1/7 Before you people start mouthing off about the law, i.e.
PSB, I suggest you pick up a copy of "American Courts" by
Daniel John Meador. It's put out by West Group, probably the
same people behind Westlaw. It's required reading at some
law schools for entering 1Ls, and it's short and simple enough for
the layman. And no, you can't go and find a pdf copy of it online.
Unfortunately you can't become a lawyer by googling. Now STFU.
\_ FYI, West Group is the same people behind Westlaw.
\_ FYI, West Group are the same people behind Westlaw.
law schools for entering 1Ls, and it's short and simple enough for
the layman. And no, you can't go and find a pdf copy of it online.
\- it's amazing what PDFs you can find via google...
http://home.lbl.gov:8080/~psb/tmp/Texts1.jpg
Unfortunately you can't become a lawyer by googling. Now STFU.
\- You know for the legal topics that interest me, I think I
have a reasonable background. I'm not interested in the vocational
practice of law ... so no, I dont know jack about civil procedure
but I do know a little about Constitutional Law, Law and Economics,
Antitrust Law [but I have more background in Econ ... but I have
read a reasonable amount of Posner Redbook]. As for legal
philosophy, I guarantee I have a deeper background than you do,
unless you are at Yale, but clearly you are not. It would also
be helpful if you deanonymized yourself ... face your accuser
and all that. I think it is poor form to talk about background in
a public forum but would be happy to do so by email. --psb
have a reasonable background. I'm not interested in the
vocational practice of law ... so no, I dont know jack
about civil procedure but I do know a little about
Constitutional Law, Law and Economics, Antitrust Law [but I
have more background in Econ ... but I have read a
reasonable amount of Posner Redbook]. As for legal
philosophy, I guarantee I have a deeper background than you
do, unless you are at Yale, but clearly you are not. It
would also be helpful if you deanonymized yourself ... with
these anonymous conversation you never know if you are
speaking to the same person as before ... and then there is
facing your accuser and all that :-). I think it is poor
form to talk about background in a public forum but would
be happy to do so by email. Somewhat ironically, my entire
legal educatation, for what it is, esentially predates google.--psb
\-Tangential comment: I am not familar with the book
mentioned above and looked it up on AMAZONG. I was
surprised to see that for what I assume is a classic,
there was only one review ... allthought a 5star one. So
then I looked up a number of famous law books [Martin
Shapiro: Courts, Cardozo: Nature of the Jud. Process,
Choper: Jud Review and Nat Pol Proc, Posner: Econ
Analysis of Law, Dworkin: Taking Rights Seriously, HLA
Hart: Concept of Law] and not a single one had more than
10 reviews ... it sure seems like law people spend a lot
less time writing reviews than say math people ... (Baby)
Rudin has 73 reviews. A lot of the std math/phyiscs
textbooks have 20-40 reviews. Oh Rawls: Theory of Justice
has 46 reviews.
\_ I was in a law class with PSB. For the Mock Trial he was the
best attorney by far. His only problem was he was a bit
impatient with a dumb judge during oral arguments. That hurt
his case when we voted. He would probably be a better law
professor than lawyer.
\-Tangential comment: I am not familar with the book mentioned
above and looked it up on AMAZONG. I was surprised to see
that for what I assume is a classic, there was only one
review ... allthough a 5star one. So then I looked up a
number of famous law books [Martin Shapiro: Courts, Cardozo:
Nature of the Jud. Process, Choper: Jud Review and Nat Pol
Proc, Posner: Econ Analysis of Law, Dworkin: Taking Rights
Seriously, HLA Hart: Concept of Law, Bickle: Least Dangerous
Branch] and not a single one had more than 10 reviews ... it
sure seems like law people spend a lot less time writing
reviews than say math people ... (Baby) Rudin has 73 reviews.
A lot of the std math/phyiscs textbooks have 20-40 reviews.
Oh, Rawls: Theory of Justice has 46 reviews.
\_ psb, why do you specifically single out yale in your
response? out of curiosity, where did you learn all
your legal knowledge?
\- in political science, philosophy, and econ
departments. the one law class i took in
the business school was the worst class i
ever took at berkeley. it was taught by a
visiting prof who was i believe a second
rate practicing attorney who didnt know the
subject well from an academic perspective
and was just dull (e.g. he didnt know and
could not understand anything about "the
economic analysis of law" ... "i dont want
to consider the availabilty of insurance"
"what do you mean about the evolutionary
efficiency of the common law"). has anybody
else had really bad experieinces with a
visiting prof? it was my theory that he
wanted "taught at berkeley" on his resume
and learned on some friend here to get him
a job for the term. when i talked to prof
muir with a number of specific example of
what was wrong with him [like his scantron
exam], muir sighed and i believe indirectly
hinted he'd seen a lot of problems with
visiting people.
\_ Funny. I've been at Yale for the last five years and
know exactly jack shit about legal philosophy. I guess
the osmosis theory of learning doesn't work after all.
I'm pretty sure the engineering undergrads I've TA'd all
also know exactly jack shit about legal philosophy; this
comment is mystifying.
\_ not really. i think he's talking about, say, the
people in the law school. yale's law program has a
reputation for a relatively high focus on theory.
\_ Well, that's even stupider. So if someone is
in law school at some other top-tier school,
they must automatically bow the might of the PSB?
Of course given the near infinite idiocy of the
op's pompous rant, I guess it all cancels out.
\- sigh, it was sort of a jokey-reference to
yale law schools reputation for abstractness.
there is a joke that goes something like:
3 law student friends are waiting to take the
bar exam in boston. the harvard student asks
the umass student "what is the MA law on torts?"
and the yale law student asks the HLS student
"what is a tort?" only after i started meeting
people who went to or were in law school i
learned how "vocational" even good law programs
were. you spend a lot of time on "how to be a
lawyer" rather than thinking about "The Law
and Justice". i.e you dont read a lot of Plato
and Kant. --psb
\_ Why shouldn't it be vocational? I'm
not going to pay someone three
hundred bucks an hour to talk about
Kant.
\- that was not a criticism. it was an
observation. i mean to get at something
like if you start up a conversation
about something like "what do we owe
each other" or what is a rationale for
progressive taxation, a lawyer may little
more to say than say an english major
who has relfected some on a classist
society upon reading Dickens.
\_ If all our lawyers talk about Plato and Kant
from now on there would be no frivilous
lawsuits and our health insurance cost
would come down. Everyone except the
lawyers would be better off.
\-SPARTAN LAWYER!
O xein angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tede
keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi
(Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here obedient to their laws we lie.)
--Simonides in honor of the
Spartans who fell at Thermopylae
\_ I think "theory" is just a code word
for leftist.
\- That applies maybe to something like
"Critical Legal Studies" but a big area
is Law and Economics [sort of the
Chicago approach] so that is not really
true. Plenty of this philosophy is
libertarian in flavor [contract and all
that]. I think Plato is sort of like
Lincoln ... everyone wants a piece of
him. Well except maybe whackos like
racialists.
racialists. --psb |
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