Leslie Newman
Associate Professor of Law & Director of Legal Writing Program
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An Odyssey of Interdisciplinary Connections
Bleich Writes New Books
Honors
Speeches - Papers - Panels
Harvard Law Review Features Schroeder
and Zelinsky Articles
Dean Leads APA Project
Oprah Selects Schlink and His Novel
Just Interpretations Book Panel
An Odyssey of Interdisciplinary Connections
Leslie Newman
Associate Professor of Law & Director of Legal Writing Program
Last fall, in addition to my usual course load at Cardozo, I taught
writing skills to a select group of Yeshiva University rabbinic students
as part of the Bella and Harry Wexner Kollel Elyon and Smikha Honors Program.
I also found myself reflecting on the connections between teaching law
students and teaching rabbinic students.
My students at the Law School and at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary (RIETS) are taught to value analytical reading and the written
word. But they have much more in common. Both thirst for ways to express
the beauty of their discoveries and beliefs to a public that may not exactly
share them. Both may fall into the trap of using what can be a derivative
and spent rhetoric, rather than reflecting their own insights and passions.
Both have to learn the thrill of new expression to reflect ideas that need
desperately to be communicated.
Legal studies and rabbinic studies may sometimes appear as insular
cultures. But I have observed that while the students restate and uphold
enduring texts and sources, they create new genres of interpretation that
reach out to many audiences. Precisely because of these similar efforts,
there is a common theme to the way I teach writing to the two groups. Although
teaching writing is necessarily an exercise in nurturing practical skills,
it is not predicated on the separation of theory and practice. Rather,
the effort is to enable students to read critically, to conceptualize both
concretely and abstractly, to use sources in some form of reflective analysis,
and then to synthesize them all in the enterprise of articulation. Whether
one writes on behalf of scholarship or professional goals, in the legal
or the rabbinic context, the values of clear and direct language, usage
that eschews jargon, and the use of stories and disciplinary cross-references
are vital to effective writing.
In this regard, the lessons learned teaching law students to communicate
with clients, judges, and each other become
perfectly applicable in the rabbinic setting, where study exists within
a matrix of rich and diverse cross-references. At RIETS, my mission is
to help Yeshiva University's modern Orthodox rabbis hone the verbal tools
of leadership within their congregational communities and beyond.
I have learned from the rabbinic students that with an intense reverence
for language, the study of Torah is filtered and expressed through cultural
and literary voices. There is sensitivity to language and form, a tradition
that is
narratively bound, and a keen recognition of the constraints and possibilities
of language. I have come to appreciate the beauty, depth and wealth of
knowledge, thought, and feeling within this tradition, and enjoy my role
in helping it find written expression in the present.
And, there is a complementary benefit. Just as my background in teaching
writing to law students has aided my work in the Seminary, my rabbinic
students have enriched my appreciation of legal writing. So, as I shuttle
bet
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ween the law, its writing and method of study, and writing in the rabbinic
context, between the law school downtown and the university campus uptownóI
see that my journey is not between two wholly different worlds. This odyssey
reflects the scholarly and practical expedition in which I am engaged with
students in both venues. I feel a spirit of possibility and revel in the
matrix of cross-references.
Bleich Writes New Books
Bioethical Dilemmas: A Jewish Perspective is the newest book
by Rabbi J. David Bleich. In this volume of essays published by Yeshiva
University Press, Bleich explores the questions of assisted procreation,
surrogate motherhood, pregnancy reduction, sperm banking, disclosure of
information, care of the terminally ill, AIDS, HIV screening, and conjoined
twins. Bleich, who teaches Bio-Ethics and other courses, addresses the
principles and concerns that enter into a Jewish response to these contemporary
medical advances and demonstrates how Jewish teaching addresses each of
them within the context of a unique and morally coherent value system.
The second volume of his Be-Netivot Ha-Halakhah was also published
recently by Yeshiva University Press. This volume is devoted primarily
to matters pertaining to Shabbat and Yom Tov, jurisprudence and judicial
procedure, and usury.
