The Ideal of a (Catholic) Law School

Christopher Wolfe, The Ideal of a (Catholic) Law School, 78 Marq. L. Rev. 487 (1995).

Christian Faith and Legal Practice

Joseph G. Allegretti, The Lawyer's Calling: Christian Faith and Legal Practice (1996).

From the publisher: A noted law school professor reflects on the spiritual vacuum at the heart of the legal profession and suggests ways of reintegrating that profession with the deepest aspirations of its members.

B&N review: Lawyers in our day are facing a crisis of meaning. Distrusted by the public, stressed by overwork and questioning the value of their contribution to society, legal professionals find themselves in a situation where work has lost its connection with deeper beliefs. The crisis they face is essentially spiritual. How can lawyers bridge the gap between their beliefs and their daily work? Joseph Allegretti maintains that law can be a true vocation - a "calling" from God. He points to ways that lawyers are or can be healers in society, and he explains how their service to clients resembles a covenant relationship. Lawyers and law students will find his vision of the legal profession to be rich with possibility.

The Law Above the Law

John Warwick Montgomery, The Law Above the Law (Christian Legal Society 1975).

From CILTPP, a brief description (scroll down):

Montgomery presents the case that modern people must begin once again to judge their behaviour, their laws and their legal systems on the basis of God's revelation of right and wrong. Included as the appendix is the complete text of The Testimony of the Evangelists by Professor Simon Greenleaf of Harvard Law School, the great 19th century authority on common-law evidence.

For more about this modern polymath, here's John Warwick Montgomery's website.

The 2008 book Tough-Minded Christianity: Honoring the Legacy of John Warwick Montgomery is an excellent read, too (and not just because of what is says about Montgomery). Take a look at GoogleBooks.

Harold Berman on Legal Education

Harold J. Berman, Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ'g Co. 1993).

Overall, David Caudill describes Faith and Order as "a 'greatest hits' collection by one of the best law-and-religion scholars of the late twentieth century." His review can be found in the Journal of Law and Religion, pp. 713-17 (Vol. 16, No. 2 (2001)).

Part Three of Faith and Order explores "Theological, Prophetic, and Educational Themes." Two articles, chapters seventeen and eighteen, are worth highlighting for their focus on legal education.

Professor Berman's seventeenth chapter, The Crisis of Legal Education in America, discusses his view that "[l]aw teachers and law students . . . are more one-sided, and more mistaken, in their view of the nature of law than were their predecessors in any other period of American History." He continues by stating that "[w]e have been overwhelmed by the belief that law is politics . . . not in the sense that Aristotle meant when he said law is politics, but more in the sense that Max Weber and V.I. Lenin meant when they said that law is politics, namely, domination." We have forgotten that "law is also morality" and "history." Berman attributes this shift to "[t]he triumph of the positivist theory of law—that law is the will of the lawmaker." This has led to "a deep cynicism about the law."

To counteract this shift, Berman recommends that we recognize the importance of "the ancient Judaic and Christian foundations of our legal tradition." And "we must restore the integrity of our jurisprudential heritage" by joining together again the separate strands of positivism, natural-law theory, and historical jurisprudence.

The eighteenth chapter, Is There Such a Thing—Can There Be Such a Thing—as a Christian Law School?, explores the idea of a Christian law school by examining Notre Dame's history and distinctiveness. Regardless of the law school you attended (or are attending), Berman's description of the prophetic and priestly aspects of being a Christian lawyer are worth considering.

Publication information for Faith and Order can be found at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion website. And here's their blurb:

This book argues that despite the tensions existing in all societies between religious faith and legal order, they inevitably interact. In the course of his discussion Berman traces the history of Western law, exposes the fallacies of law theories that fail to take religion into account, examines key theological, prophetic, and educational themes, and looks at the role of religion in the Soviet and post-Soviet state.

You can also read portions of Faith and Order at GoogleBooks.

