The Path of the Law and its Influence
The Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

Brings together distinguished legal scholars to examine a seminal work in American legal theory.

Steven J. Burton (Edited by)

9780521630061, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 May 2000

370 pages
23.7 x 16.1 x 2.6 cm, 0.655 kg

"...interesting, eccentric, learned, epigrammatic..." Appellate Practice Journal

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) is, arguably, the most important American jurist of the twentieth century, and his essay The Path of the Law, first published in 1898, is the seminal work in American legal theory. In it, Holmes detailed his radical break with legal formalism and created the foundation for the leading contemporary schools of American legal thought. He was the dominant source of inspiration for the school of legal realism, and his insistence on a practical approach to law and legal analysis laid the basis for the realists' later concentration upon the pragmatic and empirical aspects of law and legal procedures. This volume brings together some of the most distinguished legal scholars from the United States and Canada to examine competing understandings of The Path of the Law and its implications for contemporary American jurisprudence. For the reader's convenience, the essay is republished in an Appendix.

Acknowledgements
List of contributors
Introduction Steven J. Burton
1. Law as a vocation: Holmes and the lawyer's path Robert W. Gordon
2. The bad man and the good lawyer David Luban
3. Why practice needs ethical theory: particularism, principle and bad behaviour Martha C. Nussbaum
4. Theories, anti-theories and norms: comment on Nussbaum Dan M. Kahan
5. Traversing Holmes's path toward a jurisprudence of logical form Scott Brewer
6. Holmes on the logic of the law Thomas C. Grey
7. Holmes versus Hart: the bad man in legal theory Stephen R. Perry
8. The bad man and the internal point of view Scott J. Shapiro
9. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and William James: the bad man and the moral life Catherine Peirce Wells
10. Emerson and Holmes: serene skeptics Sanford Levinson
11. The path dependence of the law Clayton P. Gillette
12. Changing the path of the law Gillian K. Hadfield
13. Holmes, economics and classical realism Brian Leiter
14. Comment on Brian Leiter's 'Holmes, Economics and Classical Realism' Jody S. Kraus
Appendix: the path of the law (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)
Index.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB]