Jurist and His Particular Relevance in the World of Jurisprudence: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr - Case Study Example

[Submitted to] Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - Jurist and his particular relevance in the world of Jurisprudence Jurisprudence as defined by the (Merrium-Webster Dictionary) is a branch of law particularly dealing with the court matters. Whenever it comes about the jurisprudence the most highlighted name that approaches is of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) who was one of the most influential and strongest members of the Supreme Court of United States of America in the Jurisprudence. His biggest achievement as being associated with justices was to eliminate the legal and official reasoning which were actually supported by the philosophy of natural law and natural right (Bradley C. S. Watson). HISTORICAL CONTEXT He originally belonged to Boston and was a student of Harvard College. During his academic life he participated in the civil war of 1857 which had a great impact over his life and perceptions about the Law and ultimately leaded him to join the Massachusetts Bar in 1867 after graduating from the Harvard Law School. He served the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts till 1902 after which he joined the Theodore Roosevelt Supreme Court where he remained appointed for about 29 years. In addition to being associated with judicatory he was also a successful and renowned writer. WENDELL AND JURISPRUDENCE Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. had the following basic visions and outlooks about the Jurisprudence. He convinced people that Law is basically sustained by the experience rather than logic. As experience makes its life longer whereas logic at times is left behind. Apparently he was the supporter of judicial control when the conventional judicial advocacy was targeted and condemned by the system of liberal activities. He induced the thought of realism in to the Court by introducing the concept of forecasting. He compelled people and lawyers to see law from other dimensions of dreadful man that how he was convinced to break the law. He also proposed his arguments pertaining to positivism as opposed to ethical language in law. Wendell has also made significant contributions to the Pragmatic Approach of Jurisprudence which was actually founded by him as he was the member of Harvard related club initiated by John Dewey. He was a person who used to keep a close eye upon the consequences and results of a potential idea. He used to analyze things with exceptionally experiencing outlook as far as law and jurisprudence are concerned. He has thoughtfully expressed this idea in his book ‘The Common Law’. He had a great emphasis over the external factors in the matters of court rather than the internal ones. Through his writings and expressions he has demonstrate a strange dimension of philosophy of law especially in the area of jurisprudence. He wanted to liberate the law from the restraints to the way of formality and automatic frame of deductive thinking. To do this the he applied the mechanical, experimental, experiencing and consequential approaches also known as ‘pragmatic maxim’ to the principles of law. Wendell had a distinctive thinking about law and jurisprudence. Previously he had a close relationship with the natural law and natural rights which strengthen him to maintain a close eye to the consequences of law and jurisprudence. He considered that values and morals have not a strong relationship with the proceedings of court. The right and wrong aspects attached to the cases presented in courts are not based upon the purposeful standards which makes their significance very low. The law differentiates between the good and bad or the culprit and the innocent on the basis of prevailing norms of the society which in reality do not have any affiliation with the constitution. The realistic approaches of Wendell deny the existence of constitutionalism. By the end of civil war pragmatism had already founded its way into law and jurisprudence superseding the concept of natural law and natural rights. Though he was a supporter of judiciary restraints but at times he also utilizes the creative and novel feedbacks made by the present age. Wendell declared the Natural Law as inconsiderable and introduced his jurisprudence based on the principles of positivity and consequences of law which were recognized as the prognostic instruments of the contemporary science. He trained the new lawyers in such a way that they became the visionaries of the novel law system and constitutionalism (Bradley C. S. Watson). His most significant tools in jurisprudence were truth and the profound ability of prediction which was a comparatively new idea for not only the lawyers but for almost everyone since no body was able to challenge the law and constitution. The disputes heard in the courts are mostly among two economically unbalanced parties. One of them is mostly very week while the other one has the strong influence over the law. In such a scenario people must know the strength and possible consequence of their actions upon the person against whom they are moving into the court. This can be done only through prediction along with the use of other tools of law. Wendell considered law as a whole experience rather than something based on logic and philosophy. He justifies his approach by the example that it is not the constitution or the jurisprudence that defines a case rather these are the minor details of the incident which explains the situation in a perfect manner. Along with this the past experience of lawyers also counts a lot. Wendell criticizes the decision making style of judges by proposing an idea that the decision spoken by judges are merely based upon the community factors of the society whereas they should have a strong back of some reality. Judges usually make a certain criteria including several questions through which they try to analyze the whole situation hence making more and more narrowed decisions. CONCLUSION Oliver Wendell Holmes had a very distinctive approach about law and jurisprudence which he proved to be extremely beneficial through his practices and contribution to the field. His overall approach pertaining to law revolves around the four key factors i.e. truth, prediction, realism and pragmatism. Wendell believed that logic has a very small contribution in the development of law as it can be only used to make calculations of the socioeconomic circumstances. He also identified another problem with jurisprudence that it is not according to the practical approach of socioeconomic theory. The Judge usually pronounces his conclusions on the basis of prevailing beliefs in the society instead of being pragmatic while making decisions. Works Cited Bradley C. S. Watson, St. Vincent College. Natural Law, Natural Rights and American Constitutionalism: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and the Natural Law. 2012. Web. 11 12 2012. Merrium-Webster Dictionary. 2012. Web. 11 12 2012. Read More