I am ready to concede that the rule of adherence to precedent, though it ought not to be abandoned, ought to be in some degree relaxed. I think that … - Benjamin N. Cardozo

THE work of deciding cases goes on every day in hundreds of courts throughout the land. Any judge, one might suppose, would find it easy to describe the process which he had followed a thousand times and more. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let some intelligent layman ask him to explain: he will not go very far before taking refuge in the excuse that the language of craftsmen is unintelligible to those untutored in the craft. Such an excuse may cover with a semblance of respectability an otherwise ignominious retreat. It will hardly serve to still the pricks of curiosity and conscience. In moments of introspection, when there {10} is no longer a necessity of putting off with a show of wisdom the uninitiated interlocutor, the troublesome problem will recur, and press for a solution. What is it that I do when I decide a case? To what sources of information do I appeal for guidance? In what proportions do I permit them to contribute to the result? In what proportions ought they to contribute? If a precedent is applicable, when do I refuse to follow it? If no precedent is applicable, how do I reach the rule that will make a precedent for the future? If I am seeking logical consistency, the symmetry of the legal structure, how far shall I seek it? At what point shall the quest be halted by some discrepant custom, by some consideration of the social welfare, by my own or the common standards of justice and morals? Into that strange compound which is brewed daily in the caldron of the courts, all these ingredients enter in varying proportions. I am not concerned to inquire whether judges ought to be allowed to brew such a compound at all. I take judge-made law as one of the existing realities of life. There, before us, {11} is the brew. Not a judge on the bench but has had a hand in the making.

Ο δικαστής, ακόμη και όταν είναι ελεύθερος, δεν είναι τελείως ελεύθερος. Δεν μπορεί να καινοτομεί όπως και όταν του αρέσει. Δεν είναι ένας περιπλανώμενος ιππότης που αναζητεί το δικό του ιδανικό της ομορφιάς και της καλοσύνης. Είναι υποχρεωμένος να αντλεί την έμπνευσή του μέσα απο τις καθιερωμένες αρχές. Δεν πρέπει να ενδίδει σε σπασμωδικά συναισθήματα, σε μια αόριστη διάθεση ευσπλαχνίας. Είναι υποχρεωμένος να ασκεί μια διακριτική εξουσία, προσδιορισμένη από την παράδοση, μεθοδευμένη από την αναλογία, πειθαρχημένη από το σύστημα και υποκείμενη στην πρωταρχική ανάγκη της τάξης στην κοινωνική ζωή.

Magic words and incantations are as fatal to our science as they are to any other. Methods, when classified and separated, acquire their true bearing and perspective as a means to an end, not as ends in themselves. We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is an illusion.