The University of Miami School of Law has launched an ambitious new center that will play a significant role in identifying practical insights of law and psychology.
The new Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center will study “how the courts can use therapeutic jurisprudence to help offenders solve the psychosocial problems that often are responsible for their repeated court involvement,” says Bruce J. Winick, Silver-Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UM, who will direct the center. Therapeutic jurisprudence sees the law itself as a therapeutic agent. The innovative field uses the tools of the behavioral sciences to increase the understanding of law and how it can be reshaped to minimize its anti-therapeutic effects and maximize its therapeutic potential. The field has grown enormously and has been recognized as a key scholarly approach in disciplines across the legal spectrum, including criminal, juvenile, and family law, health and disability law, constitutional law, employment law, and tort law. According to Winick–who, along with University of Puerto Rico School of Law professor David B. Wexler, founded the field in the late 1980s–the center will seek government and private foundation grants to fulfill its mission. He notes that the center already has secured a generous grant from the University of Miami Arsht Ethics and Community Research Projects. The interdisciplinary center has ties to other departments and professors at UM and other universities. It will conduct theoretical and empirical research; publish scholarly books, articles, and reports; and train judges and lawyers. It will also conduct community programs and host conferences, symposia, and other educational programs. In addition, the center will participate in existing and future clinical and skills training programs at the law school, helping to train students in the interpersonal skills needed for effective lawyering and counseling. “The center will play a significant role in identifying the practical insights of law and psychology,” says Patricia D. White, dean of the School of Law. “Professor Winick’s work in this arena has been foundational, and this center will advance his efforts, taking advantage of the significant interdisciplinary resources of the University.”
