Legal Commentary

The best kind of law professor to be is an American law professor.

You may find my saying this to be virtuous (patriotic, dignified, expressing of contentment and mudita) or reproachable (jingoistic, elitist, narcissistic).

But that?s my thesis of the day. So here?s my argument:

First off, the best place to be a law professor has got to be a common-law jurisdiction, as opposed to a civil-law country. Now, it is a completely different inquiry as to whether a civil-law or common-law system is best for a society. But in my mind, there?s no contest that it is a boon to teaching and writing for law professors to be in a common-law jurisdiction. The common law has a richness, depth, and capacity for evolution that is delicious. To effect change, arguments made in court and in law reviews need only find fertile ground in the thoughts of judges. Meritocracy triumphs. Where significant change in the law requires legislative process, politics, and lobbying, hope of making a real contribution becomes much slimmer. The common-law system elevates not only the place of law professors, but all lawyers. So not only is our scholarship more important, but our teaching is as well. And besides, if you want what a civil-law system has to offer, there?s always Louisiana.

Second, of the common-law jurisdictions, the United States has got to be the best. We have more law, for one thing. Count it up: 50 states and a sprawling federal system. That?s a lot to sink your teeth into. And while England has a very rich history and its own fascinating complexities, it will never rival America as a place to be a law professor so long as the regular education for lawyers is an undergraduate degree, the LL.B. In the United States, our system of requiring a bachelor?s degree as pre-requisite to law school, and then granting a doctorate as a general requirement for practice, elevates the place of both lawyers and law professors. Moreover, lawyers in the U.S. seem to enjoy a status that solicitors in the U.K. do not. I?m sure Australia and Canada are great places to be a law professor, but we?ve got them beat by an order of magnitude for sheer weight.

Maybe next week I will explain why the best kind of professor to be is a law professor.