Law in America
A Short History
Introduction
At my university (Stanford) I teach a course to undergraduates called
Introduction to American Law. On my way to class, on the first day-the class
usually meets at nine o'clock, and it is a tough assignment to keep the students
awake-I buy a copy of the Chronicle, the morning newspaper from San Francisco.
When I begin the class, after the first few announcements and the like, I wave
the paper in front of the class, and read some of the headlines. The point I
want to get across to the students is that every domestic story in the front
part of the newspaper, before you get to the recipes and the comics and the
sports pages, has a legal angle-has some connection with the legal system. Of
course, I have no control over the newspaper, but the trick never fails. Almost
invariably, every story about public life in the United States, or private life
interesting enough to get into the newspaper, will mention a law, a legal
proposal, a bill in Congress or in the state legislature, or something a judge,
a policeman, a court, a lawyer has done or said; or some statem ... read full excerpt from: Law in America ebook
