Therapeutic Jurisprudence

Professor Winick is co-founder (with Professor David Wexler) of the school of social enquiry known as therapeutic jurisprudence. Therapeutic jurisprudence is the study of law’s healing potential. An interdisciplinary approach to legal scholarship that has a law reform agenda, therapeutic jurisprudence seeks to assess the therapeutic and counter-therapeutic consequences of law and how it is applied and to effect legal change designed to increase the former and diminish the latter. It is a mental health approach to law that uses the tools of the behavioral sciences to assess law’s therapeutic impact, and when consistent with other important legal values, to reshape law and legal processes in ways that can improve the psychological functioning and emotional well-being of those affected.

Therapeutic jurisprudence grew out of the mental health law scholarship of professors Winick and Wexler. In the late 1980s, they gave this approach the name “therapeutic jurisprudence,” and wrote several books and articles defining the approach and illustrating its application in the area of mental health law. David B. Wexler & Bruce J. Winick, Essays in Therapeutic Jurisprudence (Carolina Academic Press 1991). Although the field started out in mental health law, it soon expanded to consider other areas of law ranging from criminal law, family law, juvenile law, and health law to contracts and commercial law, tort law, evidence law, and legal profession. A compendium of therapeutic jurisprudence work in these and other legal areas and of commentary on the approach was published in Wexler and Winick’s 1996 book, Law in a Therapeutic Key: Developments in Therapeutic Jurisprudence (Carolina Academic Press 1996). In 2000, Wexler and Winick (together with attorney/psychologist Dennis Stolle), published their edited book, Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Law As A Helping Profession (Carolina Academic Press, 2000, applying the TJ paradigm to lawyering.). In 2003, Winick and Wexler published Judging in a Therapeutic Key: Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the courts (Carolina Academic Press 2003), an edited book examining recent developments in what has been termed “problem-solving courts,” and offering TJ as a theoretical foundation for these new judicial models and a source of instrumental prescriptions for how judges serving in these courts can play their roles more effectively. Winick’s own work on therapeutic jurisprudence and mental health law was published in his 2005 book, Civil Committment: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Model (Carolina Academic Press 2005) and in his two 1997 books Therapeutic Jurisprudence Applied: Essays on Mental Health Law (Carolina Academic Press, 1997) and The Right to Refuse Mental Health Treatment (American Psychological Association Books 1997). TJ also provides an important theme for much of Winick’s co-authored book (with Steve Behnke and Alina Perez), The Essentials of Florida Mental Health Law (WW Norton & Co. 2000), and his co-edited book (with John Lafond), Protecting Society from Sexually Dangerous Offenders: Law, Justice, and Therapy (American Psychological Association Books 2003). A comprehensive bibliography of therapeutic jurisprudence books and articles is maintained on the web site of the International Network on Therapeutic Jurisprudence. Winick and Wexler also are frequent speakers at the meetings of other professional associations and at law school, medical school, and psychology department conferences and programs.

In addition to studying and attempting to reform substantive legal rules and legal procedures, therapeutic jurisprudence focuses attention on how law is applied by various legal actors such as judges, lawyers, police officers, and expert witnesses assisting the courts. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the application of therapeutic jurisprudence to judging and lawyering. Winick and Wexler have been keynote speakers at a variety of judicial conferences, including the American Judges Association, the National Association of Women Judges, and various state judiciary conferences, Winick spoke at the Annual ABA Appellate Judges’ Section meeting, and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (where Winick was a keynote speaker). Winick also spoke at a conference at athe Fordham Law School in February, 2002, on “Problem-solving Courts.”

Therapeutic jurisprudence was the subject of a published special issue of “Court Review,” the journal of the American Judges Association. Winick and Wexler have also been frequent speakers at meetings of groups of lawyers, in which they have discussed the application of therapeutic jurisprudence to the lawyering process. In addition to their 2000 book, Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Law as a Helping Profession, Winick and Wexler (with Professor Edward Dauer)published a symposium issue on the integration of therapeutic jurisprudence and preventive law. See Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Preventive Law: Transforming Legal Practice and Education, 5 Psychology, Public Policy & Law, 793-1210 (1999). For information about Preventive Law, see the web site maintained by the National Center for Preventive Law, www.preventivelawyer.org.

