Legal Philosophy
The University of Wisconsin Law School is known for its "law in action" legal philosophy. This philosophy proposes that to truly understand the law, students must not only know the "law on the books," but also study how the law is actually practiced by professionals. The law school's classroom discussions, involvement with other campus departments, scholarship, and clinicals all emphasize the interplay between law and society.
Within the law school community, some professors emphasize law-in-action more than others. One trusts and estates professor, for instance, devotes a portion of every lecture to the law in action concept. Other classes have their overall structure designed to emphasize law-in-action, for example, starting a contracts course with the concept of remedies rather than formation of contract, or starting a criminal law course with sentencing. Still, some law professors at the University either never mention the theory, or do so only to gently lampoon its touchstone status.
Read more about this topic: University Of Wisconsin Law School
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or philosophy:
“We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.”
—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)
“I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk and leaves; but I shall perhaps be enabled to speak with more precision and authority by and by,—if philosophy and sentiment are not buried under a multitude of details.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)