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Abstract:
As lifelong learners, we all know the feelings of discomfort and bewilderment that can come from being asked to apply existing skills in a completely new situation. As legal educators, we have also experienced the frustration that comes from watching our students struggle to identify and transfer skills from one learning environment to another. For example, a first-semester law student who learns to analogize case law to a fact pattern in a legal writing problem typically will not see the deeper applications for those skills in a law school essay exam several weeks later. Similarly, when law students learn how an equitable doctrine like "unclean hands" applies to a particular torts problem in one class, only the smallest percentage will then see the potential application for the doctrine in a contracts course with another professor. Fortunately, research in “transfer of learning” offers the legal academy tools to help students encode knowledge - whether doctrine or skills - in such a way that they know better when and how to retrieve it for later use.

This Article-in-Progress is the first to offer legal educators a comprehensive approach to the transfer of learning across the entire curriculum. It is also the first to propose that law schools employ schema theory to help students encode knowledge and skills for future transfer, as well as to conceptually integrate their courses. In the sample schema provided, students can use four categories of specific core lawyering skills as “constants” for navigating their coursework and employment. Finally, the author details a four-step “core skills approach” for aiding transfer, including the core skills schema; charts that show how various skill sets apply across the curriculum; a universal metacognitive reflection exercise; and additional sample exercises tailored to cue previous knowledge across conceptual bridges, such as the one that spans the distance from legal writing courses into clinic.

transfer, transfer of learning, legal education, schema, metacognition, curriculum, legal writing, law clinic, academic support, active learning, lawyering skills, metacognitive, transfer of knowledge, transfer of training, critical thinking, generalizability, motivation, legal skills, humanizing

Abstract:
Our federal system includes 562 federally-recognized American Indian nations, most of whom have their own sovereign lands, governments, and court systems, and who interact every day with the state and federal systems. Yet most legal thought overlooks our sovereign Native American nations and legal heritage. Although much of American law and policy intersects Tribal jurisdictions, such issues generally appear in the law school curriculum only in specialized, upper-level courses. This Article argues that the three-sovereign system should provide the fundamental framework for the United States legal system across the legal curriculum, and provides several concrete examples for how to do so. It also argues that many law courses should touch upon how their disciplines impact Tribal jurisdictions and their citizens.

By changing our fundamental orientation toward the role of Tribal sovereigns in the U.S. system, we will advance the academy’s goals of scholarship, teaching, and service. First, we will accurately represent the true structure and diversity of our tripartite federal system. Second, we can improve learning by using direct and comparative Tribal perspectives for fundamental legal principles and methods. Third, we can further the social justice mission by raising awareness of Tribal sovereignty among future advocates and lawmakers.

tribal, tribal law, tribal government, tribal courts, native american, sovereignty, legal writing, law curriculum, legal system, social justice, cultural literacy, critical race theory, indian law, indigenous, selecting authority, customary law, three-sovereign, tri-sovereign

Abstract:
State and Tribal sovereigns have historically had a tense relationship, beginning in colonial times, when states vied with the federal government for trading rights and for control of Indian lands. Today, that tension still expresses itself in matters such as gaming compacts, criminal and civil jurisdiction, and taxation, to name just a few. While different sovereigns within a federal system may always vie for resources and power to some extent, it is time for states and Tribes to focus on what a more mutually supportive relationship with Tribal communities has to offer. This Essay explores the history of the two sovereigns’ relationship, how they tend to interact today, and possibilities for positive growth and interaction between them.

tribal-state, state-tribal, tribal-federal, federal-tribal, cooperative agreements, gaming compacts, tribal jurisdiction, tribal sovereignty, federalism, indigenous, tribal sovereignty, sovereignty, listening conference, jurisdictional agreements, concurrent jurisdiction, intergovernmental