This is the first in a new series of posts this month on new things we did in our teaching last semester or expect to do next semester.

One thing I did not do this past semester, but seriously thought about, was restricting laptop use in some way. I have a hard time pulling the trigger on this, in part because all of my strongest instincts are antipaternalist. But I can’t help feeling laptops are doing something pernicious in the law school classroom. Lisa Hatlen had a good post on the topic earlier this fall, which also generated several thoughtful comments. My basic concern is that the laptop has turned many law students into stenographers, with the quality of their learning and of classroom discussion suffering as a result. I find it a bit dismaying when students send me e-mails at the end of the semester quoting something verbatim that I said in class at the start of the semester and asking what I meant by it — this suggests that too much mental energy is going into transcription and not enough into comprehension and critical engagement with the material.

As a potential experiment, I have thought about sharing with students a detailed outline of the material I cover in class (so students don’t feel they need to transcribe) and banning laptops. On the other hand, I respect the fact that most upper-level students are used to having laptops, and that it would no doubt be perceived as unfair to ask them to abandon their well-established classroom practices so that I could conduct my little pedagogical experiment. For that reason, I would not try this except in a first-year class. I would also be reluctant to do it except as part of a cooperative venture with other first-year professors.

So, my only innovation this past semester was rather modest: I decided that I would test my first-year Criminal Law students on certain common-law rules.

I’m never any good at these questions. I’m always stumped whenever I’m asked, “Who is your hero?” Similarly, although I enjoyed many of my classes, I don’t recall too many “ah-ha” moments in law school that didn’t come from reading a book or an article. For whatever reason, I’m more inspired by ideas than people.

And the idea that I picked up in law school that inspired me more than any other was the idea that law is part of a broader web of human culture, that it both influences other aspects of that culture and is influenced by it. I encountered (at least) two professors at Yale who were grappling with this concept, Bob Ellickson and Larry Lessig. Well, Lessig was only a visitor during the spring semester of my first year. On the other hand, I never took a class with Ellickson, and I’m not sure I’ve even ever met him. I know Ellickson primarily through his classic, Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes.

So Lessig it is.