S. Law, Justice, and Reflective Practice

This course examines the role of mindfulness and other forms of reflection in the substance and practice of law. Our tools will include both reading and experiential practice. Readings comprise legal texts (primary and secondary), meditation literature (ancient and modern), and social science (about a range of topics, including meditation and discrimination).

The course is heavily experiential, incorporating practices of meditation, journaling, reflective dialogue, collaborative group work, and other techniques that may be useful both to law practice and to life. One scheduled class hour, each Wednesday, is the weekly CLS meditation series, in which students, faculty, and staff come together to learn and practice mindfulness, led by experienced meditation teachers from both inside and outside the law school. Students will also write about their experiences, and learn to apply their growing skills as lawyers and legal thinkers to their own minds and decisions, in life and law. These exercises aim to shed light on the driving questions of the course, and to offer participants a set of techniques for developing their skills as leaders, lawyers, managers, and human beings.

One of our purposes in the course is to identify the places where law and meditation intersect or could intersect. Course topics therefore include substantive areas of law where mindfulness and related practices have made headway already -- such as negotiation, mediation, and restorative justice alternatives to incarceration -- and areas where the research is still at an early stage and the law has yet to find applications -- such as the relevance of mindfulness work to antidiscrimination efforts, for which promising social science data offer preliminary support. Another important theme is the relationship between leadership and mindfulness, which we will explore through both readings and exercises. We will examine these areas and brainstorm other possible intersections.

Law and meditation both have long histories, but their dialogue with each other is still in the early stages. If you enjoy collaborating in the creation of something new -- a new field, a new course -- then this course should be a good fit. Grades will be based on a combination of regular response papers, special topics response papers, individual presentations, and class participation. 3 credits.