ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ebb and flow of the notion of public policy in twentieth-century legal thought. For classical liberalists, states cannot have much say in determining public policy especially in issues other than security and protection of civil liberties. A brief survey of decisions rendered in the early half of the twentieth century reveals the classical approach to the notion of public policy in US courts. American Legal Realism had a lasting impact on the idea of public policy. Public policy under rationalism is not and should not be limited to the policies promulgated by parliament through statutes. Judges are not bound by the intent of the legislator in order to discover and apply public policy. Judges had a well-settled and ingrained principle of resorting to precedents. Therefore, the mechanical approach of formalism in common law would not necessarily lead to a rigid interpretative method in civil law.
