{{Short description|American law professor (1861–1943)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Joseph Henry Beale | image = Joseph Henry Beale (1861–1943).png | birth_date = {{birth date|1861|10|12|mf=y}} | birth_place = Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|1|20|1861|10|12|mf=y}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | occupation = Lawyer, Law Professor | spouse = Elizabeth Chadwick Day | father = Joseph Henry Beale | mother = Frances E. Messinger | relatives = Joseph Swift Beale (grandfather), Susanna Holbrook Adams (grandmother), Capt. Benjamin Beale, Joseph Grant Beale, John Quincy Adams, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Samuel Adams Sr. John Lothropp, King Edward I | education = Harvard University (AB, LLB) }} '''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 the University of Chicago Law School from 1902 to 1904. He was notable for his advancement of legal formalism, as well as his work in conflict of laws, corporations, and criminal law.<ref name=HLR56>Williston, Samuel, "Joseph Henry Beale: A Biographical Sketch", 56 ''Harvard Law Review'' No. 5, p. 685</ref>
==Early life and education== Beale was born in the neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University as an undergraduate, distinguishing himself in classics and mathematics. He graduated fifth in his class in 1882.<ref name=HLR56 />
He studied law at Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, he declined an offer to clerk for the United States Supreme Court, and opened his own practice.<ref>Williston, Samuel, "Joseph Henry Beale: A Biographical Sketch", 56 ''Harvard Law Review'' No. 5, p. 686</ref>
==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. 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.<ref name=HLR56 /> 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, as an influential proponent of the model of legal thought known as legal formalism.<ref>Gray, Christopher, "The Philosophy of Law", Taylor and Francis (1999)</ref> 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, first President of the University of Chicago, 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 University of Chicago Law School. 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.<ref>Williston, Samuel, "Joseph Henry Beale: A Biographical Sketch", 56 ''Harvard Law Review'' No. 5, pp. 687–688</ref> Chicago continues to award the Joseph Henry Beale prize for outstanding performance in legal research and writing to first-year students every year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospectives/bigelow |title=The Bigelow Program |publisher=University of Chicago Law School |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232854/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospectives/bigelow |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead |access-date=2025-04-30}}</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1906.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=May 28, 2011}}</ref>
In 1934, he was overcome with emotion in arguing for the removal of "Protestant" from the name of the Episcopal Church.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1934-10-29 |title=Religion: In Atlantic City (Cont'd) |url=https://time.com/archive/6819555/religion-in-atlantic-city-contd/ |access-date=2024-06-16 |magazine=Time |language=en}}</ref>
He died at his home in Cambridge on January 20, 1943.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-prof-beale-dies-at-age/171442529/ |title=Prof. Beale Dies at Age of 81 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |page=19 |date=1943-01-21 |access-date=2025-04-30 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Joseph Henry Beale |sopt=t}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beale, Joseph Henry}} Category:1861 births Category:1940 deaths Category:Deans of University of Chicago Law School Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Harvard Law School faculty Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Lawyers from Boston Category:University of Chicago Law School faculty Category:Conflict of laws scholars