Who would you choose?

1
Who would you choose?

• Youre representing a doctor, charged with murder
  under a similar statute,because she, at the
  request of her patient, suffering from early
  stages of alzeimers, helped him commit suicide by
  injecting him with cyanide
• Would it be different if the doctor prosecuted
  for performing abortion -16 weeks?

2
LEGAL REASONING

• How judges (and lawyers) argue from past cases
  and deal with the doctrine of stare
  decisis-precedent
• How judges interpret statutes
• How judges (and other legal actors) exercise
  discretion
• All of these offer insights into how the
  day-to-day outcomes in law emerge

3
Law and Official Discretion

• The judging process and the judges
  personality-Jerome Frank
• The process of judging is psychologically
  driven-contrary to prevailing notions that it is
  an objective process
• Starts with an intuitive hunch and then finds
  evidence to support it.
• Hunch arises from unconscious and conscious
  sources

4
Is legal reasoning objective?

• Llewellyn argues that legal reasoning is more
  stable and predictable-I.e. analysis of precedent
• Factors beyond the psychological affect legal
  reasoning and outcomes, I.e. environmental
  factors -moral, political, economic-Scottsboro
  Boys
• Does the notion of intuition undercut the notion
  of professionalism-the basis of the legal
  profession?

5
Law and Official Discretion

• The judging process and the judges
  personality-Jerome Frank
• The process of judging is psychologically
  driven-contrary to prevailing notions that it is
  an objective process
• Starts with an intuitive hunch and then finds
  evidence to support it.
• Hunch arises from unconscious and conscious
  sources

6
Examples-applying discretion

• Forgery case
• Attempted murder
• Rape

7
Exam Review

• Review session tonight
• Bring 2 pencil to class
• Know the names of cases and the names of authors
  of the readings
• Know facts, issues, rulings, reasoning and how
  precedent was operating

• Know, stare decisis, coverture, statutory
  constriction (strict and loose), names of judges
  in Speluncean Explorers and their philosophy
• Lawyer/client relationship
• Theories of adversary process
• lecture and readings