Comments on: Books for New Law Students

By: Brannon Denning

Brannon Denning — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:06:00 +0000

Patrick: I hadn’t heard of Murphy’s book, but look forward to getting a copy.

Jason: I try to do provide context and background through an introductory lecture on the Framing of the Constitution, etc. But some students confess lacking even a “Schoolhouse Rock”-level understanding of government or the Supreme Court. So, it’s nice to be able to give them some way to get up to speed.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:35:47 +0000

It’s not clear to me why students would have a harder time with ConLaw because of lack of background than with e.g. Contracts. Isn’t it part of the professor’s job, in either case, to provide that background?

By: Patrick S. O'Donnell

Patrick S. O'Donnell — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:48:39 +0000

To take nothing whatsoever away from Fallon’s book (Chemerinsky himself gives his enthusiastic endorsement in a blurb), but more ambitious or venturesome students might benefit from Walter Murphy’s Constitutional Democracy: Creating and Maintaining a Just Political Order (2007). (And it’s less provincial or parochial, befitting our time.)

Alas, my own experience with students (non-law) tells me that they read only what is assigned to them (i.e., required) and even then not very diligently or thoroughly.