Palm Desert Attorney

The Path of the Law

Description

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-01-01
Summary: "The Rorschach Test of the Law: Great Gift for Anyone Going into Law"

Note: Amazon has grouped together reviews of several different editions of this book; this review is for The Path of the Law (Little Books of Wisdom).

More than a century after it was written, this is still the most important essay about law ever written, in part because lawyers are still arguing over exactly what it means. People from all across the political spectrum have used it to buttress their ideological arguments, which to my NON-legally trained mind ought to constitute something of a warning.

Of course the most basic reason for this is that one of the axes Holmes has grinding here is a brief in favor of the school of thought known as legal pragmatism, the idea that law can (and SHOULD) be separated from logic, from history, and most important of all from morality. Up to a point this is simply unarguable; law (like almost anything else you can imagine) can always benefit from a good dose of businesslike pragmatism. The trouble comes when you take pragmatism too far, as you must when you are trying to justify replacing God with Darwin. There is an old joke among philosophers about how Pragmatism was rejected because it didn't work; there's a reason Social Darwinism so often ends in gulags and mass graves. The trouble is that while pragmatism makes for a good basic approach to law (or anything else for that matter), it is no substitute for basic principles. Morals free "survival of the fittest" results in life that is "nasty, brutish, and short" for those who don't measure up to being the "fittest". When "might makes right" is as "good" an approach to the law as any, when if there is no constitutional provision forbidding the government to do something (and the truly creative can find their way around this condition), the people, through their elected representatives, can do pretty much any damn fool thing they please, then the pragmatic approach to law can degenerate into processing people for the death camps more efficiently.

Note: One could complain that this book is available online for free. Well, yes, what part of in the public domain do you not understand? However, trying to get away with giving someone a printout as a gift will earn you the nickname of cheapskate. If all you want to do is read it yourself, then by all means stick to the free sites. However, if you are looking for a way to get through to someone else, you are better off buying a copy, and a solitary sawbuck for this sturdy pocket-sized reprint is going to be tough to beat. The chief virtue of it being online is your ability to read it first and make sure that this is the book you want to give before ordering it.

Note: Applewood Books has produced a nice looking inexpensive series of sturdy pocket-sized reprints of important American books, documents, speeches, pamphlets, and poems, the Little Books of Wisdom, uniform with this volume, that are ideal for gifting to doctors, lawyers, teachers, business professionals, and students of same: The Way to Wealth, George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, The Constitution of the United States of America, On the Art of Teaching, The Poems of Abraham Lincoln, The Bill of Rights with Writings That Formed Its Foundation, The Strenuous Life, The Constitution of the Confederate States of America, The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, A Message to Garcia, A Declaration of Sentiments, Robert's Rules of Order, Good Citizenship, On Being Human, A Discourse Upon the Duties of a Physician, The Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of Its Signers, Teamwork, Stick-To-Itiveness, Opportunity, & You, The Wants of Man, George Washington's Farewell Address, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Speech of Chief Seattle, Common Sense, The Articles of Confederation, The Emancipation Proclamation, and The Gospel of Wealth.

Some selected volumes are also available in boxed sets: Books of American Wisdom Boxed Set, CEO's Gift Box of Wisdom, Doctor's Gift Box of Wisdom, Lawyer's Gift Box of Wisdom, New Citizen's Gift Box of Wisdom, and Teacher's Gift Box of Wisdom.

And some have been published in Spanish: Un Mensaje a Garcia and Constitucion de Los Estados Unidos.

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Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2005-01-13
Summary: "Not Printable!!!"

The information is incorrect! You can't print this thing out! Had I known that, I would've dropped the $8 on a paper copy!

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 1999-12-21
Summary: "Great, short book"

I believe this book is transcribed from a speech given by Holmes to a group of lawyers, judges, scholars at HLS. It is Holmes' prediciton for the future of the law and it is extremely prescient. For anyone interested in the law it is a must read, and at about 34 pages a very quick and enjoyable one.