Law Withdrawal

After four years of law school, I was looking forward to a law-free semester while on international exchange. Having purchased the required textbooks for my electives, I felt quietly confident as I compared their size to my previous law textbooks. The difference was almost laughable, and I found myself wondering how I would survive law school when I returned home.

However, in the subsequent weeks I noticed myself casually observing possible tortious acts in my new country, seeking information about upcoming law events and thinking about purchasing post-it notes. It was not until I found myself feeling excited about reading the legal perspective on the Industrial Revolution (after thirty long pages describing different machinery) that I realised I was experiencing law withdrawal. Here are some typical symptoms…

You Long for the Safety of an Oversized Textbook

I have always been certain that the size of law textbooks will one day render me with an expensive chiropractic bill, as I insist on lugging them to and from uni each day. But as I left my new university’s campus one night I found myself missing that heavy pile of texts that I would normally clutch on my way home from law school.

You Constantly want to Argue Points of Law

For me, this occurred when being asked by the gym I joined to present a medical certificate, after I was assured I did not need one before I signed the contract. The law student in me wanted to recite passages regarding changing the terms of a contract after the formalities were complete. Instead I was forced to either present one or simply be refused entry.

You Feel Disorientated when not Studying in the Law Library

In my home university I do my volumes of readings in the law library. I feel there is a certain camaraderie that accompanies life in the law library, as you look to both sides of you and observe people frantically photocopying, tabbing or highlighting. Finding myself in a less panicked library atmosphere and attempting to commit economic theory to memory was a little unnerving!

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