Why Everyone Should Take a Law Class…

During these few weeks before starting the daunting 1L journey, out of curiosity and anxiety, I have been casually browsing the subject matters that will ultimately consume my life for the next three years.  Torts, Criminal Law, Contracts, Civil Procedure, etc … are particularly daunting for me since I have little to no knowledge about any of these topics, especially coming from a science background.  From the little bits and pieces that I have gathered (and possibly because it has only been bits and pieces that I am still so optimistic), I feel as though I have been missing a large chunk of everyday knowledge all my life.  Although I have only touched briefly upon the most basic of basic laws, I have come to realize that much of it ends up to making sense, common sense; however, at the same time, they are equally as perplexing when applied to odd hypotheticals.  It is then when I recognized how estimable the Supreme Court Justices are/were; to pave the ways of how a society ultimately functions, balancing the ideals of justice and the issues of realities. 

I admit, the law in itself is probably boring for an average person who may not have such an interest in sifting through and digesting it.  However, the thought patterns gained from following hypotheticals are particularly stimulating and also so universally valuable that even little children can join in on the debate on a basic level (my 11 year old sisters find them fun to talk about).  Maybe the title is a little misleading.  The title should be why should everyone take part in a course that focuses on understanding how the law works or what is fair albeit not actually memorizing a gazillion laws.  Some people may argue that most already do this as a part of their lives, so why require a class?  I say, there are many many people in this nation (especially people who are not reading blogs like Ms. JD) that would benefit from such a course being mandatory: people like me, for example, who never would have thought to be a lawyer, being that my entire family was all in the sciences and I serendipitously stumbled upon such an interest.  If I had any idea that studying the law was so logic based and not at all about being the opinionated type or the fighter against all evil and corrupt, I would have switched majors long ago.  A few things I’ve gathered in regard to the benefits of learning lawyer-like thinking for daily life:

1)   Forces you to think about the opposing arguments

2)   Teaches you to be more impartial in analyzing conflicts

3)   Uncovers different avenues of thought in reaching legal fairness

4)   Provides examples of high level  problem-solving

That being said, obviously, not everyone should/will want to be a lawyer; however, I do believe that everyone should have a taste of how their own country is running in the legal sense and the steps that it has taken to reach this point.  People really do take for granted how far we have come in these past centuries and tend to focus on the problems that our laws are creating in today’s societies.  Though these problems are without a doubt important, to see where they have come from gives perspective and a better understanding as to why they are what they are and a better grasp of how we can move forward.  Again, not everyone is going to be a policy maker either, but to have the average American more knowledgeable about the basics of the law would create a better bridge of communication between the nation’s law abiders and the law itself. 

I could just be in the honeymoon stage with the law right now.  Possibly, a class is asking too much…maybe an extension of a history class with bits and pieces of the interesting cases along with some hypotheticals that can get students to attempt the lawyer-like thought process.  Funny that I haven’t actually even taken a law school class and I’m such an advocate for the way it works.  It could be that I’m distorting everything with my naïve 0L self and trying to convince myself that law school isn’t as daunting as everyone says it is. I guess, only time will tell…