The Common Law Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) is considered one of greatest justices of the US Supreme Court. In more than 2000 opinions, he delineated an impressive legal philosophy that influenced American jurisprudence, particularly in the area of civil liberties & judicial restraint. At the same time, his abilities as a prose stylist earned him a position among the literary elite. In this book, derived from a series of lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute, Holmes systematized his early legal doctrines. The result was an enduring classic of legal philosophy that continues to be read and consulted over a century later. Beginning with historical forms of liability (thought to have originated in the desire for vengeance in ancient Roman and Germanic blood feuds), the book goes on to discuss criminal law, torts, bails, possession and ownership, contracts, successions and many other aspects of civil and criminal law. Encompassing Holmes's profound, wide-ranging knowledge of the law in its historical aspects, yet written in a manner easily accessible to the layman, The Common Law provoked this observation from another famed jurist: "The book is a classic in the sense that its stock of ideas has been absorbed and become part of common juristic thought. . .they placed law in a perspective which legal scholarship ever since has merely confirmed"-Felix Frankfurter, Of Law and Men. Now the influential ideas and judicial theory of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. can be studied and appreciated in this superb paperback edition-the only one in print- of his magnum opus. This edition also features a new introduction by Professor Sheldon M. Novick, author of Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes (available in paperback). First published in 1881, The Common Law is still indispensable reading for lawyers, political scientists, historians, general readers- anyone interested in the origins, development and continuing evolution of the laws that govern human society.Read More