Amici are teachers in New York law schools who have studied the operation of the death penalty fo... more Amici are teachers in New York law schools who have studied the operation of the death penalty for the purpose of teaching the subject, writing about it in scholarly journals, or representing persons accused or convicted of capital crimes. Most of us have worked in ...
Social Science in Law. (Book Reviews: Reforming the Law)
Science, 1989
Introducing Robert Smalls
Fordham L. Rev., 2000
Page 1. INTRODUCING ROBERT SMALLS Peggy Cooper Davis* I. THE FIRST INTRODUCTION The question that... more Page 1. INTRODUCING ROBERT SMALLS Peggy Cooper Davis* I. THE FIRST INTRODUCTION The question that occupies me is this: When citizenship is diminished for a class of citizens, should the Fourteenth Amendment ...
With educator Elizabeth Steinglass, Professor Davis analyzes Socratic method teaching as a form o... more With educator Elizabeth Steinglass, Professor Davis analyzes Socratic method teaching as a form of experiential learning.
I want to work toward answers to two very hard questions. Here is the first: How do we avoid esse... more I want to work toward answers to two very hard questions. Here is the first: How do we avoid essentialist or stereotyped conceptions of women and men while holding to the possibility that women have the insight and inclination to transform the practice of law? I take as given the need to expose and resist stereotypes that constrain us as women and men-to deny the essentialist claims that women but not men are nurturing, that men but not women are quantitatively apt, that women are inconsistent and inconstant, while men are logical and true. I acknowledge that there are times when "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" is a healthy song to sing. At the same time, I believe that the presence of women in formerly all male centers of influence can and should transform practice within those institutions. (The words "can" and "should" are carefully chosen; I do not believe that transformation is an automatic consequence of integration.) How can we reconcile the claim of similar capacities with the promise of transformation? I will approach this difficult question by telling a story about resonance and voice. The story is set in the American South in the twentieth century. The focus is on maintaining a civic voice, and there is a want of resonance on account of race. This story about resonance and voice is also a story about stereotype and transformation, for, as I hope to show, stereotypes (or cultural expectations) about people deny resonance to their voices. And, as I also hope to show, in gendered domains, like law or nursing, as in a racialized domain like the American South, voices muted for want of resonance can be voices of constructive transformation. My story of the American South teaches that transforming practice requires courage to go against the cultural grain, and this lesson brings me to my second question: How do we fortify students, male and female, so that they have the courage to exploit the transformative potential of gender integration in the professions? In an effort to answer this question, I will offer two stories about legal education for practice against the cultural grain. In these stories, the focus
Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Sep 1, 1977
When considering various alternatives in the selection of readings for an American society course... more When considering various alternatives in the selection of readings for an American society course, Letter to the President on Crime Control by Norval Morris and Gordon Hawkins stood out as a most worthwhile book. Given that the nature of the course was essentially an introduction to criminology, I was in need of a concise overview of some of the key issues in the criminal justice system. This choice seemed to be an excellent one: students reacted well to the provocative outline for legal reform which was presented by the authors. During the presentation of this material class discussion was at its peak. In a restatement and updated version of the earlier Honest Politician's Guide to Crime Control, the authors begin by describing what they feel should be the emphasis of the criminal justice system: "protection of our persons and property from violent and predatory crime." Given this tenet as a starting point, they continue to develop an ideal system which they believe will maximize efficiency and equity. The titles of the succeeding chapters demonstrate the issues which the authors deem most salient: gun control, drug abuse, the police, the courts, plea bargaining and sentencing, corrections, and compensation for victims of violent crimes. In a final note, the authors continue to display the relevance of the subjects they selected with a discussion of capital punishment and abortion. The book, which is less than one hundred pages in length, is an ideal supplemental text for courses in introductory sociology, social problems, or criminology. It would seem best suited to a situation where the instructor wished to encourage class participation and discussion, rather than a class which was more oriented toward straight lecture. One suggestion for the use of the book is to divide students in terms of their views on particular issues, and ask them to do some reflecting and/or research which would serve to justify their beliefs. This is a fine method for promoting class debate. Additionally, the book may be seen as an excellent source of research topics for term papers.
