Episode 217: Except as to Part I(A) Yada Yada
We discuss the morality of concurring and dissenting. And the usual nonsense.
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Oral Argument
A podcast about law, law school, legal theory, and other nerdy things that interest us.
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
Episodes
Episode 216: Mac-a-tizer
Joe and Christian talk about the pandemic and, then, some nonsense.
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr
Episode 215: Whirlpool of Garbage
We discuss the march on the Capitol and... all this.
Jan 11, 2021•1 hr 31 min
Episode 214: Small Claims
In this holiday spectacular, we talk about small claims. In particular, would a court for small copyright claims be a good or bad thing? You can probably guess what we each say. In exploring this, we consider the nature of dogs, hunters, and children.
Dec 22, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Episode 213: Blue Cheese Odyssey
Joe lowers the boom, and we start talking. In the 213th episode of this very serious podcast, we discuss: scams, flight simulators, flight, K2, Joe's blue cheese odyssey, olives, the nature of expertise, nihilism, and the adversary system. And other things as well.
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Episode 212: House of Worship
We discuss the Supreme Court's (I know, I know) decision in Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a87_4g15.pdf).
Dec 07, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Episode 211: Practice
Is this thing on? What did we miss?
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Episode 210: Exponential
Just Joe and Christian on the pandemic, new articles, and spring break. Achieving A Fair and Effective COVID-19 Response: An Open Letter to Vice-President Mike Pence, and Other Federal, State, and Local Leaders from Public Health and Legal Experts in the United States (https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/ghjp/documents/final_covid-19_letter_from_public_health_and_legal_experts.pdf) The President in discussion with pharma execs on a vaccine (https://twitter.com/owillis/status/123...
Mar 03, 2020•41 min
Episode 209: The Gun Subsidy
We are joined by our student, Justin Van Orsdol, who has co-authored a paper with Christian about a new approach to the gun violence crisis. Justin Van Orsdol's writing (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=3096029) Christian Turner and Justin Van Orsdol, The Gun Subsidy (https://ssrn.com/abstract=3537278) Oral Argument 101: Tug of War (https://oralargument.org/101) Special Guest: Justin Van Orsdol.
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 29 min
Episode 208: Competition Corner
We discuss a proposal by Sen. Hawley to abolish, more or less, the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that administers consumer protection and antitrust laws, and place its responsibilities in the Justice Department. Antitrust, the unitary executive, independent agencies, Joe's Competition Commission, and more. Josh Hawley, Overhauling the Federal Trade Commission (https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-02/Hawley-FTC-Overhaul.pdf) Mike Masnick, William Barr's Move to Rid the DO...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Episode 207: Bribery
Sometimes in law, as in other areas of life, we think we know something, but the more we think about, the more we realize we don't know it at all. Legal scholars have focused on puzzles like this before, like why blackmail should be illegal. Deborah Hellman joins us to discuss her attempt to answer a question you might not have known you had: What is wrong with bribery, and what is bribery anyway? The difficulties here shed some light on recent events. Deborah Hellman's faculty profile and writi...
Jan 31, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Episode 206: What Are We?
Joe and Christian discuss Christian's latest paper, on the way we define and separate markets, including European football, campaign finance, surrogate motherhood, and water bottles in disaster zones. Christian Turner, The Segregation of Markets (SSRN) (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3342629) (SocArXiv) (https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/5ehmy/)
Jan 17, 2020•1 hr 40 min
Episode 205: iBonus
Christian calls Joe out of the blue to celebrate our sixth anniversary and to talk about heroes.
Dec 22, 2019•28 min
Episode 204: Theocracy
We discuss new calls to integrate church and state. The conversation ranges over liberalism, religion, religious zeal, and, obviously, some nonsense. Micah Schwartzman and Jocelyn Wilson, The Unreasonableness of Catholic Integralism (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3436376) Adrian Vermeule, Integration from Within (https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/integration-from-within/) Christina Deardurff, "The Depths of the Church Are Not to Be Disturbed": An interview with Adr...
Oct 13, 2019•1 hr 32 min
Episode 203: Fifty-Four
On immaturity, defensiveness, art, the intellect, models, and the self. And mailbag on scholarship and practice, Title VII, and Star Trek. It's Joe's birthday.
Sep 08, 2019•1 hr 43 min
Episode 202: Conversations
We discuss dictionaries, up and down on maps, and excellence in seminar conversation. Joseph Miller, Suggestions for Law School Seminars (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3425608) Seminar Skills – Learning Collaboratively (https://sjcadmissionsblog.com/2019/07/22/seminar-skills-learning-collaboratively/)
Aug 23, 2019•1 hr 24 min
Episode 201: The Bag
Just Joe and Christian, lumbering into season 2, talking about tipping and fraud in the gig economy, bar exam fiascos, legal scholarship, and fireworks. Andy Newman, DoorDash Changes Tipping Model After Uproar From Customers (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/nyregion/doordash-tip-policy.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Article) Donna Hershkowitz, The State Bar of California, Statement on July 2019 Bar Exam Release of General Topics (http://www.calbar.ca.gov/About-Us/News-Events/N...
