THE NATURE OF THE
JUDICIAL PROCESS
Lecture III. The Method of Sociology. The Judge as a Legislator
IHAVE chosen these branches of the law merely as conspicuous illustrations of the application by the courts of the method of sociology. But the truth is that there is no branch where the method is not fruitful. Even when it does not seem to dominate, it is always in reserve. It is the arbiter between other methods, determining in the last analysis the choice of each, weighing their competing claims, setting bounds to their pretensions, balancing and moderating and harmonizing them all. Few rules in our time are so well established that they may not be called upon any day to justify their existence as means adapted to an end. If they do not function, they are diseased. If they are diseased, theymust not propagate their kind. Sometimes they are cut out and extirpated altogether. Sometimes
