Whose Phronesis - Which Phronimoi: A Response to Dean Kronman on Law School Education

Dean Anthony Kronman of the Yale Law School has produced one of the most widely discussed contemporary critiques of legal practice and, specifically, of legal education. This commentary will focus on Dean Kronman's central notion of practical wisdom. We begin with a preliminary question: Is there really such an identifiable thing as practical wisdom, as described and elaborated by Kronman? This cannot simply be taken for granted. After all, many of us were at one point convinced of the reality of phlogiston or of the aether through which light propagates. It is also possible that the practically wise person might exist without being readily or reliably detectable. So if we assume that practical wisdom, precisely as Kronman develops the idea, does exist, we should still ask whether a client, a group of persons, or a society can consistently recognize the possession or exercise of genuine practical wisdom by specific persons. We may call this problem that of identifying the phronimoi, or those persons who exercise practical wisdom. Once we have disposed of this preliminary question, we will turn to the law school context specifically. We ask whether, as Kronman argues, the traditional Socratic appellate case method, when well-practiced, tends distinctively to promote the development of practical wisdom as specifically envisioned by Kronman. At this point, we then pose our final question. It seems hard to object, in the abstract, to the general idea of practical wisdom. But Kronman develops and elaborates a particular conception of practical wisdom. We might see value in the general idea of practical wisdom without endorsing Kronman's specific account. So we must ask, finally, whether we ought to promote practical wisdom as conceived of by Kronman, in light of any available alternatives

Denaturalizing the Lawyer-Statesman

A Review of The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession by Anthony T. Kronman

[Review of] George Kaufman, The Lawyer’s Guide to Balancing Life and Work: Taking the Stress out of Success

In recent years there has been much self-examination within the legal profession. On the macro scale, Sol Linowitz, The Betrayed Profession, compares, not favorably, the profession of today with that which he knew in the early decades of his practice. Dean Anthony Kronman, The Lost Lawyer, and Mary Ann Glendon, A Nation Under Lawyers, use their skills as scholars to examine the profession on a more objective level. On the micro level, Deborah Arron led the way with Running from the Law, which tells of talented overachievers who stood out in law school and judicial clerkships, and then found large-firm practice disastrous

The Costs of Freely Granting Specific Performance

For thousands of years the migratory birds has travelled across the earth in the same directions and returns to the same places generation through generation. They navigate by the magnetic field of the earth, star constellations, polarized light and through a visual memory of the geological landmarks like the coastlines. After they have made their journey across open sea they need place for resting. Lista is the first outpost after the long distance over the North Sea. Lista Bird Observatory has been in operation since 1989. The bird observatory's premier task is to identify the existence and development of bird populations and to collect quantitative data on bird migration over time. The observatory is strategically located at the flyways for several migration birds. Ever since its establishment all observation data has been recorded and since 1990 the observatory also make standardized bird ringing. In Norway, this material constitutes unique time series for the presence of a large number of bird species. This project answers to the need of appropriate locations for the bird observatory. It creates conditions for a national and an international research and a platform for the Norwegian Ornithological Society. It also gives spaces for environmental education and information where the architecture emphasizes the landscape as well as the bird- and wildlife. Local residents and occasional visitors are given room for recreation and meeting places and the project connects to a Norwegian culture of experience tourism. It underlines the bird observatory's significance and creates a local and regional center for bird watching. The architecture creates a focus and an awareness of the surrounding landscape and alludes to a tradition of vistas but in the same time it offers the visitors to enter and explore the nature. I tusentals år flyttfåglarna har rest över jorden i samma riktningar och återvänder till samma platser generation efter generation. De navigerar genom jordens magnetfält, stjärnbilder, polariserat ljus och genom ett visuellt minne av geografiska landmärken såsom kuststräckor och öar. Efter att de har gjort sin resa över öppet hav behöver de plats för vila. Lista är den första utposten efter den långa resan över Nordsjön. Lista fågelstation har varit verksam sedan 1989. Fågelstationens främsta uppgift är att kartlägga förekomsten och utvecklingen av fågelpopulationer samt att samla in kvantitativ data om flyttfåglar och deras rörelser över tid. Observatoriet är strategiskt beläget vid flyttsträckor för flertalet flyttfåglar. Ända sedan starten har alla observationsdata registrerats och sedan 1990 gör fågelstationen även standardiserade ringmärkning. I Norge utgör detta material unika tidsserier för förekomsten av ett stort antal fågelarter. Detta projekt svarar för behovet av ändamålsenliga lokaler för fågelstation. Det skapar förutsättningar för en nationell och internationell forskning och en plattform för Norsk Ornitologisk Förening. Det ger också utrymmen för miljöutbildning och miljöinformation där arkitekturen betonar landskapet samt fågel-och djurlivet. Lokala invånare och tillfälliga besökare ges rum för rekreation och mötesplatser och projektet ansluter till en norsk kultur av friluftsturism. Det understryker fågelstationens betydelse och skapar ett lokalt och regionalt centrum för fågelskådning. Arkitekturen skapar ett fokus och en medvetenhet om det omgivande landskapet och anspelar på en norsk tradition av vyer men erbjuder på samma gång besökarna att stiga ut i och uppleva naturen

Meaning in the Life of the Lawyer

First let me say what a pleasure it is to be here on such an occasion. Dean Kronman is an old and valued friend, and I am very glad to be able to visit your school, of which I have heard many good things. In the remarks that follow I shall respond to Dean Kronman\u27s eloquent and elegiac account of civility in our culture, and in the law, not so much by marking agreement or disagreement as by offering a few loosely connected reflections on the topics he raises

Common-Law Disclosure Duties and the Sin of Omission: Testing the Meta-Theories

This Article represents the first attempt to study empirically the factors that cause courts to impose disclosure duties on bargaining parties in some circumstances, but not in others. We analyze data coded from 466 decisions spanning a wide array of jurisdictions and covering over two hundred years. The results are mixed. In some instances our data support the conventional wisdom relating to common-law disclosure duties. For example, we find that courts are more likely to require the disclosure of latent, as opposed to patent, defects and are more likely to require disclosure when the parties are in a fiduciary or confidential relationship. In other instances, our results cast doubt on much of the conventional wisdom regarding the law of fraudulent silence. First, although it is generally understood that courts have become more likely to impose disclosure duties over time, we find that courts actually have become less likely over time to impose duties to disclose. Second, and perhaps most importantly, we find that courts are no more likely to impose disclosure duties when the information is casually acquired as opposed to deliberately acquired, and that unequal access to information by the contracting parties is not a significant factor that drives courts to find a duty to disclose. We do find, however, that when both factors are present courts are significantly more likely to force disclosure

Development and application of an antibiotic spectrum index for benchmarking antibiotic selection patterns across hospitals

Standard metrics for antimicrobial use consider volume but not spectrum of antimicrobial prescribing. We developed an antibiotic spectrum index (ASI) to classify commonly used antibiotics based on activity against important pathogens. The application of this index to hospital antibiotic use reveals how this tool enhances current antimicrobial stewardship metrics.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:993–997</jats:p