Honors
Adjunct Professor Daniel Silverman, regional director of the
National Labor Relations Board, New York City office, was selected as a
winner of the President's Meritorious Rank Award for Senior Executives.
Recipients, who are chosen by the president on the basis of their distinguished
service in government, receive $10,000. In the nominations for the award,
Silverman was cited for "his dedication, creativity, and excellence," and
for his enthusiasm and innovation in fulfilling the agency's mission.
Speeches - Papers - Panels
In January, Rabbi J. David Bleich spoke at the executive meeting
of the Rabbinical Council of America on "Confidentiality and Clergy Privilege:
Diverse Legal Systems." At the international symposium organized by the
Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and Maimonides Medical Center
on modern medicine and Jewish law, he presented a paper on "Testing for
the BRCA Gene: Ethical, Legal and Halachic Issues."
Lester Brickman was the featured speaker in February at the
American Tort Reform Foundation's inaugural lecture series.
His topic was "How Do You Spend $15 Billion? A Discussion of the Political
and Public-Policy Consequences of the Tobacco Settlement Attorneys' Fee
Award." He also spoke on this subject at Fordham Law School and the Manhattan
Institute.
Larry Cunningham was among the panelists who took part in the
Analyst
conference in London, "How to Make 18 Billion Pounds in the Stockmarket:
The Odyssey, the System and the Success of the Buffett-Munger-Graham Investment
Phenomenon." He was listed as one of the six "top Buffett experts in the
world."
Malvina Halberstam participated in "Is the Federal Government Helpless in State Criminal Proceedings that Affect US Foreign Relations?" at the conference sponsored last fall by the American branch of the International Law Association. At a round-table discussion on a permanent international criminal court at the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Schools, she indicated that although she supported the establishment of an international criminal court, she could not support the statute adopted in Rome this summer since it expanded on the definition of war crimes, making it possible to ch 1000 arge Jews living in Jerusalem or Hebron with war crimes.
Marci Hamilton has conjoined her dual interests of religious freedom legislation and intellectual property through her web site, which has become an interactive site for all those groups and individuals involved with and interested in pending state and federal legislation. Individuals can find the latest information and thinking in the area. She has continued to speak widely on the issue of religious liberty legislation, appearing at New York University School of Law, Alabama Municipal League, Illinois Municipal League, and the AALS Annual Meeting, among other places. In the area of intellectual property law, "The Top Ten Intellectual Property Law Questions that Should be Asked About Any Merger or Acquisition," which was published in the University of Cincinnati Law Review in 1998, was chosen to be reprinted in Intellectual Property Law Review. She presented papers at the University of Minnesota Law School, the Copyright Society of the USA, and University of California at Berkeley. She presented an oral argument before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Amos v. Maryland on behalf of amicus curiae Association of State Correctional Administrators, contending that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act are beyond Congress's power.
Michel Rosenfeld was a panelist at two conferences celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Bordeaux, France, at one organized by the Office of the Prime Minister of France, he spoke on "Teaching Human Rights"; at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, he spoke on "What is a Human Right? Universals and the Challenge of Cultural Relativism." His article "Can Human Rights Bridge the Gap Between Universalism and Cultural Relativism? A Pluralist Assessment Based on the Rights of Minorities" has been published in Spanish and will appear also in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. "A Pluralist Critique of Contractarian Proceduralism" was published in Ratio Juris (1998) and appeared in an Italian translation in Analisi e Diritto (1997).
Articles by Jeanne Schroeder, "Pandora's Amphora: The Ambiguity
of Gift" and "Three's a Crowd: A Feminist Critique of Calabresi and Melamed's
One
View of the Cathedral," were published in UCLA Law Review and
Cornell
Law Review, respectively.
In February, she presented a paper, "The End of the Market: A Psychoanalysis
of Law and Economics," at the Psychoanalysis and Culture: On Jouissance:
The Millennium and Its Discontents conference. In March, she presented
"Encore: The Formation of the American Lacanian Link" at the UCLA Humanities
Consortium Conference.
