Behind closed doors this past Thursday, the faculty of Harvard Law School voted to majorly reform the first-year curriculum, a curriculum begun in the 1870s by HLS dean Christopher Columbus Langdell and that has been in place for over a century in damn near every U.S. law school. The way it was was Contracts, […]

Ignorantia juris non excusat, or “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” is according to one waggish law professor “almost the only knowledge of law possessed by many people.” This doctrine, which helps the justice system avoid having to make the preposterous presumption that everyone knows the law, is more than a little misleading. […]

All things went as planned, and I spent this past week in Boise, Idaho, getting inducted into what the Supreme Court of the United States has called “a broad monopoly . . . to do things other citizens may not lawfully do.” That is, I received a license to practice law in the state […]