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Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in The Common Law: “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, institutions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed. The law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics”[1]. What matters more than law or logic when you are in court?1. The felt necessities of the time, 2. the prevalent moral and political theories, 3. institutions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even 4. the prejudices which judges share with their fellow men. ________________________________________[1] American Legal History: Cases and Materials, Third Edition. Ed. Kermit L. Hall, Paul Finkelman, and James W. Ely, Jr New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pages 360-362, 410-450. -- Richard Palmquist Send email to frontoffice@truthradio.com with questions or comments about this subject. |
