ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a few aspects of Oliver Wendell Holmes's scholarly, jurisprudential work as it developed in the 1870's and reached fruition in The Common Law. The two main themes of The Common Law are, first, the role of objective or external standards in the law, and, the role of public policy in the judicial development of the law. According to traditional jurisprudential doctrine two types of rights and duties may be distinguished: primary rights and duties, and secondary rights and duties. Statements of the bad man's rights and duties are translatable into general predictions of grants, denials, or impositions of remedies by courts. The chapter discusses the relevance of Holmes's reductionism to the curious paradox, and the contradiction between Holmes the jurisprude and Holmes the judge. It illustrates briefly his attack on Kant and Hegel on Bailment and Possession.
