Happy Family

I really really like my family law class. It may very well be my favorite class in law school so far.

Part of it has to do with family law itself. The law itself is not very doctrinal, and much more goal-oriented, so we spend a lot of time talking about intuitions and policies rather than cases. We do read some cases, but most of the time we debate about the consequences of one rule or one policy over another, and you really feel like the law is designed to further some societal good rather than just being dead text on a page that turn a blind eye to reality.

Part of it is the prof, who is really affable and nice and caring. He took some of us to dinner last night (at my favorite pizza place! Although I wonder whether he liked it) and asked a lot of questions and seemed genuinely interested in us. Sometimes he stays after class for an hour or more talking with us about the issues we raised in class, and really seemed to enjoy the conversations.

Today we had moot court in class about polygamy. More specifically, about whether it makes sense to not sanction polygamous marriages when we approve of same sex marriage. I am on the team that says yes, and we first watched a movie about polygamous relationships, then debated. My intuition is pretty strong that polygamous relationships in practice tend to disadvantage women, but the opposite side disputed whether this is the effect of the polygamous relationships themselves or whether it is a result of the legal rules that stigmatize such relationships. The discussion was fascinating and really brought out our implicit attitude and assumptions about relationships and marriage (at least mine - I also had a very visceral and emotional reaction to the movie about polygamy - as in, I would rather kill self than to be in one of those relationships! He he).

Anyway, after class, the prof talked to my team for a long time about polygamy, and then we started talking about divorce, which we are going to talk about tomorrow. As a child of divorce, I can't wait. :)

Anyway, I wonder if Prof B is thinking about coming to my law school. I hope he is, because he is great.