Christopher Columbus Langdell (May 22, 1826 – July 6, 1906) was an American
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
and legal academic who was Dean of
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
from 1870 to 1895. As a professor and administrator, he pioneered the
casebook method
A casebook is a type of textbook used primarily by students in law schools.Wayne L. Anderson and Marilyn J. Headrick, The Legal Profession: Is it for you?' (Cincinnati: Thomson Executive Press, 1996), 83. Rather than simply laying out the legal do ...
of instruction, which has since been widely adopted in American law schools and adapted for other professional disciplines, such as business, public policy, and education. He has been referred to as "arguably the most influential teacher in the history of professional education in the United States".
Dean Langdell's legacy lies in the educational and administrative reforms he made to
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
, a task he was entrusted with by President
Charles Eliot. Before Langdell's tenure the study of law was a rather technical pursuit in which students were simply told what the law is. Langdell applied the principles of
pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that views language and thought as tools for prediction, problem solving, and action, rather than describing, representing, or mirroring reality. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics� ...
to the teaching of law as a result of which students were compelled to use their own reasoning powers to understand how the law might apply in a given case. This
dialectical process came to be called the
case method and has been the primary method of pedagogy at American law schools ever since. The case method has since been adopted and improved upon by schools in other disciplines, such as business, public policy, and education.
Life
Christopher Langdell was born in the town of
New Boston, New Hampshire, of English and
Scots-Irish ancestry. He studied at
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...
in 1845–48, at
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1848–50 and at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
in 1851–54. As a student, he served as one of the Harvard Law School's first librarians. From 1854 to 1870 he practiced law in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. In January 1870 he received an invitation from
Charles Eliot to take up the chair of Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Langdell accepted the offer and soon after became
Dean of the Law Faculty, succeeding
Theophilus Parsons, to whose ''
Treatise on the Law of Contracts'' (1853) he had contributed as a student. As Dean he introduced sweeping changes to the curriculum of the Law school, extending the length of the academic programme from one to three years and replacing the old-style lecture system with a new system of tuition which required a significantly greater level of engagement and input from students. He rejected the tradition in English-speaking countries of learning law by professional apprenticeship, in favor of the European tradition of a university education. He insisted that law teaching had to be supported by an extensive law library, for "law is a science" and "all the available materials of that science are contained in printed books". He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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 other ...
in 1870
and received the degree of
LL.D. in 1875.
Langdell resigned the deanship in 1895, in 1900 became Dane Professor Emeritus, and on July 6, 1906, died in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
. In 1903 a chair in the law school was named in his honor and after his death the school's primary academic building, housing both the world's largest academic law library and classrooms, was named
Langdell Hall.
Langdell made the Harvard Law School a success by remodeling its administration. In a private correspondence of April 13, 1915,
Charles W. Eliot wrote: "the putting of Langdell in charge of the Law School was the best piece of work I did for Harvard University, except the reconstruction of the Medical school in
80 and
81, and the long fight for the development of the elective system."
Influence on legal teaching
Dean Langdell's greatest innovation was his introduction of the
case method of instruction.
Until 1890, no other U.S. law school used this method, which is now standard.
Moreover, the standard first-year curriculum at all American law schools —
Contracts
A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...
,
Property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...
,
Torts
A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, 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 c ...
,
Criminal Law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...
, and
Civil Procedure
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and regulations along with some standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or ca ...
— stands, mostly unchanged, from the curriculum Langdell instituted.
Langdell, who came from a relatively unknown family, was conscious of the fact that students from more privileged backgrounds often received higher grades in their coursework purely because of their family's wealth and social status. Dean Langdell instituted the process of
blind grading, now common at U.S. law schools, so that students already known by professors or from esteemed families would have no advantage over others.
Works
*''Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts'' (1871, the first book used in the case system; enlarged, 1879)
*''A Selection of Cases on Sales of Personal Property'' (1872)
*''A Summary of Equity Pleading'' (1877, 2nd ed., 1883)
*''Cases in Equity Pleading'' (1883)
*''Brief Survey of Equity Jurisdiction'' (1905)
Further reading
* Chase, Anthony. "The Birth of the Modern Law School," ''American Journal of Legal History'' (1979) 23#4 pp 329–34
in JSTOR*
* Kimball, Bruce A. ''The Inception of Modern Professional Education: C. C. Langdell, 1826–1906'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009) 429 pp.
* Kimball, Bruce A. "The Proliferation of Case Method Teaching in American Law Schools: Mr. Langdell's Emblematic 'Abomination,' 1890-1915," ''History of Education Quarterly'' (2006) 46#2 pp 192–24
in JSTOR* Kimball, Bruce A. '"Warn Students That I Entertain Heretical Opinions, Which They Are Not To Take as Law': The Inception of Case Method Teaching in the Classrooms of the Early C.C. Langdell, 1870-1883," ''Law and History Review'' 17 (Spring 1999): 57–140.
* LaPiana, William P. ''Logic and Experience: The Origin of Modern American Legal Education'' (1994
excerpt and text search*
References
Attribution:
*
External links
*
''Harvard Law School''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langdell, Christopher Columbus
American legal scholars
American legal writers
New York (state) lawyers
1826 births
1906 deaths
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Harvard Law School alumni
Deans of Harvard Law School
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
Legal education in the United States
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Harvard College alumni