Legal Reasoning and Law as a Progressive Force
In Kennedy’s article he is of the opinion that many students enter law school with the belief that they can make a difference, or in fact implement change and that there is a deep belief that law is a progressive force. Kennedy asserts, that this conviction is mainly attributed to first year students ‘the role of service through law, carried out with superb technical competence and also with a deep belief that in its essence law is a progressive force, who enter law school’. Furthermore, he argues that law school is essentially an institution where pedagogical conservatism is enforced and that legal reasoning is essentially based on students conforming to their lecturer’s way of thinking. Kennedy’s
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In addition, he argues that the sine qua non is not designed to invoke thought or discuss views but it is designed to shut down thought, this essentially correlates with Kennedy’s argument of pacification. In my opinion, both authors are correct as law students are taught in such a way that their political view on the subject is immaterial, thus, the law is the law. As a result, students may have to grapple with the concept that their beliefs may have vulnerabilities. Furthermore, through the process of analysing judicial opinion students may even question the validity of their beliefs. As a result, it seems when students begin analysing judgments the concept of legal reasoning is …show more content…
However, he argues that legal skills which are designed to promote legal reasoning are taught in a way that completely mystifies law students. What is more, he asserts that law schools methods of teaching legal reasoning skills are taught badly. He comments that there is three mystifying parts to the process of legal reasoning and they are as follows: rigorous analytical class discussions, teaching of unconnected legal principles and teaching legal skills in isolation from practical experience. I disagree with Kennedy’s argument on the first two points, Firstly, I believe it is important to rigorously tease out issues and analyse case law thoroughly as critically evaluating judgments is a prerequisite when entering the legal profession. As Schlag comments, ‘case law contains many different puzzles that can be interesting to figure out’.
Second, lecturers normally do not teach completely unrelated legal principles when teaching unless it has some bearing on the topic being discussed. As Rabin remarks ‘Law professors, despite our passion for thinking, cannot do the thinking for our students. Nor can we recreate our students in our own images. We can only guide them in their own educational journeys’. Moreover, students need to acquire the ability to disregard relevant and non relevant legal rules and
Kairys, David. "Legal Education As Training For Hierarchy." The Politics of Law: a Progressive Critique. By Duncan Kennedy. New York: Basic, 1998. 54-75. Print.
There are certain standards that the courts use to determine competency. In order to find the accused competent, a court should find out by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant has remarkable ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational indulgence. The def...
The legal Model is the behavior of judges explaining the law while making decisions. Justices tend to make judgments based off past precedent. Judges subscribe to the legal model for public consumption. J...
The School of Law offers engaging classroom instruction across a wide spectrum of courses that appeal to students with disparate interests (University of California Los Angeles. “The UCLA School of Law”). The first-year curriculum focuses on embracing incoming students with a variety of courses that introduces the students to vast range of legal subjects. The course work concentrates on the overview of major common law subjects and constitutional law by providing students more skill-centered experience combined with elements of legal writing and research courses. Crimin...
* The assumption made by the lawyer, and for that matter, by society, that its values and demands are intrinsically a priori valid, are a matter for another interesting research, yet it diverges too much from our point.
One-L, by Scott Turow, outlines the experience of attending Harvard Law School as a first year law-student. Turow weaves his experiences with those around him, and intertwines the professors of Harvard law, as well as their lectures. Initially, Turow enters Harvard law in a bit of disarray and awe. As a world of hornbooks, treatises, law-reviews, group studies, and legal terminology unfold beyond comprehension; Turow is confronted with the task of maintaining sanity. Time appears to be the most important variable, as Turow begins to study for contracts, torts, property, civil procedure, and criminal law; because time is so precious, one key-highlight for law-students is to balance family. Moreover, Turow is part of section-1, and two of his
Both of the objectives have a teaching method that gives jurors no time management and no chance to comprehend the differences. In the court system they have two laws; one is black-letter law, and commonsense justice. Black-letter law is a generally known law plus the most common, and it is what the legislators have endorsed, and it was intertwined through the “common-law cases and appeals decisions.” Black-letter law takes the instructions away from second guesses, and disagreements, and makes a set of clear and precise rules. (Norman J. Finkel, 2000).
