The Path of the Law and its Influence

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.

• The Path of the Law is the seminal work in American legal theory, that forms the basis for the leading schools of legal thought • The essay is included in the volume for the reader’s convenience • Some of the most distinguished legal scholars from the USA and Canada are included here

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.