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
█████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ █ ███████████ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ████ ██ █ ███ ██ ██████ ███
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
12.
The passage states that students ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████
████████ ██ █████
Question Type
Stated
We’re told
a
histories of English ████████
This isn’t mentioned as something students are required to study.
b
episodes of litigation ████ ███ ██████ ████
Supported, because we know students are required to study “medieval cases.” You might not like this because you don’t know that “cases” are “episodes of litigation.” But there’s no better answer. There’s
c
treatises on political ██████████
This isn’t mentioned as something students are required to study.
d
histories of ancient █████ █████████████
This isn’t mentioned as something students are required to study. They are required to interpret Latin maxims, but we don’t know that they’re required to study the history of ancient Roman law.
e
essays on narrative ███████████
This isn’t mentioned as something students are required to study.