Unfinished Business

For several years I have been working on my thesis to complete the course requirements for a Master of Judicial Studies (MJS)  degree offered through the University of Nevada (Reno).  http://www.judicialstudies.unr.edu/  Some of the course needed to fulfill the degree requirements are offered by the National Judicial College, which is located in the same building. http://www.judges.org/ But since the National Judicial College is not a degree granting institution as is the University of Nevada, the degree is granted by the university.

In the UNR portion of the curriculum, the students are exposed to the latest developments in legal academic circles and the methodologies employed. Since the Social Sciences and the Scientific Method are the current rage in legal academic circles, the students learn how to design and implement research into the legal system employing Social Science methodologies. My thesis analyzes the effects of a 1987 amendment to the Texas Probate Code on the propensity of litigants to settle will contests. The topic has never been studies before, so my thesis involved sailing into uncharted academic waters.

Since my last post, I have been making revisions to the thesis to satisfy the dictates of university policy. I have suffered through the changes keeping in mind that obtaining an academic degree is in part of a form of hazing that graduate students must endure to be allowed to join the brotherhood of academics.

One of the committee asked me to leave one section blank so she could review the draft and make suggestions on how to handle the one remaining part. If all goes well, I hope to have the thesis completed by the end of January. After that I will have to defend the thesis. If I make it through that ritual, then the thesis will be approved.

After that is completed, I will need to take one more examination for a course I have already taken and then I will be done.

Having gone through this ritual, i analogize it to a lawyer arguing a motion for summary judgment or an oral argument before an appellate court. It is entirely possible that the lawyer will know much more about the subject than the judge does, since the lawyer has worked long and hard in preparing him or herself for the argument. Yet the decision will be made by those who may know less about the subject than the author of the document. This does seem to be a funny way to run the universe, but that is the way that it is–both in academia and in law.