It's All About the People: Personal Jurisdiction, Lord of the Rings, and Classroom Communities in Civil Procedure I

71 Pages Posted: 22 Apr 2012

See all articles by Jennifer Spreng

Jennifer Spreng

Phoenix School of Law

Michael Aurit

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Aaron Berkley

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Justin Cryder

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Jarrod Green

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Daniel Mazza

affiliation not provided to SSRN

James Plitz

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Edwin Ramos

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Evan Schube

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Bert Williams

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: April 21, 2012

Abstract

This article describes my ongoing experiments with “learning communities” and “spiral curricula” in my Civil Procedure I classes, as influenced by my eight years as a sole practitioner in Western Kentucky. Despite endorsement from many education theorists and classroom teachers and potential effectiveness in combating student disaffection, neither has made more than the shallowest dent in legal education. “Classroom community” implies a less stratified and more culturally respectful education experience that is more rewarding, more honorable and more likely to be urban law school graduates’ professional future. Spiral curriculum design facilitates analytical depth that leads to a sense of the law’s rhythms critical to high performance as a generalist.

My Spring 2009 Civil Procedure I class created my first “community in the classroom,” and its dynamics are repeatable. Students spun a web of intergenerational, multiplex relationships that are the essence of a “community of memory” and institutionalized the “patterns of commitment” that shaped the experiences of those who came later. These have led to enthusiasm about personal jurisdiction – “love” if you are “Michael" – that is disproportionate to that topic’s entertainment value. Woven throughout this article are vignettes and voices that demonstrate students' engagement and emerging sense of justice.

Part II explains my spiraling syllabus design that facilitates analytical depth and appreciation for the very real people their blossoming legal philosophies may govern. Part III describes the course’s assessment package – call it “Justice Brennan Meets The Lord of the Rings in 2009 – that tests analysis while reinforcing students’ sense of membership in a community with a past, present and future. The article concludes that the structure and content of the course facilitated unusually intense student engagement, enriched students’ academic experience, and opened a conceptual door to an alternate professional future.”

Keywords: Civil Procedure, Legal Education, Personal Jurisdiction, Community, Community of Memory, Teaching, Assessment, Curriculum, Law School

Suggested Citation

Spreng, Jennifer and Aurit, Michael and Berkley, Aaron and Cryder, Justin and Green, Jarrod and Mazza, Daniel and Plitz, James and Ramos, Edwin and Schube, Evan and Williams, Bert, It's All About the People: Personal Jurisdiction, Lord of the Rings, and Classroom Communities in Civil Procedure I (April 21, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2043644 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2043644

Jennifer Spreng (Contact Author)

Phoenix School of Law ( email )

One North Central Ave.
14th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85004-4414
United States

Michael Aurit

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Aaron Berkley

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Justin Cryder

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Jarrod Green

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Daniel Mazza

affiliation not provided to SSRN

James Plitz

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Edwin Ramos

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Evan Schube

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Bert Williams

affiliation not provided to SSRN

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