Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Publication Information
69 Buff. L. Rev. 3 (2021).
Abstract
I confess that I’m not at all certain why I was invited to this distinguished gathering. I suppose that it’s because Schlegel and I are friends; but that just pushes the mystery back a remove. Because as Jack surely recognizes, it is not at all obvious that (or why) we should be friends. We are from different generations—Schlegel is my senior by nearly twenty years. I don’t imagine that anyone would suggest that our personal styles bear a strong resemblance to one another. And our approaches to scholarship are almost antagonistic. Jack’s message accompanying the invitation to this conference strongly discouraged contributions focused on legal doctrine. For better or worse, that is the topic about which I have been thinking and writing for much of the past three decades. When I first introduced Schlegel to my wife at the Toronto meeting of the American Society for Legal History in 1999, he smiled broadly, pointed at me, and told her, “He does the best of the kind of work that I hate.” The closest he has ever come to complimenting my approach is to say, “I don’t believe in your internalism, but I understand it.” But the tone of reproach was unmistakable. As he said on another occasion, writing “doctrinal history” was a “misplaced” use of my energies. (In fairness, I must concede that he actually has said nicer things, but I don’t want to damage his cred by quoting them here).
Recommended Citation
Barry Cushman,
Tuesday Afternoons with Schlegel,
69 Buff. L. Rev. 3 (2021)..
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1775
Comments
Abstract from introduction.