In April, Suzanne Last Stone presented "Judaism and Tolerance"
at a workshop at the Institut fur die Wissenschaften von Menschen in Vienna.
"Jewish Marriage and Divorce: Religious and Secular Law" was her topic
at the Harvard Law School conference on the Islamic Marriage Contract.
Last fall, at a round table sponsored by the International Association
of Constitutional Law, she presented a comment, "Multiculturalism and Universal
Rights."
Harvard Law Review Features
Schroeder and Zelinsky Articles
Two of the three articles in the December 1998 issue of the Harvard
Law Review (volume 112, number 2) were written by Cardozo faculty members.
Dean Verkuil noted that he doubts any faculty, other than Harvard itself,
has had two articles in a single issue of this, the leading law review.
"This unprecedented event underscores Cardozo's ranking in the upper echelons
of law schools nationally for overall faculty quality," he said. Jeanne
Schroeder and Ed Zelinsky aut
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hored, respectively, "The End of the Market:
A Psychoanalysis of Law and Economics" and "Are Tax ëBenefits' Constitutionally
Equivalent to Direct Expenditures?"
Dean Leads APA Project
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) was adopted by Congress a half-century
ago and remains the basic charter of administrative law, although it has
been heavily amended in parts, supplemented by scores of other statutes,
and significantly modified through judicial interpretation. The American
Bar Association's Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice
has launched a multi-year project to lay out in a single, comprehensive
treatment the essential principles of federal administrative law and to
propose amendments to the APA that will ensure its relevance and success
for the next half-century.
The section chair, Ron Cass, a noted administrative law scholar who
is dean of the Boston University Law School, selected Dean Paul Verkuil
to head this project as chief reporter. Dean Verkuil, who was himself chair
of the section in 1990, in turn appointed Michael Herz and John Duffy as
assistant reporters. The list of other participants includes such well-known
administrative law scholars as Cass Sunstein (Chicago), Peter Strauss (Columbia),
Richard Revesz (NYU), Michael Asimow (UCLA), and Thomas McGarity (Texas),
among others.
"The Statement of Administrative Law project promises to make a significant
contribution to the development of federal administrative law at a critical
juncture in its history," said Dean Verkuil. He also noted how fortunate
he was to be able to draw on Cardozo's exceptionally strong faculty resources
in administrative law.
Dean Verkuil continues to pursue his scholarly interests in this area.
He recently completed an article for the Cardozo Law Review with
Ernest Gellhorn based on a paper they presented at the conference on nondelegation
held at the Law School last spring. The third edition of his book Administrative
Law and Process (with Pierce and Shapiro) will be published by Foundation
Press later this year.
More information on the Statement of Administrative Law can be found
at www.abanet.org/adminlaw/apa/
home.html.
Oprah Selects Schlink and His Novel
Bernhard Schlink's (visiting professor 1998) novel The Reader
was chosen this winter as a selection for Oprah's Book Club, a distinction
that catapulted the Vintage paperback edition to No. 1 on The New York
Times paperback best-seller list for two consecutive weeks (as of the
end of March) and outsold even Monica Lewinsky's story at Amazon.com. He
then appeared as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was the focus
of a major article in the March 30, 1999 issue of The New York Times,
which reported that the film rights were sold to Miramax. The book, which
has as its theme collective guilt in Germany, especially as it applies
to the second generation after World War II, was the subject of a panel
held at Cardozo last spring. Professor Schlink was joined on that panel
by Prof. Daniel Goldhagen of Harvard, Prof. Richard Weisberg, and The
New York Times editorial writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Tina Rosenberg.
Prof. Arthur Jacobson moderated.
Just Interpretations Book Panel
Michel Rosenfeld (at left) responded to the critical analysis of his
book Just Interpretations: Law Between Ethics and Politics that
was given by panelists Andrew Arato (center), The New School University;
David Rudenstine (at right); Frank Michelman, Harv
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ard Law School; and Shlomo
Avineri, visiting professor.
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