Thinking like a lawyer, thinking like a legal system.

摘要

The legal system is the product of lawyers. Lawyers are the product of a specific educational system. Therefore, to understand the legal system, we must first explore how lawyers are trained and conditioned to think. What does it mean to "Think Like a Lawyer?'' This dissertation makes use of autoethnography to explore the experience and effects of law school. It recreates the daily ritual of law students and law professors. It explores the Socratic nature of legal education. Finally, it links these processes to complex systems in general and the practice of law in particular. This dissertation concludes that lawyers and the legal system are the product of a specific, initiation-like ritual process that occurs during and within the specific sociocultural context of law school.