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Abstract:
This article examines the interests of nontraditional law students and explores how they are sacrificed to the dominant interests controlling legal education. Using recent studies that describe unhappiness in legal education, this article offers opportunities to reconstruct legal education in order to develop the whole human being.

The focal point of such a reform effort would revolve around a humanity consciousness approach to law school education. Humanity consciousness is a pedagogy of sensitivity infused with a spiritually grounded humanism available to all law students. It could take form through the offering of courses or teach-ins to students who want exposure to non-mainstream ideology in the law. Humanity consciousness ultimately may serve as a revelation to students of how power dynamics are at play in traditional legal education and may help transform such education through reflection, challenge and a demand for change.

Critical race theory, Humanity Consciousness, legal education, law students, professional identity, legal profession

Abstract:
This article revisits the law of parental liability following recent horrific acts of violence by minors across the country. It begins with a brief discussion of prevailing parental liability law, then turns to a consideration of the concept of justice in tort law and its application in various real and hypothetical cases. The author next summarizes the insights of John Rawls and Mari Matsuda, discussing the application of their analytical metaphors to the issues of parental liability. The author concludes that parents should be subject to greater liability for the torts of their children, either through an expanded duty of supervision actionable in negligence or through adopting strict parental liability for harmful acts by minors. The author posits a new "Developmental Liability" - a theory of shared responsibility for the harm done by minors and discusses the implications of the proposed expansion of liability for parents, children and society as a whole.

The article concludes that the common law should adopt a more expansive approach to claims seeking to hold parents and other potentially responsible parties liable for the torts of minor children in order to promote both a distributive and corrective justice.

tort law, parental liability, parental accountability, school violence, John Rawls, Mari Matsuda

Abstract:
Speech presented at City Hall, San Francisco, California, at the request of the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society and the City of San Francisco in commemoration of Black History Month.

In this essay, Professor Magee answers the question, "What is Black history?" using personal narrative to illustrate that "Black" history is personal and human history, and that the ability to learn, grow, and change the course of history for the better is within all of us. Drawing upon her own experiences in the North American South as a child of effective integration in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, she argues for the importance of making a commitment to developing a strong sense of self, and taking that inner strength and power into the world to work together as a community toward freedom, justice, to make Black history - a category of experience which is, in the first and last, human history.

Black history, civil rights, slavery, reparations, contemplative prayer, segregation

Abstract:
This Note posits a Critical Race Theory (CRT) analysis of the historical legal responses to reparations claims on the part of groups, using the African-American claims as an example. The article then discusses racial remedies theories, suggesting that the prevailing theories must be expanded to provide support for reparations. Following a review of contemporary and historical proposals for reparations, the author argues that reparations merit a prominent place within remedies theory, and echoes central tenets of CRT in explaining why they have not to date.

critical race theory, race, reparations, remedies

Abstract:
In this article, the author responds to Professor Dan Subotnik’s “Are Law Schools Racist - Part II, ” 43 U.S.F. L. Rev. 761 (2009), and calls for addressing the issue of institutionalized racism in law schools with a commitment to genuine connection by embracing the teachings of social and emotional intelligence. Professor Subotnik’s article discounted the existence of anti-black racism in law schools and claimed that the real race problem within law school communities arose from racism against whites. Professor Magee argues that Professor Subotnik’s article demonstrates two common dialogical problems that sit at the root of her call for a different approach to race pedagogy: 1) the problem of competing literacies and narratives, and 2) the problem of competing jurisprudential and methodological approaches. To work toward reconciling the competing narratives and philosophies that make understanding across the lines of race and gender so difficult, the author suggests adopting an Integral Critical approach to such discussions. This approach requires participants to listen with an open heart to the competing narratives of those with whom we engage, and set about to approach the next conversation from a place not merely of argument but of self-reflection and awareness, of humility and empathy.

legal education, law schools, racism, critical race theory, emotional intelligence

Abstract:
A follow-up to an earlier article, The Third Reconstruction: An Alternative to Race Consciousness and Colorblindness in Post-Slavery America, this essay further explores the theory of Humanity Consciousness as a tool in determining what it means to be a constitutionally-protected human being and its application to interpreting the Reconstruction Amendments - in particular, the Fourteenth Amendment. It explicitly links important theoretical and methodological impulses of critical race theory to the philosophy of existence (i.e., existentialism) and a liberation-focused Humanity Consciousness. This allows for an alternative source of post-slavery Constitutional theory - specifically Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence - that embodies a commitment to a post-racial approach to law and politics.

