Student blogger:
Mike Preciado (’13)
Chapman Law Review Editor

 

What’s a Spontaneous? At the beginning of each semester, I always have the same conversation. “Hey Mike, what classes are you taking?” Usually, I reply with a boilerplate list of regular law school classes, “I got lumped into professional responsibility, corporations, federal taxation, and evidence.” That’s a regular law school semester. But this year…it was different. “What classes am I taking, you ask?”—“Well, this semester I’m taking Spontaneous Order and the Law!” Of which the normal reply is generally, “Huh?” I get it. The title of the class sounds a little Mickey Mouse, and I was a little nervous to take it too. But I’m glad I did. It has truthfully been the best class I have ever taken in law school. The. Best. Unfortunately, for some reason, no one knows about it. So here, I endeavor to explain why all Chapman Law students need to take this class.

The Professors. When I registered for the class I quickly checked to see who would be teaching it. “Let’s see,” I thought to myself, “it’s going to be taught by Professors Bart Wilson and Vernon Smith?”—“Never heard of them.” But my mind jolted with intrigue. Who were these mystery professors? So I did a little digging.

Boy was I surprised. “Economic professors!” I shouted, “they’re econ dudes!” Awesome possum. Here’s a chance to be taught the law from a completely different perspective. I dug a little deeper. “Wait a minute”—“Vernon Smith is not just any economics professor, he’s a Nobel Laureate.” My heart jumped! Not only do I have a chance to be taught by two economic professors, one of them won the Nobel Prize. Are you freaking kidding me? Whatever doubts I had about taking this class quickly vanished.

Indeed, Vernon Smith is the most famous professor we have at Chapman. No other law school faculty in the nation has a Nobel Laureate on their roster. And this man is legend. Harvard trained, Smith has been a dominant figure in experimental economics, and after a long career, Smith founded the Economic Science Institute at Chapman. Although he was born in 1927, don’t let his old age fool you. He will run mental circles around you. But he’s not pompous about it; he’s a down to earth professor who treats you as an equal. Moreover, not only is the man a genius, he also has the experience to back it up. When he speaks, words don’t come out. Wisdom does. One day he explained the Great Recession of 2008. On another, he explained the origins of justice. And, on a different day, he explained the agricultural origin of the tomato. Seriously, this man knows everything.

And Professor Bart Wilson is right up there. As an experimental economist, he holds the Donald P. Kennedy Endowed Chair of Economics and Law. His work has been widely published in the highest academic journals, and he is considered a rising star in the economic world. If Professor Smith is the intellectual Hulk, Professor Wilson is the methodical Iron Man. He’s the mastermind behind the class, and structures every class to be academically stimulating.

Oh, and here’s the kicker. Not only is the class taught by two outstanding economic professors, Professor Ronald Rotunda audits the class! As you know, Professor Rotunda’s expertise is in constitutional law, and he served on the prosecutorial team during the Watergate scandal. He brings a wealth of knowledge into the classroom, and his repertoire of legal perspectives is immense. Moreover, there are also three Ph.D. students auditing the class, which really adds to the intellectual opulence in class discussions.

So What’s Class Like? “What’s a spontaneous,” you still ask? The class sounds a lot more complicated than it really is, but it’s similar to a free market economic approach applied to the law. We learn how social laws emerge unplanned in society (out of apparent chaos) simply by human interaction. Think language. It’s a spontaneous system of rules that no single person controls, but everyone has influence over. We read everything from James Surowiecki’s Wisdom of Crowds to Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments to F. A. Hayek’s Mirage of Social Justice. Let me stop you right there. I know what you’re thinking: “I don’t want to read all those books.” Although we have a lot of reading, it is not “law-school-reading.” You don’t have to brief cases or know what color shoe the plaintiff was wearing. This is a big picture class. You only need to understand the general principles for class discussion. And we also get to do hands-on laboratory experiments, like the famous ultimatum game or the double-auction experiment—which Professor Smith perfected way back in 1956.

The class is set up as a roundtable discussion and the professors don’t lecture. We all discuss our thoughts on the readings, and try to parse out what’s important. This is why having so many diverse academics makes the class so intellectually stimulating. Professor Wilson might attack the topic from an economic perspective, Professor Rotunda from a constitutional one, and the Ph.D. students from a political science background. As you might have guessed, this is not a 1L class where you just recite facts about a case. Here, you have to think differently. But what’s great is that we navigate these tough theoretical problems together, side-by-side. It’s really like a philosophical support group.

Tell Me The Perks. Well first and foremost, the class size is tiny. This semester, there are only five actual students taking the class. That means five students get a top-ranked individualized education from some of the best professors in the nation. Harvard and Yale can’t even come close to providing that.

Second, there’s no final! We only have to write eight, two-page, reflection essays throughout the semester. And what’s awesome is that the professors give us detailed feedback. Professor Smith (the Nobel Laureate) routinely writes comments on my papers like “good job!” or “did you ever think about ____?”

Third, you actually learn a lot of practical lawyering skills. Some of the best lawyers are those who can take a convoluted legal issue, and provide a clear path to a solution. They do this not by arguing legal technicalities, but by forging their argument to a philosophical underpinning. As a result, when you read their brief, their position seems like the most natural outcome. This class provides the mental foundation to make such arguments.

In Short. Take the class. Expand your mind. And have a little fun in law school.

About the author:
Mike Preciado is now a graduate of Chapman’s Fowler School of Law. At the time of this writing, he was a third year law student and the Senior Symposium Editor for the Chapman Law Review. He presently resides in Irvine California with his wife Mona. He is a fierce libertarian.

The views expressed in the student blogs are those of the author and not the law school.