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Abstract:
This article sets out an easily duplicable, cost-effective way to empirically measure the impact of teaching innovations. It does so in the context of examining the impact of five required essay writing exercises which focused on teaching first-year law students to break a legal rule into its component parts and perform complex factual analysis within the applicable doctrinal framework. The article discusses the not-so-surprising empirical finding that practice essay exercises accompanied by generalized feedback improve first-year law student essay exam performance with regard to the skills that were the focus of the practice exercises. It also discusses a somewhat more surprising finding: students who received the most statistically significant benefit from the practice exercises were students with above-the-median LSAT scores and above-the-median UGPAs. The article explores potential reasons that the practice exercises did not have the same benefit for all students, including students' potentially different metacognitive skills and the impact of the in-class exam speededness factor. It proposes suggestions for improving the effectiveness of future in-class writing exercises and it suggests ideas for future studies. In sum, this article lays the groundwork for those interested in empirical exploration of the effectiveness of any given teaching methodology.

practice essays, empirical study, metacognition, law school exam performance, speededness

Abstract:
In this short essay, four U.S. professors who recently served as Fulbright Lecturers in Law in China share important observations about China's future lawyers. The authors discuss key differences in the legal education systems of the two countries, noting that the most significant difference is the lack of Chinese training in the critical legal analysis so familiar to U.S.-trained lawyers. The authors also discuss Chinese law students' limited knowledge of the U.S. legal system and U.S. culture generally. This essay seeks to help members of the U.S. legal community understand the different skill sets and information that Chinese lawyers may bring to the table, in order to avoid "cultural encapsulation" - the tendency to have unfounded, ethnocentric expectations about their Chinese counterparts that could have profound, unintended effects on transnational interactions.

China, Legal Education, Cultural Encapsulation, Critical Thinking

Abstract:
Recent scholarly literature criticizes law school assessment methods as being pedagogically unsound, an ineffective way to develop good lawyers, and as standing as an unjustifiable barrier to diversifying the profession. With the publication of Educating Lawyers, and Best Practices, the academy finally has begun to engage in the kind of scholarly scrutiny of assessment that has long been the practice in other disciplines. This essay seeks to move the discussion from a focus on law school assessment shortcomings, to a discussion of the scholarly work necessary to examine and improve assessments. It does this by providing concrete suggestions for alternative law school assessments which attempt to incorporate into large-section courses the Carnegie apprenticeships of legal analysis, practical skills, and professional identity. The essay acknowledges that whether these alternatives, or even our existing assessment methods, are valid and reliable is an undetermined question. Thus, the essay urges empirical exploration of law school assessments. It provides guidance to those seeking to design empirical assessment research studies and it suggests some empirical assessment studies that can and should be done. It concludes by arguing that given the high stakes of law school assessments, law professors should devote the same level of scrutiny to assessments as is given to other scholarly pursuits.

legal education, law school, empirical research, assessment, Carnegie Report

Abstract:
This article discusses how, from the late 1800s through the early 1970s, the American government removed American Indian children from their parents and placed them in government-run boarding schools as part of the plan to decimate American Indians as a distinct people. It discusses the schools' inhumane living conditions as well as the abuse suffered by young children as the government implemented its de-culturization plan through these schools. The article then discusses potential civil claims available to boarding school attendees, including claims under the Tucker Act and FTCA, as well as international law claims. It also briefly reviews Canadian governmental attempts to aid boarding school litigants and urges the United States to undertake similar action, or to consider other ways to begin to redress some of the wrongs inflicted upon boarding school survivors. The article concludes by arguing that although centuries of genocidal conduct cannot be redressed by litigation of the boarding school cases, cases brought by boarding school attendees can vindicate individual litigants and pursuit of these claims also can serve to bring the long-hidden horrors of the government's abusive and horrendous treatment of American Indian children into the public consciousness and dialogue.

tort, Federal Tort Claims Act, Canada, Tucker Act, American Indian, Bureau of Indian Affairs, boarding school, abuse