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April 30, 2014
"Legal Realisms, Old and New"
This was the 2012 Seegers Lecture in Jurisprudence at Valparaiso, now on-line courtesy of their Law Review.
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 30, 2014 in Jurisprudence | Permalink
I don't get to agree with Justice Alito that often...
...but I can happily agree with this observation (from this profile):
The U.S. News and World Report rankings of law schools are an abomination. The legal profession and the country would be better off if they were eliminated. I gather that all these rankings are one of these things that keeps U.S. News and World Report in the black—unlike Newsweek.
(Thanks to Ronald Collins for the pointer.)
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 30, 2014 in Of Academic Interest, Rankings | Permalink
April 28, 2014
On the "social goods" allegedly promoted by religion
Prof. Mark Movsesian (St. John's) tries to respond to the "religion is not special" view (that I, Eisgruber & Sager, and Schwartzmann, among others, defend) in this blog posting. Here is the crux of his claim:
Religion, especially communal religion, provides important benefits for everyone in the liberal state—even the non-religious. Religion encourages people to associate with and feel responsible for others, to engage with them in common endeavors. Religion promotes altruism and neighborliness, and mitigates social isolation. Religion counteracts the tendencies to apathy and self-centeredness that liberalism seems inevitably to create.
As I argue in Why Tolerate Religion?, it is certainly true that in the Western capitalist societies, religion is one of the most common sources of resistance to the market pressure towards "self-centeredness," but qua generalization, Movesian's claim is obviously false: religion encourages the communal sentiments Movesesian describes, but mostly intra-religious group; there is no evidence, and Movesian cites none, that it encourages them generally outside the religious group. This, of course, is why religion remains, as it has been for millenia, one of the great catalysts of inter-group violence and hatred.
In lieu of actual evidence, Movsesian writes:
Tocqueville saw this in the nineteenth century. Egalitarian democracy, he wrote, encourages a kind of “individualism.” It trains each citizen to look out for himself according to his own best judgment and discount the needs of the wider society. Self-reliance is a good thing; at least Americans have long though so. But the attitude poses two great dangers for liberal society. First, it makes it difficult to motivate people to contribute to the common projects on which society depends: public safety, schools, hospitals, and the like. Second, it makes it easier for despotism to arise. The despotic state desires nothing more than for individual citizens to feel isolated from and indifferent to the concerns of others, so that the state can easily divide and dominate them all.
Tocqueville saw that voluntary associations could lessen these dangers. Religious associations are particularly useful in this regard. They are uniquely good at promoting social engagement—secular as well as religious. According to sociologist Robert Putnam, for example, regular churchgoers are more likely to vote, serve on juries, participate in community activities, talk to neighbors, and give to charities, including non-religious charities. And when it comes to defying state oppression, no groups are more effective than religious associations, which can inspire members to truly heroic acts of resistance, as dictators down the centuries have learned.
Tocqueville was a shrewd observer, but his observations do not constitute real evidence that religion qua religion produces social goods. Indeed, Tocqueveille's primary claim was about voluntary associations, of which religion was one example--in the 19th-century a very important one, but less so now. Again, as I discuss in Why Tolerate Religion?, there is no question that religious believers were among the resolute opponents of Nazi despotism (though other religious believers were also among the supporters); but communists were equally resolute in their opposition to Nazism (though less keen on charity, admittedly, since charity is one of the ways that capitalist societies legitimate an economic system that discards a portion of the population). In terms of motivating opposition to "state oppression," communists not in power have a much stronger record (against Hitler, against apartheid South Africa, against Franco's fascists) than any religious denomination. (Communists in power have the same awful record as all "true believers," including religious ones, in rationalizing oppression.) I don't think this means there shoudl be a "free exercise of communism" clause in the Constitution, but that is where a Movesesian-style argument would point, if taken seriously.
I have no doubt that categorical commitment to certain moral ideals is a good thing to cultivate in a population; but there is no evidence--literally none--that religion is uniquely good at doing that and doing it well (Movsesian cites none, obviously). The peculiarity of religion--with its curious conjunction of categorical commands and insulation from ordinary standards of evidence--has always been that it can motivate people to do things that no one else would typically do. Sometimes that is very good, and sometimes it is very bad. In Why Tolerate Religion?, I assume that the protection of conscience is a good--in this regard, I am a mundane liberal--and some readers have criticized me on this score. But that conscience is a good falls far short of thinking that religious conscience--whose history is far more mixed than Movsesian's quick gloss allows--is a good. But that's what would need to be established for those who want to defend the inequality at the core of our current First Amendment jurisprudence in the United States.
UPDATE: Professor Movesesian thinks the material he cited from Robert Putnam is evidence that religion uniquely produces social goods that benefit those outside the religious group. It does not seem to me it is, and the passge he cites does not show that it is. Many of the activities in question are also not, or not necessarily, "social goods": e.g., voting (it depends how one votes obviously) or participating in voluntary associations (those may be good for the participants, but they may not be good for society as a whole).
