Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Top Ten Reasons to Study Abroad in Giessen, Germany

Post author:Edward A. Fallone
Post published:August 22, 2010
Post category:International Law & Diplomacy Marquette Law School

Here are the top ten reasons to attend the Summer Session In International and Comparative Law in Giessen, Germany sponsored annually by the Marquette University Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School:

10. You can start a blog about your experience.

9. Avoid the Milwaukee Brewers’ annual mid-season collapse.

8. Frankfurt is the perfect jumping off point for side trips around Europe.

7. Get to know law students from exotic places like Brazil, Norway and Racine (see photo 1).

We Have Met the Other and He Is Us (Law Professors)

Post author:Jessica E. Slavin
Post published:August 21, 2010
Post category:Civil Rights Constitutional Interpretation Federal Law & Legal System Human Rights Immigration Law Political Processes & Rhetoric

In the latest development in what is starting to feel like a trip “through the looking glass” to some bizarre version of the legal world as I understood it in law school, actual, important politicians have raised the spectre of repealing or amending or re-interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically, its provision that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” It seems especially sad that those who want to abolish or change the long-standing, post-Civil-War principle of birthright citizenship in the United States are, mainly, Republicans: one might call the Fourteenth Amendment “one of the [Republican] party’s greatest feats,” as did the Economist in the article linked above. In any event, the Economist article does a pretty fair job, I think, of discussing the various perspectives on the issue (including pointing out that the so-called “anchor baby” idea is almost completely a fallacy, since a child cannot petition to make his parent a citizen until after the child is 21).

The Real Deal

Post author:Mary Wagner
Post published:August 19, 2010
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Legal Education Legal Practice

I’m going to start this post with the words “when I was in law school…” and hope that they don’t inspire a collective eye-rolling and a quick click to another link. Sort of the way selective hearing kicks in when some old-timer starts a harangue about dissolute modern youth with “when I was a youngster, I had to walk to school in the snow . . . for five miles . . . and it was uphill both ways . . . .”

At any rate, this is a passionate plea for those budding soon-to-be lawyers to PAY ATTENTION IN YOUR CRIMINAL LAW CLASSES!!

Not all that long ago I was as guilty as the next 1L or 2L of paying really rapt attention in the classes that I figured would be my bread and butter after I graduated, and paying enough attention in the other ones to get good grades. Followed by massive mental “information dumps” after the final exams.

I knew I wanted a career in criminal prosecution, and I knew that I would be drawn to appellate advocacy, so I leaned forward intently and absorbed as much as I could, and committed to memory as much as my fading hard-drive of brain cells could assimilate.

As for the rest—trusts and estates, contracts, civil procedure, secured transactions—I figured that if I ever had a legal problem in those areas, I could always hire me a good lawyer.