This is cool.

Whatever else one might have to say about expensive, private, Ivy League law schools, one thing is certain: we attract very cool events and speakers.

My day? Breakfast with the Chief Justice of the New Zealand Supreme Court (she was fantastic - she has a family and was going to law school and looking for jobs in a time when both of those just weren't done, and the latter wasn't done at all by women).

Then a lecture, open to all law students (people were making a big deal about attendance and tickets, but there were plenty of empty seats in the auditorium), given by none other than Anthony Kennedy (Mr. Swing Vote on the Supreme Court, for those of you who live in a hole), who (with the aid of powerpoint!) spoke about the importance of prestige in the judiciary, coexistence between our system and other transnational systems (notably the European Union), the structural design of our Constitution, the historical forces that made our system what it is, and the design and history of the European Union courts. He spoke a lot about transnational law and whether our constitution is up to the challenges it poses. He also pointedly side-stepped questions about abortion (I wanted to boo the girl who had asked one), and justified his opinion in the flag-burning case by outlining his idea of the court as a balancing mechanism, which tempers the instant voice of the people to create a system that most closely reflects American values over time.

Then afternoon brunch with Edward Mortimer, speech-writer for Kofi Annan (also awesome - his references to speeches Annan made sometimes contained an aside of surprise that he would have written/helped write something like that!), and then a debate (hosted by the Federalist Society) on Law and Economics versus Moral Reason between Richard Epstein (who wrote our torts casebook) and Jules Coleman (who teaches here).

Oh, and all this was in between classes and workshops. I'm probably going out tonight to bar review as well. Reading and outlining - what was that again?