Osler's Razor

Last week, Harvard Law Professor William Stuntz died of cancer at age 52. I never met him, even though we both went to William and Mary and later studied the same odd mix of subjects (criminal law, Christianity, and procedure's impact on outcomes). He had a profound influence on me through his writing, which was muscular, direct, compelling, and always interesting. He was one of the few academics capable of writing a 50-page article which all read like journalism.

It has been his style, above all others, that I have tried to emulate in my own writing.

At the core of his writing was always a sense of righteousness, even judgment, but most often what he was judging were systems of law which simply did not accomplish a worthwhile goal. He changed the course of my own work when I first read his article "The Pathological Politics of Criminal Law" (100 Michigan Law Review 505, 2001).

I was on a plane, and started reading the piece halfway through the flight. We touched down, everyone got up, but I stayed in my seat, transfixed. Eventually, a flight attendant ushered me out; I kept reading as I walked, my bag thrown over my shoulder. His writing was that good. Here is the start of the second paragraph of that article:

But criminal law does not drive criminal punishment. It would be closer to the truth to say that criminal punishment drives criminal law.

Truth laid out in short, clear sentences is too rare in my line of work.

On Thursday, I will present a paper in Washington. The soul of that paper is what I learned from William Stuntz. One of the best parts of him, perhaps, did not die and never will.