This week, in the midst of College and Graduate School graduation exercises, I depart from my prior columns which summarized Vermont Supreme Court decisions, to give a glimpse of what the process of judicial law making is all about. A Judge's job is to create rules for novel situations which broad Constitutional principles, statutes deliberately left ambiguous by lawmakers to reach compromises, or prior court decisions leave unresolved. A competent judge must have legal training, of course, but also knowledge of social forces, issues, and attitudes, to be wise.

An example of that legal training is Yale Law School, which has produced many judges. Here's a brief summary of Dean Koh's description of part of the curriculum:

"Our curriculum now includes academic courses on ...Law and Globalization; Global Justice; Globalization, Development, Poverty and the Law; Corruption and Democracy; Contemporary Legal Issues in Africa and China; Rethinking Sovereignty; International Use of Force; and Comparative Constitutionalism." Students also study human rights, immigration issues relating to workers rights and anti-trafficking, international microfinance, and international criminal justice. Amy Chua, author of The World on Fire (a study of the effects of Chinese wealth accumulation on racism and terrorism) has recently published Empire and Tolerance: The Rise and fall of World Dominant Powers. These subjects are in addition to the traditional study of contracts, evidence, bankruptcy and the like.

Yale, as well as other law schools, are training leaders who can make the rule of law relevant to America's present empire in a world of globalization, as well as in the domestic life of the country. We know the power of an idea can be as effective as military force in human governance. The Rule of Law is one of those ideas (witness Pakistan) which inspire a world sick of corruption and use of force as a way of life. To sustain that idea, law students must study the cultures of the world we live in, the problems of other disciplines, be trained to seek creative solutions to disputes, and to develop the intellectual ability to counter bad ideas. Some of these students will be Judges. By then, the specifics of what they learned in law school will be largely obsolete. However, the habit of scholarship and critical thinking will persist. Judging, after all, is the essence of the Rule of Law. Excellent judging requires excellent education.