One book for new law students

From Conglomerate comes the question, if I could recommend one book to prospective law students, what would it be? With so many possibilities, this would seem to be a hard question. But as with any question, it gets easier if you use filters to boil it down.  Here are my criteria of the book’s characteristics:

1. Expresses my philosophy of the role of law.

2. Accessible and engaging, so the students will actually read it.

3. Poses questions that the students can think about throughout their law school careers.

4. Takes a perspective that the students may not otherwise have or get in class.

5.  Addesses issues that are important to most practicing lawyers on a day to day basis.   

And the answer: R.H. Coase, The Firm, the Market and the Law – a collection of some of Coase’s best writings.

Entering students learn

--some humility about the role of law -- that it doesn’t always matter, and why it does when it does.

--the continuity between the law and market devices (i.e., the firm) that address similar problems.

--the surprising example of the lighthouse to consider whenever they are told we must have a government solution.

--to distrust “blackboard” theories in favor of learning how the world operates.

--what the Problem of Social Cost actually says.

I would suggest, though, that entering law students skip The Marginal Cost Controversy.

Comments

[Robert Schwartz]

Bleak House by Charles Dickens.