Against Dichotomy

Abstract

I want to object to a growing tendency, evident at this symposium, to recognize and to applaud a division of legal scholarship into two branches. Professor Fletcher distinguishes "committed argument" from "detached observation." Professor Posner distinguishes doctrinal analysis from analysis by the methods of social science. Professor Kronman distinguishes lawyerly advocacy from the scholarly pursuit of truth. These several dichotomies are not identical, but they seem to have a common theme-the idea that some legal scholarship resembles the work of lawyers and judges, and some more closely resembles the work of other academics.