![Karl Llewellyn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Karl_Llewellyn.JPG)
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn (May 22, 1893 – February 13, 1962) was a prominent American jurisprudential scholar associated with the school of
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 ...
. ''
The Journal of Legal Studies
''The Journal of Legal Studies'' is a law journal published by the University of Chicago Press focusing on interdisciplinary academic research in law and legal institutions.
It emphasizes social science approaches, especially those of economics, ...
'' has identified Llewellyn as one of the twenty most cited American legal scholars of the 20th century.
Biography
Karl Llewellyn was born on May 22, 1893, in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, but grew up in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. He was the son of William Henry Llewellyn, a businessman of Welsh ancestry, and Janet George, a passionate
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
and
prohibitionist
Prohibitionism is a legal philosophy and political theory often used in lobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful (i.e. prohibited) and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement.C Canty ...
of
Congregationalist conviction.
He attended
Boys High School
Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...
. At the age of sixteen he was sent to study in Germany, at the
Realgymnasium
''Gymnasium'' (; German plural: ''Gymnasien''), in the German education system, is the most advanced and highest of the three types of German secondary schools, the others being ''Hauptschule'' (lowest) and ''Realschule'' (middle). ''Gymnas ...
of
Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch dialect, Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germany, second-largest city of the northeastern States of Germany, German ...
, where he spent three years and passed his ''
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
'' (school-leaving examination) in the spring of 1911; he learned to speak an excellent German and was able later in life to publish in that language.
After having attended the
University of Lausanne
The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...
for a brief time, in September 1911 he entered
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
and in 1915
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 ...
, earning an
LL.B
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
. in 1918 and a
J.D. in 1920. He was elected to the editorial board of the
Yale Law Journal
The ''Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ), known also as the ''Yale Law Review'', is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students ...
in 1916 and graduated top of his class in 1918 ''
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
''.
At Yale he got acquainted with two prominent law professors and key figures of the incipient
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 ...
movement,
Arthur L. Corbin and
Wesley N. Hohfeld, whose influence on him was profound.
Llewellyn was studying abroad at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
in Paris when
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out in 1914. He was sympathetic to the German cause and traveled to Germany to enlist in the German army, but his refusal to renounce his American citizenship made him ineligible. He was allowed to fight with the 78th Prussian Infantry Regiment, and was injured at the
First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres (french: Première Bataille des Flandres; german: Erste Flandernschlacht – was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. Th ...
. For his actions, he was promoted to sergeant and decorated with the
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...
, 2nd class. After spending ten weeks in a German hospital at
Nürtingen
Nürtingen () is a town on the river Neckar in the district of Esslingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
History
The following events occurred, by year:
*1046: First mention of ''Niuritingin'' in the document of Speyer ...
, and having his petition to enlist without swearing allegiance to Germany turned down, Llewellyn returned to the United States and to his studies at Yale in March 1915. After the United States entered the war, Llewellyn attempted to enlist in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, but was rejected because he had fought on the German side.
He joined the
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
faculty in 1925, where he remained until 1951, when he was appointed professor of 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 dist ...
. While at Columbia, Llewellyn became one of the major legal scholars of his day. He was a major proponent of
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 ...
. He also served as principal drafter 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 ...
(UCC).
Llewellyn married his former student, who had become a law professor and was also a UCC drafter,
Soia Mentschikoff
Soia Mentschikoff (April 5, 1915 – June 18, 1984) was a Russian American lawyer, law professor, legal scholar and law school dean, best known for her work in the development and drafting of the Uniform Commercial Code. She served as dean of Un ...
. She also accepted a teaching post at Chicago, and later became dean of
University of Miami School of Law
The University of Miami School of Law (Miami Law or UM Law) is the law school of the University of Miami, a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida.
Founded in 1926, the University of Miami School of Law is the oldest law school i ...
.
Llewellyn died in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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of a heart attack on February 13, 1962.
Legal realism
Compared with traditional
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
, known as
legal formalism
Legal formalism is both a descriptive theory and a normative theory of how judges should decide cases. In its descriptive sense, formalists maintain that judges reach their decisions by applying uncontroversial principles to the facts; formali ...
, Llewellyn and the legal realists proposed that the facts and outcomes of specific cases composed the law, rather than logical reasoning from legal rules. They argued that law is not a deductive science. Llewellyn epitomized the realist view when he wrote that what
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
s,
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
s, and
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...
officers "do about disputes is, to my mind, the law itself" (''Bramble Bush'', p. 3).
As one of the founders of the U.S. legal realism movement, he believed that the law is little more than putty in the hands of a judge who is able to shape the outcome of a case based on personal biases.
Publications
* 1930: ''The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and Its Study'' (1930), written especially for first-year law students. A new edition, edited and with an introduction by
Steven Sheppard, was published in 2009 by Oxford University Press.
* 1941: ''The Cheyenne Way'' (with
E. Adamson Hoebel
E. Adamson Hoebel (1906–1993) was Regents Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. Having studied under Franz Boas, he held a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University. There he also attended the seminars of Karl N. ...
) (1941), University of Oklahoma Press.
* 1960: ''The Common Law TraditionDeciding Appeals'' (1960), Little, Brown and Company.
* 1962: ''Jurisprudence: Realism in Theory and Practice'' (1962).
* 1989: ''The Case Law System in America'', edited and with an introduction by
Paul Gewirtz
Paul D. Gewirtz (born May 12, 1947) is the Potter Stewart Professor of Constitutional Law at Yale Law School and the Director of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale.
Biography
Gewirtz received his Bachelor of Arts degree '' summa cum laude'' from C ...
,
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
(revised text of lectures delivered in German at the University of Leipzig in 1928, originally published in German in 1933)
* 2011: ''The Theory of Rules'', edited and with an introduction by
Frederick Schauer,
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
(a lost treatise rediscovered decades after Llewellyn's death)
References
Further reading
*Roger Cotterrell. ''The Politics of Jurisprudence''. Second revised and enlarged edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
*Mathieu Deflem. ''Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition''. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
*
*George W. Liebman. ''The Common Law Tradition: A Collective Portrait of Five Legal Scholars''. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers 2005.
*
External links
Guide to the Karl N. Llewellyn Papers 1890-1983at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center *
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Llewellyn, Karl
1893 births
1962 deaths
American legal scholars
American legal writers
American people of Welsh descent
Columbia University faculty
People from Brooklyn
Writers from Seattle
University of Chicago faculty
Yale Law School alumni
Yale College alumni