Law schools, since times of the legendary Harvard Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell, have concentrated first and foremost on analytical training of law students. Learning to “think like a lawyer” has been the core of every law school’s program, and until the last few decades when clinical education gained recognition, that analytical training has been nearly the sole focus of law school courses.
This has been a tremendous success, and should not be denigrated. Every lawyer in the U.S. has been trained to interpret and analyze legal authority in pretty much the same way. We may differ in skill and disagree on how to apply legal reasoning, but nearly all of us agree on what legal reasoning is.
