brazenandtenured- The American Road to FascismJust posted this piece on ssrn. Here is the abstract: The U.S. Presidential election of 2016 occurred amidst a disturbingly reminiscent coalescence of patterns — the economic displacement of the working class, the protracted paralysis of the legislative branch, the … Continue reading →brazenandtenured
- Final Exams (Suggested Templates)In light of the recent election and the desire of professors to remain relevant, here are some suggested templates for use in drafting final exams within your department. Economics What does the high-end commercial construction business teach us about … Continue reading →brazenandtenured
- This is Not a Law Review ArticleBy Pierre Schlag * March 31, 2016 Keywords: law review article, absurd, cass sunstein Abstract: This short piece [does not] describe the form, structure and vexations of the law review article qua scholarly artifact. It also [does not] contain Professor … Continue reading →Pierre Schlag
- The Law Review ArticleJust posted on ssrn and bepress: The Law Review Article By Pierre Schlag * March 11, 2016 Keywords: law review article, absurd, cass sunstein, Abstract: This very short piece describes the form, structure and vexations of the law review … Continue reading →brazenandtenured
- American Absurd(Pre-order from Amazon)Pierre Schlag
- Dear Black People, Part TwoNine African Americans—a beloved pastor, a track coach, and a grandmother among them—were murdered by a White racist who, in his own words, hoped to spark a civil war and get his country back. It is obvious that the killer/terrorist … Continue reading →Sarah Krakoff
- Dear Black PeopleDear Black People, I just wanted to write to say I am sorry about Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and the others too numerous too list. About Brown, the process that resulted in a decision not to indict Darren … Continue reading →Sarah Krakoff
- Coase’s Conception of Production Factor Costs (and the Coasean Challenge)Here I want to lay out Coase’s conception of production factor costs as articulated in The Problem of Social Cost. Coase’s conception of production factor costs has very significant implications for what might be called the “Coasean Challenge”–a challenge which in my view has been … Continue reading →Pierre Schlag
- Coase’s Critique of the Neoclassical Model–Coase Minus the Coase TheoremCoase Minus the Coase Theorem, is among other things an attempt to retrieve the meaning of Ronald Coase’s famous article, The Problem of Social Cost, 3 J. L. & Econ. 1 (1960) As I try to show, Coase advanced a … Continue reading →Pierre Schlag
- Earth Day, Dog Whistles, and Zero Sum PoliticsThe Supreme Court’s decision today in Schuette v. Bamn would seem to have little to do with Earth Day. The Court, in a fractured majority decision, upheld Michigan’s voter-enacted ban on race based affirmative action programs in state institutions, including … Continue reading →Sarah Krakoff
- The American Road to Fascism
Category Archives: Experimental
Final Exams (Suggested Templates)
In light of the recent election and the desire of professors to remain relevant, here are some suggested templates for use in drafting final exams within your department. Economics What does the high-end commercial construction business teach us about … Continue reading
This is Not a Law Review Article
By Pierre Schlag * March 31, 2016 Keywords: law review article, absurd, cass sunstein Abstract: This short piece [does not] describe the form, structure and vexations of the law review article qua scholarly artifact. It also [does not] contain Professor … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Random Jurisprudence, Uncategorized
Tagged absurd, jurisprudence, law school, legal academia
Leave a comment
American Absurd
(Pre-order from Amazon)
Posted in Experimental, Nature/Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged absurd, academia, culture, law, politics
1 Comment
Notes in Support of the Liberal Arts Law School
Here are a few ideas for how law schools that are not in the top ten (or not in the fifteen that are in the top ten) might respond to the structural forces bearing down on legal education. For those … Continue reading
Facts (The)
These little items are trouble. Let me state right off that I have not always been on entirely friendly terms with “the facts.” We have had a long and, at times, uneasy relation. Things took a bad turn early. I … Continue reading
Mayan End of the World Canceled (A Brazenandtenured Exclusive)
Apparently, through some rather incredible and oddly parallel set of mistakes, the ending of the world will not happen on December 21st. Instead, it appears the world has already ended on November 10th. The mistake is a moment of some … Continue reading
Book Review (and subtext)
The recent publication of […….] by Professor X marks a moment in the history of […….]. It establishes him as one of the leading, if not the leading, authority on the subject of […….]. Professor X works at Zip Code Law … Continue reading
Posted in BAT Reviews, Experimental, Random Jurisprudence
Tagged decadence, jurisprudence, legal academia, pragmatism
1 Comment
We Built It (Part I Losing It)
We built it. It. We. Not you. Not the government. It belongs to us. It is ours. We work harder than you. You cannot know how hard we work to build our small businesses. (100 to 1500). We work harder than our workers who … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental
3 Comments
Quantitative Tie-Breakers (Theory Moves)
Quantitative Tie-Breakers: [kwon-ti-tey-tiv tahy brey-kers] Noun Phrase The fundamental issue in the final stages of appellate adjudication almost always takes the form, “How can something that is inescapably two or more things at once be only just one thing.” (Apologies to Thomas Reed Powell.) … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Theory Moves
Tagged jurisprudence, law, Teaching Moment, theory moves
