Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center
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On September 24, 2009 the University of Miami School of Law established the Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center. The Center's mission statement, a description of the scholarly approach of therapeutic jurisprudence, and other information about the Center can be viewed by clicking on the left-hand column links.

What is Therapeutic Jurisprudence?

Therapeutic jurisprudence ("TJ") is an interdisciplinary approach to legal scholarship and law reform that sees the law itself as a therapeutic agent. The basic insight of therapeutic jurisprudence is that legal rules, legal practices, and the way legal actors (such as judges and lawyers) play their roles impose inevitable consequences on the psychological well-being of those affected. Therapeutic jurisprudence calls for a study of these consequences with the tools of the behavioral sciences so that we can increase our understanding of law and how it is applied, and can reshape it to diminish its anti-therapeutic effects and maximize its therapeutic potential.

Therapeutic jurisprudence was founded in 1987 by Professor Bruce J. Winick of the University of Miami School of Law and Professor David B. Wexler of the University of Arizona College of Law and University of Puerto Rico School of Law. The field has grown enormously, and has emerged as a major force in mental health law and in law and psychology generally. It is now a major scholarly approach in areas across the legal spectrum including criminal, juvenile, family law, health and disability law, constitutional law, employment law, and tort law. The field has generated approximately 45 books and 25 symposia issues in legal and interdisciplinary journals, as well as more than 900 articles by scholars in law, psychology, psychiatry, and philosophy in the U.S. and internationally. The field has been influential on judging and lawyering in the U.S. and in many countries throughout the world.

Therapeutic jurisprudence has had a particularly important impact internationally. The Third International Conference on Therapeutic Jurisprudence was held in June, 2006 in Perth, Australia, and included speakers from nine countries. In June/July of 2009, at the bi-annual conference of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH) occurring in New York City at the NYU School of Law, Professor Winick organized 21 separate therapeutic jurisprudence sessions involving 97 therapeutic jurisprudence presentations by speakers from a dozen countries. Therapeutic jurisprudence will again have a heavy presence at the July, 2011 conference of the IALMH in Berlin. Professor Winick was a frequent speaker at international meetings and brought therapeutic jurisprudence to countries throughout Europe, to Australia and New Zealand, and to Asia. Therapeutic jurisprudence work has been translated into Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese, and Urdu, and there is increasing interest in the work throughout the world.

The recent passing of the Center's Founding Director, Professor Bruce J. Winick, in August, 2010, was a great loss to the Law School community, the University of Miami, and to many near and far. A Memorial Service honoring professor Winick was held at the Lowe Art Museum on September 24, 2010. A webpage dedicated in memoriam to Professor Winick demonstrates the broad range of his professional and personal impact, and can be viewed here.