Therapeutic jurisrprudence has also turned its attention to legal education. In 2005, Winick and Wexler edited a symposium issue of the St. Thomas University Law Review on therapeutic jurisprudence and clinical legal education and skills training, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Clinical Legal Education and Skills Training, 17 ST. THOMAS L. REV. 403-896 (2005). Winick and Wexler have spoken at several annual meetings of the AALS Clinical Law Teachers’ section, and in 2006, published The Use of Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Law School Clinical Education:Transforming the Criminal Law Clinic, 13 CLINICAL L. REV. 605-32 (2006).

At the University of Miami School of Law, Winick uses therapeutic jurisprudence extensively in a course that he has pioneered, New Directions in Lawyering: Interviewing, Counseling, and Attorney/Client Relational Skills. He also has worked extensively with the University of Miami School of Law Clinic, using therapeutic jurisrprudence in amicus briefs, oral arguments, and other submissions in cases involving children and juveniles. In addition, therapeutic jurisprudence has begun to receive increasing international attention. Symposium, Exploring the Scope of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, 80(5) Law Institute Journal 48 (2006). It was the subject of a two volume symposium on international aspects of therapeutic jurisprudence published in Behavioral Sciences and the Law. Symposium, International Perspectives on Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Part One, 17 Behav. Sci. & L. 553, (Alan J. Tomkins & David Carson eds. 1999); Symposium, International Perspectives on Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Part Two, 18 Behav. Sci & L. 411 (Alan Tomkins & David Carson eds. 2000). Another International symposium publication is Therapeutic Jurisprudence, 7 (1) Contemp. Issues in L. (2003/2004). Therapeutic jurisprudence was the organizing framework of a recently published international book dealing with involuntary mental health commitment, INVOLUNTARY DETENTION AND THERAPEUTIC JURISPRUDENCE: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON CIVIL COMMITMENT 23-54 (Kate Diesfeld & Ian Freckleton eds. 2003).

Therapeutic jurisprudence has been the subject of three international conferences devoted exclusively to the topic

• The first international conference on therapeutic jurisprudence was held in Winchester, England in July of 1998.
• The second international conference on therapeutic jurisprudence was held at the University of Cincinnati Law School on May 3-5, 2001.
• The third was held in Perth, Australia on June 7-9, 2006.

Winick and Wexler also are frequent speakers at the meetings of other professional associations and at law school, medical school, and psychology department conferences and programs.

“TJ” has been the subject of numerous international and national meetings, including those of the International Association of Law and Mental Health, the European Association of Psychology and Law, the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry and Psychology, the Association of American Law Schools, the American Psychology-Law Society, and others.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence has also been the subject of a flurry of recent law review and interdisciplinary journal symposia issues, including the Monograph, Transforming Legal Processes in Court and Beyond, Australian Institute of Judicial Administration (2007), Sympoisum, The Therapeutic Role of Magistrates’ Courts elaw Special Series – Murdoch University Electronic Journal 2006 , Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Clinical Legal Education and Skills Training, 17 ST. THOMAS L. REV. 3 (2005), Symposium: Therapeutic Approaches to Conflict Resolution in Health Care Settings 21 (4) Ga. St. U.L. Rev. (Summer, 2005), Symposium, Problem Solving Courts and Therapeutic Jurisprudence, 30 Ford. Urb. L. J. 797-1280 (2003), Symposium, The Varieties of Therapeutic Experience, 18 Touro L. Rev. 435-640 (2002), Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, 41 Ariz. L. Rev. (1999); Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Children, 71 U. Cinn. L. Rev. 13 (2002); Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Criminal Law, 38 Crim. L. Bull. 199-295 (2002); Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Criminology, Western Crim. Rev.(online); Symposium, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Nursing, 8 J. of Nursing L. 1-54 (2002); Symposium,Therpeutic Jurisprudence and Preventive Law: Transforming Legal Practice and Education, 5 Psychol. Pub. Pol’y & L. 793-1210, Therapeutic Jurispurdence Symposium, 3 Fla. Coastal L. J. 113-244 (2002). International conferences on Therapeutic Jurisprudence: 3rd International Conference on Therapeutic Jurisprudence – Perth, Austrailia – June 7-9, 2006.

Other TJ-related pages:
• Therapeutic Jurisprudence Conferences
• International Therapeutic Jurisprudence Activity