Biblical Law and the First Year Curriculum of American Legal Education

Edward McGlynn Gaffney, Jr., Biblical Law and the First Year Curriculum of American Legal Education, 4 J. L. & Religion 63 (1986).

This article might be difficult to find, but if you're able to access JSTOR, you can read it online here.


Links:
Prof. Gaffney's bio which includes other interesting articles.

Link to the publishing law school's main page for this journal.

Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment

John Witte, Jr., Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment: Essential Rights and Liberties (Westview 1999).

Steven D. Smith offers a thoughtful and thorough review at First Things. To get a taste, here are the first several paragraphs:

John Witte’s book on religious freedom is a work of impressive erudition and formidable complacency. Witte capably surveys the historical developments preceding the First Amendment and supplies a helpful overview of the often neglected period from the adoption of that amendment through the 1940s, when the Supreme Court invaded the field. Later chapters give interesting details on the history of tax exemptions for church property and also furnish a comparative perspective with a quick look at international human rights law. The book contains a wealth of information about, for example, state constitutional provisions and Supreme Court decisions, much of it accessibly presented in appendices. And the chapters summarizing modern establishment and free exercise clause decisions discuss the central cases, accurately on the whole. If the overall presentation here is a bit convoluted, the problem results in part from the fact that it is hard to present in an orderly and sensible way material that is the opposite of orderly and sensible.

Taken as a sort of primer/reference work, in short, this is a useful book to have on the shelf. But the book promises to be more than that. In his introduction, Witte notes that modern developments in religious freedom "have bred not only frustration about the vast inconsistencies of the American experiment but doubts about its very efficacy." Later he describes our situation as one of "acute crisis." Witte proposes to address this crisis by "return[ing] to first principles" in order to reassess those principles in light of the American experience.

This preview raised my hopes, but I misunderstood what Witte had in mind. I thought that by reassessing first principles, Witte meant something like reexamining the basic assumptions that underlie the modern discourse and decisions concerning religious freedom. That sort of reexamination is sorely needed. Instead, Witte vigorously and uncritically acquiesces in the same old assumptions. He gives us more of what we already have too much of.

From the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (of which Witte is the Director) comes this brief description:

This volume offers a novel reading of the American constitutional experiment in religious liberty. The First Amendment, John Witte Jr. argues, is a synthesis of both the theological convictions and the political calculations of the eighteenth-century American founders. The founders incorporated six interdependent principles into the First Amendment -- liberty of conscience, freedom of exercise, equality of faiths, plurality of confessions, disestablishment of religion, and separation of church and state. Both the nuance and the balance of these six principles have often been lost on current interpreters of the First Amendment. Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment urges a return to the principled approach to religious rights, evident both in the American founding era and in the modern international human rights movement. Witte uses these principles to analyze the free exercise and establishment case law of the last two centuries. He then illustrates the virtues of his principled approach through analysis of the thorny contests over tax exemptions for religions and the role of religion in the public school, among others.

Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession

Michael P. Schutt, Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession (InterVarsity Press 2007).

While there have been a number of books published exploring Christian beliefs about the nature and role of law in society, law professor Michael Schutt has written a book about the practice of law—about how the law can be honored as a Christian vocation. And his book, called Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession, is not a superficial, moralistic tract about being honest and offering pro bono services from time to time. Rather it raises deep questions about vocation, truth, community, and virtue.

Schutt realizes that a faithful pursuit of the vocation of law requires more than a sound theology of law: it also requires certain sensibilities, “habits of the heart,” to use Tocqueville’s term. Schutt cites Tocqueville’s description of the sort of orientation that characterizes the best lawyers: “Men who have made a special study of the laws derive from this occupation certain habits of order, a taste for formalities, and a mind of instinctive regard for the regular connection of ideas, which naturally render them very hostile to the revolutionary spirit and the unreflecting passions of the multitude.” Schutt observes that the practice of law both produces those sorts of habits and is enabled by those who possess them.

