Blackstone's Tower: The English Law School - College of Social ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The Quest For a Core texts of their creation, articulation, operation and so on; any account of such rule-handling activities has to include extraneous factors (which may include other rules, but is not confined to them). What other factors are relevant or significant, what is "enough", or what appropriately counts as context typically depends on the specific purpose and context of a particular study or other activity. The maxim "the study of rules alone is not enough", itself a rule-of-thumb, far from denying the importance of rules, assumes that they are in some sense central. 77 Secondly, there are many varieties of "rule-scepticism". The term is sometimes applied to those who emphasise the elusiveness or ambiguity of rules or the many other conditions of doubt that give rise to difficulties in their interpretation and application. Legal pluralism, which emphasises the co-existence of different "rulesystems", is sceptical of "monist" theories which try to integrate all legal (or other) rules within a single, internally consistent, system. These are examples of scepticism about certain claims about law, but they involve no necessary commitment to strong scepticism, such as the idea that all talk of rules is illusory or meaningless. 78 Most alleged "rule-sceptics" in jurisprudence, including most realists and critical legal scholars, have tended to distance themselves from strong versions of scepticism or nihilism. 79 However, even the possibility of strong rule-scepticism can be accommodated within the idea of law as a normative discipline, just as moral scepticism or strong relativism can be treated as part of ethics—a challenge to basic assumptions about the enterprise as a whole. 80 To say that rules, in a broad sense, are a central focus of any meaningful study of law may be correct, but on its own it is not much more informative than the claim that problem-solving is central to legal practice. Law is by no means unique in having rules as a central focus; ethics, logic and linguistics could make similar, though not identical, claims. Furthermore, one fruitful way of looking at rules or norms is as responses to problems. 81 From this perspective, rules are prescriptions and in law, as in medicine, it is generally sensible for diagnosis to precede prescription. 82 Rules may be necessary and central to the study of law, but in many contexts they are not a good starting-point for analysis. Moreover, what constitutes a "problem" is relative to standpoint, depending on the vantage-point, role, values and purposes of the person(s) for whom something is problematic, whether they be participant or observer or in-between. On 176
The Quest For a Core this analysis, conceiving of law in terms of rules or norms leads directly back to the idea of problem-solving, which we have seen is itself both problematic and open-ended. In the first chapter, I adopted Karl Llewellyn's law-jobs theory as a useful framework for considering the subject-matter of the study of law from a broad point of view. The legal records project illustrated how this theory can be illuminating and useful for a specific purpose. The law-jobs theory conceives of law (or law-government) as an institution specialised to meeting certain problems or needs. It treats rules as only one aspect of institutions. 83 In my view, the law jobs theory deserves to be refined and used more than it has been to date, not least because it offers one way of providing a broad and flexible framework for legal studies. But it is only one from our rich stock of theories and it comes from a particular sociological tradition, functionalism, which has its own limitations and which is highly controversial. 64 The pluralism of our stock of theories confirms that we may have to accept, and I would suggest, welcome a corresponding pluralism in our intellectual enterprises. The question remains: what, if anything, is there that is unique or special that the institutionalised discipline of law as we know it can add to our understanding of social life or to human knowledge in general? That is the subject of the next section. LENSES OF THE LAW The crew was complete: it included a Boots — A maker of Bonnets and Hoods — A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes — And a Broker, to value their goods. A Billiard-marker, whose skill was immense, Might perhaps have won more than his share — But a Banker, engaged at enormous expense, Had the whole of their cash in his care. 85 When Lewis Carroll was asked why all the members of his crew for hunting the Snark had occupations beginning with B, he replied: "Why not?" 86 When pressed about the meaning of the Hunting or what a Snark is, he regularly said that he did not know. 87 177
Page 1:
THE HAMLYN LECTURES BLACKSTONE'S
Page 4 and 5:
AUSTRALIA The Law Book Company Bris
Page 6 and 7:
Published in 1994 by Stevens & Sons
Page 9:
TABLE OF CONTENTS The Hamlyn Lectur
Page 12 and 13:
The Hamlyn Lectures 1962 Lawyer and
Page 15 and 16:
The Hamlyn Trust The Hamlyn Trust o
Page 17 and 18:
ABBREVIATIONS (a) The following abb
Page 19:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the course of th
Page 22 and 23:
Preface There is an irony in arguin
Page 24 and 25:
Preface Henry James' caretaker I wo
Page 26 and 27:
Law in Culture and Society tures an
Page 28 and 29:
Law in Culture and Society The Engl
Page 30 and 31:
Law in Culture and Society by the I
Page 32 and 33:
Law in Culture and Society narrow d
Page 34 and 35:
Law in Culture and Society teric. T
Page 36 and 37:
Law in Culture and Society have bio
Page 38 and 39:
Law in Culture and Society lectivel
Page 40 and 41:
Law in Culture and Society Snell on
Page 42 and 43:
Law in Culture and Society cesses a
Page 44 and 45:
Law in Culture and Society ated int
Page 46 and 47:
Law in Culture and Society 3 Comm.
