Week One, Part 7 - Contracts: Find Your Cosmic Space

On Tuesday I arrive at the law school at 7:45 a.m. and wander down to the student lounge. On the wall in the north hallway are three old-style display cases. Signs taped to the wood framing read “1L,” “2L,” “3L.” Under the glass are requests for research assistants, memos from the dean, class assignments.

I scan the notices to 1L’s, shorthand for first-year law. “Students in Professor Kaveny’s Contracts class should read pp. 1-65 for Tuesday.”

What!? An assignment on the first day? Contracts starts in ten minutes, so there’s no time to do the reading. I decide to attend class unprepared, what law students call Russian roulette.

“Welcome to Notre Dame and welcome to law school!” Professor Cathleen Kaveny says, a bit too cheerily. She’s young, a shade over five-feet tall, with skin that’s mortuary white. There’s a blue scarf tied around her neck.

Kaveny says she’s new to South Bend. Before moving here she practiced health care law in Boston for three years. Warning lights flash in my head. Rookie! Rookie! Rookie! After five years in college and two grad degrees, I’ve yet to find a first-year teacher who was anything more than adequate, myself included.

Kaveny tells us she has her law degree and a Ph.D. in ethics, both from Yale. “My graduate work has allowed me to think about the reasoning behind the black-letter law.”

I stare at her, amazed. Must be smart! According to recent rankings in U.S. News, Yale is the top law school in America. President Bill Clinton is a graduate, as are a disproportionate number of judges and legal scholars.

“Throughout the casebook are philosophical blurbs. This material matters! As you read them, ask yourself, ‘How does this point of view impinge on the reading?’”

We review the texts for class: a casebook and a paperback Uniform Commercial Code. “The UCC is a law enacted by many states that applies to contracts for the sale of goods. It took all the little cases that formed the common law and tried to summarize the rules and give them a sense of trajectory.”

Kaveny’s voice is a little shaky. She must be nervous. “If you're really tony, you can pick up a hornbook.” She holds up the course outline. It lists the dates for each reading assignments. “This syllabus is not an enforceable contract on my part.”

We laugh.

Kaveny smiles back at us and seems to relax. She announces that the final exam will be open-book, open-note. “We’re trying to prepare you for the real world. No law firm would ever say, ‘Go solve this problem but don't use any books.’”

I think I’m gonna like her.

“What is contract law about?” Kaveny asks. “Fundamentally, it concerns one central issue – what promises is society going to recognize and enforce?” She goes on to describe gratuitous promises, reliance, substantial unfairness, restitution, damages, and other key terms. It’s obvious that this class is an overview.

“Remember, torts and contracts are part of civil law. These are the rights of private parties. For example, the family of Ron Goldman could sue separately. Criminal law, on the other hand, is about the common good of all people. Think of the heading in the Goldman and Nicole Brown murder case – People of California versus O.J. Simpson.”

It’s an hour and a quarter since class started. The last 15 minutes are a killer!

Kaveny concludes: “Is there something that didn't make sense any more than you expected it not to make sense?”

I fold down my laptop lid.

“Good. Remember, just relax. Use these first couple weeks to find your cosmic space.”

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