Professor
Katherine Franke
Tuesdays, 4:10-6:00pm, GRHL 728
NOTE: Laptops will not be allowed in this seminar
This seminar will examine the production of legal scholarship for those who are or think they may at some later point be interested in a career as a legal academic. How do you select a topic? How do you match a methodological approach to the kind of question you are addressing? What does it mean to do interdisciplinary work? How do you go from outline to rough draft to finished article? How do you get your paper published? And most importantly, what makes for good legal scholarship? With a goal toward gaining greater focus for your research topics, exploring the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of a work, and in working through what it takes intellectually and practically to begin serious work on an article, we will spend substantial time reading published scholarship across a range of methodological and substantive fields. Students will become familiar with how to both give and receive serious feedback on their work.
The seminar will focus on two related topics: (1) Expose students to various disciplinary approaches to legal scholarship, with the objective of making them methodologically aware, both as consumers of scholarship drawing on different disciplinary approaches, and as potential producers of scholarship within a particular tradition. This will include socializing students into the life of legal scholarship, with a focus on how legal scholars choose subjects for research, select appropriate methods for analysis, situate themselves within scholarly communities (both in law and academic disciplines), and maneuver between the different standards of law schools and the social science and historical fields; (2) Specific work on the students' individual writing projects, including discussion of topic selection, methodologies, voice, and audience. The semester will close by workshopping student papers.
Students who wish to write papers in areas outside of Professor Franke's expertise are welcome in the seminar, but they will are encouraged to find another faculty member with expertise in the subject matter of the paper to provide additional substantive feedback.
Students may receive major writing credit for their work in this seminar.
Students taking this seminar must be committed to producing publishable-quality papers as the work product of the seminar. Students seeking to take the seminar must apply for admission by submitting to Professor Franke by e-mail no later than Friday, August 29th a two page description of the writing project they will undertake during the seminar, plus a one page reading list. Students who are admitted to this course and who accept a place in the course may not drop the course during the add/drop period at the beginning of the term.
Administrative Details |
Professor Franke's Coordinates:
Office: Room 627
Office Hours: Wednesdays 2pm - 3:30pm or by appointment
Phone: 854-0061
E-Mail: kfranke@law.columbia.edu
Professor Franke's Assistant: Rachel Jones, 854-7594, rachel.jones@law.columbia.edu
Course Materials |
Required: Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review (3d ed. 2007)
Suggested: Elizabeth Fajans & Mary R. Falk, Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes and Law Review Competition Papers (3d ed. 2004)
both books will be available at Book Culture, 536 W. 112th Street
Syllabus |
September 2nd - Introduction to the course
This is an early draft of an article that subsequently went through many edits before publication. Please come to class having read the draft, and be prepared to discuss what works, what doesn't, and how you might suggest she edit the piece to make it stronger.
September 9th - Getting Started
September 16th - Anatomy and Evolution of a Law Review Article
September 23rd - Research
Read the McGeveran article and prepare a 3-5 page double-spaced commentary. What is it's thesis? Does he set it up well? Has he landed on an interesting question? That is, is the question novel, nonobvious, useful and sound? Why? How would you characterize its structure? Who is his audience? Are some parts of the article stronger than others? If so, what and why? What, if anything, about the article and it's form do you find useful as you begin to think about your own paper? Please submit the commentary to Professor Franke by e-mail by 5:00pm on the day before class.
Outlines Due
September 30th - Writing
October 7th - Professor Ariela Dubler on getting started with a new project
October 14th - Zeroth Drafts Due
October 21st - Interdisciplinary Work, Done Well and Not So Well
October 28th - Writing/Conferences
November 4th - Writing/Conferences
November 11th - Workshopping of Papers
Presenter: Elisabeth Caesens Commentator: Carrie Acus Love
Presenter: Apar Gupta Commentator: Mislav Mataija
November 18th - Workshopping of Papers
Presenter: Carrie Acus Love Commentator: Steven Wu
Presenter: Nicholson Price Commentator: Niels Lutzhoeft
November 25th - Workshopping of Papers
Presenter: Neel Maitra Commentator: Nicholson Price
Presenter: Mislav Mataija Commentator: Apar Gupta
December 2nd -Workshopping of Papers
Presenter: Niels Lutzhoeft Commentator: Alexandra Timmer
Presenter: Steven Wu Commentator: Neel Maitra
Presenter: Alexandra Timmer Commentator: Elisabeth Caesens