We had a short test today covering the material on the nature of law. A preview was distributed last week.
Why a test? I thought it suited the material better than a paper. With these readings, what you most want to get down is what the positions are and how they are related to one another. So an assignment that encourages you to review everything makes sense.
I also think it would be hard to write a paper on this material. That is, I myself find it difficult to assess the competing positions because I do not have a lot of experience with the law. Do judges really use principles a lot? How many cases really fall into the penumbra of the laws? It’s hard to say without reading a lot of cases and we are not in a position to do that.
That was my thinking.