Legal Biography Commons^™

Rejecting The Legal Process Theory Joker: Bill Nelson's Scholarship On Judge Edward Weinfeld And Justice Byron White, Brad Snyder

Chicago-Kent Law Review

My contribution to this tribute places Bill Nelson’s scholarship about Judge Edward Weinfeld and Justice Byron White within several contexts. It is a personal history of Nelson the law student, law clerk, and young scholar; an intellectual history of legal theory since the 1960s; an examination of the influence of legal theory on Nelson’s scholarship based on his writings about Weinfeld and White; and an example of how legal historians contend with the subject of judicial reputation. Nelson was one of many former Warren Court and Burger Court clerks who joined the professoriate and rejected the legal process theory that …

A Response: The Impact Of War On Justice In The History Of American Law, William E. Nelson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The foundational claim of this essay is that judges at most points in time should act with restraint and should not attempt to resolve contested issues of policy. They should incorporate new policies into the law only when the polity as a whole has already adopted a particular policy or when it is in the process of adopting one. The essay then maintains that there have been three periods in American history—the Revolution and the subsequent decades of constitution-making, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and World War II and its aftermath—when the American public as an entity did adopt policies …

William E. Nelson's The Roots Of American Bureaucracy And The Resuscitation Of The Early American State, Gautham Rao

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In 1983, William E. Nelson published The Roots of American Bureaucracy, 1830–1900. Nelson traced the somewhat unlikely emergence and victory of the bureaucratic model in American political and legal thought. This article summarizes the book’s argument and describes its reception. It also seeks to assess the scholarly legacy of The Roots of American Bureaucracy. I argue that the book was ahead of its time because it contradicted prevailing scholarly trends in identifying a significant federal state in nineteenth-century America. In particular, during the past two decades, historians and political scientists have built on Nelson’s insights to develop a consensus about …

Law For The Empire: The Common Law In Colonial America And The Problem Of Legal Diversity, Lauren Benton, Kathryn Walker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In laboring to uncover the legal origins of the American Revolution, historians of law in early America often separated the field from the comparative legal history of empires. William E. Nelson does not explicitly set out to place American colonial legal history in a global context in The Common Law in Colonial America. But in analyzing legal diversity and identifying elements of early legal convergence, Nelson does address key questions within the comparative history of empire and law. This article surveys Nelson’s contributions and places them alongside two other approaches to the study of colonial legal diversity and the constitution …

Semi-Wonderful Town, Semi-Wonderful State: Bill Nelson's New York, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article examines Bill Nelson’s two major books on the history of New York law and politics, The Legalist Reformation (2001) and Fighting for the City (2008). The former deals with developments in New York State from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century; the latter with New York City starting somewhat earlier but concentrating on the same later period. The Legalist Reformation argues that the election of Alfred E. Smith as Governor of New York in 1922 began a transformation of the state’s legal and political culture that brought new and more egalitarian social policies to the state …

Bryant Garth (Photograph)

Bryant Garth (1986-1987 Acting; 1987-1990)

Bryant Garth in his office (color photograph).

Headshot Of Dean Garth (Photograph)

Bryant Garth (1986-1987 Acting; 1987-1990)

Photograph of Dean Garth in his office.

Morris Arnold (Photograph)

Morris Arnold (1985)

Morris Arnold in his office.

Sheldon Plager (Photograph)

Sheldon Plager (1977-1984)

Sheldon Plager conversing in an office.

Dean's Resignation Surprises Faculty, Lisa Hays

Sheldon Plager (1977-1984)

No abstract provided.

Harry Pratter Teaching (Photograph)

Harry Pratter (1976-1977 Acting)

No abstract provided.

Douglas Boshkoff (Photograph)

Douglass Boshkoff (1971-1972 Acting; 1972-1975)

Portrait of Douglass Boshkoff.

Image ID: 2013.fac.08d

Douglass Boshkoff (Photograph)

Douglass Boshkoff (1971-1972 Acting; 1972-1975)

Photograph of Douglass Boshkoff making a call in his office.

Image ID: 2013.fac.08i

Portrait Of William B. Harvey (Photograph)

William Harvey (1966-1971)

Portrait of William B. Harvey.

Dean's Desk: Iu Maurer Alumni, Students Exemplify Hard Work, Integrity, Austen Parrish

Austen Parrish (2014-2022)

No abstract provided.

Leon Wallace (Photograph)

Leon Wallace (1951-1952 Acting; 1952-1966)

Photograph of Leon Wallace.

Image Number FAC.155

Leon Wallace (Photograph)

Leon Wallace (1951-1952 Acting; 1952-1966)

Photograph of Leon Wallace.

Image Number FAC.155b

Hugh Willis (Photograph)

Hugh Willis (1942-1943 Acting)

Hugh Willis in his office holding golf clubs. Dean Willis was the Indiana University Golf Coach from 1935 until 1940.

W. P. Rogers (Engraving)

William Perry Rogers (1896-1902)

Engraving of William Rogers.

Bernard Gavit (Photograph)

Bernard Campbell Gavit (1933-1951)

Photograph of Bernard Gavit