In today’s Martin Center article, law professor Charles Rounds gives part of the explanation: law students increasingly take courses and study from books where social-justice concerns push aside learning the nuts and bolts of the law. He focuses in particular on fundamental property courses where texts now fuss over questions of “distributional fairness” while shorting or leaving out entirely important topics that lawyers need to know if they are going to give their clients good representation. But so what — many law professors want to imbue their students with “progressive” notions and won’t miss the opportunity to do so.
Rounds concludes:
Too many law students are not receiving basic training in prevailing property doctrine that would set them on the road to being in a position to competently service the legal needs of the middle class. Precious time and energy is being squandered on ideological tangents. That your son’s Property text may well not be your father’s Property text is not helping the situation.