Therapeutic Jurisprudence Books
Several new therapeutic jurisprudence books have been or are about to be published. One, just published, comes from Australia and is entitled "Non-Adversarial Justice," and its authors are Michael King, lecturer at Monash University School of law and a member of the Therapeutic jurisprudence Center's Advisory Board, Arie Frieberg, Dean of the Monash University School of Law, Becky Batagol, Lecturer at Monash University, and Ross Hyams, Senior Lecturer at Monash University. Click here for a link describing the book and providing a table of contents.
Another recently published book is PREVENTIVE LAW AND PROBLEM SOLVING: LAWYERING FOR THE FUTURE (2009) by Professor Thomas D. Barton of the California Western School of Law in San Diego. For a description of the book, click to visit the publisher's website.
The Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center will present a program on October 22, 2009, at which Dean Frieberg will discuss the book. Professor Winick has written a book jacket blurb for the book, which is set forth below:
The excesses of the adversarial system and the malaise that has descended upon the legal profession have prompted a basic rethinking of legal processes and the role of the lawyer. This book examines the emerging strands of what the authors call "non-adversarial lawyering." Many of these developments have originated or been refined in Australia. American lawyers and judges have much to learn from this extraordinary book, which represents the future of the legal profession and the processes through which law is administered.
A soon to be published therapeutic jurisprudence book is "Relationship-Centered Lawyering: Social Science theory for Transforming Legal Practice," edited by Professor Susan Brooks of the Drexel Law School and Professor Robert Madden of St. Joseph College. Click here for a link to a description of the book and its table of contents. Professors Winick and Wexler have authored a forward to the book with is set forth below:
FOREWORD
Relationship-Centered Lawyering: A Transformational Tweak
David B. Wexler*
Bruce J. Winick**
Make no mistake about it: this superb volume in no way challenges the core concept of “client-centered” counseling. At the same time, it promises truly to transform the lawyer-client relationship. Analytically-able lawyers can easily reconcile the above seemingly disparate statements: This book offers a dramatically new and improved version of the traditional concept, a version that is far more robust, holistic, and psychologically, sociologically, and culturally aware.
The new ,improved vision is largely derived from legal writing of an interdisciplinary nature, most notably legal scholarship closely connected to advances in psychology and social work. This scholarship for the most part developed after the formation of the client-centered approach, and now enables us to embellish and enrich the approach in very major ways.
Here is a concrete example: in 1991, the leading work on legal counseling strongly urged lawyers to anticipate and consider the ‘nonlegal’ consequences—including psychological ones—that invariably accompany legal measures. But, at the same time, the book noted that “nonlegal consequences are often difficult to predict.” (Binder , D.,et al, 1991,p.12))
We are still far from being psychological soothsayers. But now it can be stated with some confidence that “recent efforts to integrate preventive law with therapeutic jurisprudence can ease the task of predicting psychological consequences, and can give real substance and structure to the area of legal counseling.”(. Stolle,D., et al,2000,p.70; see also Winick,B.J. et al, 1999; St Thomas University Law Review, 2005); Winick,B.J,. & Wexler,D.B.,2006).
In other words, since the inception of client-centered counseling, there has been an explosion of interest in perspectives such as therapeutic jurisprudence, preventive law, restorative justice, and transformational mediation, to mention only some of the areas of activity heavily relied upon by editors Susan Brooks and Robert Madden in the present work. Those perspectives are part of what has become known in the United States as the “Comprehensive Law Movement”, and by our Australian colleagues Down Under as “Nonadversarial Justice.”(King,M, et al, 2009)). In the words of Susan Daicoff, this new era ,whatever its name, is “one in which law and legal practice may be more humane, therapeutic, beneficial, humanistic, healing, restorative, curative, collaborative, and comprehensive.”( Daicoff, S., , in Stolle, D., et al, 2000,p.465).
In tandem with the above developments in interdisciplinary scholarship has been a growing interest in how the law and lawyering might profit from insights from psychology, social work, and other behavioral sciences—matters such as family systems theory,strength-based approaches, emotional intelligence, cultural competence, and the like. The result is that a modern, well-trained lawyer is now far more equipped than before to consider his or her client in a broader social, familial,cultural context. And a lawyer is able to engage a client in robust conversations regarding potential courses of legal action and the consequences of such action in the overall context of the client’s situation and complex web of relationships.
