The dominance of legislatures and statutory law has put an impossible burden on the courts. Guido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial–legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its day and should be revised.

"This is a genuinely original and thoughtful book, one of the few in the jurisprudential genre that is both clearly written and devoid of cliché. It addresses current social and legal issues from an engagingly fresh, nonpolemical, and erudite perspective." - American Bar Association Journal

"Calabresi has brought his ample juristic talents to bear on a foundational problem of the legal and democratic process…in its quality, timeliness and provocativeness [this book] is likely to stand alongside the seminal works of Ronald Dworkin and Grant Gilmore." - Columbia Law Review