Frederick Pollock
Frederick Pollock
Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet PC was an English jurist best known for his History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, written with F.W. Maitland, and his lifelong correspondence with US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. He was a Cambridge Apostle...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionJudge
Date of Birth10 December 1845
apt doubts odd persons terms
It is odd how learned persons fail to see that new terms and definitions are apt to mean new doubts and litigation.
found hack horses lean logical mutual promises sufficient
Have you ever found any logical reason why mutual promises are sufficient consideration for one another (like the two lean horses of a Calcutta hack who can only just stand together)? I have not.
theory
The oldest theory of contract is I think negative.
distinct perfectly
The practice of the law is a perfectly distinct art.
bad
It is strange how little harm bad codes do.
assumed common following whenever
It cannot be assumed that equity was following common law whenever they agreed, any more than the converse.
consider essay fact gospel pamphlet political revolution
Consider the Essay as a political pamphlet on the Revolution side, and the fact that it was the Whig gospel for a century, and you will see its working merit.
admitted background behave common conduct deny ethical ethics men principles reasonably
If you deny that any principles of conduct at all are common to and admitted by all men who try to behave reasonably - well, I don't see how you can have any ethics or any ethical background for law.
narrow obscure pet whom
Crabbed and obscure definitions are of no use beyond a narrow circle of students, of whom probably every one has a pet one of his own.
beings believe patterns truths ultimate
But it is strange how many rational beings believe the ultimate truths of the universe to be reducible to patterns on a blackboard.
knows life man suspects uneasy until
Yet when one suspects that a man knows something about life that one hasn't heard before one is uneasy until one has found out what he has to say.
far public rule socialists
So far I go with the Socialists as to think it a pretty general rule that, where monopoly is necessary, it is better in public hands.
york
I have not heard that even the New York abortion has done very much in the States where it has been enacted.
created difference duties forms ignore imposed taken
Not that pleading can be taken as a test, for the forms of action, notably Debt, ignore the fundamental difference between duties imposed by law and duties created by the will of the parties.