Reviews for What Law School Doesn't Teach You--Quick Reference Chart

The average rating for What Law School Doesn't Teach You--Quick Reference Chart based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-11-12 00:00:00 Lucas Chaparron This is a classic that used to be assigned to law students. It involves a case from 1884 where three British shipwrecked sailors were rescued and admitted to having killed and eaten the fourth to survive. This was apparently acceptable practice at the time, but finally some lawyer said, "Hey, they commited murder, and the law still counts if you're at sea." So they were put on trial and convicted. Everyone expected them to be pardoned, but the guy in charge of asking Queen Victoria to pardon them was having a spat with her, so they got their sentence commuted to 6 months in prison instead. The case really changed a lot of things about British law, particularly about how murder is always murder, even if you do it to survive. I didn't like this book as much as I expected to. The author really really goes into detail about similar cases, occasionally breaking the chronology and losing momentum for the case we're supposed to care about. Most of the records from that period were destroyed in various fires during World War II or simply thrown away, so he admits to not being able to fill in some blanks. Some of the period detail is fascinating and sometimes it just bogs the whole book down.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-04-08 00:00:00 Joseph Charlot This reads, in language, like a Monty Python sketch. Where the dialogue is nominally serious, but little bits of dry humor crack in, here without the humor. The book is about a single yachting accident and subsequent investigation and trial, where the survivors kill a weakened member of their crew and eat him to stay alive. The captain that did the killing is open about it when rescued, and gives a faithful-ish recount to those who investigate him. None of that is a spoiler, it's in the first chapter/prologue. The book then goes into the larger practice of cannibalism at sea by "Western" sailors to stay alive, and how much leeway captains and sailors had in their actions at sea in the 18th and 19th centuries. The book is mostly as dry as white toast, with some more salacious bits thrown in. It is written by someone who clearly idolizes/romanticizes the British sailing and yachting culture (more the latter). This is obvious by the level of detail in the descriptions of the yachts. It'd be like a story about interpersonal relationships among race car drivers, with very specific specs given as to the car's HP, torque, weight, frame shape, welding style, etc. You could tell it was written by a gearhead. Here, then is a "gearhead" of British yachts of the 1800s. I think that's where the Monty Python feel comes in, with the almost comical level of detail about things that ABSOLUTELY DONT MATTER TO THE STORY AT ALL. But if you love the topic, you will write what you want to write. I found myself skipping past the 40th, 50th, 100th detailed description of yachts and other sailing ships (beam, forecastle design, rigging, etc) to get to the human story of how, why and when we resort to cannibalism. Odd, again, that a book about the topic should mostly be a mayonnaise sandwich. If you are looking for something at the opposite end, something that is basically a TMZ/pop-journalism article about cannibalism, comprised almost entirely of first-person accounts to historians, then check out Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present ... escapes and heart-rending fatalities.. It's in the public domain for download, and is the equivalent of tabloid journalism in book form. Guilty pleasure.