Fourteenth Amendment, Reconstruction Amendments, Humanity Consciousness, existentialism, critical race theory

Abstract:
This article argues that the standard "diversity" rationale for affirmative action is not a remedial or corrective justice-based rationale. Thus, it fails to address the concerns of traditionally disadvantaged groups. The most compelling justifications for affirmative action, including remedying the effects of segregation, discrimination, and related past and present forms of systemic subordination, have received little judicial support. If employed, these justifications would strengthen the claims to legitimacy of a justice system with a history of supporting racial oppression. The final portion of this article calls upon advocates of reform and Reconstruction to work toward forging a deeper commitment to the remedial goals of affirmative action as a preliminary step toward embracing "humanity consciousness" and articulating reformist policies and programs consistent with this legal philosophy.

constitutional law, humanity consciousness, Affirmative action, Grutter, Gratz, diversity, race, reconstruction, post-slavery America

Abstract:
This article establishes a foundation for changes to an American jurisprudence based on universal human dignity instead of the present race-conscious law and policy. In guiding such contemporary reform, there should be minimal reliance on the concept of race and the illusion of a racially divided humanity. Instead, Americans should turn to a new conception of humankind, one that emphasizes the commonality among all individuals. This theory is deemed "humanity consciousness" - a mental transformation necessary to the universal recognition of human dignity and to the effectuation of universal human dignity by legal discourse.

This article argues that the equal protection doctrine's focus on "equality" and "race" has failed to move America's disadvantaged groups past the remnants of a post-slavery world. It also asserts that a colorblind application of constitutional principles fails such groups because it ignores the reality of continued subordination of racialized people in America. A shift in emphasis from the Equal Protection Clause to the Privileges or Immunities Clause would best redress violations for all based on the principle of dignified treatment to all people. Ultimately, the intention should be to set forth a post-racialized, reconstructed vision of humanity and make the case for its support under the Constitution.

Constitutional law, humanity consciousness, race-conscious law and policy, equal protection, Reconstruction, Privileges or Immunities Clause, post-slavery America

Abstract:
This article compares, contrasts, and explores the connections between liberation theology and the author's post-subordinationist jurisprudential doctrine, humanity consciousness. The article uses these alternative theoretical lenses to evaluate the United States' military response to the threat posed by Middle Eastern Islamic terrorists. The article asserts that both liberation theology and humanity consciousness bring to the critique of law and foreign policy an appeal to spirituality as a progressive force of social change. When linked with critically informed advocacy, this appeal to spirituality can bring about deeply meaningful transformations within individuals that lead to meaningful changes within the law.

Humanity Consciousness, Liberation Theology, Iraq war, War on Terror, 9/11

Abstract:
In this article, the author addresses arguments made by Professor Dan Subotnik in “Are Law Schools Racist?” Professor Subotnik’s article dismisses critical race and gender scholarship and criticizes the narrative-based methodology employed by such scholars. To the author, “Are Law Schools Racist?” is an example of scholarship that reflects the alienating wounding potential of mainstream and even critical race approaches to law, and this article argues that the time has come to rethink the way scholars approach the analysis and discussion of legal matters dealing with fundamental cultural and political conflicts.

The author suggests that scholars can best advance their efforts to discuss matters dealing with race and gender in the legal academy by personal and institutional commitments to a deeper discourse, which integrates the best in contemporary understanding about the way in which human beings respond to conflict holistically, and one which takes as its goal not mere adversarial debate, but restorative justice and healing. Legal scholars must develop and draw on communication and emotional awareness skills to deepen their capacity to communicate with mutual respect about difficult issues before they can expect to be able to work together to resolves issues of accountability and redress. Such an Integral Critical approach promises to ground conversations about social justice in human to human authenticity, from which new capacities for understanding, and for action, might reasonably be expected to emerge. Without this approach, conversations about the difficult legacies of racism in the law are bound to continue to promise much and deliver little.

critical race theory, racism, integral critical approach, emotional intelligence, legal education, law schools