Legal biography

Not to be confused with Biolaw or legal geography.

Legal biography is the biography of persons relevant to law. In a preface dated October 1983, A. W. B. Simpson wrote that it was "a rather neglected field". Since then there has been a "resurgence of interest".

History

In 1835, Hoffman said:

It is a useful as well as pleasing interest which we feel in the lives of distinguished personages, especially of such as have been eminent in our own particular pursuits. We believe most ambitious minds, in the first pantings after distinction, have proposed to themselves some illustrious character as a model, whose sentiments they have imbibed, whose maxims they have practised, whose very errors they have copied, with a thousand times more ardour than can ever be communicated by precept. Something of this we feel in reading of every eminent man: we rise from our book with more love for knowledge, more respect for genius, more resolution to be diligent, more confidence in the success of exertion: it is scarcely possible to contemplate such characters as Lord Hale and Sir William Jones, without a more zealous esteem of probity, and a consoling conviction of the prodigies which may be wrought by method and application; emotions similar to those we feel in remembering the heroes of classical literature on classical ground; and which prompted the great Roman orator and lawyer, when he declares the legal enthusiasm with which he called to mind the sages and orators of antiquity, amidst the streets and groves of their native city.

If this sort of enthusiasm were its only effect, legal biography might claim a place in the studies of law students, into whose pursuits despondence and fatigue are so apt to obtrude themselves. It appears too a very natural curiosity, to be inquisitive into the history, fortunes, reputation, and character of those who have imparted lustre to the profession of law, whose decisions or opinions have been handed down as worthy of a place in the body of the law, and in whose names we have a kind of interest and acquaintance, from their having so long been associated with our daily studies; besides that their history, connected as it sometimes is with the history of their own times, may shed light on the legal character, notions, and revolutions of their age. It may not, therefore, be unacceptable to add a list of such eminent lawyers, &c. as are worthy of a portion of the student's attention: by this we by no means desire the student to search after the voluminous biographies of personages, whose lives can be usefully summed up in the extent of a few lines. In this department of his studies, the student must generally be content with biographical sketches or notices, which, if well written, will be found to contain, in most cases, all that is essential. These brief notices may be found in such works as Lemprière's Universal Biography; Encyclopædia Britannica; Bayle's Dictionary; Encyclopædia Americana; Rees' Cyclopædia; Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. Also in the various law journals and magazines, as in Hall's Law Journal; the English and American Jurist; the London Law Magazine, &c. Much useful matter, likewise, of this description, will be found in the work entitled Westminster Hall, 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1825; in Parke's History of the Court of Chancery; and especially in the British and American Reviews of legal and other works. We hope to be excused in referring the student, also, to the first volume of the author's Legal Outlines, for a number of biographical notices of eminent legal characters, and passim throughout the present volumes. We may farther remark, that many of the volumes of reports, and some of the law treatises, are accompanied with similar sketches, which the student should not fail to read.

Legal biography in England, as well as in our country, has attracted, until very recently, but little attention. Some very respectable biographies, however, of British, Continental, and American jurists have appeared.

See also

• Biographia Juridica

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Legal Biography Project. London School of Economics, Department of Law.
• Fenster, Mark. "The Folklore of Legal Biography" (2007) 105 Michigan Law Review 1265. University of Florida.
• Henry and Thomas Roscoe (compilers). "Legal Biography" in Westminster Hall: or Professional Relics and Anectdotes of the Bar, Bench and Woolsack. John Knight & Henry Lacey. London. 1825. Volume 3. Pages 209–226. Digitized copy from Google Books.
• Association of American Law Schools. "Reading and Writing Legal Biography" in 1977 Annual Meeting Proceedings. 1977. Part One. Page 23. Snippet view from Google Books.
• Maxwell and Maxwell. A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Sweet & Maxwell. London. 1955. Volume 1: English Law to 1800. Chapter 26 ("Biography").
• "Historical value of legal biography" (1909) 29 Canadian Law Times 450
• Nelson and Reid. "Legal Biography" in The Literature of American Legal History. Oceana Publications Inc. 1985. Reprinted by Beard Books. 2006. p 58.
• 2 Hoffman's Course of Legal Study 622
• John McEldowney, "Challenges in Legal Biography: The Role of Biography in Legal History" (2004) 39 Irish Jurist 215 to 242
• Alec Samuels, "Legal Biography" (1990) 154 Justice of the Peace 612 (22 September 1990)
• Hampton L Carson, "The Interest and Value of the Study of Legal Biography" (1911) 23 The Green Bag 340; "The Study of Legal Biography" (1911) 131 The Law Times 328 (5 August 1911)
• David R Williams, "Legal Biography in Canada: A New Field to Plow" (1980) 14 Gazette 329 (Law Society of Upper Canada)
• Donald H J Hermann, "Patterns of Life in Law: A Consideration of Contemporary American Legal Biography" (1975) 24 DePaul Law Review 853 to 913
• Ignacio de la Rasilla. "Biographical Approaches to the History of International Law". International Law and History: Modern Interfaces. Cambridge University Press. 2021. Pages 308 to 338.
• Kehinde Olaoye, "Legal biography and legal subjects". Viljoen, Sipalla and Adegalu (eds). Exploring African approaches to International Law. Pretoria University Law Press. 2022. Pages 67 to 69.
• John B Nann and Morris L Cohen. "Biographical Materials". The Yale Law School Guide to Research in American Legal History. Yale University Press. 2018. Pages 283 to 293.
• G Blain Baker, "Juristic Biographies, Homage Volumes and 'Tracings of Gerald Le Dain's Life in the Law'". Baker and Janda (eds). Tracings of Gerald Le Dain's Life in the Law. McGill Queens University Press. 2019. Page 3. See particularly "Juristic Biographies and Homage Volumes" at pages 4 to 9.
• Leslie Dingle, "Legal Biography, Oral History and the Cambridge Eminent Scholars Archive" (2014) 14 Legal Information Management 58 to 68 University of London CUP
• Yuliya Chenykh, "The Gust of Wind". Schill, Tams and Hofmann (eds). International Investment Law and History. Page 241 at pages 244 to 246.
• Linda Mulcahy and David Sugarman. Legal Life-Writing: Marginalised Subjects and Sources. John Wiley & Sons. 2015. Google Books.
  • Linda Mulcahy and David Sugarman, "Introduction: Legal Life Writing and Marginalized Subjects and Sources" (2015) 42 Journal of Law and Society 1
  • David Sugarman, "From Legal Biography to Legal Life Writing: Broadening Conceptions of Legal History and Socio-legal Scholarship" (2015) 42 Journal of Law and Society 7
  • Rosie Auchmerty, "Recovering Lost Lives: Researching Women in Legal History" (2015) 42 Journal of Law and Society 34
  • Leslie J Moran, "Judicial Pictures as Legal Life-writing Data and a Research Method" (2015) 42 Journal of Law and Society 74
• Aleksi Peltonen, "Approaching International Criminal Law through Life Writing". The New Histories of International Criminal Law. Page 220 et seq.