The Common Law is a collection of lectures by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., first published in 1881. It traces how common-law doctrines on liability, property, contracts, and crime developed from experience and social needs rather than pure logic. It remains valuable for listeners interested in legal history and the foundations of Anglo-American law.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE COMMON LAW
By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
CONVENTIONS
Numbers in square brackets [245] refer to original page numbers. Original footnotes were numbered page-by-page, and are collected at the end of the text. In the text, numbers in slashes (e.g./1/) refer to original footnote numbers. In the footnote section, a number such as 245/1 refers to (original) page 245, footnote 1. The footnotes are mostly citations to old
English law reporters and to commentaries by writers such as
Ihering, Bracton and Blackstone. I cannot give a source for decrypting the notation. To find a footnote click on the page number just above the footnote i.e. [245].
There is quite a little Latin and some Greek in the original text. I have reproduced the Latin. The Greek text is omitted; its place is marked by the expression [Greek characters]. Italics and diacritical marks such as accents and cedillas are omitted and unmarked.
Lecture X has two subheads—Successions After Death and
Successions Inter Vivos. Lecture XI is also titled Successions
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