The First Day (of Pre-Law Summer Classes)

Today was my first day, sort of. Today, I started a week and a half of classes to help me get prepared for classes, which start in two weeks.

We didn't do much today, but I did get my first assignment. I have to write a two page essay answering the questions, "What is the law?" Needless to say I got very excited. Anyone who knows me knows these kinds of question are things I love spending hours debating.

After class I went straight into the Law Library (which is awesome and makes me feel like a real scholar) and started my essay. The finished product appears below. I would love any comments, and if you see any typos or misspelled words I missed please let me know.

'What is the Law?'

The law is a thing about which everyone has an opinion, but no one quite knows what it is. The popular refrain is, “there ought to be a law.” Yet, if you ask someone to define the purpose and nature of the law the most common answer you will get is a blank stare. People are eager to appeal to this strange and mysterious outside force, but have a very limited understanding of its purpose. What people want is for this outside force to look after what they see as their interests, often at the expense of others.

Aristotle said, “Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.” One wonders if, getting a good look at our litigious society, Aristotle might want to revise his statement. More over, what if he had seen some of the uses the law has been put to in the 20th century: the Nuremberg Laws, Jim Crow, and Apartheid are only the worst of the tragedies inflicted in the name of the law.

It might be argued that it was for cases such as these that Aristotle added justice, in addition to the law, to his requirements. Yet, how shall we measure justice? Is it to be defined by those with the greatest amount of power, so that wealth and might are the prerequisite? Is it to be defined by majority vote, so that a tyrannical majority may have its way with the minority? The concept of justice must be understood if law is to be understood, but it can not be understood outside the context of law.

The law is man’s attempt to fight without fighting. You see something similar when you watch competition in other animal species. When fighting a rival of the same species, for food or the right to mate, there is often a great deal of violence and one of the contestants inevitably looses, but there is rarely any permanent damage to either party. Rams may but heads, but they do not break necks. This is because it is evolutionarily disadvantageous to engage in competition what will permanently damage your ability to live and reproduce. If you were to engage in such extreme forms of competition there is the distinct possibility that any victory achieved may be Pyrrhic.

You can see the same thing with humans. Over our long history we have found that settling disputes with blood feuds and violence is prohibitively expensive. An individual may triumph for a day, but there is no guarantee of long term security. Therefore, humanity appealed something outside of itself in-order to determine what is right and who, in a dispute, should be victorious. This thing aids in restraining our baser instincts. Furthermore, it creates a level of security for both the winners and the losers which could not exist in a contest of strength.

This quickly leads to the problem of how to make the individual parties accept the rulings of this outside force. The quickest and simplest answer is to arm this force, here-forward called the law, with sufficient force so as to compel compliance. This will be quickly found to be insufficient, though the law does need force behind it. If the law must use force to enforce all of its decisions, it must be stronger than all parties, that dislike its rulings and will not willingly abide by them, combined. If we rely solely on force, we will quickly use unsustainable levels of resources defending the law and still be left open to the problem that necessitated the creation of the law in the first place, namely the possibility of contests being won and lost by the strength of arms.

Our goal therefore becomes to make the law just so that it will have the greatest possible currency among the people. In so doing we fulfill Aristotle’s second requirement, which is justice. In this we begin to see Justice's shadow: a system which treats all equally and provides sufficient protections, so that no one can dispute the fairness of the law. William Roper asked Sir Thomas More, in ‘A Man for All Seasons, “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law?” To which he responded:

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down... do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

The justice of the law demands that we give our enemies the same protections that we would want for ourselves, not for their sake but for ours.

We therefore return to where we began: attempting to join mankind with law and justice in-order to make him the best of all animals, by putting him in a civil society. To do this, we must have a law whose ethos is justice. The law, therefore, is our search for a comprehensive set of rules which can govern man’s relation to man; whose justice is so perfect that these laws command the assent of all men.




Here's a picture of the Law Library!

The Final Countdown

"T" minus one month. That's how long I have before I start law school. It seems strange that, after so long (six months since I got back from Korea), I will finally be starting law school. I have even less time left if you count Georgia's Summer Academic Success program; which starts on the 2nd of August.

I found out this week that I got into the program, but the details are still sketchy. When I asked the director of the program some questions, he was not even able to tell me with the class times any certainty. He said it might be from 10am til 1pm. What I do know is that the program consists of two classes. One is a Constitutional law 'class' and the other class focuses on the writing skills I will need in law school. The program only lasts until the 10th, for a grand total of eight days of classes. After that I have orientation, another three days; and then classes begin on the 17th.

