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by Professor Alan
Watson
The University of
Georgia School of Law,
Athens, GA, USA
The title tells it all; American legal education is shamefully
bad. Casebooks are endemic, especially in the first year, teaching by
terror. Abridged cases are presented, shorn of context, with little
support law. Students are to find legally appropriate responses, without
being given the law, but professors are provided gratis with
“Teachers’ Manuals,” that provide the acceptable
answers! Tenure is granted mainly on two law review articles. The
acceptable reviews are edited by students who have no expertise, and
articles are almost always bloated, with any insight concealed. The
articles, though, play almost no part in legal education. Much of
importance is omitted from the standard curriculum: sources of law,
relationship of law to society, and factors of legal development. Most
law professors are plumbers, but they wish to be regarded as
philosophers, hence, they are poor plumbers.
The longest chapter is devoted to the gross
inadequacies of three celebrated professors. The aim, though, is to
indicate the profound ignorance of their numerous devoted admirers.
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Professor Alan
Watson signs his book
during the Law
School Authors' Reception
 To
Purchase
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