… and that enemy is Roscoe Pound. No, seriously. Roscoe Pound. Check it out starting the 0:50 mark:
Archive | Academia
Writing Well Matters, Even in Academia
A while back, a prominent law review asked me to review a book on a topic of interest to me. I readily agreed, on condition that the review be relatively short. When it came time to sit down and read the book, however, I found it extremely difficult to understand; the book was loaded with […]
What’s Wrong With the AALS?
Brian Leiter has had a series of interesting posts on the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), focusing on why the AALS charges such high fees for its academic conferences: 1. AALS Annual Meeting Registration Fee Is Not (ahem) “Popular” 2. So would reducing the high AALS Annual Meeting registration fees affect attendance? 3. More […]
Judgment Calls in Grading Law School Exams: One Professor’s Perspective
I’ve blogged before about how law professors grade exams, and I wanted to blog some more about some of the difficult judgment calls professors have to make when grading. Exams that get everything right or do everything wrong are easy to grade. But they are also very rare. Most exams do a mix of things […]
Declining African American/Mexican American Matriculations to Law School?
A few days back, while I was away at the Federalist Society Faculty Division conference in New Orleans, Orin linked to a study out of Columbia’s “SALT” that reported declines in the percentage of African Americans and Mexican Americans matriculating in American law schools since 1993. Orin tentatively attributed this decline to law schools becoming […]
Declining Minority Enrollment Percentage at U.S. Law Schools, 1993-2008
This study reports that between 1993 and 2008, there was a 7.5% decrease in the proportion of African Americans enrolled in U.S. law schools. The study also reports a 11.7% decrease in the proportion of Mexican Americans during the same period. (Hat tip: Brian Leiter) I would guess the increasing importance of the U.S. News […]
Economists as Cheapskates? Law Professors as Conference Seekers of Golf and Surfing?
The Wall Street Journal has an entertaining article on the front page (Justin Lahart, Jan. 2, 2010), recounting tales of economists as hard bargainers and, well, cheapskates. The article opens noting that the annual professional meetings occur the week after New Year, when hotel costs are generally low, and this year are taking place in […]
More ABA Mischief?
Taxprof notes: The Standards Review Committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has proposed revising accreditation standard chapter 3 (Program of Legal Education) to incorporate “Student Learning Outcomes.” The committee will discuss the proposed standards as part of the AALS Annual Meeting Program on Friday January 8, 2010, from 4:00 p.m. – […]
In Defense of Supreme Court Law Clerk Polarization
Adam Liptak’s New York Times article on Supreme Court law clerks suggests that there is something troubling about the fact that the career paths of conservative and liberal Supreme Court justices’ clerks have diverged over the last 20 years. Liptak is a knowledgeable and generally fair-minded legal reporter. In this case, however, I think he […]
Career Polarization Among Former Supreme Court Law Clerks
Adam Liptak has a Sidebar column in the New York Times about a new article in the Vanderbilt Law Review on the career paths of former Supreme Court clerks. The article is The Liberal Tradition of the Supreme Court Clerkship: Its Rise, Fall, and Reincarnation, by William E. Nelson, Harvey Rishikof, I. Scott Messinger, and […]
Boycotting Yoo
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the National Lawyers Guild and several Berkeley student organizations are pressuring a state government attorney to drop plans to co-teach a class on “Constitutional Design and the California Constitution” with former OLC attorney John Yoo. “By instructing a class with Mr. Yoo, you are helping to legitimize his illegal and […]
B+
I am delighted to say that President Obama has supplied me with what to say to students coming to complain about receiving a B+ in my classes – a semi-regular occurrence, in these days of grade inflation. (I have a sneaky feeling that my student evaluations are going to take a nosedive this term, having […]
Revkin from NYT to Pace
Pace University announced this morning that New York Times science and environment correspondent Andrew Revkin will be leaving the paper to become a “Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding” at the University’s Academy for Applied Environmental Studies.
Michael Mann Should Not Be Investigated by Penn State
By Jim Lindgren on December 15, 2009 12:25 am in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
According to press reports, Penn State University is conducting an inquiry to determine whether it should institute a formal ethical investigation of Michael Mann, the Penn State professor who was the lead author of the paper that invented the “Hockey Stick.” At issue are CRU emails and his role in ClimateGate. Frankly, I am not […]
Suing to Get More Time on Exams
This is a month old, but still interesting: A learning-disabled freshman suing Princeton University for refusing to allow her extra time to take exams was dealt a setback this week, as a federal judge refused a temporary restraining order on the eve of midterms. But plaintiff Diane Metcalf-Leggette still has a shot at getting a […]