I don't really know what they could cover in eight days of classes, but I still very happy that they are offering me this opportunity. It's been two years since I was in school and a little longer since I was in a formal class. Furthermore, I think that the class structure and skills I will need will be different from anything I have experienced in my recent past. I hope that this program will give me a running start, so when class do start I will not be overwhelmed.

This leaves me with two weeks to prepare. Strangely, thought I should have expected this, the director of told me to do nothing to prepare for his summer program, except for enjoy the rest of my summer.

Without a reading list or any projects to complete I am at a loss for what to do with myself. The only thing I need to do before August is move into my new apartment.

I guess I am just going to keep doing what I have been doing for the last six months: working in the library. Though when I use the word "working" I have to use it in the broadest possible seance. It would be more accurately described as sitting on my butt checking Facebook and e-mail while reading the news and books. It's not exactly demanding work.

In fact, since January I have read 55 books, eight short books, and reread two books. This puts me well above my goal of reading 52 books a year, although it feels like cheating. After all, I have not had a demanding schedule and I have been without internet and cable at my apartment all summer.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to actually doing something productive.

A New Dawn, A New Day

Since I am entering a new phase of my life, I have decided to update and reinvent my blog. Previously, and sporadically, I had used this space to chronicle my Korean adventures. Now, I will use it to record my decent into the murky world of the law or, as my law school friends would put it, my decent into madness.

When I solicited advice from my friends who were in or had recently been through law school, I expected to receive a list of text books and scholarly materials that I should study and familiarize myself with before classes started in the fall. Instead, the advice I received concerning enrolling in law school was both simple and short: don't.

To be fair, this advice contained many qualifiers. The upshot of which was as simple as the qualifiers were numerous: unless you really want to. My friends, in their tender love of my person and sanity, wanted to ensure that I was not going to law school simply because it was there or because I did not know what else to do.

Having assured them that I would not be dissuaded, I pressed them again for how best to prepare for law school. Again, I got a short reply: don't. There were some helpful suggestions. One of my friends suggested that I seek therapy. This advice was very useful, as it allowed me to kill two birds with one stone. I can both preempt the nervous breakdown that, my friend assures me, is in my near future and attempt to understand why I would want to sign myself up for an experience that is going to cause a nervous breakdown.

To my surprise, the professors I asked for advice also told me to do nothing to prepare for law school. Most were emphatic that I would only do great harm to myself if I tried to get ahead by studying before classes started. If I did anything, I should relax and enjoy my time off. One professor told me to catch up on my leisure reading, "because you won't have time for it once school starts."

The upshot of all of this is that I have spent the last five months, since my return from Korea, doing very little. I got a job at the University of Georgia Main Library, and I have been working just enough to pay my bills. I have done a lot of leisure reading, hung out with friends, and in general just relaxed.

Despite all the fun I am having, I am anxious to start my first year at the University of Georgia Law School. I am sure in another five months I will look back enviously at this time, and properly recognize it as the calm before the storm.

Big Nose

The other day some of the younger children came into my office. I don't teach them because they are in a really basic class, but they like to come in and talk to me.

They typically come in to say 'hello' and exchange a few of the English phrases they have memorized before heading off to their class. If I am completely honest after about five or ten minutes I am ready for peace and quite and an opportunity to get back to my book, but most days they are unassailable cute. They smile, jump around, and generally make a ruckus.

I don't know what was different about today. I don't know if they learned new words or if they were in a playful mood, but things did not follow their normal routine. After the customary 'hello' and 'how are you today?' they said, "Teacher has a big nose." This was followed by a chorus of 'big nose'.

I have never been been self continuous, at least not about my nose, but after this episode I checked my nose out in a mirror. It is a little big, at least by Korean standards. The kids who made the comments had freakishly small noses. (I thought about making fun of their small noses, but decided against it. It would be a little immature to make fun of some kindergarteners because they called me mean names.)

Yesterday, some of my high school students told me I had I 'high nose', and compared my nose with a shark fin. I think I need to get out of this country before I develop a complex.

Culture Shock

Teaching English in Korea exposes you to a lot of interesting cross cultural experiences. Most of the kids who are learning English have at least a little bit of knowledge about American culture. What is fun is seeing American culture expressed by Koreans.

