Learned Hand
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Billings Learned Hand (January 27, 1872 – August 181, 1961) — usually called simply Learned Hand — was a famed American judge and an avid supporter of free speech, though he is most remembered for applying economic reasoning to American tort law. Hand is generally considered to be one of the most influential American judges never to have served on the Supreme Court of the United States.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Albany, New York, he attended The Albany Academy before training in law and philosophy at Harvard, studying under William James, Josiah Royce and George Santayana. He started practicing law in Albany, and taught at Albany Law School, before moving on to New York City. He later spent his free time at his vacation house in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he enjoyed the close friendship of novelist J.D. Salinger.
Hand served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1909 to 1924 (see Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten, 244 F. 535 (S.D.N.Y. 1917), and on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1924 until 1951.
Hand's cousin, Augustus Noble Hand, was also a judge and also served on both the Southern District and the Second Circuit courts substantially during Learned's tenure at each.
[edit] Influence
Hand's judicial opinions are frequently considered classic formative statements of American contract and tort law. One of his most famous tools, commonly referred to as the calculus of negligence, first appeared in United States v. Carroll Towing, 159 F.2d 169 (2d Cir. 1947). The case was concerned with civil tort liability in a case alleging damage after a boat-owner's failure to adequately secure his vessel at harbor.
The calculus requires that financial liability should only be imposed for a negligent tort if the burden of preventing the injury does not exceed the magnitude of the injury multiplied by its likelihood of occurring. The rule, also sometimes referred to as the "Hand Test," is most notable for its economic approach to a legal rule; an approach that is the foundation of the law and economics school of legal thought. The Hand Formula finds negligence when the actor's burden (B) is less than the probability (p) of harm, multiplied by the degree of loss (L).
- B < p × L
Like many others in the law and economics school, most notably Judge Richard Posner, Hand was also influenced by philosophical pragmatism.
In 1944, Judge Hand delivered an address at a patriotic rally in New York City's Central Park. The address, entitled The Spirit of Liberty, is one of Hand's most famous utterances. In it, he famously described the spirit of liberty as "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." He also made the pragmatic observation that "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it."
One of the most famous quotes that Judge Learned Hand is known for is: "There is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible."
In another famous quote regarding the U.S. income tax law, Judge Hand wrote:
"Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes[. . . . ]" Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810-11 (2d Cir. 1934). The irony in the Geregory case was that after giving the reader a very taxpayer friendly quote, Judge Hand disregards the taxpayer's convoluted transactions taken to avoid the tax despite following the correct form required by statute, thus giving impetus to the substance over form doctrine.
[edit] References
- Gunther, Gerald (April 12, 1994). Learned Hand : the man and the judge, with a foreword by Lewis F. Powell, Jr., New York, NY: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-58807-X LCCN 93-22868 LCC KF373.H29 G76 1994.
- Marcia Nelson, The Remarkable Hands: An Affectionate Portrait (Federal Bar Foundation 1983)
- Marvin Schick, Learned Hand's Court (Johns Hopkins 1970)
- Chirelstein, Marvin (January 1968). "Learned Hand’s Contribution to the Law of Tax Avoidance". Yale Law Journal 77 (3): 440–474. ISSN 0044-0094 LCCN 29-10103.
[edit] Notes
Note 1: Some online sources report Hand's date of death as August 14. This article uses August 18, which is the date given in the Federal Judiciary Center profile of Judge Hand in addition to many other sources.zh:勒恩德·汉德
