Law Students

One of the great things about U of C professors is that they are not only great legal minds frequently contributing to legal scholarship but they are also interested in and like to comment on the non-law world.  One of the most prolific contributors is Professor Cass Sunstein.  Professor Sunstein is one of the Law School's most popular and long-standing professors and after reading just one of his recent commentaries in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, it's easy to see why.  In his commentary, "The Polarization of Extremes," he posits that the Internet has contributed to the rise in what he calls "enclave extremism," or the tendency of people who fall into niches of like-minded people to gravitate towards a more extreme position than the group's original position.  He argues that although this type of group polarization can have positive results on society -- the civil rights movement, antislavery movement, gender equality -- it can also move people to positions that "lack merit ... [a]nd it is impossible to say whether ...[those positions] will move in a direction that is desirable for society at large, or even for the members of each enclave."  For links to a far more comprehensive (and much more elegant!) discussion peruse his complete commentary and for other musings on the group polarization phenomena in multiple contexts.

Professor Sunstein, like many of our professors, approaches legal issues from multiple perspectives.  Applying psychological, political and sociological schools of thought he has produced some fascinating insights on the way these pieces come together to produce societal believes which in turn shape the law.  This type of interdisciplinary approach is indicative of the unique legal education the Law School offers.  Visit Professor Sunstein's faculty profile for a comprehensive list of his pieces.