Page 48 and 49:
Law in the Universities: The Histor
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
What are Law Schools for? distracti
Page 76 and 77:
What are Law Schools for? view of e
Page 78 and 79:
What are Law Schools for? and prest
Page 80 and 81:
What are Law Schools for? of legal
Page 82 and 83:
What are Law Schools for? continue
Page 84 and 85:
What are Law Schools for? 91. While
Page 86 and 87:
What are Law Schools for? ibid. Cha
Page 88 and 89:
4. Law School Culture: A Visit to R
Page 90 and 91:
Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutl
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
The Law Library is credited with re
Page 118 and 119:
The Law Library A guide to the Bodl
Page 120 and 121:
The Law Library cular obviously req
Page 122 and 123:
The Law Library in a book entitled
Page 124 and 125:
The Law Library "A case is the writ
Page 126 and 127:
The Law Library have long troubled
Page 128 and 129:
The Law Library are really primary.
Page 130 and 131:
The Law Library "Is it not in the n
Page 132 and 133:
The Law Library women and minoritie
Page 134 and 135:
The Law Library British Isles. Ther
Page 136 and 137:
The Law Library dence, Legal Histor
Page 138 and 139:
The Law Library written by practiti
Page 140 and 141:
The Law Library tioners' works, alt
Page 142 and 143:
The Law Library information and ful
Page 144 and 145:
The Law Library 28 S. Chibnall, Law
Page 146 and 147:
The Law Library which see the Prefa
Page 148 and 149:
Legal Scholarship and the Roles of
Page 150 and 151: Legal Scholarship and the Roles of
Page 178 and 179: The Quest For a Core somewhat diffe
Page 180 and 181: The Quest For a Core of the law, as
Page 182 and 183: The Quest For a Core content, it fo
Page 184 and 185: The Quest For a Core "Of course, la
Page 186 and 187: The Quest For a Core ive either ref
Page 188 and 189: The Quest For a Core worth remarkin
Page 190 and 191: The Quest For a Core In the late 19
Page 192 and 193: The Quest For a Core the vocational
Page 194 and 195: The Quest For a Core was essential
Page 196 and 197: The Quest For a Core riers" between
Page 198 and 199: The Quest For a Core new skills ort
Page 202 and 203: The Quest For a Core If I am asked
Page 204 and 205: The Quest For a Core Within the leg
Page 206 and 207: The Quest For a Core For example, w
Page 208 and 209: The Quest For a Core is a further a
Page 210 and 211: The Quest For a Core exposition of
Page 212 and 213: The Quest For a Core what and know-
Page 214 and 215: EPILOGUE Roland Barthes' marvellous
Page 216 and 217: Epilogue two reference groups who h
Page 218 and 219: Epilogue lent—tend to be excluded
Page 220 and 221: Epilogue Diversification might help
Page 222 and 223: Epilogue graduates will in future h
Page 225 and 226: APPENDIX English Law Teachers as Ac
Page 227 and 228: Appendix In respect of background,
Page 229 and 230: Appendix 65% of the rest. I have ma
Page 231 and 232: INDEX Academic ethic, the, 49-51, 5
Page 233 and 234: Index Kahn-Freund, Sir Otto, 105-10
Page 244: Blackstone's Tower: The English Law
show all

Blackstone's Tower: The English Law School - College of Social ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?