The Trouble with Teaching Rape Law (2014)
newyorker.com
The Trouble with Teaching Rape Law (2014)
1–3 of 3 posts
Re: The Trouble with Teaching Rape Law (2014)
#2I feel very sorry for the people who have to choose between being put in disciplinary peril, or producing lawyers who will apparently faint and clutch their pearls if you even discuss a case.
None of the catchy "second rape" thinking and rhetoric changes anything about why there are standards of evidence. An attempted murder trial involves victim testimony. An assault trial involves victim testimony.
If you are the victim of a crime that only you witnessed, you are the only one who can provide testimony, and if you provide testimony, you must be cross-examined. If you accuse somebody of a serious crime, then there had damn-well better be a well-conducted trial or a plea. You can't just send people to prison on unexamined testimony and hearsay.
Re: The Trouble with Teaching Rape Law (2014)
#3As for law students being too emotionally sensitive to handle the details of a case, how could shielding them from it help anything? What happens if they are a lawyer in a criminal trial on the subject? Will they just have a tantrum and refuse to review the evidence/statute and present an argument? It should be obvious that criminal law students who refuse to assess any class of criminal case can not reasonably be co…