ANOTHER: Philosopher Craig Duncan (Ithaca College) calls to my attention to his interesting essay on "Religion and secular Utlitiy: Happiness, Truth and Pragmatic Arguments for Theistic Belief," Philosophy Compass 8/4 (2013): 381–399 (on-line at Wiley-Blackwell). In that essay he discussed Norenzayan, Ara and Azim F. Shariff. ‘The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality.’ Science 322.3 (2008): 58–62:
An oft-noted datum, for instance, is the correlation between religious belief and greater charitable giving. Yet even here the picture is complicated, since some recent research suggests that much of the increase in charitable giving is due primarily to a concern to maintain a favorable reputation among one’s religious peers. In a recent and wide-ranging meta-analysis published in Science, for instance, Ara Norenzayan and Azim F. Sharif sum up their findings as follows: ‘‘The preponderance of evidence points to religious prosociality being a bounded phenomenon. Religion’s association with prosociality is most evident when the situation calls for maintaining a favorable social reputation within the ingroup’’ (Norenzayan and Shariff 2008, p. 62). Moreover, the authors go on to note that ‘‘the ‘dark-side’ of within group cooperation is between-group competition and conflict’’ (Norenzayan and Shariff 2008, p. 62) – presumably, they have religious intolerance in mind – and they also note that ‘‘there are many examples of modern, large, cooperative, and not very religious societies (such as those in Western and Northern Europe), that nonetheless, retain a great degree of intragroup trust and cooperation’’ (Norenzayan and Shariff 2008, p. 62; cf. Zuckerman 2008).
As Prof. Duncan summed it up to me: "So the prosocial effects of religion, to the extent they exist, are rather thin inasmuch as they are largely motivated by reputational concerns rather than intrinsic moral concern."
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 28, 2014 in Jurisprudence | Permalink
U of Arizona Dean Marc Miller profiled
Here.
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 28, 2014 in Faculty News, Of Academic Interest | Permalink
April 25, 2014
"Why Tolerate Religion?" reviewed in the Philosophical Review
The review is by philosopher Samuel Rickless (UC San Diego); Philosophical Review is the leading philosophy journal in English. Professor Rickless writes that Why Tolerate Religion?,
is short, an enjoyable read, accessible to the generally educated public but alive to a number of sophisticated philosophical ideas and distinctions, its prose crisp and straightforward, its attitude no-nonsense, its conclusion provocative, and its arguments clear, concise, and analytically rigorous.
Professor Rickless goes on to offer some reasonable (though, to my mind, not persuasive) criticisms as well. (The contrast between this review, by a philosopher and scholar, and a political hit piece is instructive!)
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 25, 2014 in Jurisprudence, Navel-Gazing | Permalink
April 24, 2014
Chat room devoted to law school bashing asks how grads from "Tier 2" and lower law schools fared
And lo and behold, lots of them are actually doing quite well (as someone reading Simkovic & McIntyre would have expected--economic/professional success isn't really measured nine months after graduation). Thanks to a colleague elsewhere for forwarding this remarkable thread:
=============================================
Of course, encouraging anecdotes do not tell us much about the long-term career outcomes of gradautes of low-ranked law schools. But the critics of law schools have nothing more than discouraging anecdotes about the long-term career outcomes either.
UPDATE: Professor Simkovic writes:
FYI, After the JD does have outcome data for graduates of Tier 3 (100-150) and Tier 4 (150 to 200) law schools from the class of 2000/2001.
AJD II (6 years out) shows average incomes of around $83K-$92K among those working full-time in 2006 (inflation adjusted, this would be around $97K-$108K today).
http://www.law.du.edu/documents/directory/publications/sterling/AJD2.pdf
ADJIII (~10 years out) should be released soon. Of course, these figures are only:
1) Bar Passers
and
2) Those working full time (whether or not as lawyers)
Frank and I include non-bar passers and those working part time or unemployed.
ANOTHER: The proprietor of "JD Underground" tells me the original thread, above, came from that website.
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 24, 2014 in Legal Profession | Permalink
April 23, 2014
Berkeley's Acting Dean Gillian Lester named Columbia's new Dean
Press release here.
UPDATE: I should note also that Lester's husband, Eric Talley, a leading corporate law and law & economics scholar at Berkeley, will also be moving to Columbia. This will solidify Columbia's position as having one of the two best "business law" faculties in the U.S.
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 23, 2014 in Faculty News | Permalink
Six legal scholars elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
They are: Christopher Eisgruber (Princeton), Vicki Jackson (Harvard), David Luban (Georgetown), George Priest (Yale), Bryan Stevenson (NYU), and John Witt (Yale).
UPDATE: You can see a breakdown of all newly elected Fellows by institutional affiliation here.
ADDENDUM: I should note that the philosopher Gary Watson, who is cross-appointed to the law faculty at the University of Southern California, and who has done seminal work on freedom of the will and moral responsibility, was also elected a Fellow this year. (USC has a top ten philosophy department these days, as well as an excellent law school.)
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 23, 2014 in Faculty News | Permalink
April 22, 2014
Signs of the times: Moody's Downgrades Vermont Law's bond status again
Here.
UPDATE: More credit rating news from the National Law Journal.
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 22, 2014 in Of Academic Interest | Permalink
April 18, 2014
Not the kind of law school trustee who builds good will
At NYU, but the Law School is defending the students.
Posted by Brian Leiter on April 18, 2014 in Legal Profession, Of Academic Interest | Permalink