Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, Pan-Africanism, in Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in the United States (Patricia Sullivan and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. eds., Macmillan, 2000)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, Book Review, David Carney (Ed.), To Promote the General Welfare: A Communitarian Legal Reader, 10 Law & Pol'y Book Reviews 383 (2000)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, Book Review, Peter Duff & Neil Hutton (Eds.), Criminal Justice in Scotland, 9 Law & Pol'y Book Reviews 554 (1999)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, Book Review, Christine R. Barker, Elizabeth A. Kirk, & Monica Sah (Eds.), Gender Perceptions and the Law, 9 Law & Pol'y Book Reviews 288 (1999)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, “Literature as Law”: The History of the Insanity Plea and a Fictional Application within the Law & Literature Canon, 72 Temp. L. Rev. 383 (1999)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The article presents: (1) a history of the law & literature canon; (2) a substantive analysis and review of the insanity plea from its "Old English" origins through its development in the United States, in general and New York state, in particular -- including relevant quantitative studies of the usage of the plea and, (3) an application of the insanity plea within the law & literature canon.
The article takes a novel approach to the law & literature canon by reviewing a piece of literature as though it were the facts of a criminal murder trial. The phrase "literature as law" has been coined by the author to describe this analytical process. The article culminates in a presentation of relevant law in the fictitious murder trial of the protagonist from the literary novel reviewed which is situated in New York state. The purpose of the article is to illustrate the dichotomy between the actuality of the insanity plea and criminal proceedings in law and their fictional application to literature.
Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, The Socratic Method-Problem Method Dichotomy: The Debate over Teaching Method Continues, 1998 BYU Educ. & L.J. 1 (1998)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
This article examines the positive and negative attributes of the two primary teaching methods used in law school classrooms -- namely, the Socratic Method and the Problem Method. It addresses in particular the questions of whether there is benefit to teaching law by the Problem Method rather than the time honored Socratic Method; and whether there is some combination of the two methods that would be most appropriate. The author argues that a combination of the two, with a strong emphasis on the Problem Method, will better prepare law students for the legal environment they will enter after law school. Law schools need to graduate students who not only “think like lawyers” but who are able to “perform like lawyers.” The author concludes that by implementing more of the Problem Method in first-year and other doctrinal courses -- along with an increased emphasis on skills-based and clinical courses -- law schools can create an overall curriculum that better prepares students to practice law.
Date of Publication:
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose, The Indian Child Welfare Act and the African American Tribe: Facing the Adoption Crisis, 36 Brandeis Journal of Family Law 201 (1998)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
This article examines the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 to past and present law and policy relating to adoptions by and of African Americans. Potential solutions to the adoption crisis within the African American community are addressed. Currently, adoption is based upon the model of the nuclear family. This article discusses why this is not the appropriate model for all children. Rather, the “extended family” model -- like that found in the ICWA -- for adoption is the most widely applicable model for African American children.