Pre-law education and the Honors Program
"Shortly stated, what the law schools seek in their entering
students is not accomplishment in mere memorization but accomplishment
in understanding, the capacity to think for themselves, and the ability
to express their thoughts with clarity and force." -- Statement on
Pre-legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools
Although the Honors Program is compatible with any major, pre-law
students have found it especially valuable. A major in Liberal Studies,
coupled with a minor or second major in English, Political Science, or
Philosophy, provides an excellent preparation for law school.
Concentration on analytic reading, extensive writing with constructive
feedback from faculty, and continual opportunity in a supportive
environment to speak one's mind, help Honors Program students to
develop, as the AALS says, "a power to think clearly, carefully, and
independently." In addition, Honors Program students read many of the
classics of political philosophy.
Below we briefly compare portions of the Statement of the AALS with
the Honors Program to show why this sort of liberal education is ideal
preparation for the study of law.
Speaking, Writing, and Rhetoric
"... above all, one must write and speak. One learns to write by
writing, to speak by speaking" -- Statement on Pre-legal education of
the AALS
- All Honors Program courses are discussion classes in which students
develop skills in careful listening, precise speaking, and cogent
reasoning to support their opinions. In all courses, including those in
the math-science sequence, writing is taught. Of special value for
pre-law students is the Junior Language tutorial, entitled "The Uses of
Language," in which we study rhetoric, the liberal art of persuasion.
Since persuasion by advocates is central to our adversarial legal
system, rhetoric is an important art for lawyers. In Junior Language we
consider the moral issues involved in advocacy for hire by reading
texts of Plato and Aristotle, and we study rhetoric by example through
American political and constitutional debates and a number of Supreme
Court cases.
Philosophy, Seminars, and Legal Training
"A sensitivity to the enduring questions of personal and public
morality forms an appropriate backdrop for the consideration of legal
issues. Perhaps of even greater importance is the training in
understanding abstractions. The free and spirited consideration of
philosophical questions is almost the classic model for legal
training."-- Statement on Pre-legal education of the AALS
- The "free and spirited consideration of philosophical questions" is
a concise description of the Honors Program seminars. Students read and
discuss many texts - philosophical, literary, historical, religious,
and political - chosen in part for their attention to enduring ethical
questions. Since many of these texts advance positions different from
our own, we are forced to embrace wider abstractions in order to grasp
them, and this is one way in which a liberal education frees and
empowers the mind.
Foreign Language and the Study of Latin
"On the question of studying Latin: as a form of training in the
analysis of language structure and as an integral part of the classical
education, Latin -- as well as other languages -- is very valuable.
However, the knowledge of Latin as such is of no special value to the
law student. Again working with words is the key for the lawyer and to
the extent that studying languages creates a precise appreciation and
understanding of the structure of thought through words, there could be
few more valuable subjects for study." -- Statement on Pre-legal
education of the AALS
- A liberal education involves, among other things, learning how to
communicate effectively. The way to learn this is through the study of
language, specifically, of how sounds are put together into words,
words into sentences, and sentences into extended forms of speech. The
best way to begin the study of language -- even our own native language
-- is to master the fundamentals of a foreign tongue. It is all too
easy to be a careless reader in our own language: when we are roughly
familiar with the words an author uses, we readily assume we have
grasped his meaning. With a foreign language, such carelessness is
impossible. Thus the purpose of our foreign language study is not
knowledge of the foreign tongue as such but "precise appreciation and
understanding of the structure of thought through words", i.e.,
acquisition of the liberal art of grammar.
Mathematics and Logic
"The study of logic and mathematics is regarded as excellent pre-law
work because it provides training in the process of reasoning and the
use of abstractions." -- Statement on Pre-legal education of the AALS
- One goal of the math-science courses in the Honors Program is to
give students extensive experience with logical argumentation. The
sequence of courses begins with a brief study of formal logic, then
turns to Euclid's Elements, which consists of a connected series of
logical arguments about geometrical objects. We study Euclidean
geometry in part because in this kind of mathematics, rather than
merely manipulating symbols, one can and must follow the abstract
reasoning. Subsequent courses in astronomy, physics, and biology focus
on the logical structures that relate phenomena and theories, rather
than the memorization of facts.
Social Science
"The interaction of law and social science is something with which
the law student will want more than a passing familiarity. Ideally,
this would include exposure to the methodology of the social sciences,
including some statistics." -- Statement on Pre-legal education of the
AALS
- Statistics and the social science of economics are the subjects of the senior level
math-science course. We use a thoughtful contemporary text to study basic descriptive
and inferential statistics, with the goal of making students
statistically literate. And we use a lovely classic text to introduce some of the fundamental ideas and issues in economics.