Joseph Henry Beale (October 12, 1861 – January 20, 1943) was an American law professor at Harvard Law School and served as the first dean of

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 ...

. He was notable for his advancement of

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 ...

, 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 ...

, Corporations, and Criminal Law.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 high ...

as an undergraduate, distinguishing himself in classics and mathematics. He graduated fifth in his class in 1882. He studied law at Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, he declined an offer to clerk for the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, 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 At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...

. Based upon the reputation of this treatise, Beale was offered the post of assistant professor at Harvard Law School 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 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 Ha ...

, as an influential proponent of the model of legal thought known as

. Harvard Law School 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 ...

, first President of 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 ...

, 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, a ...

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