Page 11 - LAPA Test

Amon, Continued
These are crucial tasks but law schools also need to prepare lawyers to understand the deeper sides of law—how it evolves over time and how it can change lives, hopefully for the good. I see LAPA’s contribution in this crucial second category. LAPA focuses on the fundamental aspects of law and the current debates of the times –and over time. The collegial community of LAPA sustains wide ranging scholarly engagement with law as integral to public life and, by its interdisciplinary nature, also integral to the intellectual life of the disciplines themselves. From my perspective as a legal academic, the most important contribution LAPA makes to legal scholarship is the critical and creative thinking all of this inspires and supports.
Do you have an opinion on whether Princeton University should have had a law school?
I do not know that history in detail, but if it had created a law school, I am con dent it would have been among the very best!
What have you most enjoyed about your years of association with LAPA?
As a Fellow and since then as a Visitor, I have found the collegiality and the intellectual seriousness both stimulating and inspiring. The mix of fellows and projects, and their goals and expertise is always exciting in itself, as is the sense that their work is creating new pathways for scholarship. It is a privilege to be a part of such a creative community.
Have you seen changes from your rst association with LAPA as a fellow to this year’s participation (Other than that the fellows keep ge ing younger)?
I nd the program remarkably the same in the best of ways since I was a fellow in 2002. The seriousness of the research, the intellectual generosity of the Fellows, the intensity of the seminars and even the fact that a er the salad, the conversation at dinner is just one conversation are all the way it was. The topics of course change with the times as our sense of problem must of necessity change. It is more global now perhaps and even more interdisciplinary. But I see remarkable continuity. This continuity is more important than ever because many law schools are changing—some feeling the pressure that comes with lower enrollments and most of them focusing on increasing their emphasis on their professional school missions. All of this comes at a time when law schools are trying to make their students as competitive as possible for the challenging job markets many of them will face. LAPA may not be changing dramatically but the need for its culture of re ection and a long term outlook on law have never been more urgent.
Strother, Continued
I argue that the Supreme Court has signi cantly more power and in uence in the American political system than we typically give it credit for. I show that the weak Court thesis is built on a pre y narrow conceptualization of Court power; speci cally, judicial power is understood as the ability to induce outside actors to implement court orders. This focus neglects the policy implications of doctrinal innovations, however. I extend the scope of this inquiry to include the direct policy consequences of judicial interpretation, and nd that the Court is routinely successful at altering public policy in meaningful ways.
Why did you choose to come to LAPA and Princeton for your post-doctoral year? What value do you see LAPA adding to your scholarship and future plans?
I had heard a lot about LAPA from friends at Princeton, especially about the great scholars that come in every year as part of the Fellows program, its great programming, speaker series, and the like. I also appreciated LAPA’s interdisciplinary identity, and its e orts to foster diverse perspectives on the ways that law shapes, and is shaped by, social and political forces. I was really drawn to the opportunity to spend time in such an intellectually stimulating environment. My foremost goal while at LAPA is to get a lot of writing done in order to improve my chances to get a good job. In addition to the time that this position a ords me to write, LAPA provides tremendous opportunity for me to meet and learn from other scholars doing law-engaged work. In the few weeks I’ve been here, I have already bene ed from numerous conversations with people at LAPA events—conversations that have helped me to think through questions I’ve been struggling with in my own research, caused me to rethink old ideas, and opened up new questions altogether. In the short period of time that I’ve been here, being part of the LAPA community has already enriched my thinking on law and politics.
What are the ideal features of your future employment?
I really like being an academic; I’m convinced this is the best job in the world. I love teaching, and I love doing research, so my ideal job would be at a place that values both. I especially enjoy teaching constitutional law and constitutional development, so I’d be pre y happy if my job included teaching those courses. When I was at Syracuse University (completing my Ph.D.) I had the opportunity to advise several undergraduate students who were working on research projects as part of the honors program, and I really enjoyed working closely with those students on their research, so the opportunity to continue advising and working closely with students who are pursuing their own research would be a big plus for me.
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