The Gray Box Of Legal Analysis: Disentangling Knowledge And Skill

Chance Meyer & Nicole Noël (New England), The Gray Box of Legal Analysis: Disentangling Knowledge and Skill, 101 U. Detroit Mercy L. Rev. 101 (2024):  

Problem-solving abilities critical in legal analysis are thought to be transferable skills when, according to cognitive science, they are benefits of domain knowledge. As a result, learners and faculty attempt to improve through practice-based skill-development abilities that can only be improved through domain-specific schema-development. Domain knowledge facilitates critical thinking, issue-spotting, reading comprehension, and test-taking speed by optimizing use of working memory, semantic inference-making, and analogical transfer of solution models from precedent cases to isomorphic fact patterns. Because knowledge-based problem-solving abilities depend on deep, structured, functional packages of knowledge, we recommend schema-development through ECHO outlining (Elaborative, Contextualized, Hierarchical, Operative). 

ECHO outlines echo the full breadth and depth of a learner's mental schemata in tangible memorializations before the learner undertakes practice problems. Consequently, educators can later attribute legal analysis output errors to specific knowledge-deficits masquerading as general skills-deficits. Legal analysis, often described as a black box because we cannot see inside the mind of the problem-solver, becomes a gray box: a system with partially visible innerworkings.

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to legal education posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.