Criminalization of Homelessness -- Spring 2024 -- <FONT COLOR="#FF0000" SIZE="-1"><STRONG>New!</STRONG></FONT>Papers

The Criminalization of Homelessness —
Spring 2024
Professor Schnably
Thursdays 3:30-5:20 pm
Office, Office Hours, and Faculty Assistant

Presentations and Abstracts page /

Consolidated Timeline for Presentations, Draft, and Final Paper

Wednesday, April 3, 10:00 am	You must let me know if you anticipate a problem doing your presentation on the date to which you are assigned. For the dates, see the Presentations Chart.
Monday, April 8, 3:00 pm	Abstracts for Thursday April 11 presentations due. See Instructions In your email, please also indicate whether you plan to use A/V in your presentation. If you later change your mind, that’s fine; this will just give me an idea of how many people are planning to use A/V.
Tuesday, April 9, 5:00 pm	Written Questions for April 11 presentations due. See Instructions
Wednesday, April 10, 10 am	Written Questions for April 11 presentations will be posted on the Papers page.
Thursday, April 11, 3:30-5:20 pm	In-Class Presentations
Monday, April 15, 3:00 pm	Abstracts for Thursday April 18 presentations due. See Instructions In your email, please also indicate whether you plan to use A/V in your presentation. If you later change your mind, that’s fine; this will just give me an idea of how many people are planning to use A/V.
Tuesday, April 16, 5:00 pm	Written Questions for April 18 presentations due. See Instructions
Wednesday, April 17, 9:00 am	Written Questions for April 19 presentations will be posted on the Papers page.
Thursday, April 18, 3:30 pm-5:20 pm	In-Class Presentations

Friday, April 19, 4:00 pm	First Draft Due Note that the deadline may be different in individual cases where I have granted a requestion for an extension. For more information, see Requests for Extensions
Monday, May 13, 9:00 am	Final Draft Due Note that the deadline may be different in individual cases where I have granted a requestion for an extension. For more information, see Requests for Extensions

Index

Topic Proposal, Formal Topic Proposal, First Draft, and Final Paper

Stage 1: Please let me know by email what topic you’d like to write on. It need not be in the formal topic proposal format (below), but you’re welcome to do that if you like. An email that indicates briefly what you want to write about is fine. What’s important is to give me enough information that I can give you useful feedback. If you are inclined toward two topics and have not quite decided, you can let me know and I can give you some feedback on that.
- Due: Friday, March 1, 2024
Stage 2: Please submit a formal topic proposal. I will get back to you by the beginning of spring break to confirm that it has been approved, or approved with some recommendations about modifying it. I don’t anticipate I would have to disapprove any topics, but I do reserve the right to do so and require you to find another. I would do so only if I have grave concerns about the viability of the topic or if it has no relationship to the seminar.
- Due: Monday, March 18, 2024
- Format: The proposal should have:
  - a one-paragraph abstract of the proposed paper. Keep in mind #1-3 under Papers (above).
  - an outline (1-2 pages) of the paper. Note: It is very likely that the final paper will not follow this outline in important respects. That is almost inevitable as you do more research for the paper. The outline, though, will help me understand better what you plan to cover, and will help you focus your thoughts.
  - a list of the most important primary authoritative legal sources you intend to use (e.g., court cases, federal, state or foreign statutes or administrative regulations, local ordinances, treaties) you plan to consult. Note: There is no need for this to be comprehensive, but it should identify at least a few of the ones you think will be most important.
  - a list of 7 scholarly or major policy publications such as books, law review articles, scholarly articles from non-legal journals, major policy publications by groups with expertise (example from the National Homelessness Law Center). Note: You can list more if you would like, but 7 is enough for this. Also, as you subsequently research the paper, you can of course use news articles, etc. as appropriate, and I would anticipate you will cite more scholarly publications than 7.
  - optional: a list of any questions you may have about developing the topic; I will give my thoughts on those questions in response.
  - Any request for a different timeline from below for First Draft and Final Paper, and the reasons for it.
First Draft Due: Friday, April 19, 2024, 4:00 pm
Final Paper Due: Monday, May 13, 2024, 9:00 am
Timetable and Extensions: In general, in writing a paper, it’s important to have a timetable with deadlines to help make sure you keep pace with the work required and have time to do a good job. That is the purpose of this timetable. Of course, at any stage you are free to get ahead of the timetable. I am also open to approving a different timetable on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to propose a different timetable, please send me an email setting out a proposal for different dates (which, up to a point, can be later than the deadlines set out above). Please also give me the reasons for the request. I may respond just based on your email, or I may have questions. You can also ask to discuss it with me if you’d like. I am generally inclined to grant reasonable requests for modification of the timetable when the request is made in advance. I do understand that there may be occasions when something unexected crops up with little or no advance notice and it causes you to miss a deadline. In that case, do get in touch with me as soon as possible, and include an explanation of the reason for the delay and a modified timetable.
Please make sure you are familiar with the Course Policies, including the use of AI.

