Thanks to all who have replied with the answer. The odd thing is that I
posted this question years ago. I have no idea how it reappeared. The
'Net is an exciting place, isn't it?
-- Mary
On 17 Mar 1998, Mark Moreno wrote:
> In case any one else in curious:
>
> "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule than that it was laid down in the time of Henry IV.
> It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule
> simply persists from imitation of the past."
>
> Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Path of the Law, 10 Harv.L.Rev. 457, 469 (1897)
>
> > One of our professors recalls a quotation that he thinks might be
> > by Holmes. The subject is the limited value of precedent. The quotation
> > is something like: "If the only thing a proposition has to commend itself
> > is that it has been followed for hundreds of years, then it is of little
> > value." Or substitute "rule," "idea," or "principle" for "proposition,"
> > and substitute "a hundred years" or "centuries" or any other long period
> > of time for "hundreds of years," and so on. This sounds familiar to me
> > and to a couple of colleagues here, but I haven't been able to find it
> > using legal quotation books and LEXIS (US file and ALLREV file, various
> > searches). The professor tried The Common Law and The Path of the Law.
> > If this passage seems familiar to you and you have any more clues or even
> > a citation, please let me know. Thanks.
> >
> > Mary Whisner
> > Head of Reference Telephone: (206) 543-6794
> > Gallagher Law Library FAX: (206) 685-2165
> > University of Washington Internet: whisner@u.washington.edu
> > 1100 NE Campus Pkwy, JB-20
> > Seattle, WA 98105
> >
> >
>
>
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