Monday, April 26, 2010
Jeff Lipshaw Has a Question for You
Over at the Legal Profession Blog, Jeff Lipshaw has a post in which he asks the non-musical question, "Can a discussion of contract theory up front allay the usual first-year angst about consideration (and everything else)?"
Having read Jeff's discussion, my answer to his question would be as follows: I doubt it, but there might be other reasons to set out one's theoretical approach to contracts law in advance. I ask my students to read my casebook's theoretical introduction, which covers Socratic teaching and the case method, formalism, realism and all that jazz, giving a critical perspective on each. I do it, not in the expectation that students will get much out of the assignment on the first reading, but it contains material to which I can refer back throughout the semester.
My own preference is to reveal my own theoretical perspectives piecemeal, when they seem relevant to particular subjects that come up throughout the course. But I am also often cautious to present such perspectives, whether or not they are my own, as possible perspectives one might have on contracts law and contracts theory. Because law students are so often attempting to get the "right answer" in their notes, I try to present them with possible answers and perspectives so that they are not tempted to confuse the "right answer" with my opinion. I want them to be formulating their own approaches to the material and to give them as many perspectives as possible. I prefer to offer theoretical approaches to them in digestible chunks, over the course of the semester, so that they can wrestle with it on their own.
It is far easier for me to adopt such an approach than it might be for Jeff because I have the advantage of not having developed a systematic approach to contracts theory. A slipshod eclecticism is the hobgoblin of my little mind.
[Jeremy Telman]
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2010/04/jeff-lipshaw-has-a-question-for-you.html