Law Commons^™

Is, Ought, And The Limited Competence Of Experts, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

The moral innovators whom C. S. Lewis criticized in The Abolition of Man supposed that they could draw imperatives out of their superior understanding of sentiment and instinct. They assumed that to know what human beings want to do is to know what human beings should do. But people want to do all sorts of things that are irrational, pointless, harmful, and even downright evil. And people want inconsistent things. So the innovators are incoherent. As Lewis correctly affirmed, no amount of knowledge about nature or the world is sufficient by itself to direct us to do what is good …

Appellate Law In The New Millennium: Bridging Theoretical Foundation With Practical Application, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

For the appellate lawyer, bridging the gap between theoretical foundation and practical application is an important challenge. An attorney who is unable to bring these two notions together is only partially effective as an advocate. Without a firm theoretical foundation that embraces both the law and policy that underlie the lawyer’s argument, the substance of the appellate advocate’s position will not persuade the court effectively. Similarly, without having mastered the practical side of appellate advocacy, the lawyer will be ineffective in communicating the substance of the argument altogether.

This Symposium provides the appellate specialist and non-appellate attorney alike with a …

From Righteousness To Beauty: Reflections On Poethics And Justice As Translation, Emily A. Hartigan

Faculty Articles

Both Richard Weisberg and James Boyd White are eminent figures in the academic field of law and literature. As lines between philosophy and literature blur, the stance of “judgment” becomes more like a reflective aesthetic evaluation than a critique through formal logic. Law is, as Weisberg and White agree, more art than science. Yet, for all their contributions to the study of law, including their ostensibly shared realm of mediation, the two create a combative, hierarchic tone of discourse by the near-total exclusion of women from their texts.

Law as conversation is not primarily war through or with words. Rather, …