Lawyering Skills in the Doctrinal Classroom: Using Legal Writing Pedagogy to Enhance Teaching Across the Law School Curriculum by Tammy Pettinato Oltz

Lawyering Skills in the Doctrinal Classroom: Using Legal Writing Pedagogy to Enhance Teaching Across the Law School Curriculum by Tammy Pettinato Oltz

Author:Tammy Pettinato Oltz [Oltz, Tammy Pettinato]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781531002008
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2021-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


This Will Never Work: I Teach Torts

(or Contracts, or Civil Procedure . . .)

I believe that it is possible to design a writing assignment for any doctrinal course. As a doctrinal teacher, you are an expert in your subject area. You also know the topics that cause your students to struggle. If you have been teaching for more than two years, you have likely seen the struggle repeatedly. Some topics just seem harder for students to grasp, year in and year out. In my Constitutional Law I class, the subject of congressional power to enforce the Civil War Amendments and the Supreme Court's “congruence and proportionality” test (from the City of Boerne13 case) is a prime example. My students struggle at this juncture every year. Parallels exist in other courses. Is it “consideration” in Contracts? Is it Rule 56 Summary Judgment in Civil Procedure? Is it “proximate cause” in Torts? Without having your students write an entire summary judgment motion brief in your Civil Procedure class, you might have them write a short paper critiquing a poorly-written summary judgment brief of your selection.14 (Redact that brief as necessary, of course.) A client letter might be a good idea for a Contracts writing assignment, and a short memo advising on whether a cause of action exists for a tort they are studying might give Torts students some practical insight into the substance of the doctrine you are teaching. You should also consider transforming one of the Note questions within your casebook will work, if you are not sure where to begin in crafting a short writing assignment.



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