Summers of Our Discontent

This essay analyzes the transcript of Lawrence Summers\u27 remarks to the January 14 Conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce. The purpose of a close textual analysis is to develop understanding of the firestorm unleashed by Summers\u27 remarks. Which aspects of his remarks were so incendiary and what can be learned from them? In particular, the essay explores possible sources of Summers\u27 stated hypotheses about gender differences that contribute to women\u27s underrepresentation in certain fields. It also explores the material consequences of these hypotheses in women\u27s lives to highlight the interconnection between such beliefs and discriminatory behavior. The overall goal of this analysis is to contribute to a broader and deeper understanding of the relationships between gender, culture, and work and to promote a responsible approach to both diversity discourse and diversity itself

Beyond Cut Flowers: Developing a Clinical Perspective on Critical Legal Theory

In her Essay Professor Goldfarb examines the relationship between clinical legal education and critical legal theory. She highlights the resemblances between the two movements while elaborating a clinical educator\u27s perspective on and critique of some of the ideas associated with critical legal studies. As the heirs to different versions of legal realism--critical legal studies being associated with rule skepticism, and clinical legal education with fact skepticism -both are engaged in a project of theoretical deconstruction. For each the goal of this project is to generate a climate favorable to social change. Professor Goldfarb, however, argues that much of the cls perspective, generated from the cloistered position of the academy, borders on being inconsequential. The new wave of clinical education theory, which engages in the inductive process of theory building by proceeding from the concrete to the general and back again, is better able to test the value of critical theory\u27s insights and use them to effect change

Intimacy and Injury: How Law Has Changed for Battered Women

In a book focused on the intersection of law and psychology in women\u27s lives, this chapter reviews the evolving law of domestic violence, examining the features of the legal landscape that have changed in the past three decades for those who have experienced violence in intimate relationships. The chapter considers the legal development of interventions such as civil protection orders, civil lawsuits, mandatory arrest and no-drop prosecution policies, the conception of crimes such as restraining order violations and stalking, and the potential use of alternative forms of dispute resolution. Changes in the law of self-defense as applied to intimate violence cases--for example, the contested notion of battered woman syndrome--are also assessed. The chapter explores broadly the theoretical and practical issues surrounding these policies and concepts and the controversies that they have provoked. Particular attention is paid to the use of executive clemency processes in many states as a form of retrospective relief for defendants convicted of crimes against their batterers, analyzing those battered women\u27s clemency projects that met with considerable success as well as those which ended largely in disappointment. The chapter seeks to gauge the extent of the overall progress in law\u27s efforts to address the problem of intimate violence and to identify the continuing difficulties facing its victims

Exploring the Meaning of Experiential Deaning

This article explores the position of associate dean of experiential education in law schools across the country and the central role associate deans play in the changing landscape of legal education. Experiential deans have broad responsibility for overseeing law schools’ experiential education programs. Additional responsibilities differ between institutions, but range from leading efforts to comply with new ABA standards to overseeing the integration of experiential education into the broader curriculum. Analyzing survey data collected from associate experiential deans across the country, the authors find the structure, content, and authority of the position is under-developed. The authors make recommendations on how institutions can carve out the role intentionally and provide institutional support to increase the efficacy of the position