SAR Snapshot: Should You Major in English?
Reflections on legal and literary interpretation
One of the fun parts of writing a book is that the significant time between finishing the manuscript and publication means that you forget a good deal of what you wrote by the time others are reading it. And then readers alert you to certain passages that struck a chord with them. Here is one such passage from Learning to Disagree:
Lawyers, judges, politicians, and police officers do not interpret poetry; they interpret laws backed by coercive force. And their interpretations of these laws have consequences. I tell my students that if all they want to do is interpret texts, they should get a PhD in English literature. Every so often, one of my students who happens to have a PhD in English literature bristles at the comment. But most of my students get the point. The law is a profession because the stakes are high, and the rules of the game are codified and complex. Nobody cares about your personal opinions. They care about your arguments and how your arguments relate to the relevant legal issue.
As you may have guessed, I’ve heard from a few English majors about this one. In today’s post, I explore its implications a bit more than I was able to do in the book.
Legal Interpretation
The principal claim in the passage above is that the stakes of legal interpretation are much higher than many other forms of interpretation, including literary interpretation. That’s one reason that lawyers are subjected to professional licensing, ethical codes, and malpractice lawsuits. And even though legal interpretation is still interpretation—more judgment and discernment than simply giving the right answer—that interpretation is often more constrained than artistic or humanistic interpretation.
A related point—which I explore in greater detail in Learning to Disagree—is that legal interpretation is ultimately enforced by the threat or use of violence:
Most of us don’t see this reality because most of us comply with legal norms. But try ignoring a key contract provision or deciding not to pay your rent or mortgage and see what happens. And then see what happens after you refuse to comply with the police officer who shows up to enforce your legally binding agreement. Actually, don’t do that—just take my word that it won’t go well for you.
Or, as Robert Cover succinctly put it in his article, Violence and the Word: “Legal interpretation takes place in a field of pain and death.”
Is Law More Practical Than English?
In pointing to the differences between legal and literary interpretation, I don’t intend any normative claim about their relative value or practicality. The point is simply that they’re different activities, and the differences matter. But we need poets as well as lawyers.
We need poets to make the world more humane and to point to truth and beauty in ways that law cannot always do. A world without legal interpretation means unending violence; a world without literary interpretation means unimaginable dullness. Words that comprise and interpret stories, art, and holy texts also point us to deeper lived experiences and open us to the possibility of transcendence.
We also need poets for politics and law. As lawyer and author Stephen Harrison (also my former student!) pointed out to me over email, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the television show Will & Grace both contributed to public awareness and understanding of important legal and regulatory issues in their day. As Stephen put it, “literature and art can influence hearts and minds, and therefore inspire changes to law.”
Should You Major in English?
My admittedly clickbait title asks the question of what to study in college, but of course there’s no one right answer. That’s especially true for anyone headed to law school. As I’ve suggested elsewhere in more detail, don’t worry about finding a “pre-law” major. Study what interests you, do well in your classes, and work on becoming a better writer.
But I do think there’s a benefit to majoring in English regardless of what comes after college. At least at many colleges and universities, English is the kind of major that can help you become a better writer and a better reader of texts. And whether you end up interpreting legal or literary texts, those skills will help you speak more truthfully and more forcefully in the world. They might even help you get a job.
Of course, this advice comes too late for many of you who already have college in the rearview mirror. That’s okay! We could all stand to pay more attention to our reading and writing, to think and act more carefully and more charitably with the people around us. So take a break from social media, pick up a book or jot down some ideas, and get to work improving your reading, writing, and thinking.
More on Learning to Disagree
This month, journalist Jon Ward engaged with Learning to Disagree in a series of posts on his Substack, Border Stalkers. Jon also interviewed me earlier this week for his podcast. We covered a range of issues, including how a lack of institutional purpose exacerbates some of the challenges currently unfolding on college and university campuses.
My mother taught legal research and writing at the University of Dayton Law School while my dad was stationed at Wright-Patt. As she explained to my eight-year-old self, when lawyers write things, they are helping the judge better understand the facts of the case, which will lead to a more just outcome or ruling. The judge can go back and refer to the writing as he/she is considering the case. Therefore, what a lawyer writes is of paramount importance, arguably more so than oral arguments or even the transcript of a trial, since a well-written document from a lawyer should be clear, concise, complete, unbiased, well-researched, and drama-free.
She was a Classics major, which gave her the ability to parse language in such a way that she could run circles around pretty much anyone in a debate.
Understanding and being able to use language effectively is a subtle and often overlooked skill. While my dad was a professor at AFA, he would bring her in to give guest lectures and conduct workshops on writing for his Aero major students. Although writing skills are particularly useful in those professions that rely heavily on interpretation and qualitative analysis, being an effective writer gives you an advantage is any situation.
Who was it that said, “Give me the songs of a nation, I care not who writes its laws”? It came to mind as I was reading this.