Legal History Commons^™

'Simple' Takes On The Supreme Court, Robert Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This essay assesses black literature as a medium for working out popular understandings of America’s Constitution and laws. Starting in the 1940s, Langston Hughes’s fictional character, Jesse B. Semple, began appearing in the prominent black newspaper, the Chicago Defender. The figure affectionately known as “Simple” was undereducated, unsophisticated, and plain spoken - certainly to a fault according to prevailing standards of civility, race relations, and professional attainment. Butthese very traits, along with a gritty experience under Jim Crow, made him not only a sympathetic figure but also an armchair legal theorist. In a series of barroom conversations, Simple ably critiqued …

Teaching American Legal History Through Storytelling, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

Distinct from facts and truths, the power of storytelling can serve as a method of teaching American Legal History. A course in American Legal History can facilitate discussion into whether the rule of law has been the rule or exception in the history of American law. Integral to this overarching story are three storylines that surface throughout the course: the development of law in American political history; the ideological underpinnings of legal doctrine development; and the rise and decline of different approaches to legal thought and their effect on legal education.

The course begins with a chronological overview of the …

Micro-Symposium On Orin Kerr's 'A Theory Of Law', Laura Appleman, Shawn Bayern, Adam D. Chandler, Robert Cheren, Miriam A. Cherry, Ross E. Davies, Lee Anne Fennell, Paul A. Gowder, Caitlin Hartsell, Kieran Healy, Robert A. James, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Orin S. Kerr, Jacob T. Levy, Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Orly Lobel, Geoffrey A. Manne, Chad M. Oldfather, Ronak Patel, Jeffrey A. Pojanowski, Alexandra J. Roberts, Kent Scheidegger, Arthur Stock, Anders Walker

All Faculty Scholarship

For more than a century, careful readers of the Green Bag have known that “[t]here is nothing sacred in a theory of law...which has outlived its usefulness or which was radically wrong from the beginning...The question is What is the law and what is the true public policy?” Professor Orin Kerr bravely, creatively, and eloquently answered that question in his article, “A Theory of Law,” in the Autumn 2012 issue of the Green Bag. Uniquely among all theories of law that I know of, Kerr’s answer to the fundamental question of law and true public policy enables all scholars to …

In Defense Of Scholars' Briefs: A Response To Richard Fallon, Amanda Frost

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

In a thoughtful and provocative essay, Richard Fallon criticizes law professors for lightly signing onto 'scholars’ briefs,' that is, amicus briefs filed on behalf of a group of law professors claiming expertise in the subject area. Fallon argues that law professors are constrained by the moral and ethical obligations of their profession from joining scholars’ briefs without first satisfying standards similar to those governing the production of scholarship, and thus he believes that law professors should abstain from adding their names to such briefs more often than they do now.

This response begins by describing the benefits of scholars’ briefs …