HAS THE AMERICAN REALIST MOVEMENT LEFT ANY SUBSTANTIAL MARK ON JURISPRUDENTIAL THOUGHT?
We must approach this question in consideration of the fact that the American Realist movement never purported to formulate a complete theory of law which could stand alone to tell us what law is. Instead, the basis was that official conduct in dispute settlement in all kinds of dispute was the focal point for the analysis of the law's impact, facilitating the ability to make legal predictions based on expected official action. I think that to measure the impact of this type of thinking on jurisprudential thought, we need to keep in mind how it seeks to differ from other theory.
There are quotations that encompass Realism's ideals very well. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the intellectual inspiration for the realist movement, who was a Justice of the Supreme Court from 1902, is often cited as saying the prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, are what I mean by the law.' Later members of......
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