Brooks and Madden have reviewed the relevant legal and social science writings and have woven them together to formulate and explicate this broader, more psychologically-sensitive approach, which they understandably dub “relationship-centered” lawyering. The editors are uniquely equipped to undertake this task. Both have formal training in both law and social work, and one(Brooks) is affiliated principally with a law faculty while the other(Madden) is primarily attached to a department of social work. They are both accomplished scholars and have themselves written leading essays that are now incorporated in this volume. For example, Madden and his co-author Raymie Wayne published a piece urging therapeutic jurisprudence—and its practitioners—to draw on the normative social work framework in their work with clients. And Brooks has written on how social work training can be imported into a law school clinical program. Both of them have seriously explored family systems theory and its potential relevance in a legal context.
Most impressively, the editors employ their own prior work and the work of others in therapeutic jurisprudence and the comprehensive law movement as foundational building blocks in crafting their approach to lawyering and the lawyer-client relationship. The editors do not stray from the core ethical and professional concepts of client-centered lawyering , but they so enrich it with social, psychological and cultural sensitivity that a practitioner embracing their approach will emerge as a very different kind of lawyer –one infused with an ethic of care and operating as a helping and healing professional. Such a lawyer is likely to find great satisfaction in professional life and will in all likelihood be warmly received by the clients and communities served. We hope this book—which has taken client-centered lawyering and added a new dimension to it—will be the major stepping stone it deserves to be in creating a new breed of legal counselor and in truly transforming the legal profession.
*Professor of Law and Director, International Network on Therapeutic Jurisprudence, University of Puerto Rico, and Distinguished Research Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology, University of Arizona.
**Silvers-Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law ,Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Director, Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center, University of Miami.
References
Binder, David A.,et al,(1991) Lawyers as Counselors: A Client-Centered Approach
Daicoff, Susan (2000), Afterword: The Role of Therapeutic Jurisprudence in the Comprehensive Law Movement, in Stolle D,et al(2000).
King, Michael ,et al (2009),Nonadversarial Justice
St. Thomas Law Review(2005),Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Clinical Legal Education and Skills Training, 17 St. Thomas L. Rev. 3, 403-896.
Stolle, Dennis P. et al, (2000), Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Law as a Helping Profession
Winick, B.J. et al, eds, (1999).Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Preventive Law: Transforming Legal Practice and Education, 5 Psychol. Pub. Policy & L. 793-1210.
Winick, B.J. & Wexler, D.B.(2006). The Use of Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Law School Clinical Education: Transforming the Criminal Law Clinic, 13 Clinical L. Rev. 605-32.
Professor Amy D. Ronner of the St. Thomas University School of Law, a member of the Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center Advisor Board, has a forthcoming book, Law, Literature, and Therapeutic Jurisprudence (Carolina Academic Press 2009). Her book demonstrates how therapeutic jurisprudence can be a tool for analyzing literature and stimulating the legal imagination. Through an analysis of works by Herman Melville, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Arthur Miller, and others, Ronner applies literary Therapeutic Jurisprudence to shed new light on criminal procedure, witch hunts (past and present), legal education, and contemporary law practice. The book shows how the two multi-disciplinary movements, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Law and Literature, can, by becoming partners, help us cultivate a better understanding of human nature and maximize the healing potential of our legal system.
In 2008, David Wexler's edited book, "Rehabilitating Lawyers: Principles of Therapeutic Jurisprudence for Criminal Law Practice" was published by Carolina Academic Press..
A description of the book follows:
This book seeks to bridge the traditional divide between scholarship and practice in the field of law. It introduces the interdisciplinary perspective of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) and then, largely through the thoughtful and informative essays of practitioners and clinical law professors, shows how criminal law practice can be enriched — and how clients can benefit — from lawyers looking at their practice with a TJ lens. Lawyers can be positive change agents for many of their clients, and will find that this approach can markedly increase their own professional satisfaction and enhance their professional image.
For a table of contents and additional information on the book, visit http://www.cap-press.com/pdf/1844.pdf
For previous therapeutic jurispurdence books, visit http://www.brucewinick.com/books/ .
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