Department – School of Law of Fluminense Federal University – UFF (Niterói/Rio de Janeiro – Brazil)

Dates: 11-13 November 2011

Hosted by Evandro Carvalho (Brazil)
Co-organizer: Anne Wagner (France)


The 2011 roundtable will focus on the contribution of legal semiotics to discuss the different ways of thinking the "legal" in a world's cultural diversity.

Aware of the III World Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, held in Brazil in May 2010, that had the intention to rethink how to deal with tensions between cultures and promote trust and understanding between heterogeneous communities, the 11th Roundtable intend to put together scholars of legal semiotics to discuss the influences of cultural and linguistic diversity on the construction of meaning in national law and international law.

It is hoped that the papers will reflect the interdisciplinary nature of legal semiotics research as well as the challenges of working in the field. In this context, proposals from a wide variety of semiotic perspectives are invited. These might include but are not limited to papers on:

• The contribution of legal semiotics across cultures
• The problem of multilingualism
• Semiotics and comparative law
• Legal semiotics and the processes of normative integration
• Semiotics of international relations
• Semiotics and competition of languages in international relations
• Language, power and diplomacy
• Translating legal concepts across cultures: the case of contract terminology or case of land law terminology.
• The misuse of language in the judicial process, in legal adjudication
• The use of metaphors in legal language

Young researchers working in related areas are particularly encouraged to participate.

In the interest of a cohesive round table, prospective participants are requested to adhere to the theme as outlined in the call for papers.

Proposals in either English, Spanish, French or Portuguese (max 300 words) should be sent only by e-mail by 15 May 2011 to irsl2011@gmail.com, evandro.carvalho@gmail.com and to Anne Wagner (valwagnerfr@yahoo.com).

Selected papers will be published in a special annual issue in English and/or French of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (http://www.springer.com). The length of the paper should not normally exceed 7000 words, including references, footnotes, and appendices, if any. Please follow the style sheet for the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (Visit the website at http://www.springer.com/law/journal/11196)

Contact Anne Wagner, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (France)
Research Professor, China University of Political Science and Law (Beijing - China)
http://fr.linkedin.com/in/annewagner


Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - http://www.springer.com/law/journal/11196
Series Editor, Law, Language and Communication - Ashgate Publisher (http://www.ashgate.com/Default.aspx?page=3916)
President of the International Roundtables for the Semiotics of Law - http://www.semioticsoflaw.com/
Editor for SemiotiX New Series - http://semioticon.com/semiotix/
International collaborator, International Commercial Arbitration Practices - http://144.214.44.26/arbitration/arbitration/index.html

Call For Papers

Laurent de Sutter, FWO Senior Researcher, Law, Sciences, Technology & Society,
Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, has issued a call for papers for a collection that he is editing for Routledge (with the help of law publisher Colin Perrin) concerning “Althusser & Law”. A few years ago, in an essay published in a volume in French called “Politique et philosophie dans l’oeuvre de Louis Althusser”, Etienne Balibar called for a systematic study of the existing relationships between law and Althusser’s life and work. This project is an attempt to answer this call, and to begin a first exploration of this yet totally unexplored topic. He is currently looking for an enlarged set of contributors - although a few major international althusserians have already agreed to contribute : Luke Ferretter, Warren Montag and William S. Lewis to begin with.

If you are interested, he would be delighted to provide you with further details about it.

Contact him at the address below.

Laurent de Sutter
FWO Senior Researcher
Law, Sciences, Technology & Society
Faculty of Law
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Brussels
Belgium

ldesutter at hotmail.com

The Semantics of Vattel's International Law

Vincent Chetail, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, has published Vattel and the Semantics of International Law: A Critical Reconstruction (Vattel et la Sémantique du Droit des Gens: Une Tentative de Reconstruction Critique) in Vattel's International Law in a XXIst Century Perspective (Vincent Chetail & Peter Haggenmacher, eds., Brill) (forthcoming). Here is the abstract.

The article explores the influence of Vattel on the development of public international law.

Download the chapter from SSRN at the link.

Storytelling in the Law School Curriculum

Carolyn Grose, William Mitchell College of Law, has published Storytelling Across the Curriculum: From Margin to Center, from Clinic to the Classroom in volume 7 of the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (2010).

Narrative theory and storytelling can be used throughout the law school curriculum, cutting across types of courses and types of lawyering. I teach skills, doctrinal, and clinical courses, and I use narrative theory and storytelling in all three, always with the same goal: to help students recognize that as lawyers, they are not only hearers and tellers of stories, but also, and perhaps most important, constructors of stories.

I use the term “narrative theory” to describe the study of story construction, which is different from - though clearly related to - story telling. Construction is the act of building: putting together the elements that comprise the story and then writing it down. Performance of the story - reading it, telling it, enacting it - comes later.

In this piece, I develop the idea of using storytelling across the curriculum to teach students critical thinking and reflection about their role as lawyers. In Part One, I describe the importance of storytelling and stories in the craft of lawyering. Part Two describes my own teaching in the context of narrative theory and practice, and it analyzes how and why this context achieves the goal of developing students’ critical thinking skills and reflective practice. The piece concludes with the suggestion that narrative theory and storytelling as a pedagogy used systematically across individual courses and the curriculum has the potential to transform a student’s experience of law school, resulting in her development as an empowered, reflective, and socially responsible member of the legal profession, regardless of the kind of law she practices or the kinds of clients she represents.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Judges and Storytelling

Kenneth D. Chestek, Indiana University, Indianapolis, has published Judging by the Numbers: An Empirical Study of the Power of Story in volume 7 of the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (2010). Here is the abstract.

This article focuses on the question of whether appellate judges are actually influenced by the stories of the litigants who appear before them. Part I will describe what I call the “DNA model of persuasion,” setting forth the hypothesis that logical argumentation, while a necessary part of persuasion, is not sufficient by itself and that using the form of a story to weave a pathos-based appeal into a brief will produce a more persuasive document. Part II of this article will describe a study that I devised and implemented to test whether appellate judges find story argumentation persuasive; Part III will present the results of the study. Part IV addresses possible objections to the validity of the test and the sample collected. Part V will begin an analysis of what the data might mean.

Among other things, I conclude that stories are indeed persuasive to appellate judges and others, but also that recent law school graduates are not as impressed by stories as more experienced lawyers (and judges) are. Finally, I suggest that stories are helpful because, properly done, they evoke emotional responses within the reader that make the legal claim seem more “real,” and hence believable, to the reader.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.