Description
Book SynopsisReveals how the story about the formalist age was an invention of politically motivated critics of the courts, and how it has led to significant misunderstandings about legal realism. This title traces how this false tale has distorted studies of judging by political scientists and debates among legal theorists.
Trade Review"Tamanaha has written a provocative challenge to conventional wisdom about the rise of judicial realism... Strongly recommended for scholars and students of law, political science, and history."--Choice "Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide is a clearly written and groundbreaking book. Although its focus is historical, its objective--in which it succeeds--is to change the way we think about law today."--Henry Cohen, Federal Lawyer "Tamanaha's book reflects some striking research into the views of (largely forgotten or neglected) 19th-century law professors and jurists, and the material he has brought to our attention will demand attention from legal historians... [W]e should be grateful to Tamanaha for his provocative historical research, for laying down a vigorous challenge that should be met by historians of ideas and social scientists, and for imparting appropriate intellectual caution and modesty to future writers who might otherwise be prone to casual talk about a 'formalist' age in American legal thought."--Brian Leiter, Legal Theory "Tamanaha's ... book will change the way we think about both formalism and realism, about the history of legal scholarship and about the empirical study of judicial decision making."--Edward Rubin, Law and Politics Review
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1 PART ONE: THE LEGAL FORMALISTS CHAPTER 2: The Myth about Beliefs in the Common Law 13 CHAPTER 3: The Myth about "Mechanical Jurisprudence" 27 CHAPTER 4: The Holes in the Story about Legal Formalism 44 PART TWO: The Legal Realists CHAPTER 5: Realism before the Legal Realists 67 CHAPTER 6: A Reconstruction of Legal Realism 91 PART THREE: STUDIES OF JUDGING CHAPTER 7: The Slant in the "Judicial Politics" Field 111 CHAPTER 8: What Quantitative Studies of Judging Have Found 132 PART FOUR: LEGAL THEORY CHAPTER 9: The Emptiness of "Formalism" in Legal Theory 159 CHAPTER 10: Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide 181 Afterword 200 Notes 203 Index 251