Schutt, who obtained his J.D. from the University of Texas Law School, is sensitive to the misapprehensions about the nature of the practice of law that most law school graduates are likely to have absorbed. “The prevailing jurisprudence teaches that law is simply a tool for engineering human action and lawyers are social engineers.” With such a presupposition at work, lawyers are often confident that the ends justify any means they can imagine. But just as Christian doctors have been forced to examine their practices more carefully as the culture around them has become more post-Christian, so must Christian lawyers eagerly and humbly strive to renew their minds about how the law can be practiced Christianly.

Despite the great opportunities to use the practice of law as a vehicle for building the Kingdom of God, “most Christians in the law do not know what following Christ really means as a practical matter to their daily work. Some struggle with the concept of vocation as Christian calling in the first place, or are unable to accept that law is an appropriate arena in which to serve God and neighbor. Others believe that law can be a high calling, but nonetheless stop short of appropriating the historical resources of the church for the benefit of their law teaching, study, or practice.” Schutt’s book is a remarkably practical and wise guide for Christians striving to think Christianly about the law.

From Mars Hill Audio, Resources for Clergy

Knowing God in the Lion's Den

Charles J. Emmerich, Knowing God in the Lion’s Den: The Christian in Law School, Christian Leg. Soc. Website http://www.clsnet.org/lsmPages/index.phpx

A brief and appropriate word of encouragement for law students struggling to keep a vibrant Christian faith while under the gun in law school.

To read this brief piece, go to "Attachment A" of the CLS-LSM "Student Chapter Manual:"
http://www.clsnet.org/lsmPages/lsm_manual/2007-2008_StudentChapterManual.pdf

God, Man, and Law: The Biblical Principles

Herbert W. Titus, God, Man, and Law: The Biblical Principles (Institute in Basic Life Principles 1994).

This important book, part casebook (it contains numerous court opinions), part history lesson, and part legal and theological treatise, addresses every important legal theme. It is divided into eight sections (God, Man, Legal Education, and Law; Law: The Biblical Foundations; Jurisdiction; Equality; Fault; Vow; Dominion; Restitution), and each section is followed by a set of study questions with scripture references, designed to lead the reader to the scriptures for answers to the important issues raised in the chapter. The text and interspersed readings do not provide pat answers, but point the reader to issues for deeper reflection and study.

With regard to the section on legal education, Dean Titus’s work addresses the history of American legal education and the impact of social Darwinism and scientific humanism on the law school (pp. 1-29).

Because of this structure and the book’s length (309 pages plus notes, index, and glossary), this book would be excellent for group discussion or as a source book for a bible study. Dean Titus writes in his introduction that his book is “designed to challenge the reader to develop a Biblical understanding of law, with particular focus on law in the United States of America.”

Note: Also available online here.

Law and Gospel

John Warwick Montgomery, Law and Gospel: A Study in Jurisprudence (Christian Legal Society 1978).

This 50-page monograph is designed as a study guide on the basic law school subjects. There are 20 extremely short sections, most covering one topic in one or two pages. (For example, the Torts section is two pages long). In the section, Dr. Montgomery sets out a brief discussion, usually with quotations from scripture or case law. He then poses a handful of questions based on the text, along with some scripture references for further study. This little text will reward a close reading. Each section is short enough that it can be covered in small bites.

Mission Possible

C. Scott Pryor, Mission Possible: A Paradigm for Analysis of Contractual Impossibility at Regent University, 74 St. John’s L. Rev. 691 (2000).

Professor Pryor sets out a detailed model for accomplishing one subset of the mission of biblical integration: a “theologically informed historical development of the foundations of the law.” In doing so, he evaluates from many angles every aspect of a theologically-driven mission.

As part of his article on the mission of Regent Law School, Professor Pryor demonstrates the application of his suggested models to the area of contractual impossibility.

