HARVARD LEGAL THEORY FORUM

The Legal Theory Reading Group will meet on Tuesday at 7:30 (note the change from the Wednesday meeting time) in Hauser 103.

We will discuss Brian Leiter on “Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered,” 111 Ethics 278 (2001), http://www.journals.uchicago.edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/233474, which argues that while legal positivism is a theory of law, legal realism is a theory of adjudication. Conceptually, then, there is no conflict between the two theories. At the empirical level, there is a genuine disagreement between the two theories, but positivism has no good arguments against the realist empirical account. (24 journal pages).

The Legal Theory Reading Group will meet on Wednesday, October 14, at 7:30 PM in Lewis Room 301. We will discuss Muneer A. Malik’s article, “Not Motivated by Politics” in Dawn, and Mort Horwitz’s book review, “The Rule of Law: An Unqualified Human Good,” 86 Yale L.J. 561 (1977). Both articles are short–the Malik piece is a long op-ed and the Horwitz book review is 6 pages. A reading for the next meeting of the reading group will be selected at this meeting.

The Legal Theory Reading Group will meet for the first time this semester on Wednesday, September 30, at 7:30 PM in the Lewis International Law Center, Room 301.  We will discuss Duncan Kennedy’s article on “Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy,” 32 J. Legal Educ. 591 (1982), available at Duncan Kennedy’s website; (and if you prefer to read it in French or Spanish, translations are available here). All are welcome, and we expect the discussion to last approximately 90 minutes.  A reading for the next meeting of the reading group will be selected at this meeting.

The Georgetown Law Journal has recently published an interesting article by Pierre Schlag, “Spam Jurisprudence, Air Law, and the Rank Anxiety of Nothing Happening (A Report on the State of the Art)” (along with some short responses by Daniel Ortiz, Richard Posner, Richard Weisberg, and Robin West). We’ll discuss Schlag’s essay this Wednesday, April 1, at 7:15 PM in Pound 203. The Schlag essay (and the response pieces) are available at: http://www.georgetownlawjournal.com/issues/display/?volume=97&issue=3

Thanks to everyone who came to the reading group meeting last week; we had a great discussion on Kennedys article. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 4, at 7 PM in Pound 203. We’ll discuss Catherine MacKinnons article, Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory, 7 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 515 (1982). The article is available in the Fisher and Kennedy volume or in JSTOR (Harvard ID required). It is much shorter than the Duncan Kennedy article.

We’ll plan on scheduling Legal Theory Reading Group meetings every other week for the remainder of the semester, probably on Wednesdays (on March 4, March 18, April 1, April 15, and April 29) unless anyone objects.