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Fish on Tamanaha on Realism & Formalism

By Lawrence Solum

In the New York Times, Stanley Fish comment's on Tamanaha's book, here.  And a taste:

In a new book, ?Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide: The Role of Politics in Judging,? Brian Z. Tamanaha first describes the opposition that has such a hold on the public?s imagination ? on the one hand ?self-applying legal rules,? on the other ?judges pursuing their personal preferences beneath a veneer of legal rules? ? and then debunks it. His argument is that although historians, legal theorists, political scientists and sometimes judges themselves have over time constructed a ?standard chronicle? in which these two views of judging vie for supremacy, no one has ever been a genuine adherent of either: ?No one thinks that law is autonomous and judging is mechanical deduction, and rare is the jurist who thinks that judges are engaged in the single minded pursuit of their personal preferences.?

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on June 15, 2010 (boomark / email).