Civ Pro worship

Reviewing civ pro notes way past my bedtime and found a little pearl from my beloved civ pro professor: "Notice is the epiphenomenon of power." I had to scramble my way to Merriam-Webster to understand that one. But as I'm reviewing service of process, it becomes more and more apparent that calling notice the epiphenomenon of the court's power to exercise jurisdiction over a defendant is the most concise way to explain that concept. I really wish I had a head shot of my civ pro professor so I could tack her up on the wall next to my bed and think of her before I slept.

Also, though I'm struggling like crazy to understand civ pro (and as it verrry, verrrrrry slowly coalesces into coherence in my gummy little head), I'm also seeing why understanding procedure might be a public interest lawyer's highest calling. Law is the domain of the elite--its structures are accessible only to those with very specialized educations, credentials, and vocabularies. [I don't think this necesssarily has to be the case, but explaining that would entail a much longer blogpost about the relative merits of plain-language law.] Substantive law doesn't necessarily need much explaining--we all understand why backing over a little boy on a bicycle because you're talking on your cell phone and not watching where your Escalade is taking you might expose you to crimnal or tort liability. Procedural law, however, is totally inaccessible unless you know how to plow through the statutory/common law language, and how the hell are people going to know if their suit is governed by 28 U.S.C. §1391(a) venue in diversity jurisdiction cases or 28 U.S.C. §1391(b) venue in federal question cases by reading through those statutes? So even though there's this gross trickle-down patriarchy feeling to it, a lawyer's real contribution to her client is finessing the fine procedural points in a way that would not be possible for non-lawyer to do.

This seems grotesquely obvious as I write that down so I'll shut up and just go to sleep. This thought did entail a bunch of frantic scribbling in my civ pro hornbook to the effect of Prometheus and torchbearing and therefore perstare et praestare ["to perservere and to excel" (in bullshit union-busting hypocrisy) NYU's motto]. It's all bullshit. I gotta go to bed so I can wake up in six hours and fuck up my contracts take-home. Wish me luck, y'all.