Doin' the blog thing...

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the show.

There's one thing that I've noticed about law students' blogs, and that is because I'm not very perceptive. I'm sure that there are many things that I could have noticed - colours, insightful commentary, witty one-liners about life in law school - you know, actual content?

But here's what I've noticed. They all have their origins in late November/early December of first year. We get to that point, in the first round of exams, where we realize that anything is better than studying, and blogging qualifies as 'anything'. As demonstrated by the content of most blogs (remember, that stuff that I wasn't paying any attention to beforehand - this will be the first of many logical inconsistencies that one might infer from my posting), blogging is as 'anything' as it gets. (What does that even mean?)

So, what to expect from this? I don't know; I suppose random musings, pithy (and substantial) commentary, excerpts from a case that I find particularly funny - that sort of thing. Below is an example of all of the above, neatly wrapped into a well-punctuated paragraph:

One of the things that I appreciate about law school so far is the judge's ability to not only administer justice in their written decisions, but to create beauty therein. I'm not referring to a particular inference or piece of legal reasoning that is so brilliant that it evokes comparisons to great works of fine art, but rather some good, old fashioned, purple prose. Consider Simmons v. U.S. (1962; U.S. Court of Appeals [4th Circ.]), where Chief Justice Sobelhoff wrote "Diamond Jim III, a rock fish, was one of millions of his species swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, but he was a very special fish, and he occasions some nice legal questions." Now, I don't know much about law (I am only a first-year law student, after all), but darn it, when that is the opening sentence to a decision, I want to find out about this case. And I'm not going to forget the facts (I think it was about fishing, or beer, or something) because I've been reeled in by a great hook of an opening line (expect that kind of bad humour throughout this blog).

Anyway, I really should consider studying at some point - while I have completed two exams, I do have three next week, which should give me ample opportunity for procrastination.

Oh, and as for the name of the blog - 'Legal Fiction' - it has its origins in the fact that every blog must have a short, mildly esoteric (read: unfunny to the general public), nerdy title. I guess to break it down (in the parlance of hip-hop enthusiasts), it is 'legal' in the sense that I am a 'law student', and 'fiction' in the sense that it is 'all lies.'