Cardozo Law Review
Abstract
Judge Posner's "Pragmatic Adjudication" is enormously refreshing. It cuts through an immense amount of tiresome and pointless talk about "the nature of law" and "the relation of law to politics" and gets down to the question: how should appellate court judges in a particular country at a particular time do their work? It not only argues lucidly for a particular answer to that question, but it also gives a good sense of what it must be like to be in Judge Posner's shoes. Posner helps you understand what sorts of things judges have to worry about, and what sorts of self-doubt they experience. His frankness about the need-given certain specifically American conditions-for judicial rule-making is as cheering as it is infrequent. His claim that judges would be blameworthy if they failed to have emotional reactions to certain statutes, and his reminder that, in the end, every society has to trust its wise elders, are similarly illuminating.
Keywords
Jurisprudence, Politics (General), Courts, Judges, Judicial Process, Judiciary Branch
Disciplines
Courts | Judges | Jurisprudence | Law
Recommended Citation
Richard Rorty,
Pragmatism and Law: A Response to David Luban,
18
Cardozo L. Rev.
75
(1996).
Available at:
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol18/iss1/6