Law in action is a legal theory, associated with legal realism

Legal realism

Legal realism is a school of legal philosophy that is generally associated with the culmination of the early-twentieth century attack on the orthodox claims of late-nineteenth-century classical legal thought in the United States...

, that examines the role of law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, not just as it exists in the statute

Statute

A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

s and cases

Case law

In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...

, but as it is actually applied in society

Society

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...

. Law in action scholars often start with observations about the behavior of institution

Institution

An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...

s and work "backwards" toward the legal philosophies guiding court

Court

A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...

s and traditional jurisprudence

Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...

. As Kenneth B. Davis, Jr.

Kenneth B. Davis, Jr.

Kenneth B. Davis, Jr. is Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a scholar of business associations and securities regulation.-Biography:...

, Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School

University of Wisconsin Law School

The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional school for the study of law at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The law school was founded in 1868.-Facilities:...

 has stated, "'Law in Action' . . . means that in teaching and research, no matter how interesting we find a legal theory, we always need to ask, 'How does this affect people's lives in the real world?'"

History

The first reference to Law in Action may have been a 1910 article by Roscoe Pound

Roscoe Pound

Nathan Roscoe Pound was a distinguished American legal scholar and educator. He was Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936...

, the Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

 dean whose work was a forerunner to the legal realism movement. From there, the concept caught hold at the University of Wisconsin Law School

University of Wisconsin Law School

The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional school for the study of law at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The law school was founded in 1868.-Facilities:...

, where the law in action concept is most prevalent today. The law in action concept was a natural fit for Wisconsin because of its strong emphasis on the social sciences and the Wisconsin Idea

Wisconsin Idea

The Wisconsin Idea is the political philosophy developed in the American state of Wisconsin that fosters public universities' contributions to the state: "to the government in the forms of serving in office, offering advice about public policy, providing information and exercising technical skill,...

—the concept that the boundaries of campus are the boundaries of the state.

Teaching law in action

As at law schools everywhere, the focus is on appellate opinions. However, a professor who focuses on law in action is likely to go past the holding of the case to look at more questions such as "How might the parties on the losing end of the case respond?" "Will the rule change their future behavior?" "Who will enforce the rule?" or "What was the cause of the underlying dispute?" will be addressed Similarly, clinical education and clinical skills courses take on a more important role for students, who get to integrate their personal experiences with the classroom work.