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Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:14 pm
by SchopenhauerFTW
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/07/11/yal ... -d-in-law/
WSJ wrote:With times as hard as they are for law school graduates, and many schools decreasing enrollments, you might think that encouraging students to pursue even more years of school would be the last thing on anyone’s mind. Yale has some different ideas about that.
Yale Law School has announced a program for a Ph.D. in Law, which it claims is the first in the nation, and is designed to prepare students who have earned a J.D. to enter careers in legal scholarship, according to the school’s website.
Students in the program will spend three years learning how to produce scholarly research and writing, as well as taking classes in teaching and, eventually, teaching classes themselves, the National Law Journal reported.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:15 pm
by fatduck
just another way to skew their employment statistics. what a TTT.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:38 pm
by SchopenhauerFTW
A WSJ Reader wrote:Is there any evidence that such a program is necessary, aside from the mere existence of Justice Scalia?
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:41 pm
by dingbat
What's the difference between an SJD and a PhD in law?
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:41 pm
by piccolittle
Isn't that basically an SJD under another name? haha dingbat beat me to it
Plenty of people do the equivalent of Ph.D.s in law in the UK if they are on the academia track (including a few friends of mine).
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:42 pm
by Aberzombie1892
Then what's the point of an SJD?
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:46 pm
by dingbat
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:49 pm
by TatteredDignity
Yale's website says their SJD is the natural continuation of their LLM for foreign students.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:51 pm
by dingbat
TatteredDignity wrote:Yale's website says their SJD is the natural continuation of their LLM for foreign students.
JD
LLM
SJD
PhD
$$$$$$$$$
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:56 pm
by SchopenhauerFTW
http://www.law.yale.edu/news/15782.htm
“In the past few decades, legal scholarship has matured as an academic discipline,” said Dean Robert Post ’77. “Because the level of the scholarship expected of entry-level law professors has risen quite dramatically, increasing numbers of law professors now pursue Ph.D.’s in allied disciplines like economics, history, philosophy, or political science. Because such disciplines train students in standards and questions that are different from those of the law, the natural next step for the legal academy is to create our own Ph.D. program that can focus on the questions and practices of the law itself. Students obtaining a Ph.D. in law may, of course, engage in interdisciplinary studies, but their work will be anchored in the framework of legal scholarship.”
But is it truly the natural next step to take???
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:57 pm
by TatteredDignity
The best schools require their faculty to have a PhD. Typically, it's in another field and probably largely irrelevant. Now, 10 years from now we'll have profs with a PhD that at least seems to matter.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:58 pm
by CanadianWolf
Sounds like a teaching degree for JD holders.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:04 pm
by SchopenhauerFTW
But what about having professors that... you know... actually practiced law at one point in their lives?
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:07 pm
by Dr. Review
SchopenhauerFTW wrote:But what about having professors that... you know... actually practiced law at one point in their lives?
Is a class being taught by a K-JD-PhD not imparting the wealth of practical skills you'd hoped it would?
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:12 pm
by Broseidon
SchopenhauerFTW wrote:But what about having professors that... you know... actually practiced law at one point in their lives?
Your whore mouth.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:13 pm
by Aberzombie1892
SchopenhauerFTW wrote:But what about having professors that... you know... actually practiced law at one point in their lives?
Blame the ABA for that one.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:15 pm
by minnbills
SchopenhauerFTW wrote:A WSJ Reader wrote:Is there any evidence that such a program is necessary, aside from the mere existence of Justice Scalia?
I had a prof in undergrad who taught courses on the supreme court who got a Phd in poly sci instead of a J.D. So I can see the need.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:44 pm
by CanadianWolf
A JD degree is required for Yale's PhD in Law program according to the posts above.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:45 pm
by Broseidon
CanadianWolf wrote:A JD degree is required for Yale's PhD in Law program according to the posts above.
Some people just never want to leave school.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:46 pm
by CanadianWolf
Exactly.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:48 pm
by 3|ink
Broseidon wrote:CanadianWolf wrote:A JD degree is required for Yale's PhD in Law program according to the posts above.
Some people just never want to leave school.
Those sick fucks.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:59 pm
by Ohiobumpkin
I'm an 0L, so please, have mercy. I have heard that law professors are sometimes terrible at teaching. These professors might publish brilliant papers, but they are unable to effectively teach a class. Perhaps requiring law professors to possess a Ph.D in Law would lead to greater numbers of law professors with better teaching skills.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:00 pm
by I.P. Daly
http://www.law.yale.edu/graduate/PHD_program.htm
Three year program. Ph.D. students will receive a full tuition waiver, health insurance coverage and a stipend to cover their living expenses.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:00 pm
by Doorkeeper
I think this is a brilliant move by Yale.
Oxford has had great success over the years with it's DPhil in Jurisprudence and there's nothing in the US that matches the program. This will only reinforce Yale as the preeminent place to study law for legal academia, and it will better prepare people for legal academia. Nothing prepares an aspiring academic for the life of a professor at a research university more than a dissertation.
Yale is also one of the few schools that can leverage its Top 10 PhD programs in Political Science, Philosophy, History, and Law that can make the PhD worthwhile. For students interested in teaching at a T1 school, the 5-6 combined years this program would take is definitely better than the 7-8 years a typical JD/PhD would take.
Edit- In addition, YLS has really made strides in recent history to hire faculty outside of black letter law. I assume this will only heighten this hiring trend at Yale, which would definitely be for the betterment of the PhD students.
Re: Yale Law School to Offer Ph.D. in Law
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:01 pm
by ToTransferOrNot
Ohiobumpkin wrote:I'm an 0L, so please, have mercy. I have heard that law professors are sometimes terrible at teaching. These professors might publish brilliant papers, but they are unable to effectively teach a class. Perhaps requiring law professors to possess a Ph.D in Law would lead to greater numbers of law professors with better teaching skills.
No. Ph.Ds are not about teaching skills, because academia is not about one's ability as a teacher.
