The Professors Who Control the Oil Patch : A Case Study on the Virility of Legal Scholarship

The authors present a pair of cases to controvert the assertion of Judge Richard Posner that professors could "speak all you want" because "power doesn't listen to the likes of you." The article explores two recent cases from the Louisiana Supreme Court that have great impact over the state's billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. In reaching their conclusion, the justices relied heavily on treatises from ancient scholars Jean Domat (1625-1696) and Marcel Planiol (1853-1931) alongside commentary from contemporary civil law scholars such as A. N. Yiannopoulos and Alain Levasseur. The conclusion of this paper recounts the contributions of treatise writers, professors, and practicing academics who help shape the legal landscape, and presents opportunities for professors to prove Judge Posner wrong by affecting change in the law through their work in academia