I'm happy that my newest law article, titled "Listserv Lawyering": Definition and Exploration of Its Utility in the Representation of Consumer Debtors in Bankruptcy and in Law Practice Generally, has been accepted for publication in Vol. 11 of St. Mary’s Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics.
On this blog I will post some of my publications and writings together with occasional comments on topics of legal history and, to a lesser extent, current events.
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"Do not rely on law review articles that make [a historical] assertion"
"If you're making a claim about history . . . you should read, quote, and cite a work in that discipline. Do not rely on law review articles that make this assertion. . . . People who write law review articles are usually not experts in history . . . . Some are quite knowledgeable in th[at] field, but some have learned just enough to be dangerous. . . . And you particularly should not rely on secondary sources outside the underlying discipline, such as law review articles that cite history books; there the risk of error is too high."
-Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing at 137 (3d ed. 2007).
-Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing at 137 (3d ed. 2007).
I'm writing history, and this explanation of the process struck me as apropos
"[N]o historian can ignore the most personal of relationships between historians and the past, the one formed during the writing process. . . . historians must prove that they possess the skills that define their position. Writing is the ultimate demonstration, which also makes it the standard by which to measure scholarly success or failure. . . . Historical writing . . . should be the conversation between past and present through which meaning is revealed. This approach necessitates a different relationship both to the past and to our work as writers. In terms of our relationship to the past, it is more about humility than mastery; in terms of our work as writers, it is more an ongoing exchange than a defined task with a clear end point. . . . At the very moment when we commit the past to paper, it changes, because the moment in which we wrote has passed. But that does not make historical writing a futile endeavor. Good scholarship inspires more good scholarship from others as well as ourselves. The most successful historians are those who grow as a result of this conversation and who encourage others to participate."
-Laura F. Edwards, Writing Between the Past and the Present, 49 Perspectives on History No. 1 (Jan. 2011)
-Laura F. Edwards, Writing Between the Past and the Present, 49 Perspectives on History No. 1 (Jan. 2011)
..."avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body"...
I am indebted to my friend Richard B. Bernstein, the well published legal historian who is a superb teacher as well (he is Lecturer in Law and Political Science, Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of New York and Political Science Department Advisor; Legal Studies Minor Advisor; and Pre-Law Advisor, CCNY), for this story that Benjamin Franklin told Thomas Jefferson:
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"I have made it a rule, whenever in my power, to avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journey man printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed hatter, having served out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first concern was to have a handsome sign-board, with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words: John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money, with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word hatter tautologous, because followed by the words makes hats, which showed he was a hatter. It was struck out.The next observed that the word makes might as well be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the hats; if good and to their mind they would buy, by whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third said he thought the words for ready money were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit. Every one who purchased expected to pay. They were parted with, and the inscription now stood, John Thompson sells hats. 'Sells hats?' says his next friend; 'why, nobody will expect you to give them away. What, then, is the use of that word?' It was stricken out, and hats followed, the rather as there was one painted on the board. So his inscription was ultimately reduced to John Thompson, with the figure of a hat subjoined."
Causation "in this Gordian-knot world of ours"
"This study examines the causal essence of calamity, peeling back the layers of obfuscation to find out not so much what but who is most often responsible for the destruction caused by tornadoes and other "natural" disasters. In undertaking such a venture, I run the risk of perpetuating a sharp division between nature (the what) and culture (the who). Of course, no such simple dichotomy exists in this Gordian-knot world of ours. And in any case, trying to disentangle the natural from the cultural is not my main concern here. Instead, I'm more interested in how drawing a distinction between us and it and blaming the latter—nature—for calamity has become a tool used to advance various political interests in society."
Ted Steinberg, Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America (OUP 2000), Preface.
Ted Steinberg, Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America (OUP 2000), Preface.