The central question of "The Nature of the Judicial Process" is how judges should decide cases. Cardozo's answer is that judges should do what they have always done in the Anglo-American legal tradition, namely, follow and apply the law in easy cases, and make new law in hard cases by balancing competing considerations, including the paramount value of social welfare. Cardozo identifies four leading methods of legal analysis: (1) the method of logic (or “analogy,” or “philosophy”), which seeks to extend legal principles in ways that preserve logical consistency; (2) the method of history (or “evolution”), which adverts to the historical origins of the legal rule or concept; (3) the method of custom (or “tradition”), which views social customs as helpful guides to community values and settled expectations; and (4) the method of sociology, which looks to considerations of reason, justice, utility, and social welfare. Each of these methods may have their “preponderating value” in particular cases. No simple test or rigid formula can decide which method should prevail in a given case. But in difficult cases where a legal rule is outmoded or the law contains “gaps” that must be filled, judges should frankly play the role of legislators and let “the welfare of society fix the path.”