/lit/ - Literature

>>7230620
Check out the current thread on political philosophy. My research and areas of study are largely at the intersection of Law, Politics, and Society. I'd also ask what sort of topics/views interest you personally.

>>7230632
civil and criminal

>implying modern lawyers know anything about the history of jurisprudence
>implying modern jurists know anything other than their mechanical bureaucratic functions

>>7230670
>implying that it wouldn't hurt them to know anything more
>implying they shouldn't have views on history as well as grand philosophical and normative questions
>implying

>>7230647
What Country are you from OP? There are definitely a lot of texts that are very informative throughout the legal profession in general but I would steer you in certain directions depending if you are studying Common Law, Civil Law, or Sharia/Islamic Law.

>>7230703
USA

>>7230712
Shell out the money for a good College textbook on Constitutional Law. Realise you also have to be somewhat of an ad hoc Historian as well. I'd really just read through Supreme Court decisions. Once you decide your own legal views and framework then you can either pick Justices that hold similar viewpoints and study their style and opinions or pick those who disagree with you and dissect and challenge their opinions.

Lawyer here. I read "The Nine" by Toobin, and it was enjoyable and enlightening. Go read stuff by Learned Hand or Posner. As mentioned, a con law book (not a textbook) will do a lot, too.

Whoever posted this >>7230670 is totally correct about lawyers nowadays though.

>>7230775
Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook are both interesting Judges that have writing that is largely acceptable to the academic community. In this instance I'd argue also that it would help to seek and express your own thoughts about law in general. I'm not sure how helpful Toobin is. He seems like a good general interest author who does a lot of popular commentary work. Another author that comes to mind is Edwin Chermisky.

H.L.A Heart. Ronald Dworkin. Richard Epstein. Voklah Conspiracy.

>>7230670
>implying modern lawyers know anything about the history of jurisprudence
In literally the first semester of the first year of law school, we had two different historical courses, one for Roman Law, and one for general history of law. Both were required courses.

>>7230812
Which lawschool do you attend?

>>7230918
I don't anymore. I dropped out halfway through (on 3rd year out of 5) when I got a decently paid job.
But it was a local university in a post-communist European country, not a particularly noteworthy one.

Here's a guide to legal philosophy from an earlier thread, if you're interested

>>7231100
Can I get an expansion of the Critical Legal Studies? Anything more like this would be very helpful and a nice jumping off point.

>>7230670
Perhaps it depends on where you are studying?
I'm at the University of Cape Town and the compulsory courses included Roman-Dutch law, Foundations of South African law, Jurisprudence, Jurisprudence in South African law and Constitutional law.

I posted a thread earlier but nothing came of it.
Honestly, jurisprudence has been the most intellectually stimulating of my law courses.
Have a look at the positivists, criticisms of them and the naturalists (of course).

General:
Brian Bix 'Natural Law: The Modern Tradition' from The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy and Law.

Legal Positivism recommended readings:
John Austin "The Province of Jurisprudence Determined"
HLA Hart " THe Concept of Law
Kelsen "Pure Theory of Law"
Raz " Authority, Law and Morality"

Addressing criticisms:
John Finnis 'On the Incoherence of Legal Positivism'
John Finnis 'The Truth in Legal Positivism'

Natural Law:
Neil MacCormick 'Natural Law and the Separation of Law and Morals'
Dworkin 'What is Law?' from 'Jurisprudence Revisited'.

I hope these help.

>>7231240
Thanks. Do you have any more advice in guiding a budding mind through this course of study?

>>7230620
lawyer here. there aren't any. laws are documents that you interpret by reading them. there really is no theory behind it besides the knowledge of the english language. anyone who talks philosophically about the law is scamming you.
>>7231240
>>7231100
these books belong in the fire. "natural law" is just feelings.

>>7231574
Just a few things I picked up along the way:

1) Procedural courses are always easier than they first appear.
2) Papers on Constitutional law and Administrative law are about as close to the humanities level of "just write as much as you can to show you know something" as it gets.
3) Try get some work shadowing under your belt fairly early on.

Other than that, it's not particularly hard. Law requires a lot of work and "cramming". Good luck anon!

>>7231025
Serbia or Croatia frende?