Five Approaches to Legal Reasoning in the Classroom: Contrasting Perspectives on O'Brien v. Cunard S.S. Co.

Abstract:     
This paper is a brief Introduction to five articles dealing with the role a teacher's ideology might properly play in guiding his or her teaching by having the writers - each an afficionado of a particular "school" of academic thought (critical legal theory, law and economics, feminism, critical race theory, and a kind of traditional theoretical agnosticism) discuss how his or her perspective on law would color teaching a case appearing in many casebooks on Torts, O'Brien v. Cunard S.S. Co., 28 N.E. 266 (Mass. 1891), reprinted at 57 Mo. L. Rev. 347 (1992). The article briefly "states" the case in O'Brien and then introduces the other writers, whose papers ensue in the same volume.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: legal education, case method, torts, O'Brien v. Cunard S.S. Co., teaching ideology

JEL Classification: K13, K19, K39

Accepted Paper Series