Nova Law Review 33, 3

Nova Law Review Volume 33, Issue 3 2009 Article 1 Nova Law Review 33, 3 ∗ ∗ Copyright c 2009 by the authors. Nova Law Review is produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress). https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nlr : Nova Law Review 33, 3 Published by NSUWorks, 2009 1 Nova Law Review, Vol. 33, Iss. 3 [2009], Art. 1 NOVA LAW REVIEW VOLUME 33 SUMMER 2009 NUMBER 3 VICTIMS' RIGHTS ISSUE Dedication in Memory of Melissa Britt Lewis In Memory of Melissa Britt Lewis .............................................. HeatherBaxter 533 Foreword: Therapeutic Jurisprudence Perspectives on Dealing with Victims of Crime .............................................. Brucei. Winick 535 ARTICLES Justice in Transition: Jury Trials in Post-Soviet Russia ..................................................... HonorableJay B. Rosman 545 Guideline for Handling Cases Involving Sexual Abuse of a Minor by a Public School Teacher ..................... Diana Santa Maria Laura D. Dolin 615 Blackwater and Beyond: Can Potential Plaintiffs Sue Private Security Companies for Due Process Violations via Exceptions to the State Action Doctrine, Including Through Section 1983 Actions? ......... Michael J. Dittenber 627 The Refugee Experience: A Legal Examination of the Immigrant Experiences of the Sudanese Population ............................................ Kathleen Anne Ward-Lambert 661 NOTES AND COMMENTS Knowing Evil When We See It: An Attempt to Standardize Heinous, Atrocious, and Cruel ............................. Valerie L. Barton 679 Are Prisoners' Rights to Legal Mail Lost W ithin the Prison Gates? ............................................................. Aaron C. Lapin 703 Florida's Regulation of Child Exploitation: Senate Bill 1442 ...................................................................... Laura R. Salpeter 729 https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nlr/vol33/iss3/1 2 : Nova Law Review 33, 3 IN MEMORIAM MELISSA BRITT (FISHER) LEWIS, ESQ. 1968 -2008 This book of the Nova Law Review is dedicated to the issue of Victims' Rights in memory of Melissa Britt (Fisher) Lewis, class of 2000 and former Editor-in-Chief of the Nova Law Review. Melissa's life tragically ended on March 7, 2008, when she fell victim to a senseless crime. During her life, Melissa was committed to helping the victims of violent crimes. She will be forever remembered for her tireless contributions to the Nova Law Review, as well as her unending dedication to her clients, family and friends. Published by NSUWorks, 2009 3 Nova Law Review, Vol. 33, Iss. 3 [2009], Art. 1 IN MEMORY OF MELISSA BRITT LEWIS HEATHER BAXTER Melissa Britt Lewis may have been the most unlikely candidate ever for Nova Law Review's Editor in Chief. A rebellious teenager, Melissa dropped out of high school at the age of 18. She was never one to give up, though, so she quickly obtained her GED and started college classes. Melissa worked full-time through college, so it took her close to ten years to obtain her un- dergraduate degree. But that didn't mean she was finished. Most people would say, "Enough!" Not Melissa. She wanted to be a lawyer. So, three more years of school awaited her at NSU Shepard Broad Law Center. This is when I met Melissa. We were both junior staff members on the Nova Law Review. I didn't know all about her background yet, but I knew that she was a non-traditional student and quite a bit older than my class- mates and me. She quickly became the mother hen of our bunch, cooking for us and providing us with stories from the real world. To say Melissa flourished at NSU would be an understatement. She may have waited a while to get there, but Melissa had found her calling in life and it showed. She excelled academically, and became the Editor in Chief of the Nova Law Review. Her leadership skills, coupled with her real life experience, made Melissa an excellent Editor in Chief. I can personally attest to this, as I served as Melissa's second in charge that year. In addition to her Law Review service, Melissa found something else at NSU that would change her life. Melissa signed up for Trial Advocacy un- der adjunct professor Scott Rothstein. Scott says Melissa impressed him beyond measure from the first assignment, and he quickly hired her as a law clerk in his office (then only two attorneys and a paralegal). Melissa stayed with Scott as his firm grew and she became a preeminent litigator. She was a tireless advocate for her clients, working to right the wrongs they had en- dured in their employment. Her efforts eventually led her to be named part- ner at Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler, an achievement of which she and her family were extremely proud. Though she was a hardworking attorney, Melissa's dedication to her family was unrivaled. Melissa's three nieces were the apples of her eye. I can remember the