Stereoscopic Law: Oliver Wendell Holmes and Legal Education

Alexander Lian
Cambridge University Press, 12/3/2020
EAN 9781108474740, ISBN10: 1108474748

Hardcover, 517 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

In this unique book, Alexander Lian, a practicing commercial litigator, advances the thesis that the most famous article in American jurisprudence, Oliver Wendell Holmes's “The Path of the Law,” presents Holmes's leading ideas on legal education. Through meticulous analysis, Lian explores Holmes's fundamental ideas on law and its study. He puts “The Path of the Law” within the trajectory of Holmes's jurisprudence, from earliest scholarship to The Common Law to the occasional pieces Holmes wrote or delivered after joining the U.S. Supreme Court. Lian takes a close look at the reactions “The Path of the Law” has evoked, both positive and negative, and restates the essay's core teachings for today's legal educators. Lian convincingly shows that Holmes's “theory of legal study” broke down artificial barriers between theory and practice. For contemporary legal educators, Stereoscopic Law reformulates Holmes's fundamental message that the law must been seen and taught three-dimensionally.

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 Recapitulation
Part V. The Theory of Legal Study
Conclusion.