Christopher Columbus Langdell

Christopher Columbus Langdell (May 22, 1826 - July 6, 1906), American jurist, was born in the town of New Boston, New Hampshire, of English and Scots-Irish ancestry.

At the essence of Langdell's legacy is his influence on the teaching of law. Before Langdell's tenure the study of law was a technical pursuit. Students were told what the law is. However, at Harvard Langdell applied the principles of pragmatism to the study of law. Now, as a result of this innovation, lawyers are taught the law through a dialectical process of inference called the case method. The case method has been the primary method of pedagogy at American law schools ever since. Students such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. would ensure that Langdell's innovation would not go unnoticed.

He studied at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1845-1848, at Harvard College in 1848-1850 and at Harvard Law School in 1851-1854. He practised law from 1854 to 1870 in New York City, but he was almost unknown when, in January 1870, he was appointed Dane professor of law (and soon afterwards Dean of the Law Faculty) of Harvard University, to succeed Theophilus Parsons, to whose Treatise on the Law of Contracts (1853) he had contributed as a student.

He resigned the deanship in 1895, in 1900 became Dane professor emeritus, and on 6 July 1906 died in Cambridge. He received the degree of LL.D. in 1875; in 1903 a chair in the law school was named in his honour; and after his death one of the school's buildings was named Langdell Hall. He made the Harvard Law School a success by remodeling its administration.