The Therapeutic Application of the Law and the Need for Amicus Justitia Briefs

Abstract

This very short essay looks at the relationship between the Therapeutic Design of the Law (TDL) and the Therapeutic Application of the Law (TAL). The essay notes that laws themselves are written, public, and accessible, whereas the important dimension regarding how a law could use TJ insights and thus be applied therapeutically by judges, lawyers, therapists are by no means obvious. To educate these actors, and to boost the sustainability of the therapeutic application of the law, the essay proposes a new type of legal writing: the preparation of amicus justitia briefs to educate justice-system actors of the way the law may be most therapeutically applied.

Keywords: therapeutic jurisprudence, therapeutic design of the law, therapeutic application of the law, amicus justitia briefs, sentencing, criminal procedure, law and psychology