Law and Contemporary Society

Course is available only to 1L students.
Three short papers in lieu of final exam.
No writing credit.

What is creative thinking in law? How can we think creatively in law school, thereby doing better in learning law and enjoying learning more? How can we think creatively about our future practices, thereby hoping to live better and do more good for society than the last generation? Law school should be about these questions. It isn't. This course is.

Using a variety of analytic and literary sources to spark discussion, this offering presents a framework for intellectual self-development: how to identify opportunities for creative thinking, during law school and in the formation of your career; how to build creatively on the social capital afforded or facilitated by law school; how to avoid the pressures that have driven so many young lawyers into work they didn't like and that did no good in their society. By writing and rewriting, as well as reading and talking together, we try to replace learned helplessness with determination, lesser-evils choices with realistic plans. If you want to be a lawyer with a law practice, not an office worker with a boss you can one day aspire to turn into, this is a conversation you would regret missing.

The website for this course can be found at: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/wiki/LawContempSoc/ProspectusForProspectives
The evaluation policy for this course can be found at http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/wiki/Main/EvaluationPolicy