Jurisprudence Noire
![handle is hein.journals/clr101 and id is 1777 raw text is: JURISPRUDENCE NOIRE
Pierre Schlag
INTRODUCTION
You don't know Robinson. But here's what Robinson said:
Do you know what fucking amazes me? . .. What simply fucking
amazes me? How little anyone who isn't a lawyer really knows
about what comes down. I am simply fucking amazed. They all
watch their lawyer TV shows, read these shitty legal thrillers, like
it's one big, suspenseful, meaningful endeavor-some intricate
mystery with a hidden truth revealed at the end of the final
chapter. They hate lawyers more than anyone else in the
world-but law? Law! They love the fucking law! (Pp. I4-I5.)
This is what Robinson said. But who is Robinson to say such things?
What do we really know about Robinson? Actually, not a lot. Robinson is
one of the lawyers Lawrence Joseph interviews in his book, Lawyerland.
Maybe Robinson is real and maybe he's not. Joseph isn't totally straight
with us on that score. In the first sentence of the book, in the Note to
the Reader, Joseph tells us: This is a work of nonfiction. Sure it is.
Except that in the very next sentence, Joseph says the names, circum-
stances, and characteristics of the persons and places portrayed [in short,
virtually anything at all] have been changed. Now, if you're a lawyer, or
at least a good one, this shouldn't bother you too much; you're accus-
tomed to navigating in a world where you often don't know who's who or
what's what-a world where the fiction/nonfiction distinctions don't cut
very far. Put it this way: Lawyerland is as real as any fiction you're already
living (or vice versa).
Meanwhile, Robinson is hurling these epithets at you. Actually, it's
not really at you. Technically, Robinson is talking to the narrator. But
since Robinson is on a jag and the narrator recedes into the background,
you are the only person Robinson could be talking to. He must be talk-
ing to you. There's nobody else here.
Then too there is the sheer intensity of Robinson's talk both in form
(the man is fond of exclamations) and substance (one insight trips off
the page after another). Robinson is almost abusive. Here he goes again:
They love the fucking law! You see it in the jurors' faces-even
the most sophisticated and street smart. They're not only in-
trigued-they're impressed! Reasonable doubt-they go fuck-
ing bananas! Just say the words and their eyes change.... The
same thing with intent. Mens-fuckin'-rea! God, how jurors love
mens-fucking-rea! (P. I5.)
* Byron White Professor of Law, University of Colorado School of Law. I owe the title
of this piece to David Luban's observations about the noirish flavor of Lawyerland.
1733](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/clr101&div=66&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Jurisprudence Noire
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