Therapeutic Jurisprudence, "TJ", is an interdisciplinary
perspective that focuses on the law's impact on the emotional and psychological
health of the participants, mostly the clients. Some people refer to this as
viewing law as a healing profession. The goal is to bring sensitivity into law
practice and focuses on listening to clients with an awareness of the
psychological and emotional issues including stress, confidence, trust. TJ also
looks at the court system and how it impacts society. It is a context for the
legal system which can be applied to almost any practice and incorporated into
the other approaches.
There is a lot written about Therapeutic Jurisprudence and we aren't going to
repeat it here. The leading academicians are David Wexler and Bruce Winick.
The primary website is www.therapeuticjurisprudence.org.
In May, 2000, Court Review, the
journal of the American Judges Association, published a symposium issue on
therapeutic jurisprudence. The AJA's website is http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/review.html.
These articles may be of interest:
-Judging for the New
Millennium (William Schma)
-The Implications of TJ for Judicial Satisfaction (Deborah Chase and Peggy
Hora)
-Does Effective TJ Require Specialized Courts (and Do Specialized Courts
Imply Specialist Judges)? (David Rotman)
-Creating a Domestic Violence Court: Combat in the Trenches (Randal Fritzler and
Leonore Simon)
-The Importance of Understanding Love and Other Feelings in Survivors'
Experiences of Domestic Violence (Kate Paradine)
-Mental Health Review Tribunals in the UK: Applying a TJ Perspective (Nicola
Ferenez and James McGuire)
-From Telling to Listening: A Therapeutic Analysis of the Role of Courts in
Minority-Majority Conflicts (Nathalie Des Rosiers)
-TJ on Appeal (Amy Ronner)
Return
to Transformational Law Main Page
Go to Next Approach