March 20, 2007

Introduction

by Dave

Greetings! I've been invited by the current editors of De Novo to be a Guest Contributor. I want to thank PG, Armen and Sean for the invite.

A little about me: I'm a 1L at the University of San Francisco School of Law. I'm a couple of years older than the average law student; after spending my twenties pursuing a career in business I decided to fulfill a long-time dream and head back to school. Shortly after starting my 1L year I took my initial foray into blogging at Traditional Notions. I'm originally from New York, and have spent various parts of my life living in Latin America and Europe, but after five years in the Bay Area it is now my home.

Topics that interest me and that I like to blog about: Law and economics, international trade and trade law, development economics, the Supreme Court and the rest of the judiciary, and a zillion little esoteric legal issues (for example, I am fascinated by the development of personal jurisdiction rules). I'm also generally interested in international affairs and domestic politics, whether related to law or not.

I am also intrigued by the role of law as an attempt to balance diverse social interests, and the tension between having a body of law that tracks to a changing society while at the same time retaining a normative set of rules that is known to be the law and does not change in response to a merely shifting zeitgeist.

Additionally, I often enjoy some of the absurdity and lightheartedness found in the law. I find it easy to view law as a replacement for religion in secular society, with the high priests wearing their robes in their vaulted temples, all the while discerning meaning from centuries-old texts that no one else can understand. Meanwhile, acolyte lawyers and law students revere the faith of the law, participating in its ancient incantations and rigid hierarchies. Against this medieval background there is the occasional piercing of the veil of serious sanctity, such as the brief written as a parody of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Judge Posner giving a lecture on property rights in virtual worlds as a cartoon character in Second Life, or a Supreme Court case involving a banner with the inscription "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" (talk about the priests of secular society!). So, you will probably see some of that sort of thing from me as well.

I also enjoy feedback and discussion. Feel free to jump in, post a comment, call me an idiot. Law school was the best move I ever made because I love a good argument. I also like hearing diverse viewpoints on an issue that I do not know much about, and hope to post some questions here that readers might respond to. And I think PG 's idea to bring back the Symposia is terrific, and I hope to participate in one soon.

Anyway, thanks again to the current bloggers at De Novo. I'm a big fan of all of their blogs, as well as the work of previous bloggers on this site.

If you have any questions or comments for me, please feel free to email me at traditionalnotions@gmail.com.

March 20, 2007 02:09 PM | TrackBack
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