First Draft and Final Paper Requirements

For both the first draft and the final paper:

First Page: A separate title page, with the following text:
Second Page: A Table of Contents page, with page numbers:
Third Page: The first page of the body of the paper.
- The final paper should be 25-35 pages (not including the separate cover/abstract page and table of contents page). It can be longer if you prefer, but that’s not required.
  - The first draft may be shorter than the 25-35 page range. But keep in mind that the more substantial is the first draft, the better the feedback I can give you.
In addition:
- The pages must be numbered. Page 1 should be the page on which the body of the paper begins. It can be in the upper right hand corner or at the bottom of the page, in the middle or at the right hand corner.
- Footnotes, not endnotes, must be used. The first citation to anything should be in full citation form (see below). For subsequent citations of the same material, use some kind of consistent form of abbreviated citation that allows for easy identification of what you are citing. For one example, see this guide.
- The text must be double-spaced.
  - Any indented block quotes must be single-spaced.
  - Footnotes must be single-spaced.
- Font: 12 point Times New Roman or something similar
- The first citation to any publication must have at least the following basic information. It is not enough to list a URL, though where something is found on the web, it can be helpful to include the URL as well:
  - Books: Author, Title, [specific page(s) cited], publication year -- e.g., Alexandra Natapoff, Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal 181 (2018).
  - Journal articles: Author, article title, Journal title with volume + page number, publication year (for example, for a law review article, Author Name, 75 U. Miami L. Rev. 1 (2020). Use something substantially similar for articles in scholarly journals that are not law reviews.
  - Newspaper articles and op-ed pieces: Author, Article/Op-ed Headline, Newspaper (e.g., Wall St. J.), Date of Publication (URL optional)
  - Reports etc - Author [which can be an organization], Title (Date), and URL (which may either be separate or as a linke in the title: That is, either:
    - National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Housing Not Handcuffs 2019: Ending the Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities (December 2019), https://homelesslaw.org/housing-not-handcuffs-2019/; or
    - National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Housing Not Handcuffs 2019: Ending the Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities (December 2019)
  - Note: I will not be a stickler for bluebook form, but I do want something reasonably standard, as indicated.
Submission of first draft and final paper:
- The first draft must be submitted in Word form, not pdf.
- The final paper may be submitted in Word or pdf form.
- The document file name should be in this form:
  - Last Name-First Name-First Draft.docx (or .doc)
  - Last Name-First Name-Final Paper.docx (or .doc or .pdf)
- It should be emailed to me, copy to my assistant, Ms. Demmings (sdemmings@law.miami.edu), with the following in the subject line:
  - Criminalization: First Draft; OR
  - Criminalization: Final Paper

Presentations, Abstracts, and Questions

Presentations and Abstracts page /

In-Class Presentations:

Format: Plan on a 6-9 minute presentation, with the rest for questions from the class.
A/V:
- There is no requirement that you use PowerPoint (or web-based formats such as Prezi), though you may find it useful. If you do use PowerPoint:
  1. You can put your PowerPoint file on a thumb/flash drive and plug the thumb/flash drive into the computer in the classroom.
  2. You can make your PowerPoint file available in your gmail account (assuming you have gmail). You can do this by sending it to yourself as an attachment in a gmail, so it is in your inbox. You will need to quickly sign in to your gmail account in the browser on the computer right before your presentation.
  3. You can email your PowerPoint file to me no later than Thursday at noon of the day on which you will be presenting, and I will put it on a server easily accessible on the classroom computer. If you do this, please make sure you put “Criminalization Seminar: A/V for Presentation” in the subject line.

Schedule of Presentations:

I have assigned class members to their presentation dates. You can find that on the Presentations Chart here.
If something unanticipated arises that makes it difficult or impossible for you to make your presentation on your scheduled date, you must let me know as soon as possible, with an explanation. I will attempt to be accommodating, but you will need to present a very good reason.

Abstracts and Written Questions on Abstracts:

Written Abstracts

Each class member will be required to submit a written presentation summary (i.e., an abstract) to me by the Monday before the day they are presenting.

If you are presenting your paper on:

Thu. April 11 | Your Abstract Is Due: Monday, April 8, 3:00 pm
Thu. April 18 | Your Abstract Is Due: Monday, April 15, 3:00 pm

The abstract should be emailed as follows:

to: schnably@law.miami.edu & cc: sdemmings@law.miami.edu
Subject line: Criminalization/Abstract
The body of the abstract in the email, not in an attachment.

I will post the abstracts on the Presentations and Abstracts page.

Written Questions on Abstracts

Everyone should read all the abstracts before class, and participate in the question periods after each presentation. In addition, each class member will be required to submit one or two questions or comments on three of the abstracts. (You may submit more than two if you’d like.) You can find out which paper abstracts you will be writing questions on by consulting the Chart. Check for latest revisions

For each of the abstracts to which you are assigned, submit one or two brief, constructive, written questions or comments.
The questions should be emailed as follows:

to: schnably@law.miami.edu & cc: sdemmings@law.miami.edu & cc: the class member on whose abstract you are submitting the Questions
Subject line: Criminalization/Questions on Abstract
The Questions in the email, not in an attachment
One set of Questions per email (i.e., keep the questions for different abstracts in different emails)

I will post the questions/comments for each presentation on the course web page, without names.

If a paper abstract on which you are submitting Questions is to be given on:

Thu. April 11 | Your Questions Are Due: Tuesday, April 9, 5:00 pm; I will post them no later than 10:00 am the next day.
Thu. April 18 | Your Questions Are Due: Tuesday, April 16, 5:00 pm; I will post them no later than 10:00 am the next day.

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