Attempted Rabbits

One of my optional courses in the final year is Law Teaching, where I get to teach part of a course to a junior class. I chose to teach Jurisprudence to the third years.

One of my classes was on the Economic Analysis of Law. As a cheap gimmick to get the class interested, I divided the lecture into ‘The Rabbit Part’ (so-called because of a tenuous link with the rabbits-in-Australia story) and ‘The Cathedral Part’ (after Guido Calabresi’s article, Property Rules, Liability Rules and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral). As a further gimmick (I use these gimmicks freely), when outlining the structure of my lecture on the board, I drew a rabbit to signify the first half of the class and a cathedral to signify the second.

Said third years are remarkably generous with compliments. Funnily, there was more praise for my rabbit than for my classes in general. One of them told me that her friend’s exercise book was crowded with attempts to replicate my rabbit.

I didn’t tell her that in the morning before class, I drew fifteen rabbits in my own exercise book to make sure that I got it right on the blackboard.