My Dinner at Langdell's

Abstract

This essay begins on one of those cold wet April Cambridge mornings. It was too wet for fog, but too indifferent for rain. My head ached. My lips were dry and my tongue felt bloated. The fever had surely come back. Worse - the laudanum was wearing off. Tonight would be dinner at Langdell's. It occurred to me that not everyone is invited to Langdell's for dinner - certainly not wayward law professors from the provinces. This was an extraordinary opportunity. Blackstone would be there. Duncan Kennedy perhaps. Certainly the early Llewellyn. I knocked on the door.

Keywords: legal theory, Reductionism, critical legal studies, postmodernism, jurisprudence, legal history, legal scholarship, library science, posner, kennedy, langdell, minow, kronman, wigmore

JEL Classification: K39, K40