The Annotated Common Law: With 2010 Foreword and Explanatory Notes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · Steven Alan Childress

Jun 2011 · Quid Pro Books

About this ebook

Decoded, demythed rendition of Holmes' classic study of law and judicial development of rules. "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience." Includes 2010 Foreword; extensive, clear annotations by a Tulane law professor woven into The Common Law; footnotes with real numbers; and original page cites. Care in detail, proofreading, notes, and formatting, unlike any version made. 

As lamented by Holmes' premier biographer in 2006, The Common Law "is very likely the best-known book ever written about American law. But it is a difficult, sometimes obscure book, which today's lawyers and law students find largely inaccessible." No longer. With insertions and simple definitions of the original's language and concepts, this version makes it live for college students (able to "get it," at last, with legal terms explained), plus law students, lawyers, and anyone wanting to understand his great book. No previous edition, even in print, has offered annotations. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. compiled his master work in 1881 from lectures on the origins, reasoning, and import of the common law. It jump-started legal Realism and established law as a pragmatic way to solve problems and make policy, not just a bucket of rules. It has stood the test of time as one of the most important and influential studies of law. This book is interesting for a vast audience, including historians, students, and political scientists. It is also a recommended read before law school or in the 1L year. High quality, fully linked ebook edition from Quid Pro's Legal Legends Series.

About the author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (March 8, 1841- March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States January - February 1930. Holmes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of the prominent writer and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Holmes graduated from Harvard University, as did his father. He enlisted in the Massachusetts militia in the Spring of 1861 and he retired to his home in Boston after his three-year enlistment ended in 1864. Upon his return, he enrolled in Harvard Law School; he was admitted to the bar in 1866. On August 11, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Holmes to a seat on the United States Supreme Court vacated by Justice Horace Gray, who had retired in July. The nomination was made on the recommendation of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, then the junior senator from Massachusetts. Holmes stepped down from the court in 1932 and retired when he was 90 years of age. Many of his papers and writings were donated to Harvard Law School. Holmes died of pneumonia in Washington, D. C. on March 6, 1935; he was almost 94 years old.