Persons and masks of the law : Cardozo, Holmes, Jefferson, and Wythe as makers of the masks / John T. Noonan, Jr. ; with a new preface.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noonan, John T., Jr. (John Thomas), 1926-2017.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--United States.

Law.

United States.

Lawyers--United States.

Lawyers.

Jurisprudence.

Physical Description:

xxi, 206 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First California paperback [edition].

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 2002.

Summary:

Legal Thought in the United States has always focused on the rules rather than on the persons affected by the rules. Persons and Masks of the Law restores the balance by taking a person-centered view of the law. John T. Noonan, Jr., shows how even great jurists have chosen the "masks of the law" over persons, his surprising examples being Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, Benjamin Cardozo, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. -- four of the greatest lawyers in U.S. history. Noonan discusses how the concept of property, applied to a person, is a perfect mask since no trace of human identity remains. An auction of slaves in Virginia, the takeover of a banana plantation in Costa Rica, and an accident on the Long Island Railroad are the famous cases involving these four legal giants. The stories of the litigations at three different periods of our history provide a powerful analysis of American law. Breaking through the formalism in which jurisprudence is often enshrined, Noonan offers a compelling vision of law and a potent call for reform in the education and behavior of lawyers.

Contents:

1 The Masks of the Participants 3

2 Virginian Liberators 29

3 The Overlord of American Law and the Sovereign of Costa Rica 65

4 The Passengers of Palsgraf 111

5 The Alliance of Law and History 152.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0520235231

OCLC:

49386213