The+Game+of+the+Law+and+its+Prizes

Lecture to the graduating class of the Albany Law School, 1925

“As long as you live, and surely as long as you practice law, an examiner will dog your footsteps.” - The “exams” never really end: after graduation from law school, you will always face people who scrutinize and criticize your work – senior lawyers, judges, juries, courts. - but working in law can be a wonderful, inspiring opportunity

Law is a “game”, but a game of skill. - Students today (1925) are trained much more extensively than in Cardozo’s time - what is really important is that students have learned “**the ability to think legally**”, which is a fascinating process
 * rules must be patterned after the rules of the past but adapted to the new needs of justice (there are always new problems and challenges in the world): one “must be **historian and prophet all in one**”
 * “The process of justice is never finished, but reproduces itself, generation after generation, in ever-changing forms
 * Cardozo expects that most of his own decisions will ultimately be overruled (or distinguished) in this process