preview

Holmes Positive Law Essay

Decent Essays

As Holmes dismisses natural law, his jurisprudence as the science of positive law becomes merely a predictive tool along the lines of modern science. Well-trained lawyers, according to Holmes, become the oracles of the new legalism and indeed new constitutionalism. Under his definition of “truth” as that which is helpful or useful here and now, it is beyond lawyers’ ability—as it is beyond the ability of anyone—to point to the constitutional truth of things. To know legal dogma is to be able to make predictions. “People want to know under what circumstances and how far they will run the risk of coming against what is so much stronger than themselves, and hence it becomes a business to find out when this danger is to be feared. The object of

Get Access