''The Common Law'' is a

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

written by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in 1881, 21 years before Holmes became an

Associate Justice An associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some ...

of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. The book is about

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

in the United States, including torts, property, contracts, and crime. It is written as a series of lectures. It has gone out of copyright and is available in full on the web at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

. A famous aphorism appears on the first page of the book: "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience." Holmes's pronouncement is a qualification of a dictum by the famous seventeenth-century English jurist Sir Edward Coke: "Reason is the life of the law."

References

External links

''The Common Law'' by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
from the U. of Toronto Typographical Society.

by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. *
Books That Shaped America: ''The Common Law''

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interview with Jeffrey Rosen, October 16, 2023. 1881 non-fiction books Law books Works about law in the United States Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. {{US-law-book-stub

References

Further reading

External links