“…52 I call such exercises in self-definition, 'conversational' as opposed to historical reading. 53 I advise students to approach a juristic text, for this purpose, in three stages: the historical, the analytical, and the applied. 54 The first stage involves setting the text in the context of the author's life and work, the intellectual and political context of the time, and, above all, the author's immediate concerns (what was biting him/her?).…”