Book contents
- Stereoscopic Law
- Stereoscopic Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Law and the Legal Profession
- Part II The Inner Path of the Common Law
- Part III The Purely Legal Point of View
- Part IV Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Bad Man
- Part V The Theory of Legal Study
- Conclusion
- Index
Part III - The Purely Legal Point of View
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2021
- Stereoscopic Law
- Stereoscopic Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Law and the Legal Profession
- Part II The Inner Path of the Common Law
- Part III The Purely Legal Point of View
- Part IV Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Bad Man
- Part V The Theory of Legal Study
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Understanding the purely legal point of view – which Holmes ultimately personified as the“bad man” – depends on appreciating the temporal dimensions of existence. Working off James Willard Hurst’s Justice Holmes on Legal History, this part attempts to lay the basis for a three-dimensional view of law. Hurst’s ideas of sequence and context lead to a greater appreciation of law’s horizontal and vertical dimensions, and provide the basis for appreciating its depth and vitality. A three-dimensional view of law brings law to present purpose when tied to what Holmes called the law’s fundamental theorem: the philosophical idea that any possible conduct is either lawful or unlawful. From this starting point it might one day be possible to create a metric of the law, one that would materially expand the law’s capacity to be known.
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- Stereoscopic LawOliver Wendell Holmes and Legal Education, pp. 91 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020