The Collected Legal Papers

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841–1935) is ingrained in American history as one of the country's foremost jurists. Distinguished for his learning, judgment, humor, and eloquence, he served as justice of the United States Supreme Court for four decades. Throughout his career, Holmes forged new concepts of the origin and nature of law. He viewed the law as a social instrument rather than as a set of abstract principles, and his ideas were seminal in the development of modern free-speech legislation...