The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and Its Study

nWritten generations ago, but highly relevant today, The Bramble Bush remains one of the books most recommended for students to read when considering law school, just before beginning its study, or early in the first semester. [NOTE: Only the Quid Pro versions offer the modern features noted below (even if this description appears under other presses' used or new books, or customer reviews that decry the poor quality of reprints).] It began as a collection of introductory lectures by legal legend Karl Llewellyn to new law students at Columbia. It still speaks to law, legal reasoning, and exam-taking skills in a way that makes it a classic for each new generation. The Quid Pro edition includes an extensive, modern Introduction by Stewart Macaulay, renowned law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Macaulay updates the current reader on the book's continued relevance and application, offers a practical perspective to new law students, and places the original edition in its historical context. Simply put, Macaulay writes, this is a book that anyone interested in law schools or law should read. The Quid Pro edition of the classic work also includes several unobtrusive annotations, to update the reader on legal terms and cultural references made in the original that may not be clear to today's reader. Moreover, this is a carefully proofread and clearly presented edition, lacking the errors and scanning mistakes of other presses' editions even from famous publishers (e.g., it's canons of jurisprudence, not cannons!). It is also available in eBook and clothbound formats from Quid Pro, including the annotations and modern introduction by Prof. Macaulay. Llewellyn's pointed and clear explanations of case briefing before class, visualization of case facts, active learning in class, the use of precedent, exam formats, and the limits of logic have proved timeless and highly practical. They remain excellent advice for current students to consider and implement in their own journey into the law. This is no Chamber of Commerce speech of mere platitudes about law practice and the grandeur of the bar. To be sure, Llewellyn believed in law school and legal education, and in dreaming big about a life in the law. But he was-famously-a realist above all, and this book gets to the nuts and bolts of studying law successfully in traditional legal education. Whether from the enduring nature of his hands-on advice, or from the reality that the first year of law