Pragmatism and Judicial Restraint

This paper examines the tradition and influence of pragmatism and judicial restraint in American legal culture. In order to better understand the intellectual foundation of this tradition, I will examine the jurisprudence of James Bradley Thayer and Oliver Wendell Holmes. I will argue that this discourse has enriched debates about the constitutional relationship between the judiciary and the modern administrative state, and that a deeper understanding of this tradition can help to unravel thorny questions regarding the maintenance of constitutional values in a modern democracy committed to the rule of law.