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Felix S. Cohen And His Jurisprudence: Reflections On Federal Indian Law, Stephen M. Feldman

Stephen M. Feldman

In 1942, Felix S. Cohen published the Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the first synthesis of that field. At that time, Cohen was renowned as a legal philosopher, a member of the American legal realist movement, and a leading advocate for Native Americans. The primary purpose of this Article is to relate Cohen's realist jurisprudence to the development of federal Indian law. The thesis is that Cohen's jurisprudence profoundly affected his writing of the Handbook, which, in turn, profoundly affected the development of contemporary federal Indian law. The United States Supreme Court has effectively adopted Cohen's realist method for resolving …