For example, a couple months back there was a huge cultural festival, here in Gimhea, that celebrated the ancient kingdom that was based in Gimhea. There is a very interesting story about an Indian princess who saw the founder of this kingdom in a dream, and went on a journey to find him. Together they founded this kingdom.

What was particularly interesting about this festival was the pageant that accompanied it. It followed the story of this king and his queen, but not in the way I expected. It opened with traditional Korean music, introduced the characters, ect. Then all of a sudden, out comes a power ballad and I have been transported form ancient Korea to modern MTV.

It is not just the music and the singing (Oh yes there was singing a plenty. Koreans love to sing!). What really got me was the dancing. All you needed was a blond haired girl in a catholic school girl outfit and you would have had a Brittany Spears music video. As soon as I got my bearings and accepted that all of this was happening, they started rapping. Yes rapping, with all the customary dancing and jumping around that comes with that genre of music.

The show continued like this moving without warning from one musical style to another and proceeded to unfold the history of this ancient and important Korean kingdom.

I could not help but wonder what the older members of the audience thought about this. Some of them were probably around during the Korean War, and have seen their country move from war ravaged wreck, to developing economy, to an increasingly cosmopolitan and international culture. I could not help but wonder what they think about all of this change.

You're so Handsome

"Your so handsome."

The above is a complement usually reserved for rare occasions, and typically recived by a man from a woman. I usually got comments like this from my female relatives, on the (rare) occasion that I bothered to dress up. (This would typically be a major family function or holidays where showing up in my typical, jeans and a t-shirt, ensemble would be inappropriate.)The usual reaction to the complement is a "thank you", then both parties resume whatever it was they were doing.

That is how things normally go, but like many things in Korea things are a bit different. When I arived, after my 24 hour trip from the States to Korea, my director took all the teachers at our school and myself out for a meal. Durring this meal my dirrector, a man several years my senior, called me handsome no less than five times. This prompted the teachers to enthusiastically repeat the complement. This was flattering (and a bit awkward) the first time. I had been in airports and on planes for the better part of a day, and probably did not look my best, but the more they did it the more it moved from awkward to creepy.

I soon found that I would have to get used to this. Everyone, from cashiers, to waitresses, to the children who go to the local schools, have called me handsome. Sometimes it seems that it is the only English word people know. I do know know which is creepier: being told this by the men, or the young girls.

The Name Game

I named a kid today. For the people out there wondering if I have fathered an illegitimate child with my long term crush, Condoleezza Rice, the answer is no. Her lawyers have informed me that while she does like me, she just does not like me that way.

No, I had the honor of naming a Korean child today. (No, the kid is not mine, I have not even been in the country that long.)

Why was I asked to name a child? I was the only native English speaker around at the time. You see, the child was starting English classes at my school, and contrary to the politically correct practice of the United States, people do not use their Korean name when introducing themselves or talking to an English speaker. In Korea have what they call "English names".

While the idea, in America, of someone changing their name so that it is easier for other people to say smacks of cultural imperialism and the abandoning of your cultural heritage, the people of Korea don't seem to mind.

Almost everyone seems to have these extra "English names" to use when they are talking to foreigners. They get them when they first start learning English and the name follows them throughout their educational and professional careers.

You may think I am exaggerating, but this evening in my adult English class I had a new student. When I introduced myself and asked her what her name was she said,"My English name is Judy." Furthermore, when she produced an electronic English dictionary from her bag, it had written on it, in large block letters,"JUDY."

It's not just the student, everyone I have talked to goes by their "English name" around me. Not just when they are talking to me, but also when they are talking to each other. I know they all have Korean names, but I have never heard them use them.

So, as I sat at my desk staring at this five or six year old child that I had never met before, and who seemed a little afraid of me, I realized that the name I gave him was not something temporary. It would likely be something that would follow him for the rest of his life, and long after I had returned to America he would be know by the name I had given him.

I wanted to make his name something special. Most of the kids have average American names. A couple were named after animals (Lion and Shark), but none of their names were very unique. The name came to me quickly, and was bequeathed to the child with equal speed. He was ushered out of my presence with the same swiftness and suddenness with which he had been ushered in.

There was no need for any more ceremony or pomp. The American had spoken. Having received his new name, the child was thus initiated into the English language, and there was no time to waste.

He had been named Cato.

(I can't decide if picking this name was funny, ironic, or cruel, but I am pleased with my choice. I think I will go for an ancient Roman motif with all my names. Cicero, Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, ect.)