ABSTRACT
The single most prominent feature of twentieth-century American legal education is its heavy reliance on the so-called case method of instruction. The justifications for the case method all lack one thing: an appreciation of the way in which it functions as an instrument for the development of moral imagination. The role-playing and Socratic interrogation that are its central features force students to make the most of the conflicting claims presented by the cases. But there is another element to the moral education law students receive that is also linked to the study of judicial opinions and that would be missing if their reading consisted of academic synopses or partisan statements instead. A lawyer's professional life begins the day that he or she starts law school. It does this by habituating students to the need for reasoned judgment under conditions of maximum moral ambiguity, and by giving them practice at rendering such judgments themselves.
