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
7.
Which one of the following ██████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████
a
The residual influences ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████ ███████████
This doesn’t capture Goodrich’s solution described in the last paragraph. The main point isn’t that the influence of common law can explain certain terminology and subject matter divisions. It’s that Goodrich has a solution for the lack of attention given to common law’s history during the academic study of law.
b
In the academic █████ ██ ██████████████ ███████████ ███████████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ █████████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ███████████████ ██ ██████ ████
This doesn’t capture Goodrich’s solution described in the last paragraph. Also, the author never suggests that theoretical interpretations have conflicted with political interpretations. The author mentions the theoretical and political reasons that the study of law has treated law as a coherent whole. But she never suggests that there’s a conflict between the theoretical and the political.
c
Common law, while █████ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ █ ███████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████
This misdescribes Goodrich’s view. Goodrich
d
Although obviously steeped ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████████
This best captures the main point, which is that Goodrich argues common law
e
Although usually studied ██ █ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████
This doesn’t capture Goodrich’s solution described in the last paragraph. The main point isn’t about the lack of fairness of common law. It’s that Goodrich has a solution for the lack of attention given to common law’s history during the academic study of law.