Robert Lee Hale papers, 1912-1958
Summary Information
Abstract
At a Glance
- Call No.:
- MS#0535
- Bib ID:
- 4078851 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Hale, Robert L. (Robert Lee), 1884-1969
- Repository:
- Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Physical Description:
- 13 linear feet (26 boxes)
- Language(s):
- English .
- Access:
- You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
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This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
Materials with student grades in Box 23 are closed to researchers until 2026.
Description
Scope and Contents
Professional correspondence, manuscripts, course materials, and printed works documenting the education and career of Robert Lee Hale (1884-1969), economist and Columbia University professor of law. Prominent correspondents of Hale's include Louis Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo, Felix Frankfurter, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Harlan Fiske Stone, and William Howard Taft. Many of these letters deal with contemporary cases before the Supreme Court. There are also materials Hale used in classes he taught at Columbia University. His notes, manuscripts, and typescripts for many of his articles and papers, along with correspondence relating to them, are included in the collection. In addition, there are extensive mimeographed copies of Hale's unpublished works, including the five editions of his Legal Factors in Economic Society, which he used as a classroom text between 1935 and 1947. Finally, there are academic papers from Hale's years at Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
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Series I contains Hale's professional correspondence. Much of the correspondence in Subseries I.2 discusses Hale's law review articles.
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Series II contains materials Hale used to teach his classes in the Columbia University economics department and at Columbia University School of Law. These include course outlines, lecture notes, exams, and course readings.
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Series III: Research and scholarship
Series III contains notes and outlines, unpublished manuscripts, legal briefs, and published works by Hale and others. It also contains a small amount of Hale's coursework from Harvard University.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in three series. Subseries I.1 is arranged in alphabetical order by the correspondent's last name. The remaining materials in the collection are largely grouped by subject and are arranged in alphabetical order. Selected material cataloged; remainder listed and arranged.
Using the Collection
Restrictions on Access
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
Materials with student grades in Box 23 are closed to researchers until 2026.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Robert Lee Hale Papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.
Accruals
Gift of Warren J. Samuels, 1990.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source of acquisition--Hale, Robert Lee Hale, Jr. via Law Library. Method of acquisition--Gift and transfer; Date of acquisition--1976. Accession number--M-76.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processing Information
Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 06/--/89.
Materials were intellectually arranged into series at the same time the finding aid was converted to EAD. The biographical note was also expanded. Nothing in the collection was physically rearranged.
Revision Description
2020-06-30 PDF finding aid converted to EAD by CLB.
Biographical / Historical
Robert Lee Hale (1884-1969) was an economist and professor of law at Columbia University School of Law.
Robert Lee Hale was born in Albany, New York on March 9, 1884. He graduated from Harvard College in 1906 and Harvard Law School in 1909. He practiced law until 1913, then taught economics at Columbia University, where he completed a Ph.D. in economics in 1918.
Hale joined the faculty of the Columbia University School of Law in 1918 and became a full professor of law in 1935. His classes and published works focused on the intersection of economics and law. He approached legal scholarship through the framework of legal realism, which advocated applying the principles of scientific inquiry to jurisprudence as a means of coping with the inherent ambiguity of the law. Hale's best-known works are Valuation and Rate-Making: The Conflicting Theories of the Wisconsin Railroad Commission, 1905-17 (1918) and Freedom Through Law: Public Control of Private Governing Power (1952). Upon his retirement from full-time teaching in 1949, he was granted professor emeritus status.
Hale married Dorothea Keep on December 20, 1913. They had one child, Robert Lee Hale, Jr. Robert Lee Hale died in Stamford, Connecticut on September 1, 1969.
Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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