Langdell Defends Langdell With A Villanelle (An Addition To "The Apology Box")

Though I've gone after Langdell several times in prose (Exercising Common Sense, Razing Langdell, and Days of Auld Langdell), I've not attempted it in verse till now.  The Villanelle seemed a good form and I felt he would speak of himself in the third person were he writing it.  Of course, even in the more polished form of a villanelle, I still disagree with Langdell's thoughts on casebooks, experienced teachers, law's nature, and more.  Law is not a certain science.  Law practice experience makes better, not worse law professors.  Theory is blind if separated from practice.  Practice is empty without theory.  Law schools are therefore elevated rather than "dumbed down" by teaching practice and theory both.  The hypocrisy of Langdell's practicing for fifteen years while saying practice taints is of course not lost on me either.  I couldn't bear including a photo of the man so I have instead substituted a page from his infamous contracts casebook.

      Langdell Defends Langdell With A Villanelle

Practitioners dumb down.  A model school
Employs pure scholars.  (Langdell, though, is rare;
Langdell is an exception to the rule.*)

Pure science keeps to theory and to rule
And leaves mere practice to a tradesman's care.
Practitioners dumb down a model school.

Though calling cases "useless"** as a rule,
Langdell could do case science.  (Work by fair
Langdell is an exception to the rule.)

Truth wants a law school (not a lawyer school)
That teaches science, not mere craft.  Beware:
Practitioners dumb down a model school.

In fifteen years of practice after school,
Langdell saw practice taints beyond repair.
(Langdell is an exception to the rule.)

The best have never done.  They teach at school
Because they know.  And though they would declare
Practitioners dumb down a model school,
Langdell is an exception to the rule.


*Langdell practiced law for fifteen years.
**Langdell's actual words:  the“vast majority [of cases] are useless and worse than useless for any purpose of systematic study.”


© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016

The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.