Joseph Henry Beale (October 12, 1861 – January 20, 1943) was an

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law professor A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

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 ...

and served as the first dean of

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. He was notable for his advancement of legal formalism, as well as his work in

Conflict of Laws Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction. This body of law deals with three broad t ...

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, and

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.Williston, Samuel, "Joseph Henry Beale: A Biographical Sketch", 56 Harvard Law Review No. 5, p. 685

Early life and education

Beale was born in the neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as an undergraduate, distinguishing himself in classics and mathematics. He graduated fifth in his class in 1882. He studied law at

. Upon graduation, he declined an offer to clerk for the

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, and opened his own practice.

Legal and academic career

Beale worked for several years in his own practice, authoring or co-authoring several treatises during this time, including an influential treatise on damages. Based upon the reputation of this treatise, Beale was offered the post of assistant professor at

in 1892. During his career at Harvard Law School, Beale was a renowned and influential legal scholar. One of Beale's most famous works of scholarship was his 1916 essay entitled "The Nature of Law" which appeared in the treatise "Treatise on the Conflict of Laws." Beale was best known, along with Christopher Columbus Langdell, as an influential proponent of the model of legal thought known as legal formalism.

awards the Joseph H. Beale prize to the student who obtains the highest grade during the academic year in the course on Conflict of Laws. In 1902, at the request of

William Rainey Harper William Rainey Harper (July 24, 1856 – January 10, 1906) was an American academic leader, an accomplished semiticist, and Baptist clergyman. Harper helped to establish both the University of Chicago and Bradley University and served as the fi ...

, first President of the

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, for assistance from Harvard's faculty in setting up a law school at Chicago, Beale was "lent" by Harvard to become the first dean of the

. During his two-year tenure (a leave of absence from Harvard), Beale hired numerous faculty and established Chicago's law school as "one of the best in the country," garnering Beale honorary degrees from Chicago and the University of Michigan. Chicago continues to award the Joseph Henry Beale prize for outstanding performance in legal research and writing to first-year students every year.University of Chicago Law School, The Bigelow Program, available at: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospectives/bigelow He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1906. Beale retired from teaching in 1938.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beale, Joseph Henry 1861 births 1940 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard Law School faculty Harvard Law School alumni Lawyers from Boston University of Chicago Law School faculty Conflict of laws scholars