LaMorte, Michael. School Law: Cases and Concepts. 4th ed. London: Allyn and Bacon, 1993. Lane, Kenneth, Mary Jane Connelly, Julie Mead, Mark Gooden, and Suzanne Eckes, eds.
McOskar Enterprises, Inc. owns and manages a health and fitness center identified as “Curves for Women”. Tammey J. Anderson, the complainant, joined Curves on April 2, 2003. As part of the joining process Anderson signed a release of liability agreement. This agreement released Curves from any liabilities related to injuries that might be sustained by contributing in any activities or through the use of equipment. The agreement also stated that participants agreed to all risks of death or injury that could occur, Anderson read and signed the agreement of terms with Curves. After completing the liability agreement, Anderson began working out under the observation of a Curves’ trainer using the machines within the facility. During the workout Anderson notified the trainer that she began to feel pain in her neck, shoulder and arm, but finished her workout. She continued to feel the pain when she got home and pursued medical attention. As part of her prescribed medical treatment she was sent for a course a physical therapy. In June 2003 Anderson underwent a cervical discectomy, a procedure used to treat nerve or spinal cord compression. After her procedure Anderson sued Curves, claiming negligent acts during her workout. Anderson v. McOskar Enterprises, Inc., 712 NW 2d 796 (Minn. 2006).
of law has proved to be confusing to both juries and judges due to the
After analyzing the discourse community of law and the detailed process lawyers take in order to write an effective appeals brief, one can see that lawyers have a very specific and unique way of communicating that includes certain jargon unfamiliar and possibly incomprehensible to the general public. Although writing an appeal brief is only one aspect of many that government prosecuting attorneys such as Kenny Elser face in their jobs on a daily basis, it is also a very necessary job because not only is it used by a single discourse community in the law profession but utilized by the discourse community of law as a whole.
Introduction This submission will discuss the problems created by the Doctrine of Judicial Precedent and will attempt to find solutions to them. Whereas, English Law has formed over some 900 years it was not until the middle of the 19th Century that the modern Doctrine was ‘reaffirmed’. London Tramways Co. Ltd V London County Council (1898). Law is open to interpretation, all decisions made since the birth of the English Legal System, have had some form of impact whether it is beneficial or not The term ‘Judicial Precedent’ has at least two meanings, one of which is the process where Judges will follow the decisions of previously decided cases, the other is what is known as an ‘Original Precedent’ that is a case that creates and applies a new rule. Precedents are to be found in Law Reports and are divided up into ‘Binding’ and ‘Persuasive’.
In the discussion of legal philosophy there is the ever occurring question “what is law”, many legal philosophers have attempted to answer such a question but I believe the one philosopher to change the field entirely was John Austin. John Austion was the first modern legal positivist (and possibly founding father) to present a contemporary theory of law. Austin’s main interest in the philosophy of law was differentiating the reality of the law from the normative or moral merit of law. This in sense is a scientific approach because positivism is an empirical approach to philosophy, which extends its use to the scientific method and other fields. None the less, my goal here is not to present an all-out account of Austin, but to present a comprehensive evaluation of legal positivism and present the issues I have found prominent in legal validity, whether it be with Hart, Austin or any other theorist.
Frank A. Easterbrook, ‘Legal Interpretation and the Power of the Judiciary’ [1984] 7 Harv. J.L. Pub. Pol’y 87 http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/hjlpp7&div=18&id=&page= accessed 14 February 2012. J. A. Holland & Julian Webb, Learning Legal Rules, 6th edn, Oxford 2006, pp. 113-117.
Jürgen Habermas focused on law, as the integrative mechanism in modern society and that it has become a central position in society.