Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here is a terrific essay by law professor Orin S. Kerr. I wish I had been able to read it before I began law school in August 1979, because it would have dispelled a great many confusions. For some reason, I thought law school would be easier than college. Ha! It was much harder. It was like visiting a dangerous foreign country without knowing the native language, where every slip of the tongue could result in injury or death. I also thought law school was about abstractions. What I learned, very quickly, was that facts matter. Law is the application of rules and principles (the "abstract" part) to facts. It is a skill, not (or not just) a body of knowledge.