way she looked when she would tell me of her many trips to Disney World with the girls. Not having children of her own, Melissa felt privileged to be such a big part of her nieces' lives, and they loved their Aunt 'Lissa fiercely. Mirroring the effort she put in for her clients and her family, Melissa al- so believed in giving back to her community. She was a member of Leader- ship Broward and the Broward County Human Rights Board. Because of her https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nlr/vol33/iss3/1 4 : Nova Law Review 33, 3 534 NOVA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 33 involvement with Leadership Broward, she was working on a memorial dedicated to victims of violent crime when, ironically, she herself was murdered on March 7, 2008. It is this tragedy that prompted the Nova Law Review to dedicate this issue to Victims' Rights, in memory of Melissa. I feel lucky to have called Melissa a friend. Though it has been a year since her death, I know I speak for countless others when I say we miss her every day. It would make her proud to know that she has inspired this issue of the Nova Law Review, and that, even in death, her memory lives on to give a voice to those who have lost so much. Published by NSUWorks, 2009 5 Nova Law Review, Vol. 33, Iss. 3 [2009], Art. 1 FOREWORD: THERAPEUTIC JURISPRUDENCE PERSPECTIVES ON DEALING WITH VICTIMS OF CRIME* BRUCE J. WINICK** Therapeutic jurisprudence is an interdisciplinary field of legal scholar- ship that looks at law with the tools of the behavioral sciences.' In this re- spect, it is a descendant of legal realism, which asks us to look at law as it actually impacts people's lives, and to do so using perspectives and ap- proaches drawn from other disciplines.2 As Justice Holmes has told us, 'The life of the law is not logic. It is experience."3 Accordingly, we need to understand how law actually applies in the real world, how people work with it, deal with it, respond to it. And in order to do that, we have to be interdisciplinary and we need to understand anthro- pology, psychology, economics, and all of those other disciplines that help us see law and the world in a much more enriched way. Therapeutic jurisprudence uses these tools and examines law through a particular lens, focusing on law's impact on emotional life.4 It posits that among the other consequences of law, law is a therapeutic agent. Law is a social force that has inevitable consequences for people's emotional well-being, often negative consequences, sometimes positive ones. The law and economics movement has taught us that we have to be sen- sitive to law's economic impact, to conduct the cost benefit analysis of law, and to understand the importance of efficiency.5 In a similar way, therapeutic jurisprudence is concerned with law's therapeutic impact. We seek to avoid the mistake that we believe the law and economics approach sometimes has fallen into, which is to assume that if a law is inefficient, it there- * Copyright 2009 by Bruce J. Winick. ** Bruce J. Winick, Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Director, University of Miami School of Law Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center, J.D., New York University School of Law, A.B., Brooklyn College. I appreciate the assistance of Cecilia Traini, University of Miami School of Law, class of 2011. 1. See generally LAW IN A THERAPEUTIC KEY: DEVELOPMENTS IN THERAPEUTIC JURISPRUDENCE (David B. Wexler & Bruce J. Winick eds., 1996) [hereinafter LAW IN A THERAPEUTIC KEY]. 2. Bruce J. Winick, The Jurisprudence of Therapeutic Jurisprudence,3 PSYCHOL. PUB. POL'Y&L. 184, 186 (1997). 3. OLIVER W. HOLMES, JR., THECOMMON LAW I (Gryphon Editions 1982) (1881). 4. See generally LAW IN ATHERAPEUTIC KEY, supra note 1; Winick, supra note 2. 5. Winick, supra note 2, at 190. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nlr/vol33/iss3/1 6 : Nova Law Review 33, 3 NOVA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 33 fore should be changed.6 The assumption is that cost-benefit and efficiency are the most important values. Yet, there are other important values at stake-justice, fairness, and equality, among others. Therapeutic jurisprudence suggests that the therapeutic aspect of law is an important understu- died dimension. However, a demonstration that a particular law or legal practice is anti-therapeutic does not, in our view, demand that it be changed. Although important, this therapeutic dimension of law is not the highest value served by law. Understanding this therapeutic dimension is crucial to our understanding of law and how it applies to better see how it affects people and to see what we can do to reshape it. When consistent with other important values served by law, this understanding may suggest the value of re- structuring law in order to make it more of a healing force.

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