Education Law Resources

Resources for the students in the Education Law course to select a topic for the required paper

Privatization of Prisons: Costs and Consequences

The privatization of prisons is generally undertaken by states to lower the cost to the public of housing prisoners. Whether cost savings actually result is debatable. Importantly, the ways in which private prisons do cut costs are problematic from the perspective of public safety, human rights, and public policy. In some well-documented cases, prisoners have escaped due to lax security and poorly trained staff. More generally, staff turnover rates are often high and the compensation packages of private prison guards may be inadequate to attract the best candidates. The U.S. Department of Justice produced a report in June of 2013 documenting that over 30% of juvenile detainees were sexually victimized at Paulding Regional Detention Center – a privately run facility northwest of Atlanta. While that facility’s contract will not be renewed, the trend towards privatization of juvenile detention facilities continues. This panel will discuss the consequences of entrusting vulnerable populations to a system run for profit

How to Brief and Argue Appeals

Accomplished Georgia Law alumni Susan Boleyn (J.D.\u2776) and Michael Terry (J.D.\u2787) addressed how one should brief and argue appeals. Boleyn, a senior assistant attorney general for the state of Georgia, focused on How to Write an Effective Brief. Terry, a partner with the Atlanta law firm Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, addressed How to Make an Impact with Oral Argument

The Rise of China: Political and Economic Implications

In November, former Hong Kong Solicitor-General Daniel R. Fung addressed a diverse audience of more than 150 UGA students, faculty and other guests as the distinguished speaker for the inaugural Willson Center – Dean Rusk Center Annual Lecture. Drawing on past experience and the insights he gained as a national delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the principal advisory body to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Fung provided his view of the political and economic challenges surrounding China’s new global role

A Need for a New Kind of Lawyering

According to Menkel-Meadow, in a modern world of multiple parties and multiple issues within most legal and social problems, the lawyer\u27s role must expand to incorporate new roles as mediators, consensus builders, facilitators, meeting managers and problem solvers. Drawing on such wide ranging sources as political theory (democratic deliberation and participation), game theory, popular culture (John Nash and A Beautiful Mind), literature (Ian McEwen\u27s Enduring Love) and examples from actual legal practice, she illustrated her point

Carpe Diem: Establish an Institutional Repository for Your Organization

A law firm associate has prepared a continuing legal education PowerPoint presentation that resides on the hard drive of the associate\u27s laptop. Another associate has served as an expert witness at a U.S. congressional hearing and the testimony is available on the GPO\u27s website. The law firm\u27s annual report from last year is stored on the intranet on the firm\u27s web server. The firm\u27s librarian has delivered an educational presentation at a professional meeting that is available on the web as a podcast. How can all of these diverse items be captured, archived, organized and readily accessible on the web in one location for public access? An institutional repository can provide the perfect solution. In our current technological age, most communications and scholarship are born digital and are often scattered across various servers and hard drives. Most of these virtual items are not as carefully archived or preserved as are traditional print publications. Librarians have a unique opportunity to fill a void by taking a leadership role in organizing and preserving digital information. In today\u27s computer dependent environment, our extensive archival expertise is timely and germane. One particularly effective means for filling the void and seizing the opportunity is to establish an institutional repository to collect the intellectual output of your institution

Labor Pains in America\u27s New Birth of Freedom: How the Reconstruction Amendments Were Enacted

Almost a century after American colonists secured their freedom from England, internal conflict surrounding the legitimacy of slavery forced our still-evolving nation to evaluate its core values in a “struggle over the meaning of democracy itself.

Wise Women? What Women Bring to the Bench and How to Talk About It Like Gentlemen

The University of Georgia School of Law\u27s 28th Edith House Lecture will be delivered by Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate magazine. She will present Wise Women? What Women Bring to the Bench and How to Talk About It Like Gentlemen on March 25 at 3:30 pm in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall, located on North Campus. According to Lithwick, the nomination and confirmation hearings of Justice Sonia Sotomayor once more put a spotlight on issues surrounding women and the law. Specifically, Sotomayor was attacked as a bully judge and also as a female exceptionalist who believed that women, specifically wise Latina women, made better decisions. During her talk, Lithwick will address the status of women and judging and will explore the question Do women really think differently than men, and if they do, is that a good thing? She will also discuss why the national conversation about women in the law is both impoverished and overheated, what women can do to change it, and what it means for the future of women on the bench and in the law. Her presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Lithwick writes Supreme Court Dispatches and Jurisprudence in addition to covering other legal issues for Slate. Her work has also appeared in Elle, The New Republic, Newsweek, The New York Times, the Ottawa Citizen, The Washington Post and on CNN.com. She is a frequent commentator for several National Public Radio shows, including “Talk of the Nation.” She is also co-author of Me v. Everybody: Absurd Contracts for an Absurd World and I Will Sing Life: Voices from the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Before joining Slate in 1999, Lithwick practiced family law at a firm in Reno, Nev. She also served as a judicial clerk for Chief Judge Procter Ralph Hug Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Lithwick earned her undergraduate degree in English from Yale University and her Juris Doctor from Stanford University

How to Cross-Examine Opposing Experts

Accomplished Georgia Law alumni Kay Deming (J.D.\u2778) and Rick Deane (J.D.\u2777) addressed how one should cross-examine opposing experts