Arthur Linton Corbin (October 17, 1874 – May 1, 1967) was an American lawyer and legal scholar who was a professor at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

. He helped develop the

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal vali ...

known as

legal realism Legal realism is a naturalistic approach to law. It is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, i.e., rely on empirical evidence. Hypotheses must be tested against observations of the world. Legal realists be ...

, and wrote one of the most celebrated

legal treatise A legal treatise is a scholarly legal publication containing all the law relating to a particular area, such as criminal law or trusts and estates. There is no fixed usage on what books qualify as a "legal treatise", with the term being used broadl ...

s of the 20th century, ''Corbin on

Contracts A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

''.

Early life

Corbin was born in

Linn County, Kansas Linn County (county code LN) is a county located in east-central Kansas and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 9,591. Its county seat is Mound City, and its most populous city is Pl ...

, on October 17, 1874. He graduated from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

in 1894 and briefly taught high school in

Augusta, Kansas Augusta is a city in Butler County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 9,256. History 19th century The confluence of the Whitewater River and the Walnut River was originally inhabited by Osage peo ...

, and

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

. He earned his law degree from

in 1899, graduating magna cum laude. Following graduation from Yale, he practiced law in

Cripple Creek, Colorado Cripple Creek is a statutory city that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,155 at the 2020 United States Census. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located southwest of Colorado Sprin ...

. Corbin returned to

in 1903 to serve as an instructor in contract law.

Career at Yale

Corbin became a full professor at Yale Law School in 1909, a position he would hold until his retirement from teaching in 1943. During his time at Yale, he was strongly influential in turning the law school into the center of legal scholarship it is known for today. He convinced the administration to hire more full-time professors and enact more selective admission criteria, and helped to implement and popularize the

casebook method The casebook method, similar to but not exactly the same as the case method, is the primary method of teaching law in law schools in the United States. It was pioneered at Harvard Law School by Christopher Columbus Langdell. It is based on the ...

of legal study created by

Christopher Columbus Langdell Christopher Columbus Langdell (May 22, 1826 – July 6, 1906) was an American jurist and legal academic who was Dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895. Dean Langdell's legacy lies in the educational and administrative reforms he made to ...

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. He was a founder of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...

and the first reporter of the

Restatement (Second) of Contracts The Restatement (Second) of the Law of Contracts is a legal treatise from the second series of the Restatements of the Law, and seeks to inform judges and lawyers about general principles of contract common law. It is one of the best-recognized and ...

Scholarship and writings

Corbin wrote extensively in the field of contract law. His most famous work was the treatise ''Corbin on Contracts: A Comprehensive Treatise on the Working Rules of Contracts Law,'' the original version of which was eight volumes long and appeared in 1950 (though it has since been expanded). This treatise is still used today in American law schools and cited in

law journals A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...

and

judicial opinion A judicial opinion is a form of legal opinion written by a judge or a judicial panel in the course of resolving a legal dispute, providing the decision reached to resolve the dispute, and usually indicating the facts which led to the dispute an ...

s. Corbin subscribed to the philosophy of

, the idea that law was the product of human efforts and society. He believed that in resolving contract disputes, judges should examine not just the "four corners" of the legal document itself, but the intention of the

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature fo ...

, as evidenced by the

course of dealing The term course of dealing is defined in the Uniform Commercial Code as follows: A "course of dealing" is a sequence of conduct concerning previous transactions between the parties to a particular transaction that is fairly to be regarded as estab ...

and

course of performance The term course of performance is defined in the Uniform Commercial Code as follows: (a) A "course of performance" is a sequence of conduct between the parties to a particular transaction that exists if: :(1) the agreement of the parties with res ...

between the parties, as well as the customs of the trade and business community. Corbin felt that the main purpose of a contract was to protect the reasonable expectations of each party. Corbin's views are frequently contrasted with those of Harvard contracts scholar

Samuel Williston Samuel Williston (September 24, 1861 – February 18, 1963) was an American lawyer and law professor who authored an influential treatise on contracts. Early life, education and family Williston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a ...

, who was more of a formalist in his thinking. Williston served as the reporter for the First Restatement of Contracts, but Corbin's contributions were more evident in the

, which he worked on until his retirement from legal study at age 90, due to failing eyesight. Corbin died at age 92, in 1967. Corbin's scholarship heavily influenced the drafters of the

Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of Uniform Acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through UC ...

, particularly the work of

Karl Llewellyn Karl Nickerson Llewellyn (May 22, 1893 – February 13, 1962) was a prominent American jurisprudential scholar associated with the school of legal realism. ''The Journal of Legal Studies'' has identified Llewellyn as one of the twenty most cited A ...

, who had previously studied under Corbin. His portrait is in the Yale Law School collection.

Works by Corbin

* * ; subsequently revised by Joseph M. Perillo (1993), and then John E. Murray, Jr. & Timothy Murray. * *

Early life

Career at Yale

Scholarship and writings

Works by Corbin

See also

Notes

Further reading