Format: Length: 3 to 4 pages / Double-spaced / 12-point font / 1-inch margins.
Sources: One law journal article (more information on how to find a law journal article for this assignment is provided below).
Assignment
This is not a research paper. Rather, you need only answer the questions below with respect to your chosen law journal article. Turnitin will flag the use of external sources and your grade will be adversely affected.
Answer the Following 3 Questions:
Question 1: Approximately 1 page
Summarize the legal argument made in the paper. What is the main point of the Article? What evidence does the author use to support the main point of the Article? What are the key assumptions? How does this article appear to fit within a larger academic literature? What is the basic structure of the argument? The goal here is to break down the argument to its essential core elements (i.e., how would you summarize what the author is trying to accomplish in a page or two?).
Question 2: Approximately 1 page
What criticism can you make of the argument? Are the assumptions unrealistic? Has the author made assumptions about human nature that strike you as incorrect? Is there a hole in the logic? Is all the discussion relevant to the main point that author is attempting to make? To the extent that the paper argues for a certain tradeoff of costs and benefits, would you personally weigh things differently? In the end, does the author make a point that is, in fact, novel or interesting? The idea here is to think of yourself as a litigator who has been paid a considerable sum to crush the argument presented in this law journal article. How would you go about dismantling what the author is trying to do in the paper? Do not be afraid to be critical here.
Question 3: Approximately 1 page
What is the next paper that you would write after having read your chosen law journal article? Specifically, if you concluded that the paper gets it wrong, what paper would you write instead. How would your paper get it right? Or, alternatively, if you concluded that your chosen law journal article did, indeed, have something worthwhile to say, how would you extend this paper? Can the same point be applied to other areas of the law or different fact patterns? Can the author’s main point itself be fleshed out in some “interesting” way? The idea here is not to write any of these suggested papers, of course. Instead, the idea here is simply to pitch a possible future project based on your law journal article in a paragraph or two. Just give me a very general sense of what this paper might look like. Unlike other assessments in this class, answering this question requires you to think creatively and imaginatively about the material you carefully analyzed to identify an “interesting” issue worthy of further exploration.
How to Choose a Law Journal Article?
Choosing a Topic
I would recommend that you search for a law review article that concerns a legal issue related to a field of employment in which you could imagine yourself someday working. So, for example, if you are interested in working in finance, then you might consider writing about insider trading or corporate governance. If you are interested in working in marketing, then you might consider writing about trademarks. If you are interested in the insurance industry, then torts may be an attractive area to explore further. One of the meta-purposes of this legal research assignment is to push you to think carefully about where all this hard work is taking you.
You can find a legal issue in a local or national newspaper or magazine, on a blog, or on Google Scholar. The KnowNow Blog is a particularly helpful resource and is available at
http://community.cengage.com/gecresource2/info/b/bus_law/.
The Blog identifies news events and categorizes these events by Business Law Topic. You can scroll down and look for a topic of interest (on the right-hand side of the webpage), click the topic, and then pick a news item that you believe highlights an interesting legal issue.
Finding a Law Journal
After you have selected an interesting legal issue based on a general topic, the next step is to find a law journal article about this legal issue.
Heinonline is an excellent database that contains practically all published law journals.
Instructions on how to use the Heinonline database are provided below:
Heinonline
Go to the Temple Library Homepage: https://library-temple-edu.libproxy.temple.edu/.
Click on “Database” tab on the left-hand side of the screen in the red box: this should bring up the following website: https://guides.temple.edu/az.php.
To find the Heinonline database, click on the “H” hyperlink.
Scroll down to find “HeinOnline.” Click on this.
At the HeinOnline homepage, click on the hyperlink that reads “Most-Cited Law Journals” (located a few lines below the text in bold that reads “Browse Databases by Name”).
Use the search bar at top of the screen to locate a law journal.
Keep in mind that articles that have been often cited are more likely to be interesting.
Google Scholar
Although Heinonline is the recommended tool in this course to find a law journal article, it may be easier to find a law review article simply by using Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a great resource that allows you to access scholarly articles, and is available at
https://scholar.google.com/
In Google Scholar, you can find a law review article by typing in your legal issue (e.g., “insider trading”) and the phrase “law review” in the usual search bar.
Do not feel compelled to use either of these resources, however. You should feel free to locate a law review article of interest to you however you so prefer.
Rubric
Score: The Legal Writing Assignment will constitute 10 percent of your final grade. You will receive a score on a scale of 100 based upon the following rubric:
Content: knowledge of issue, extent to which the issue is, in fact, interesting, connection to envisioned field of employment or interest, demonstration of research
70 points
Written Communication Skills: clarity of language, grammar/spelling/punctuation, language style, organization
30 points
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