Law As Illumination, Not Literalism Summary

To Start off, I chose to react to Professor Emerson’s scholarly paper because I strongly believe to better understand a professor’s teaching style it is important to examine real life examples of their personal work. Most teaching today involves already premade PowerPoints that the teachers base their lectures off, I have noticed Professor Emerson has a Unique way of teaching, but nevertheless, there are still the same PowerPoints that are used every year. So, a personal article like “Law as Illumination, Not Literalism” is the Law Review Article I would like to React to. Professors Emerson’s article starts off with a short story that leads to a very intriguing question. This story was of Paul, Professor Emerson’s oldest Child, Paul felt the Marvel Character Wolverine “… would make a really good lawyer.” Paul’s explanation for this was “Because he’s got a really bad attitude.” From this Professor Emerson wondered “What causes a child to draw that conclusion?”. After reading the rest of Professor Emerson’s thoughts I would have to agree for the most part that for a child simplicity is everything. From what I have experienced, a seven-year-old child like Paul is still in the process of basic learning, which essentially teaches you to pick out context clues and relatable facts, like a bad attitude being a trait of a lawyer. This makes me wonder though, even with all the extra information I have acquired, that allows me to make a more informed response to why Wolverine would or would not be a capable lawyer, could I still simplify my answer to a “bad attitude”? The next part of Professor Emerson’s Article shows an email he received from a prior student regarding the possibility of legal obligation. The prior student had essentially written a product disclaimer requiring his female friend to exchange Fellatio for the opportunity to tear the wrapping paper on her birthday present. To start off, I fully believe this prior student was just emailing Professor Emerson a comical example of legal obligations. After this email Professor Emerson proceeds to ask several questions, under the Legal Analysis section, which I will try my best to answer. First off, the prior student explained in his email that this was indeed a gift. With this it is socially understood, that when receiving a birthday gift, there is no legally binding contract …show more content…
Professor Emerson explains “A basic mission of law professors is to see the big picture, to not get hung up on labels: words indeed matter, but so does the spirit of the law.” On the other hand, lawyers now and throughout history have developed a tradition of “outfoxing” and using “trickery” in order to defend their clients. Essentially, from what I understand lawyers have the ability to find loopholes so subtle, that even an obviously guilty person can still be found not guilty. Professor Emerson makes a very good point about this “No matter the field of law, one can find concern over power disparities, whether economic, political, or informational.” This statement explains why a defendant who was accused can be let free even when they should be held responsible. When it comes to Common Law lawyers are responsible for defending their client, and with most problems the more money and resources you can expend on a solution the more likely you are to fix