Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 54 Issue 6 Issue 6 - November 2001 Article 2 11-2001 Law as Craft Brett G. Scharffs Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons Recommended Citation Brett G. Scharffs, Law as Craft, 54 Vanderbilt Law Review 2243 (2001) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol54/iss6/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Law as Craft Brett G. Scharffs 54 Vand. L. Rev. 2245 (2001) This Article explores the similarities between the law and other craft traditions, such as carpentry, pottery, and quilting. Its thesis is that law--and in particular adjudica- tion--combine elements of what Aristotle described as practical wisdom, or phronesis, and craft, or techne. Craft knowledge is learned practically through experi- ence and demonstrated through practice, and is contrasted with other concepts, including art, science, mass production, craftiness, and hobby. Crafts are characterized by four simul- taneous identities. First, crafts are made by hand-one at a time-and require not only talent and skill, but also experience and what Karl Llewellyn called "situation sense." Second, crafts are medium specific and are always identified with a material and the technologies invented to manipulate that ma- terial. Third, crafts are characterized by the use and useful- ness of craft objects. Fourth, crafts are defined by their past. The Article also considers how one becomes a craftsperson, fo- cusing upon the role of rules and theory, the dialectic of cer- tainty and uncertainty, tough love and exploitation in appren- ticeship, and the necessity of failure and disillusionment. The author concludes that although the craft ideal is "old-fashioned,even quaint and mildly embarrassing," it nev- ertheless provides a paradigm for understanding lawyerly work that holds the promise of both enabling lawyers to be bet- ter at their jobs, and of finding greater meaning and fulfill- ment in their professional lives. Law as Craft Brett G. Scharffs" INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 2247 OUTLINE .......................................................................... 2250 I. BEGINNING: WHAT IS CRAFT? ..................... ... .. ... ... ... .. ... .. 2252 A. Defining Craft ...................................................... 2252 B. Contrasting Craft ................................................. 2254 1. Art ............................................................. 2254 2. Science ....................................................... 2257 3. Mass Production ........................................ 2258 4. Craftiness .................................................. 2261 5. Hobby ........................................................ 2262 C. Craft and PracticalWisdom ................................. 2263 1. Aristotle's Distinction Between Making and Acting ................................................. 2263 a. Phronesis........................................ 2265 b. Techne ............................................. 2267 c. Commonalities ................................ 2268 2. Status of the Craftsperson ......................... 2269 * Associate Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University; B.S.B.A., M.A Georgetown University, B.Phil. Oxford University, J.D. Yale Law School For their comments on earlier drafts of this Article, I would like to thank my colleagues at Brigham Young University, the participants at the Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum, including Anu- parn Chander, Anthony Kronman, Robert Mnookin, Margaret Radin, William Simon, Kathleen Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, David Wilkins; and the participants at the Institute for Humane Studies Workshop, including Paul Edwards, Douglas Ginsburg, Brian Leiter, Tom Morgan, Todd Zywicki. Thanks also to my research assistant, Matthew Bullock, for his good humor and hard work in the conceptualization and execution of this Article, and to the editors of the Vanderbilt Law Review, especially Elizabeth Graybill, Jason Hall, Margaret Kresge, Kyle Mothershead, Stephen Rodger, and Christian WenzeL I dedicate this Article to my mother, the craftsperson. Virginia Smith Scharffs, who died during its writing. 2245 2246 VANDERBILT LAWREVIEW [Vol. 54:2245 3. The Judicial Craft ..................................... 2271 II. THE CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CRAFT: IS LAW A CRAFT? ................................. ................................. 2274 A. Making by Hand................................................... 2278 1. Talent and Skill ......................................... 2279 2. Volume and Pace ....................................... 2280 a. Patience .......................................... 2281 b. Quality and Mindfulness ................ 2282 3. Experience and Situation Sense ................ 2284 4. Articulation ............................................... 2285 a. In Craft........................................... 2285 b. In Law .................. ................. 2287 B. Relation to Medium: Materialsand Tools ............. 2288 1. Materials and Hardware ........................... 2289 2. T ools .......................................................... 2292 C. Use and Usefulness .............................................. 2294 1. Drawing and Visualizing ........................... 2296 2. Outcome and Process ................................. 2298 a. Function and Form ......................... 2299 b. Finishing........................................ 2301 3. Structure: Why Things Stand Up and How to Make Them Strong ................................ 2303 a. Coherence........................................ 2304 b. Workability ..................................... 2305 D. Relation to the Past .............................................. 2306 1. Participation in Shared Enterprise ........... 2306 2. Pride and Humility .................................... 2309 3. Creativity and Incrementalism .................. 2311 a. Creativity ........................................ 2311 b. Incrementalism............................... 2313 4. Craft's Tripartite Gaze .............................. 2314 E . Judgment ............................................................. 2316 1. Deliberation, Choice, and Action ............... 2320 2. Character and Temperament ..................... 2320 III. BECOMING A CRAFTSPERSON ............................................ 2322 A. The Role of Rules and Theory: Constraint and R esponsibility ...................................................... 2324 1. R ules ......................................................... 2325 2. Theory ....................................................... 2328 3. Tacit Knowledge and Working Techniques 2329 B. Craving Certainty and Tolerating Uncertainty..... 2332 C. Learning and Transmitting Craft......................... 2334 2001] LAWAS CRAFT 2247 1. Apprenticeship .......................................... 2335 a. Exploitation and Tough Love .......... 2335 b. LearningHow to Work .................... 2338 c. Theory, Practice,and Repetition .....2339 d. Mimicry and CreativeExpression ...2341 2. Failure and Disillusionment ...................... 2343 a. Mistakes.......................................... 2343 b. Disillusionment............................... 2345 D. For the Love of Money ........................................... 2345 CONCLUSION ................................................................... 2346 INTRODUCTION The Challenge is to build a life in the here and now-one worthy of ourselves, our fellow citizens and the law itself. Easiersaid than done. And many of us will fail in the attempt. Many will settle for a self-trivializing conception of lauyering. -Bruce Ackerman' Judge Learned Hand... once speculated whether he might have accomplished more by constructinga boat or buildinga house. -Judge Robert Satter 2 No matter how many choices the rules leave open, a judge whose task is to apply the law will be guided in his deliberations by what might be called the ethos of his of- fice, by a certain ideal of judicial craftsmanship, and by the habits that a devotion to this ideal and long experience in attempting to achieve it tend to instill. 3 -Anthony T. Kronman Law is neither an art nor a science. 4 It is a craft.5 In study- ing particular craft traditions, such as carpentry, pottery, angling, and quiltmaking, we can learn important lessons about the craft of 1. James K. Altman, Modern Litigatorsand Lawyer-Statesmen, 103 YALE LJ.1031, 1070 (1994) (reviewing ANTHONY T. KRONMAN, THE LOST LAWYER (1993)) (quoting Bruce A. Acker- man, Commencement Remarks, YALE L. REP., Spring/Summer 1982, at 6). 2. Robert Satter, Tools of the Trade. Judging, Like Carpentry, Requires Craftsmanship. A.B.A. J., Sept. 1992, at 104, 104 (1992) (reflecting upon his "surprise [about] what carpentry taught me about judging," and concluding that while "Judge Hand's urge to construct something he could see and touch was understandable after a lifetime of working with his mind," in reality "the carpenter and the judge both build edifices-only the materials they use are different'). 3. ANTHONY T. KRONMAN, THE LOST LAWYER: FAILING IDEALS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION 295 (1993). 4. My emphasis in this Article