LAW 6686

Rethinking Academia–Judiciary Dynamics

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This course explores the evolving relationship between academic legal scholarship and judicial decision-making. Taking inspiration from Judge Learned Hand’s observation that while judges “furnish the momentum,” academics “satisfy the direction,” the course equips students with tools to understand and critically evaluate the interaction between these two domains. We will examine selected areas of private and commercial law—including contract, corporate law, fiduciary law, and unjust enrichment—tracing the reciprocal influence between landmark court decisions and academic writing. In addition to close reading of texts, the course invites reflection on broader institutional questions: What role should policy considerations play in the courts’ development of legal doctrine? What is the function of academic critique? Students will submit a short essay analyzing a case or doctrinal issue of their choice that illustrates the dynamics discussed in class.

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