One of our professors recalls a quotation that he thinks might be
by Holmes. The subject is the limited value of precedent. The quotation
is something like: "If the only thing a proposition has to commend itself
is that it has been followed for hundreds of years, then it is of little
value." Or substitute "rule," "idea," or "principle" for "proposition,"
and substitute "a hundred years" or "centuries" or any other long period
of time for "hundreds of years," and so on. This sounds familiar to me
and to a couple of colleagues here, but I haven't been able to find it
using legal quotation books and LEXIS (US file and ALLREV file, various
searches). The professor tried The Common Law and The Path of the Law.
If this passage seems familiar to you and you have any more clues or even
a citation, please let me know. Thanks.
Mary Whisner
Head of Reference Telephone: (206) 543-6794
Gallagher Law Library FAX: (206) 685-2165
University of Washington Internet: whisner@u.washington.edu
1100 NE Campus Pkwy, JB-20
Seattle, WA 98105
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