Jul 29, 2019•1 hr 46 min
Episode 200: Cite Me, Don't Slight Me
We kick off Season 2 with assorted nonsense before diving into our second SCOTUS round-up, which consists entirely of the Supreme Court's decision on the census citizenship question. Dep't of Commerce v. New York (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-966_bq7c.pdf)
Jul 08, 2019•2 hr 11 min
Episode 199: Offended Observer
We discuss items from the mailbag and go ahead and conduct our annual, absurd Supreme Court round-up (fifty minutes in). James Macleod, Ordinary Causation: A Study in Experimental Statutory Interpretation (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3352745) Obriecht v. Splinter (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15666046241258319811) Johari Canty, Florida Deputies Find Sign Warning Drivers About Upcoming Speed Trap (https://wsvn.com/news/local/florida-deputies-find-sign-warni...
Jun 23, 2019•2 hr 11 min
Episode 198: The Means of Randomization
How would you feel if you found out you were unwittingly the subject of an experiment testing two alternatives? You got A, and another group got B. Many people object to this. But what if neither A nor B was at all objectionable and in fact each is served up at many other places unilaterally and without reason for preferring one to the other? Why should we object to being randomly given A or B for the purpose of testing, when we would not object to having either uniformly and arbitrarily imposed...
May 28, 2019•1 hr 33 min
Episode 197: LARPing
We talk about LARPing, emotions, meaning, exam writing, grading, happiness, and other things. Lawrence S. Krieger and Kennon M. Sheldon, What Makes Lawyers Happy? A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success (https://ir.law.fsu.edu/articles/94/)
May 15, 2019•1 hr 27 min
Episode 196: It at Least Exists
Is the common law efficient? Richard Posner, among many others, has argued that it is, perhaps even without judges ever themselves focusing on that goal. Daniel Sokol joins us to discuss how understanding law as a platform, like modular and open-source software platforms, helps to see how some areas of the law might indeed become more efficient over time while others might not. Daniel Sokol's faculty profile (https://www.law.ufl.edu/faculty/d-daniel-sokol) and writing (https://papers.ssrn.com/so...
Apr 21, 2019•1 hr 16 min
Episode 195: Based
We dip back into the mailbag to discuss verdicts, unpublished opinions, "based off," canons and anti-canons, and more.
Apr 07, 2019•1 hr 19 min
Episode 194: Topoi
With Zahr Said and Jessica Silbey, we discuss new narrative forms, their setting, and their influence on law and legal education. How do the natures of podcasts, twitter, fake news, and deep fakes affect the way we experience culture together and how do they construct that culture and our legal culture? Zahr Said's faculty profile (https://www.law.uw.edu/directory/faculty/said-zahr-k) and writing (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1030166) Jessica Silbey's faculty profile ...
Mar 24, 2019•1 hr
Episode 193: A Giant Thunderstorm
Fast on the heels of her last appearance, Carissa Hessick joins us to talk about corpus linguistics, which means... well, we debate this, but, generally, the use of computer-based methods to draw inferences from large databases of texts. What is this enterprise? How can and should it be used to answer legal questions? What does it mean to mean something? These questions, thunder, sense, nonsense, and a continued delving into Joe's pscyhe all feature in this episode. Carissa Hessick’s faculty pro...
Mar 17, 2019•1 hr 19 min
Episode 192: Precisification
At long last, we discuss originalism with one of its foremost proponents, Lawrence Solum. In this conversation, we focus on Larry's recent effort to identify what constitutes originalism as a category of interpretive theories and what distinguishes it from other theories, including living constitutionalism. This episode's links: Larry Solum's faculty profile (https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/lawrence-b-solum/) and writing (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=327316) Le...
Mar 03, 2019•1 hr 23 min
Episode 191: Dynasty
After discussion of failing memory, mispronunciation of names, and legal scholarship, we turn to a very serious topic with our guest, Eric Kades. The looming threat of dynastic wealth in the United States has been much discussed since, and even before, the publication of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. We discuss Piketty's now-famous inequality, r > g, how certain legal rules handled the building of perpetual dynasties, the attack on those rules during the historically u...
Feb 24, 2019•1 hr 18 min
Episode 190: Why We Write
Just Joe and Christian talking about, inter alia, a paper about judicial writing and practice by the late Judge Wald. Live to tape and shipped without editing. Buyer beware! Patricia Wald, The Rhetoric of Results and the Results of Rhetoric: Judicial Writings (https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol62/iss4/8/)
Feb 10, 2019•1 hr 27 min
Episode 189: Repugnance
Kim Krawiec rejoins us to discuss "repugnant" transactions. One common target of this adjective is trade in human body parts. While on the one hand making more matching kidneys available saves lives and prevents large amounts of suffering, on the other hand revulsion and concerns about coercion and distributive fairness arise when kidneys are bought and paid for. In recent years, a number of innovative market designs have allowed strangers to exchange kidneys without engaging in impersonal, comm...
Jan 27, 2019•1 hr 17 min
Episode 188: Common Law Crimes
If you were charged with a crime, would you rather it be one written down by a legislature and codified in the tomes of a state's laws or one marked out by the decisions of judges over time? You're hardly alone if you chose the first option, and it is in fact the conventional wisdom that we have rightfully abandoned and prohibited "common law crimes." Not so fast, says our guest, Carissa Hessick. Our system of criminal law is still host to a good deal of common law, in the interstices of statuto...
Jan 20, 2019•57 min
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android