https://nihal.bearblog.dev/what-do-lawyers-do/ Nihal Sahu Home Blog Problems Other writing What do lawyers do? 01 Jul, 2022 When most people ask a lawyer what a phrase in a statute means, the conversation generally turns towards the canons of construction - rules about how you read statutes - from law school. These canons are designed to help judges extract "meaning" and "intention" from bare words on paper. The only correct answer to the meaning of any statute, however, is "whatever the judge says it means." The classic methods are useful only so far as they are reasonably good ways to predict what the judge will do. And they only have predictive power because the judge believes that the classic methods are the right way to read statutes. Sure, lawyers are (sometimes) good communicators who are (sometimes) well-prepared, but the real value proposition they offer is prediction. Good lawyers can predict what the judge will do, and can write and say things to maximise the odds of the judge doing what you want him to do. In societies which have the rule of law, these predictions are somewhat difficult to make, but possible with expertise and intuition. In a society without it, these predictions are definitely easier to make, as long as you can tell where the interests of those in power lie. In societies somewhere in between, with a flawed rule of law, like India, these predictions are impossibly hard to make. Because on one hand, the judge believes himself to be bound by conventions and norms, the gravitational force of precedents, and the judge's internal sense of what ought to be the result. On the other hand, these forces battle against various social forces and structural realities that are far more real than the canons about how you read statutes. Every judgment is the outcome of such a conflict. Law is an impressionistic business, much less scientific than macroeconomics or inflation management, more akin to craft than science. This is the legal realist view. When most people say "legal realism", they are referring to an approach to the law that is empirical and based on data. When I say "legal realism", I mean it much like Gabriel Garcia Marquez is associated with "magical realism". The empirical study of the practice of the law in India is an exercise in the suspension of disbelief. #law [15394 ] [ ] ^ Toast this post - 56 toasts Made with Bear ?**?