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Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Theory of Law

This research paper explores the philosophical thinking of

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (b. 1841, d. 1935), a Justice of the United States Supreme Court between 1902 and 1931, a distinguished jurist and prolific writer and speaker, concerning law and the relationship between law and morality and the way in which Holmes applied these concepts during his long career on the bench. Since his death, Holmes has been perceived in certain quarters by natural law theorists and others as having propagated a legal philosophy which is insufficiently moored in the moral underpinnings of Western and American civilization and as a somewhat unprincipled agnostic who took an unnecessarily harsh view of American society and the role and evolution of the law in mediating its conflicts.

However, a full reading of Holmes' philosophy, including his rulings and dissents on the Supreme Court, reveals that his views on law and morality were consistent with the finest American legal traditions, broke new ground in many important areas and advanced the cause of civilization. Holmes had a distinctive theory of the sources of the common law, which was shaped by the early influences on his life, and the raging controversies and intellectual debates of his time. His approach was distinctively American and pragmatic, but it also was deeply rooted in the need for the law to move ahead to meet the emerging needs of the nation.

Holmes grew up in the New England society of the mid-19th century, in which religion and politics had been fused for several centuries, dating back to the Puritan theocracy of the colonial period. His grandfather, Abiel Holmes, was a Calvinist preacher. From his forbears, he inherited a strict sense of duty which he carried during his long working career, he said, with "the cold passion of the Puritan" (Hill 10). His father, Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.), physician and poet, known as the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, exposed his son ...

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Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Theory of Law. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 15:15, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1692130.html