The common law’s own flexibility compels re-testing old rules against new conditions

Evidence

It has been said so often as to have become axiomatic that the common law is not immutable but flexible, and by its own principles adapts itself to varying conditions. … These principles, it seems to me, compel us to consider the rule of the Baum case as no longer adapted to either the legislation governing public utilities or the conditions of the present time. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2377

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Courts may revise common-law rules even where legislatures have failed to act — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2368; Courts share an obligation to modernize outdated common-law rules — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2367; The common law adapts to social and economic change — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1311 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The common law adapts to social and economic change #corroborates (0.90) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1311
• Inductive reasoning allows the law to adapt to changing societal times. #corroborates (0.90) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 613
• Legal precepts evolve slowly as working hypotheses continually retested in courts #corroborates (0.85) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 644
• Courts extend general rules without committing a fallacy when underlying conditions match. #qualifies (0.75) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1112
• Technological change creates personal-relations harms that rigid common-law rules cannot address #complicates (0.70) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 1127