The Common Law Tradition: A Collective Portrait of Five Legal Scholars [Paperback]

George W. Liebmann (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1412805600 | ISBN-13: 978-1412805605 | Publication Date: May 3, 2006

This book commemorates a place and a time in American law teaching, but more importantly, an outlook: the common law tradition. That outlook was empirical and tolerant. These values were carried into expression by a group of people who were not part of a cult or faction nor ruled by the herd instinct. Now in paperback, The Common Law Tradition is a collective portrait of fi ve scholars who epitomize the tradition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"To offer a series of five mini-biographies, all carefully researched, is an impressive achievement. ... The book's useful overview allows us to learn from ideas that still have power despite-and because of-the distance between those ideas and our own." --Brian H. Bix, University of Minnesota --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 385 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (May 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1412805600
• ISBN-13: 978-1412805605
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,397,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Law > Perspectives on Law > Customary

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Interesting Profiles of Chicago Law Professors, January 19, 2006

By 

Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Common Law Tradition: A Collective Portrait of Five Legal Scholars (Hardcover)

This is quite a substantial book comprised of five profiles of law professors who taught (at one time or another but principally in the 1960's) at the law school of the University of Chicago. The five are Edward H. Levi, who served not only ultimately as President of the University, but also Ford's Attorney General; Harry Kalven, Jr., the distinguished First Amendment scholar; Karl Llewellyn, a progenitor of "legal realism" and the UCC; Philip Kurland, the bombastic Frankfurter disciple and master of constitutional law; and Kenneth Culp Davis, the guru of administrative law. The author has not only done exceptional research on each individual, but apparently had personal contact with them while either a student of the law school or in other contexts. This makes for a highly informative approach.

The profiles vary in impact--those of Levy and LLewellyn(both exceptional individuals) are especially incisive and perceptive, the others less so. There are two concerns which I had in reading the book. First, much of the author's approach consists of discussing the principal publications of each subject. While this is valuable, after a while one almost begins to believe the book is a continuous book review. This is particularly true of the profiles of Kalven and (to a lesser extent) Kurland. On the other hand, the Davis profile really benefits from this approach, I thought. My second concern is that the author somehow wants to tie all five subjects to what he terms the "common law tradition." I am not sure he is fully successful in this endeavor, although with five such strong personalities this is no surprise. He also wants to persuade us that these five individuals had an approach to teaching and scholarship seriously at variance with their colleagues of today. I remain unpersuaded on this point as well. Nonetheless, a highly informative volume with considerable value and insight, with some staunchly conservative ideas thrown in for good measure.