KARL N. LLEWELLYN

For over seventy years, there has been one book that law students have read to prepare for what they were about to encounter. That book is The Bramble Bush. After all these years and many imitators, The Bramble Bush remains one of the most popular introductions to the law and its study. Llewellyn introduces students to what the law is, how to read cases, how to prepare for class, and how justice in the real world relates to the law. Although laws change every year, disputes between people haven''t altered all that much since Llewellyn first penned The Bramble Bush, and the process of moving from private dispute to legal conflict still follows the patterns he described. Moreover, the steps of a legal dispute, from arguments to verdict, to opinion, to review, to appeal, to opinion have changed little in their significance or their substance. Cases are still the best tools for exploring the interaction of the law with individual questions, and the essence of what law students must learn to do has persisted. If anything, many of the points Llewellyn argued in these lectures were on the dawning horizon then but are in their mid-day fullness now.

Written generations years ago, but highly relevant today, The Bramble Bush remains one of the books most recommended for students to read when considering law school, just before beginning its study, or early in the first semester. Its first edition began as a collection from a series of introductory lectures given by legal legend Karl Llewellyn to new law students at Columbia University. It still speaks to law, legal reasoning, and exam-taking skills in a way that makes it a classic for each new generation. The current ebook is an updated, annotated, and modern edition with the new contributions of Stewart Macaulay, senior professor of law at the University of Wisconsin.The Quid Pro Legal Legends Edition includes an extensive, modern Introduction by renowned law professor Stewart Macaulay. Macaulay updates the current reader on the books continued relevance and application, offers a practical perspective to new law students, and places the original edition in its historical context. Simply put, Macaulay writes, this "is a book that anyone interested in law schools or law should read."The Quid Pro edition of the classic work also includes several unobtrusive annotations, to update the reader on legal terms and cultural references made in the original that may not be clear to todays reader. Moreover, this is a carefully proofread and presented edition, lacking the errors and scanning mistakes of other presses editions in print. It is also available in paperback and clothbound formats from Quid Pro, including the annotations and modern introduction by Prof. Macaulay.

A principios de la década de los años treinta surgió en Estados Unidos la corriente antiformalista del realismo jurídico, movimiento que construyó sus aportes a partir de una serie de críticas al formalismo que habia surgido a ambos lados del Atlantico a finales del siglo XIX. Dentro de la corriente antiformalista, los realistas norteamericanos se erigieron como una nueva generacion especialmente preocupada por la relacion entre sociedad y derecho y por la forma como se construian las decisiones judiciales a partir de valoraciones de utilidad social y politica publica. En este contexto se encargaron de desarrollar la intuicion antiformalista frente a la indeterminacion del derecho, segun la cual resulta complejo predecir la decision judicial a partir de normas juridicas positivas, pues la labor de un juez tambien se encuentra determinada por consideraciones psicologicas o sociologicas que no son capturadas por las normas. La tesis fuerte de la indeterminacion fue duramente resistida por otros antiformalistas estadounidenses que atacaron al realismo. Uno de estos ataques provino del prestigioso jurista y decano de la Escuela de Leyes de la Universidad de Harvard, Roscoe Pound. Este ultimo, representante de la jurisprudencia sociologica, ataco el escepticismo de los realistas. Ello produjo una respuesta del representante mas reputado del realismo juridico, Karl Llewellyn, quien trato de resistir los ataques de Pound mostrando que los realistas de los años treinta eran herederos del antiformalismo de los viejos representantes de la jurisprudencia sociologica como lo era el propio Pound. No obstante la prudencia de Llewellyn, el debate marco un quiebre general entre los "viejos" y los "nuevos" antiformalistas estadounidenses: los juristas sociologicos y los realistas.

A principios de la década de los años treinta surgió en Estados Unidos la corriente antiformalista del realismo jurídico, movimiento que construyó sus aportes a partir de una serie de críticas al formalismo que habia surgido a ambos lados del Atlantico a finales del siglo ...