A Christian Law School: Images and Vision

Lynn R. Buzzard, A Christian Law School: Images and Vision, 78 Marquette L. Rev. 267 (1995).

Professor Buzzard holds that “there is not just one compelling vision for a Christian law school or university.” Cautioning against “cultural” Christianity, that is committing “oneself to a narrow, culturally conditioned understanding of religion, which is often employed to sanction contemporary prejudice,” he lists ten “Core Commitments,” beginning with “Worldview,” that the Christian law school should aspire to and move toward.

This article is worth a look even if you aren't attending (or didn't attend) a Christian law school. What should education be like?

Read this article here.

A Course of Legal Study

David Hoffman, A Course of Legal Study (1846).

This “textbook” for law students is interesting because of the emphasis it places on character, religion, and God’s Word for success in the study of law. The legal subjects discussed, too, are informed by a biblical view of the world lacking today in most law schools. This work is not useful as a resource on the law, but it is worth looking at for encouragement and direction. The Student’s Prayer (from Samuel Johnson) and the 30 “Student’s Resolutions” (including “To avoid, riggidly, all studies on the Sabbath”) are, at least, worth pondering. You can read this work at GoogleBooks.

Also, take a look at the University of Maryland Law School's special collection entitled "David Hoffman and the Science of Jurisprudence" describing Hoffman's impact upon American legal education.

And a short, excellent biography of Hoffman, by Michael I. Krauss writing for the Calvert Institute, can be found here.

Beyond the Ordinary Religion

Roger C. Cramton, Beyond the Ordinary Religion, 37 J. Legal Educ. 509 (1987).

Dean Cramton believes that “larger normative questions” must be place on the law school teaching agenda, because “a university law school has a broader function than a cooking institute, a barber college, or some other trade oriented technical school.” Cramton begins by stating his goal in his The Ordinary Religion of the Law School Classroom:

My thesis was that '[t]he essential ingredients of the ordinary religion of the American law school classroom are: a skeptical attitude toward generalizations; an instrumental approach to law and lawyering; a 'toughminded' and analytical attitude toward legal tasks and professional roles; and a faith that man, by the application of reason and the use of democratic processes, can make the world a better place.' . . . My earlier article on 'ordinary religion' is a critique of what I believe to be the implicit value system of legal education and American lawyering. Only by implication does the paper address the more constructive questions: What values should one presuppose in teaching, studying, or practicing law? To what extent, and how, should one's basic value commitments be articulated and discussed?

He goes on to articulate those values and commitments, concluding, in part:

I believe that a sense of calling is essential for law teachers and students. The search for truth, with all that implies concerning the meaningfulness of objective reality and the importance of the procedures by which we attempt to describe and talk about it, is a central commitment of the legal scholar. Is there not also a commitment, both for the law teacher and student, to search for the good? A renewed understanding of what it means to be a professional should include a commitment to something other than acquisition and success. If so, law schools have an educational responsibility to deal with the larger normative issues that infuse the application and use of legal technique.

The Ordinary Religion of the Law School Classroom

Roger C. Cramton, The Ordinary Religion of the Law School Classroom, 29 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1978).

Cramton, then Dean of Cornell law school, examined the “value system” implicit in modern legal education and the implications of the value system from a “moral and religious perspective.” He supports the thesis that the value system’s “essential ingredients” include, among other things, “an instrumental approach to law and lawyering” and “faith that man, by the application of his reason and the use of democratic processes, can make the world a better place.” Cramton, Ordinary Religion, at 248.

Several years ago (2006), Brian Tamanaha discussed his book Law as a Means to an End at the PrawfsBlawg. The light he sheds on Cramton's article is worth a read.

Three years before Tamanaha's book, Judge Edith Jones discussed problems confronting the American legal system in an address to the Federalist Society at Harvard Law School. Here's an article discussing Judge Jones' talk.