6. Education for Sovereign People
New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2021
Overturning Abortion Rights Ignores Freedoms Awarded after Slaverys's End
Social Science Research Network, 2022
Lessons for the United States from Post-Colonial Constitutionalism
Ever since the United States was reconstituted after the Civil War, a Confederate narrative of st... more Ever since the United States was reconstituted after the Civil War, a Confederate narrative of states' rights has undermined the Reconstruction Amendments' design for the protection of civil rights. The Confederate narrative's diminishment of civil rights has been regularly challenged, but it stubbornly persists. Today the narrative survives in imprecise and unquestioning odes to state sovereignty. We analyze the relationship, over time, between assertions of civil rights and calls for the protection of local autonomy and control. This analysis reveals a troubling sequence: the Confederate narrative was shamefully intertwined with the defense of American chattel slavery. It survived profound challenges raised by post-Reconstruction civil rights claimants and by mid-twentieth century civil rights movements. It reemerges regularly to pose questionable but unanswered challenges to calls for national protection of civil rights. Our examination of the Confederate narrative's jurisprudential effects exposes an urgent need to address the consequential but under-recognized tension between human and civil rights in the United States on the one hand and local autonomy on the other. 1. We use the word "Confederate" deliberately though we recognize it may provoke unease. By stating that certain modern Court decisions continue the Confederate narrative, we are not arguing that particular Justices or supporters of particular opinions embrace the racist ideology of the historical Confederacy. We recognize the value of principled defenses of decentralized enforcement power when they are based on careful and context-specific thought about the optimal or just allocation of particular kinds of civil rights decision-making authority. See,
Children are at risk for many reasons. As Professor Straus has reported to this Symposium, most a... more Children are at risk for many reasons. As Professor Straus has reported to this Symposium, most adults in the United States accept the degrading violence of corporal punishment, with its dangerous potential for escalation, as a routine aspect of discipline and socialization. 1 Overwhelming numbers of children live in poverty. 2 Parental resources are sorely strained by unemployment and disability. 3 The parental role is devalued 4 and often assumed with
Neglected Stories and the Lawfulness of Roe v. Wade
Social Science Research Network, 1993
Page 1. NEGLECTED STORIES AND THE LAWFULNESS OF ROE V. WADE* Peggy Cooper Davis** Introduction Th... more Page 1. NEGLECTED STORIES AND THE LAWFULNESS OF ROE V. WADE* Peggy Cooper Davis** Introduction The Constitution of the United States does not contain the word family. It makes no mention of marriage, parenting, procrea-tion, contraception or abortion. ...
Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change REVIEW OF LAW & SOCIAL CHANG... more Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change REVIEW OF LAW & SOCIAL CHANGE is not always clear that he has the better argument). He has an endearing wit. Take, for instance, the flirtatious flattery with which he responds to Meno's insistence that Socrates answer a question: SocRATEs: Anyone talking to you could tell blindfold that you are a handsome man and still have your admirers. MENO: Why so? SocRATEs: Because you are for ever laying down the law as spoiled boys do, who act the tyrant as long as their youth lasts. No doubt you have discovered that I can never resist good looks. Well, I will give in and let you have your answer. 2 Despite his persecuted end, Plato's Socrates enacts a life of the mind as a glamorous, satisfying quest for excellence. It is no surprise that this compelling figure caught the fancy of those who imagined, in the early days of formalized legal education in the United States, what it should be like to "read" the law. But it is surprisingand perhaps unfortunatethat the Socratic method has so dominated thinking about legal education that other teaching methods have been marginalized or precluded. Except in clinical programs, the collaborative and experiential learning models that have become commonplace in other higher education contexts are rarely used in law school courses. 3 We have been engaged for more than two years in a highly eclectic, critical evaluation of law school teaching methods and in the development of alternatives. We recognize that economies of scale make Socratic and lecture models attractive, especially in large undergraduate and professional schools that cannot afford the teacher student ratios graduate departments typically enjoy. Still, it is important to evaluate Socratic teaching against the goals of legal education. This essay is an effort to resist traditionalist inertia, to look behind Platonic images of grace, charm 2. PLATO, Meno, reprinted in PLATO: THE COLLECrED DIALOGUES 353, 359 (Edith Hamilton & Huntington Cairns eds. & W.K.C. Guthrie trans., 1987) [hereinafter Meno]. 3. For discussion and examples of experiential learning, see DAVID H. LEMPERT, Es. CAPE FROM THE IVORY TOWER: STUDENT ADVENTURES IN DEMOCRATIC EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION (1996) (arguing that educational goals of civic participation, consensus and community are furthered through a "democratic educational" model whereby students help to shape their education instead of conforming to an institution's ideals); IAN MCGILL & Liz BEATY, ACTION LEARNING: A GUIDE FOR PROFESSIONAL, MANAGEMENT, AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (2d ed. 1995) (characterizing active learning as groups working together on real problems and then reflecting on their experiences, with group members challenging one another's preconceptions); EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: A NEW APPROACHl, (Lewis Jackson & Rosemary S. Caffarella eds., 1994) (referring to prior experience as a catalyst for new learning); USING ACTIVE LEARNING IN COLLEGE CLASSES: A RANOE OF OPTIONS FOR FACULTY (Tracey E. Sutherland & Charles Bonwell eds., 1996) (promoting a move away from traditional lecture-based courses to those that embrace student participation, activities, and/or group work as a goal for higher education).
There Is a Book out...": An Analysis of Judicial Absorption of Legislative Facts
Harvard Law Review, May 1, 1987
C LASSICAL jurisprudence posited that law was found by judges through application of logic and ad... more C LASSICAL jurisprudence posited that law was found by judges through application of logic and adherence to fixed principles. This notion has been thoroughly repudiated. We now recognize that judges often must make law and that general knowledge is relied ...
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