If you really want to understand the law, you can’t just learn laws. Unfortunately, most law schools ignore—or teach badly—what matters most. Enter this clear, concise guide. The noted law professor and constitutional scholar Gerard V. Bradley helps you understand not what the law is but where law comes from, what it is for, and how to morally judge it. A Student’s Guide to the Study of Law introduces you to the major concepts, cases, and thinkers that have shaped American legal scholarship and history. It also helps you understand what, at bottom, is at stake in many of our national debates. "Perhaps these guides should be required reading for professors to rescue them from the narrowing clutches of research agendas, professional development, and what goes by the name of scholarship." Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. A well-known scholar in the field of constitutional law, as well as law and religion, his books include Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century and Church-State Relationships in America .