Un Ésprit Sérieux

Authors

Pierre Schlag, Faculty of Law, University of Colorado at Boulder

Keywords

academic life, intellectual life, academic humour, esprit sérieux

Abstract

It was a sunny day when we all met in a classroom at McGill University The gathering went on all day and at the end someone proposed writing up the discussion as essays. Hence, this collection.

I’d like to take a moment of gratitude to express heartfelt thanks to all the participants. And especially to Vincent Forray and Jean d’Aspremont for organizing the event, and to Genevieve Renard Painter and Liam McHugh-Russell for bringing this collection over the finish line. I don’t know whether the intellectual generosity of the participants was because of Canada, or Montreal, or McGill, or the Law School, or because of the people assembled in that room (though surely it must have been all the above to some degree). The gathering was what legal academia ought to be—people exploring ideas, thinking about possibilities, and reflecting on the professional contexts that shape their work. There was also a certain amount of play. The latter, play, is not required for academic thought, but it is essential to intellectual activity. Not frivolous play, but serious play. Without the ludic element and the freedom it implies, it’s all pretty much connect-the-dots, adjust the curves, fill in the blanks, and make sure that the disclaimers and burdens of persuasion are tight and tough.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Pierre Schlag, "Un Ésprit Sérieux" (2024) 47:1 Dal LJ 71.