Leave a comment
The Monty Python Example No. 3 (Analytical Philosophy in Law)
Too much of it arguably reads like this: In The Concept of Law, H.L.A. Hart once said something. This brilliant insight (BI) effectively corrected some fundamentally wrongheaded ways of thinking. Yet upon closer examination, BI encompasses a number of different ideas … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Random Jurisprudence, The BAT Cave
Tagged absurd, jurisprudence, legal academia, philosophy
1 Comment
Waiting
I have been waiting. In an airport. For my flight. Before that I was waiting in line. For security. For passport control. For baggage drop-off. I have been waiting all morning. In line. My passport and my boarding pass … Continue reading
The Law Review Rejection
Yesterday, I received an email from a top fifteen law review: Dear Professor Schlag, We have carefully considered your article, [Title] Unfortunately, we cannot accept it for publication in the [Name] Law Review. We expect this year to receive well … Continue reading
Sh*t Law Professors Say
Strangely, this popular Youtube concept has not yet resulted in a video about law professors. We are here to fill the void. For those of you not familiar with the genre, here is an example, also produced in our home … Continue reading
The Monty Python Example No. 2 (With Special Reference to Constitutional Interpretation)
As suggested in a prior post, the British comedy troupe Monty Python is generally under-acknowledged for its jurisprudential insights. Nonetheless, these are occasionally quite sharp. Here, for instance, in the “The Argument Clinic:” we have a demonstration of a basic … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Politics, Random Jurisprudence
Tagged constitutional law, interpretation
2 Comments
Gingrich Rising
Some days you just know it’s going to be a really good day: The Sunday Times on the table. Espresso frothing in the kitchen. Sourdough pancakes on the griddle. And Newt Gingrich winning in South Carolina… Could things … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Nature/Culture, Politics
Tagged character, politics, presidential election
3 Comments
Got Knowledge?
In “The Meditations,” Descartes revealed his desire to make a “solid and lasting contribution to knowledge,” His problem, as he saw it, is that he had accumulated a large number of false opinions and thereon erected a flimsy structure. He … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Random Jurisprudence, The BAT Cave
2 Comments
Law School Exam Last Minute Help
Random student (probably law) demonstrating how to study: First, of all, if you are a law student and still reading this post, you are in deep trouble. In fact, you really don’t have time for this and should really go away. If … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, The BAT Cave
Tagged absurd, law school, legal academia, Teaching Moment
Leave a comment
Simula Life
My local bookstore is a pretty good one—as book stores go. It regularly brings in authors (both renowned and good). Its reader recommendations are generally excellent. It purveys only a minimum of kitsch (greeting cards and such). Its shelves are … Continue reading
Law School Faculties and the Enneagram
Finally, the day came when Professor X retired. You and your friends on the faculty attended her goodbye party and smiled and clapped at appropriate moments. But inside, you whooped and hollered and sang a little song, something not quite … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, The BAT Cave
Tagged academia, culture, legal academia, psychology
2 Comments
Law School Hiring (The Faculty Meeting–Appointments)
“O.K. Let’s begin…. We have two agenda items: the promotion of Professor X which we will deal with first and the appointments matter–Frank Wright and Mary Prescott–which we will deal with second. Tony?” “I would just like to say, in … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Random Jurisprudence, The BAT Cave
Tagged aals, absurd, academic appointments, law school hiring
11 Comments
AALS Law School Hiring and Recruitment: How to Get a Job as a French Intellectual (The Interview)
Today, there is a great wealth of advice available to faculty candidates who wish to become law professors. One of the little known avenues for becoming a law professor (much neglected in even the best existing literature) is to get … Continue reading
Religion, Sex and Politics
Aren’t those the three things not to discuss with friends and relatives? Yet all three were on my mind one winter afternoon in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy as I wandered lazily through rooms stuffed with iconic renaissance art. … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Nature/Culture, Politics
Tagged aesthetics, art, politics, religion, time
Leave a comment
Legal Formalism (A Refresher on Form)
O.K. for you law people, this will all be pretty familiar. For you non-law people, this is an acid challenge—a test of your tolerance for excruciatingly picayune legal exegesis. One bit of solace I can offer you is that, conveniently, … Continue reading
My Dinner at Langdell’s
It was one of those cold wet April Cambridge mornings. Too wet for fog, but too indifferent for rain. My head ached. My lips were dry and my tongue felt bloated. The fever had surely come back. Worse–the laudanum was … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Random Jurisprudence, The BAT Cave
Tagged absurd, jurisprudence
Leave a comment
Kandinsky or Hart? Aesthetics. No. 1
Kandinsky or Hart? Pierre Schlag Beta Version 1.0 In 1927, Heisenberg introduced his uncertainty principle. By 1934, Wittgenstein was breaking with his early work. In 1923, Kandinsky was putting the finishing touches on Composition VIII: And in 1958, H.L.A. Hart, … Continue reading
Posted in Experimental, Random Jurisprudence, The BAT Cave
Tagged aesthetics, jurisprudence
3 Comments
