Lines to Holmes
A canon of rules and principles,
embodied in individual cases,
aggregated by judges
from different courts
and with different ranks,
makes up the common law system.
Perhaps the better way to put it
is that the common law is a canon
unto itself.
Rules and principles
that regulate people
are always engaged in a struggle for existence,
always subject to challenge and subversion
by the trends and movements of culture.
Tested by their ability
to obtain to society
and to yield constructive results,
they compete with one another
and become canonized
only if they prove
fit to survive the test of time,
the onslaught of new technologies,
which necessitate new approaches
to lawyering.
This is the law of the law
today as always.
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