Holmes, Watson, and Jurisprudence

When you read the Sherlock Holmes stories or watch various adaptations, one theme that stands out is that Holmes and Watson have different perspectives on law. (BTW, if you love Holmes, you should be listening to this podcast.)

In a nutshell, Watson is more of a formalist and Holmes is more of a functionalist. There are a couple of stories where Holmes lets the guilty man go free. Watson is more uncomfortable with this on the ground that Holmes should let the law run its course and turn the suspects over to the police. But does that serve the interests of justice? It's debatable. More broadly, Holmes is an informal person. He is a private consulting detective. Sometimes he breaks the law in his investigations (like committing burglary when he can't get a search warrant). And he is always focused on facts rather than theory.