Part 1 The promise of law and courts Orderly dispute resolution Peaceful transition of power The number one function of the state Judicial policy making and correcting political failures The limits on law and courts Doctrinal Institutional Cultural What is law The law is reason free from passion Aristotle Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good promulgated by the person who has the care of the community Thomas Aquinas Every law is an infraction of liberty Jeremy Bentham That which is not just is not law William Lloyd Garrison There is no clear answer Some define law as bodies of rules enacted by the government backed by the force of the state Others define law as a language with distinct norms and modes of reasoning embedded in professional practices Others see law as a political resource that must be leveraged by activists Others see law as socially constructed understandings of legal rules Some working definitions Formal definition the law is a body of rules enacted by the government backed by the force of the state Branching out later Law as a political resource Socially constructed practice under rules The inherent conceptual ambiguity of the law will haunt us What is the rule of law It is the norm or expectation that legal disputes will be resolved according to pre existing rules and procedures regardless of the status of individual litigants What is litigation It involved the process by which specific disputes are resolved according to pre existing laws and in accordance with the rule of law Why are law and courts nearly universal The Logic of the Triad Shapiro Litigant 1 Litigant 2 The court triangle Consent ceremony non dichotomous decisions little bit to both sides What is the role of courts in our society Courts referees Why is this relationship inherently unstable 2 against 1 problem What is the role of law and the rule of law in this relationship Helps preserve the logic of the triad The Logic of the triad applied The logic of the triad deeply shapes how we think about the courts and how we talk about them Sotomayor A judge too far washington times 3 red flags She claimed that the court of appeals makes policy Wise latina comment Ruling in Ricci v Destafano She tilts too far to the left and is a bully Pot meet kettle new york times Look at her record She rejected race related discrimination claims 80 of the time She admitted her wise latina comment was a poor choice of words The Logic of the triad applied cont The blankship case What happened Case about congress running in the coal mining country What was the ruling Couldn t rule on the case because of coal contributions to judge So what What is the judge was a senator The Gay marriage controversy in iowa What s so bad about judicial elections Don t we want policy outcomes to reflect public sentiment Why shouldn t judges consider public opinions