The First Two Weeks

Orientation for the students was held in late May where they spent two days reviewing various research methodologies with Professor Wendy Shea and a representative from an online legal research service. Since class officially began on June 7, the students have spent their first two weeks learning the methodology of legislative drafting. Ms. Harris writes the following on their experiences thus far:

 

“This course focuses on social problems as they are related to legislation that is written, written poorly, or not written at all. Why do people behave the way they do in the face of a particular rule? What makes a person decide to obey the rule or not? To follow or not to follow [the rule], THAT is the question!”

 

The students are looking at how individual citizens interact with particular rules and the agencies that implement or enforce them. While the students are learning about the methodology they are also reading recent news articles dealing with abuse of children in sports so that they can understand and scope their research around real-world occurrences.