National Association of State Judicial Educators
This is for articles we want in the sidebar.
Last month the Board and I invited you to nominate a colleague for the Karen Thorson Award. The Karen Thorson Award was established in 2012 to recognize a career judicial educator who has made a significant contribution to both NASJE and Read more
As you know, recently the NASJE website has been revamped as part of our effort to better connect with you and other site users. It has come to our attention that some members have not always received NASJE information or communications or have been unclear as to the ways in which interaction occurs within the organization. Let me provide some information on NASJE communications. I apologize for the length, but I wanted to provide all the info in one place for your convenience.
Hello, NASJE friends and colleagues, Welcome to Spring! Well, in some parts of the country anyway… The Board has recently finished our Mid-Year meeting and I wanted to update you on some of the things we decided or are working Read more
Margaret R. Allen of the National Center for State Courts was announced as the 2019 Karen Thorson Award winner at NASJE’s Annual Conference in October in Denver. The Thorson award goes to a NASJE member who has made a significant contribution to both NASJE and judicial branch education nationally and is NASJE’s highest recognition of excellence and contributions to the field of judicial branch education. The award’s eponym, Ms. Karen Thorson, was the first recipient in 2012.
At the recent 2018 NASJE Annual Conference in Austin, Judge Edward Spillane delivered a session on the humanity of litigants. Judge Spillane is the Presiding Judge for the College Station Municipal Court in Texas. He started his session by explaining that change in a court’s treatment of litigant too often occurs as a result of an unexpected, often catastrophic, series of events such as those in Ferguson, Missouri.
The final morning of the NASJE conference in Charleston, South Carolina began with the choice of one of three different breakout sessions. I chose to attend Facilitating 101 presented by Stephanie Hemmert of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC. She began the session by drawing input from many in the audience, who shared various reasons why they wanted to facilitate classes, discussions and meetings. She then went on to explain that our purpose for the class was to practice our facilitating skills with the whole group.
This expanding universe of scientific knowledge has engendered many discussions about the perceived need to increase the amount of science based education judges receive. Some argue that judges should be educated like scientists. The problem intrinsic this idea is that judges are specialists in the law, and generalists in everything else. Moreover, the vast majority of judges turned away from a scientific education, at least by the time they were in college and certainly by the time they were in law school. Law school teaches a different manner of seeking the truth than the scientific method.
