Question

Who has defined Law as "the prophecies of what court will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious"?

• A. Jerome Frank
• B. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
• C. Roscoe Pound
• D. Hans Kelsen

Hint:

The "prophecies of the court" definition is a hallmark of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and the American Realist school, which focuses on "law in action" rather than "law in books."

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

This is a famous quote from the Realist School of Jurisprudence.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
, a prominent American jurist and a key figure in legal realism, proposed this definition in his influential essay "The Path of the Law.
" He argued that law should not be seen as a set of abstract rules, but as a prediction of what judges will actually decide in a particular case.
He suggested looking at law from the perspective of a "bad man" who only cares about the practical consequences of his actions, i.
e.
, the "prophecies" of what the courts will do.