A Common Law for the Age of Statutes (Oliver Wendell Holmes Lectures Book 8)

The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial-legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised. Table of Contents: 1. Choking on Statutes 2. The Flight to the Constitution and to Equal Protection Clauses 3. The Passive Virtues 4. Interpretation 5. The New Deal Response: Administrative Agencies 6. Legislative Responses 7. Structural Responses 8. A New Approach: Antecedents and Roots 9. The Doctrine: A Question of Legitimacy 10. The Doctrine: Limits and Guidelines 11. The Doctrine: Techniques and Feasibility 12. The Role of Courts in an Age of Statutes 13. The Dangers of the Doctrine 14. The Uses and Abuses of Subterfuge 15. The Choice for Candor Notes Works Cited Table of Cases Index Reviews of this book: This is a genuinely original and thoughtful book, one of the few in the jurisprudential genre that is both dearly written and devoid of cliché. It addresses current social and legal issues from an engagingly fresh, nonpolemical, and erudite perspective. --American Bar Association Journal Reviews of this book: Calabresi has brought his ample juristic talents to bear on a foundational problem of the legal and democratic process...in its quality, timeliness and provocativeness [this book] is likely to stand alongside the seminal works of Ronald Dworkin and Grant Gilmore. --Columbia Law Review

The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial-legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised.Table of Contents:

1. Choking on Statutes
2. The Flight to the Constitution and to Equal Protection Clauses
3. The Passive Virtues
4. Interpretation
5. The New Deal Response: Administrative Agencies
6. Legislative Responses
7. Structural Responses
8. A New Approach: Antecedents and Roots
9. The Doctrine: A Question of Legitimacy
10. The Doctrine: Limits and Guidelines
11. The Doctrine: Techniques and Feasibility
12. The Role of Courts in an Age of Statutes
13. The Dangers of the Doctrine
14. The Uses and Abuses of Subterfuge
15. The Choice for Candor

Notes
Works Cited
Table of Cases
Index

Reviews of this book:
This is a genuinely original and thoughtful book, one of the few in the jurisprudential genre that is both dearly written and devoid of cliché. It addresses current social and legal issues from an engagingly fresh, nonpolemical, and erudite perspective.
--American Bar Association JournalReviews of this book:
Calabresi has brought his ample juristic talents to bear on a foundational problem of the legal and democratic process...in its quality, timeliness and provocativeness [this book] is likely to stand alongside the seminal works of Ronald Dworkin and Grant Gilmore.
--Columbia Law Review

The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial-legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised.Table of Contents: 1. Choking on Statutes 2. The Flight to the Constitution and to Equal Protection Clauses 3. The Passive Virtues 4. Interpretation 5. The New Deal Response: Administrative Agencies 6. Legislative Responses 7. Structural Responses 8. A New Approach: Antecedents and Roots 9. The Doctrine: A Question of Legitimacy 10. The Doctrine: Limits and Guidelines 11. The Doctrine: Techniques and Feasibility 12. The Role of Courts in an Age of Statutes 13. The Dangers of the Doctrine 14. The Uses and Abuses of Subterfuge 15. The Choice for Candor Notes Works Cited Table of Cases Index Reviews of this book: This is a genuinely original and thoughtful book, one of the few in the jurisprudential genre that is both dearly written and devoid of cliché. It addresses current social and legal issues from an engagingly fresh, nonpolemical, and erudite perspective.--American Bar Association JournalReviews of this book: Calabresi has brought his ample juristic talents to bear on a foundational problem of the legal and democratic process.in its quality, timeliness and provocativeness [this book] is likely to stand alongside the seminal works of Ronald Dworkin and Grant Gilmore.--Columbia Law Review

The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial-legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised.

American Bar Association Journal

This is a genuinely original and thoughtful book, one of the few in the jurisprudential genre that is both dearly written and devoid of cliché. It addresses current social and legal issues from an engagingly fresh, nonpolemical, and erudite perspective.

Annotation The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial-legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country to seriously consider returning to a traditional American judicial–legislative balance in which courts enlarge the common law and decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised. Calabresi complains that we are "choking on statutes" and proposes a restoration of the courts to their common law function. From a series of lectures given by Calabresi as part of The Oliver Wendell Holmes Lectures delivered at Harvard Law School in March 1977