Oliver Wendell Holmes (2)Reseñas

Originally I read this in 1971, just before going to law school. It was the most useful book I read as I prepared for the experience. Some of his discussion about the law is dated, but that doesn't matter. What is most useful about the book is that it helps you learn how the system of common law works -- as opposed to what the law is on any given subject.

Highly recommended for pre-law students and intellectually curious non-lawyers.

This book presents a series of twelve lectures by the author on the nature, and history of law; and the judicial process.

Holmes spent the first ten years of his service on the Supreme Court known as "The Dissenter", and for most of the chamber discussion was literally holding his head in his hands in utter despondency.
As for "Negligence", he reminds us that "like ownership, [it] is "a complex conception". [115] Importantly, he finds the element of "public policy" in the concept. In other words, liability flows not merely from breach of a standard of care of the tortfeasor (fault), but upon public policy. 115. A "stricter rule" applies if damage is caused "by a pistol, in view of the danger to the public". 116. In other words, we analyze the burden on the victim in light of the benefit to the public. As Justice Traynor suggested, the necessity of "spreading the burden among those who benefit", arises from this public policy analysis. Unfortunately, jurors today (and in spite of Holmes and Traynor's best efforts) still find little help for applying this leg of liability.

Holmes is the liberal Justice appointed to an archly conservative bench, and the author of the best opinions of the SCOTUS in his day, mostly Dissents. Harold Laski (1893-1950) was a political theorist and a leading British intellectual. Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics from 1926 until his death in 1950, he was a notorious figure loved and respected by students and colleagues alike. He knew both the great and the good, including Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. Holmes berated him for trying to be a 'do-gooder'. He was a member of the Labour party and wrote many of its policies, influenced more by Stuart Mill than Marx. Laski was the author of "The Rise of Liberalism; the philosophy of Business Civilization" (1936) which shows that Status was replaced by Contract as the foundation of society and it accelerated the spread of prosperity.
The Letters are edited with erudition, and contain an INDEX of Names, and a Biographical Appendix (alas, omitting 'Holmes' or 'Laski').