The Common Law |  | Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Publisher: Dover Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $5.25
as of 9/4/2010 16:43 CDT details
You Save: $9.70 (65%)
New (17) Used (37) from $5.25
Seller: My Estate Sales
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 218761
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0486267466
Dewey Decimal Number: 340.57
EAN: 9780486267463
ASIN: 0486267466
Publication Date: July 22, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Only paperback edition of great legal classic by noted Supreme Court Justice. Lucid, accessible coverage, from a historical perspective, of liability, criminal law, torts, bail, possession and ownership, contracts, successions, many other aspects of civil and criminal law. Indispensable reading for lawyers, political scientists, interested general readers. New introduction by Sheldon M. Novick. Table of Cases.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 The Philosophical Basis For Our Legal System December 18, 2003
Peter L. Swiinford (Lafayette, IN USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is a little tedious for us non-lawyers, but it does illustrate some interesting points:
Law emerged from the need to get away from revenge/feud dynamics. And it originated during times when most people couldn't write, so the issue of proving a case (such as in a agreement) is troublesome (especially in times when plagues and such could kill witnesses at any time). The world is a fuzzy set, and yet the law needs to set a finite set of rules in place, so exceptions constantly challenge. The needs of the state can supercede the issue of fairness, such as in the rule that "ignorance is no excuse". Judges are generally friends of the wealthy and not compatriots of the commoner. If a man has large debts, and dies, how can his children, who were not party to the agreements, be held liable via the estate? Many such questions arise and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. tries to address the fluid basis for our legal system.
Not an "elaborate joke" June 16, 2005
Bart Motes (Miami, Florida)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
This comment doesn't attempt to assess Holmes' classic work. I write, however, to note that the other gentleman's comment about this work being possibly an "elaborate joke" is ludicrious and disprovable. In a letter reproduced in The Essential Holmes, edited by Richard Posner, Holmes discusses giving up all pleasure for a year to write this book and of his hopes of getting some recognition from British commentators for it.
Holmes' prose is occasionally arcane, but enduring the tics of a writing style rooted in Civil War America is a small price to pay in exchange for experiencing the thoughts of one of the most formative legal minds in American history.
"The Literature of the past is a bore--when one has said that frankly to oneself then one can proceed to qualify and make exceptions." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Letter to Frederick Pollack, April 6, 1924, reproduced in The Essential Holmes, edited by Richard Posner, page 19.
If the prospective of tackling the Common Law still strikes you as momentous, reading the Essential Holmes, which has excerpts from The Common Law, is a good compromise. Holmes's many letters and opinions therein are very accessible.
Worth more than one reading March 24, 2002
Michael Huntington (Asan-si, Chung-nam South Korea)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is one of those books that deserves more than one read. Some books are to be read more than once, because the content or style is too difficult - for some The Common Law may be one of those books. But others, like this one, deserve to be read more than once because every reading brings out more depth in the material. I originally read Holmes' work in the context of trying to understand the legal background of contemporary American controversies such as gun control, abortion rights and so on. I didn't discover much about those issues, but I WAS inspired to study law. Reading The Common Law (and Blackstone's Commentaries) was one of the crucial factors in my deciding to go to law school. Though there are some who feel that the style is "stilted" or "old-fashioned" it is in many ways a style profoundly more readable and even more beautiful than is much of the writing published today, and I can only lament that there are few contemporary writers who can match the fluency and clarity of Holmes. If you are at all interested in the law or in the historical aspects of society as affected by law, and if you enjoy books written in better than average English, then this is certainly one you should read.
classic work August 17, 2002
D. Friedman (New York, NY United States)
Oliver Wendell Holmes is regarded as one of the finest American jurists in history; this book deserves the accolades it has received.
Book review July 20, 2005
Paul A. Rush (Union Kentucky)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Even though this book,was written along time ago it is still
relevant. This was on my reading list for law school.it
open my eyes to new ideas and and critical thinking.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
|
|
|
