yesterday in employment law, we were going over the WARN Act, and the related regulations promulgated by the Department of Labor. Our professor mis-spoke during our last session as far as whether you count forward or count backward from a lay off date, and it made us all a bit more confused than was warranted - he was spending yesterday trying to fix his error.

then someone in my class raised her hand and said she "didn't see the point" in there being TWO laws about the same thing - why does there have to be an Act, and then *another* law saying like, the same stuff? "what's the point?" basically, why is there a statute and a regulation - but she didn't see the difference b/t the two, and saw them as just two of the same. She said, "they seem to be talking about the same thing, and there's all this overlap, and I just don't get it."

Employment law is not a first year class. Furthermore, this is the spring quarter - in this school, it means you have had TWO co-ops. Two times of working in the legal field. I happen to know that in the Class that I was Teaching (and took as a 1L), we go over the relationship b/t statutes and regulations a great deal. I remember being frustrated by it, both times, as a wee bit simplistic, and something that does not deserve this much attention.

Perhaps the fact that I am taking Administrative Law right now makes me extra haughty on this issue - since we've had many class sessions discussing enabling statutes and the promulgation of regulations - but I don't think so. The other students in the class (it's a big one, approximately 80 students) were sniggering and rolling their eyes and making astonished comments. I heard someone say, "has she not been on co-op? what the hell?!" The professor, however, was patient and slowly explained the relationship between the two. Too slowly, for the other 79 students in the class who were all examining their fingernails and doodling in their margins.

I figured that she was going to be VERY embarassed once she was told that these "two laws" are actually a statute and a regulation - you know, have kind of a "duh" moment? Uh uh. Instead she said, "well, i have a follow up question, on the exam, um, which one should we look at first? which one is more important?" She still didn't understand. It was at that point that the Professor started to lose his patience with a comment like, "not just here, but throughout your entire legal career!. He recovered quickly, however, and explained again -- slowly.

posted by Zuska @ 10:17 AM

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