Abstract
Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906) was an immensely important, yet often overlooked, figure in the legal field. After graduating from Harvard University in 1853, Langdell became the first dean of the Harvard Law School (1870-1895). He ushered legal theory, practice, and pedagogy from a diverse and unruly system based mostly on apprenticeship into its uniquely modern, uniform, and orthodox tradition. Langdell transformed legal education by requiring courses with exams. He also penned one of the earliest American treatises on contracts (a newly emerging field itself) during a time when this country moved from a fledgling capitalist republic to a modern industrial state. But perhaps more importantly, this was the first book edited in the "new method," Langdell's case history approach to the study of law. Law students even today continue to be influenced by this pedagogical revolution when they are asked in their first year Constitutional Law classes to "please recite the facts of Marbury v. Madison." But perhaps more importantly still, Christopher Columbus Langdell is the progenitor of what is today called "legal formalism." With intellectual linkages to the positivist and analytic traditions in England, especially figures like Hobbes, Bentham, Kelsen and Austin, Langdell developed a uniquely American approach to this philosophical perspective on the law.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
25
Issue
3
First Page
97
Last Page
99
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Klinger, Geoffrey
(1993)
"for Christopher Columbus Langdell,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 25:
No.
3, Article 31.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol25/iss3/31
Copyright
©1993 Iowa Communication Association
