Legal Scholarship Jams

Let me set the scene for you. It’s Friday night. I am in my office, and no one else is in the building. I am trying to get psyched up and energized to move forward with the law-review article I am writing. So what do I do? Diet Dr. Pepper? Check. Socks pulled up all the way? Check. Now I plug my iPod into my desktop Bose speakers and blast – I mean freaking BLAST – Ozzy Osbourne's “Crazy Train” … OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As law professors, we’ve all got to do our part to fill up the scholarship aquarium outside the dean’s office. For many of us, that means reaching beyond the Red Bull to a fussed-over collection of legal-scholarship-psych-up music.

If you’re staring at a blank document, try a dose of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle,” or Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55.” (Query: Does Hagar’s posited judicial authority assert a predominantly retributivist model of punishment, or are we seeing a wrong turn on the road to restorative justice?)

If hard rock’s not your thing, there’s no better way to get the NRG up! than a little Debbie Gibson, “Electric Youth”:

Zappin' it to ya
The pressure's ev'rywhere
Going right through ya
The fever's in the air
Oh yeah, it's there!
Don't underestimate the power
Of a lifetime ahead
Electric youth!
Feel the power!