The Refugee Jurist and American Law Schools, 1933-1941
42 Pages Posted: 9 Jul 2010
Date Written: August 2002
Abstract
This paper documents an important episode in the development of the “modern” American law school. Starting in 1933, law schools were invited to “host” or permanently welcome onto their faculties European jurists displaced by the German National Socialist government. At first, law schools sensed an opportunity to affiliate themselves with some of the leading lights of German “scientism.” Over time, however, these same institutions concluded that younger émigré scholars were more capable than their older counterparts were of embracing “American” practices of law teaching and scholarship. This article, drawing upon various archival sources, traces this transition, its causes, and its consequences.
Keywords: law schools, law professors, legal history, Germany
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