Persons and Masks of the Law: Cardozo, Holmes, Jefferson, and Wythe as Makers of the Masks

Legal thought in this country has always focused on the rules rather than on the persons affected by the rules. Persons and Masks of the Law restores the balance by taking a person—centered view of the law. The author shows how even great jurists have chosen the "masks of the law" over persons, his surprising examples being Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, Benjamin Cardozo, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.—four of the greatest lawyers of the United States.

Noonan discusses how the concept of pr...