How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching by Kaur, Mallika; Harris, Lindsay M.;

Short description:

Subverting the narrative that the legal profession must be austere and controlled, this prescient How to guide addresses the crucial need for holistic, trauma-centred law teaching. It advocates for a healthier, more inclusive profession by identifying strategies to engage, and even encourage, emotions within legal education.

Long description:

Subverting the narrative that the legal profession must be austere and controlled, this prescient How To guide addresses the crucial need for holistic, trauma-centered law teaching. It advocates for a healthier, more inclusive profession by identifying strategies to engage, and even encourage, emotions within legal education.

Proponents of trauma-centered pedagogy, co-editors Mallika Kaur and Lindsay M. Harris bring together a diverse set of legal academics from a range of subject areas to examine the need for trauma-centered pedagogy. Diverse subject matter experts, clinical and non-clinical, critically analyse a multitude of educational techniques within the law classroom, including the use of violent imagery, simulation, and the Socratic method. Chapters explore pedagogical methods that consider the emotional responses of the professor and student, advocating for more attentive and sensitive methods of teaching law. Courses which address stereotypically emotive topics such as domestic violence law are considered along with courses usually deemed non-emotional such as civil procedure.

How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching is a vital reference point for legal educators who aim to create meaningful spaces for engagement within legal training. Ultimately, it proves a thought-provoking read for lawyers and law students, as well as trauma professionals and those working with the legal system.

‘This long-awaited collection of varied perspectives on the role of emotions and trauma in law teaching is a brilliant compilation that cuts across myriad legal topics, ranging from debtor-creditor law to domestic violence clinic to torts, business law, and legal education itself. It is groundbreaking in its breadth and the breadth of contributors, including leading podium scholars. As an early adoptee of the trauma-informed approach to teaching in the clinic, I am thrilled to see this expansion and deepening of the integration of trauma into virtually all of legal education. There is something in here for everyone, no matter their subject area.’

Table of Contents:

Contents
Editors and contributors vii
1 Introduction, From avoidance to acceptance: Trauma and
emotions in law teaching 1
Mallika Kaur and Lindsay M. Harris
2 From trauma to transformation: Trauma-informed
pedagogy in law school 26
Angela P. Harris and Monika Batra Kashyap
3 Violent images in legal education 43
Amy F. Kimpel
4 Using simulations to negotiate the impact of trauma and
emotions on professional identity development 60
Tianna N. Gibbs
5 “The winter we danced”: Emotion, embodiment, and
Indigenous legal orders in the Canadian constitutional law
classroom 74
Gillian Calder
6 Addressing trauma and emotions in human rights:
Reflections from teaching and practice 91
Gabrielle Jackson, Sarah Paoletti, and Margaret L. Satterthwaite
7 Navigating trauma and emotions while teaching torts 108
Nicole Tuchinda
8 Teaching trauma and hope in debtor-creditor law 127
Anna Lund
9 Why, and how, the Socratic method?: One law teacher reflects 145
Andrew Bradt
10 Domestic violence work as a lens for trauma-informed lawyering 156
Deeya Haldar
11 Coping as an academic skill 171
Maartje Weerdesteijn
12 Negotiating trauma in the business law classroom 186
Susan R. Jones and Etienne C. Toussaint