ABSTRACT
Times change and with them the fashions, even fashions in legal thinking. In the not too distant past, some of the most respected voices among our legal theorists called for a less “legalistic” law and minimized the role of “logic” and “reason” in the judicial process. It is not clear how representative of the legal community the proponents of such views were; they seemed to have regarded themselves as voices crying in the wilderness. Nor is it always clear, to me at least, what it was that was being attacked and what it was that was being advanced. Yet it is not uncommon for these views to be taken as the typical American contribution to jurisprudence. Although no American can fail to be influenced in some measure by these conceptions, it is interesting to notice that some of our most distinguished writers have called for a return to reason in law, especially in high places, i.e., the Supreme Court.
