PHIL 2435 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Legal Realism
Document Summary
Keep legal duties/rights and moral duties/rights separate. Don"t get confused like natural law theorists! The bad man - concerned with consequences. Actual law - x has a legal duty to do p = if x fails to do p and is brought in front of a court, the court will impose a sanction (harm) on x. This is what the bad man cares about. Holmes says that this is a prediction. If the answer is yes, you have a legal duty. It is important for lawyers to know what factors will influence a judge"s decision. How the various judges interpret laws, if they are sympathetic to certain. Holmes says that when judges interpret statutes, they are inevitably making a certain kind defendants, etc. of moral judgement. This important when confirming supreme court justices. They may not be conscious of this, but it is happening nonetheless. Their own judgements (what the best result might be) inform their decisions.
