Harry Kalven Jr. (September 11, 1914 – October 29, 1974) was an American jurist, regarded as one of the preeminent legal scholars of the 20th century. He was the Harry A. Bigelow Professor of Law at the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...

, having graduated from the

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

and the Law School. Kalven coauthored, with Charles O. Gregory (and later

Richard Epstein Richard Allen Epstein (born April 17, 1943) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on torts, contracts, property rights, law and economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at ...

), a widely used textbook in the field of

torts A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishabl ...

, ''Cases and Materials on Torts.'' Kalven was also a leading scholar in the field of

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

, particularly in the area of the

first amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

. Kalven is the author of a number of seminal books and articles. Kalven is the coauthor of "The Contemporary Function of the Class Suit," one of the most heavily cited articles in the history of

American law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as v ...

, and widely considered to be the foundation of the modern

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lawsuit. He also co-authored a pioneering empirical study of ''The American Jury'' with his Chicago colleague

Hans Zeisel Hans Zeisel (September 1, 1905 – March 7, 1992) was an Austrian-American sociologist and legal scholar who taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1953 to 1974. He was best known for using quantitative social science techniques ...

. He coined the term Heckler's veto. He was chair of the committee that produced what became known as the "Kalven Report", a document outlining the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

's role "in political and social action."

Selected works

*Harry Kalven Jr., ''A Worthy Tradition: Freedom of Speech in America''. Harper and Row Publishers. New York, 1988. *Harry Kalven Jr., ''The Negro and the First Amendment''. The Ohio State University Press, 1965. *Harry Kalven Jr, Report on the University's Role in Political and Social Action. University of Chicago ''Record Vol. 1, No. 1 November 11, 1967'' *Haryy Kalven Jr. and Walter Blum, ''The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation''. University of Chicago Press, 1953 *Harry Kalven Jr. and Hans Zeisel, ''The American Jury''. Little Brown, 1965

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalven, Harry 1914 births 1974 deaths American legal scholars American legal writers American political writers University of Chicago Law School alumni University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago Law School faculty Scholars of constitutional law Scholars of tort law 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers