Self-study
P1
In England the burden of history weighs heavily on common law, that unwritten code of time-honored laws derived largely from English judicial custom and precedent. ███
Intro to Topic ·
English common law
Unwritten body of law that comes from a long history of jurisprudence.
Common law ·
Rooted in history
Students have to study its history; cannot be understood without understanding cultural and legal history.
P2
Problematic View ·
Academics don't view common law as evolving and rooted in history
Reasons ·
theoretical and political
Theoretical Reason ·
The law is a unified coherent system
At any given moment, the law can be understood as a logical whole, a coherent system. The past matters only in that it represents past states of the system.
Political Reason ·
Believing that the law is logical is required to believe that the law is fair
Even though in truth much jurisprudence is not logical. But that would be too politically demoralizing.
P3
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Alternative View ·
Common law should be studied as a continually developing tradition
Not as a set of rules.
Analogy ·
Common law is like literary text
To study common law historically means to pay attention to fiction, perception, and memory. Tradition also means rewriting and adapting to contemporary circumstances.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
11.
Which one of the following ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
concerned with the ████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ █ ██████████
We have no reason to think “political” is connected to advancement in a profession. Nothing in the end of P2 relates to one’s career or professional advancement.
b
concerned with the ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████ █████ █████
We have no reason to think “political” is connected to unethical methods of the government. Nothing in the end of P2 relates to the unethical government methods.
c
having to do ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ███ █████████
As described in the end of P2, “political” relates to the prestige and perceived fairness of the legal institution. The ethical standards between professionals and nonprofessionals is a separate issue. Ethical standards relate to things like fraud, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, etc. Ethical standards are about how professionals treat the public. But “political” in context involves the relationship between the legal institution and the public, not between individual professionals (such as lawyers) and the public.
d
having to do ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████████
This best captures the meaning of “political” as shown by the discussion at
e
having to do ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████
The discussion at the end of P2 doesn’t involve the way law is seen by “radical theorists.” It does involve the way law is seen by the public; but we have no reason to think the perception of “radical theorists” is relevant to the meaning of “political.”