Law in Contemporary Society

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MutualDependence 4 - 04 Apr 2012 - Main.PrashantRai
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 I was thinking about what Eben said in class last week about how one dimension of Thauraud and Carriere's relationship was a state of mutual economic dependence. Eben paralleled their relationship to that of Skadden and Wachtell in the 70's and 80's -- Skadden represented major companies in hostile takeovers and Wachtell represented the smaller ones.

No. That's not what I
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  measures or to defend themselves against immediate hostile acquisition.
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>		I apologize for misrepresenting your point; I didn't mean to suggest that Wachtell was defending the little guy, all I meant to say was that Skadden represented the buyers and that Wachtell represented those companies being hostilely acquired. Or is that also an inaccurate understanding how it went down? Is there any literature on history like this, something on the rise/fall of various legal/corporate entities? I find it all very interesting, not in a glorified way but just as a study of power struggles.
 My thought was that mutual dependence also in some sense informs our relationship with CLS. The curve coerces us into participating in the norms of law school learning (reading beyond the optimal point of fatigue, reading for volume as opposed to for memory) only because we treat the curve as a Prisoner's Dilemma -- If we collectively refused then the system would lose its potency as a form of control. The law school's influence depends therefore on our continued participation.

Refused what? To do the
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  influence? You need to be clear about the argument here.
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>		Yeah, the more I think about this the less I feel like know what I mean by "collectively refused." I don't think refusing to do the work is what to do. One idea is to collectively adopt the credit/fail system, which Harry discusses here. Another idea is to refuse to pander when it comes time to fill the bluebooks. Some people discussed the ways in which the law school influences students to internalize it's value judgments through the exam process here. But really I'm not sure about what the right answer is to the question "Refuse what?" I was hoping that some others might have some thoughts on this.
 But the flip side of the coin is that we too depend on the law school. The legitimacy of a CLS degree in the job search (the oft quoted line that one can hear in the hallways on a semi-daily basis "and a degree from CLS certainly won't hurt haha wink" or whatever the chosen phrasing) and the reliance of 2Ls on EIP for finding a job are two examples of ways in which CLS students buy into (and therefore reinforce) the co-dependence.

Why isn't it sufficient
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>		I think this is true, but I think the difference between the law school/law student relationship and the relationship between suppliers of complementary materials is that one supplier of material isn't trying to perversely influence the learning process of the other supplier of material. After all, the issue at stake here is taking back our education, which seems specific to the issue of education services.
 But this doesn't have to be the case. There is a difference between the type of dependence the law school has on us and the dependence we have on it. The curve, by it's very nature, in fact relies on us falling for the fallacy. But our dependence is self-imposed and is therefore voluntary. As Eben says in class, EIP is not the end all be all for the job search. The name "Columbia Law School" on one's degree is not necessary for a creative law student to find ways to meaningfully impact the lives of others with his/her legal knowledge or make money for that matter. Anyone who has been to any of the presentations put on by Law Students for Social Enterprise know this to be true. Skills and drive are necessary; pedigree is not. What do people think?

Meaning that you could
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>		I agree with Daniel that what Eben said at the end here is truly inspiring; I just want to make the point that I hope that what I'm saying here isn't construed as disparaging to Columbia and the incredible opportunity it is to be here and learn from the professors and the students alike. I just think that we should fight to regain control over how we learn it and what we do with the knowledge once we have it.
 -- PrashantRai - 04 Apr 2012

Revision 4r4 - 04 Apr 2012 - 14:03:59 - PrashantRai
Revision 3r3 - 04 Apr 2012 - 04:47:54 - DanielChung
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