Realist School is a type of school which focuses on decisions. It is a branch of sociological approach. They believe that law is only on official action. Roscoe Pound has defined Realist School as “Fidelity to nature, accurate reordering of the things as they are, as contrasted to things as they are imagined to be, or wished to be or as one feels they ought to be.” Basically, the evolution of the Realist school lies in the English Jurisprudence. It is regarded as a branch of the Sociological approach. Gray and O.W. Holmes were the two great jurists from whom the origin of this realist approach has been traced. Gray defined law as “What Judges Declare”.  Coming on to the Llewellyn, he said that Realist School is not a separate school of Jurisprudence instead it should be called Sociological Jurisprudence.

The most important one is pragmatic philosophy. They started dealing with the law with a practical approach rather than constraining them with the principles. The second most important factor which seems to have led to this thought is the organization of the judiciary in America. Eminent supporters of this School are Holmes, Gray, Jerome Frank, Llewellyn, and many more.

Characteristics of Realist School

These are some of the points that are clearly mentioning about the characteristics of the Realistic School or Realism Movement: –

1. In actual sense, there is no realistic school. It is known as ‘realism’ that is actually a movement which consists of thought and works in law.
2. Realism means a conceptual thesis on law in chunks and as a means of some social ends. It is implied in a particular society where changes are seen faster than the law.
3. It also assumes a type of divorce which is temporary in nature of ‘is’ and ‘ought’ so as to achieve the purpose of a study. It means all the purposes that are ethical in nature for the observer must underline the law are ignored and are not at all allowed to blur the vision of observer.
4. It also creates a sense of distrust in the traditional legal values and also the concepts designed so far as they appear to be described what either courts or common people are actually doing.
5. Lastly, it also focuses largely on the evaluations of any parts of law in respect to its effect