Anna Lawless-Collins

This seminar explores the ways in which the tools (both print and electronic) used to conduct traditional legal research serve as hegemonic forces that reinforce the status quo and entrench societal oppressions. It also attempts to apply principles of Critical Race Theory to the legal research process both to uncover these hegemonic forces and to explore ways to overcome them. It draws on the work of Professors Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic and the innovative and novel ideas and theories being developed by newer, emerging, scholars applying the approach that is now known as Critical Legal Research (CLR). This they apply to their research, their pedagogy, and their research agendas. Indeed, Critical Legal Research has become a movement within law libraries and within the scholarly community. This research seminar can be described as a part of that movement. It is designed to meet the needs and serve the interests of aspiring public interest lawyers, students interested in social justice issues, and students interested in applying the principles of Critical Legal Studies or Critical Race Theory to their contemporary legal research projects, research behaviors, or legal studies. It complements the growing array of seminars and other courses offered here at BU Law that examine the practice of law through a critical lens. Topics to be covered include the legal research process, the limitations inherent in each step of that process, emerging critical approaches to conducting legal research, critical legal scholarship, critical race theory more specifically, and emerging legal research technologies and the specific shortcomings attributable to each. PREREQUISITE: Successful completion of both Lawyering Skills I and Lawyering Skills II. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: The capstone of this course will be a 6,000-word paper on a contemporary issue of justice OR an area of critical legal scholarship of interest to the student. This paper may serve as the foundation for a law review note or a foundation for completion of the Upper-Class Writing Requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.