Rare Book & Manuscript Library
 

Robert Lee Hale papers, 1912-1958

Summary Information

Abstract

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.

At a Glance

Call No.: MS#0535
Bib ID 4078851 View CLIO record
Creator(s) Hale, Robert L. (Robert Lee), 1884-1969
Title Robert Lee Hale papers, 1912-1958
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.

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.

Arrangement

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.

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 In addition, there are extensive mimeographed copies of Hale's unpublished works, including the five editions of his Legal Factors in Economic Society, which he used as a classroom text between 1935 and 1947.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.

  • Series I: Correspondence

    Series I contains Hale's professional correspondence. Much of the correspondence in Subseries I.2 discusses Hale's law review articles.

  • Series II: Teaching materials

    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.

  • 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.

Using the Collection

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

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

Single photocopies 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.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Subject

Heading "CUL Archives:"
"Portal"
"CUL Collections:"
"CLIO"
"Nat'l / Int'l Archives:"
"ArchivedGRID"
Brandeis, Louis Dembitz, 1856-1941 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Cardozo, Benjamin N (Benjamin Nathan), 1870-1938 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
College teachers Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Columbia University -- : Faculty Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Frankfurter, Felix, 1882-1965 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Harvard Law School -- : Students Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Harvard University -- : Students Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., 1841-1935 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Law -- Study and teaching Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Law and economics Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Lawyers Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Stone, Harlan Fiske, 1872-1946 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Taft, William H (William Howard), 1857-1930 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID

History / Biographical Note

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.

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Series I: Correspondence

Series I contains Hale's professional correspondence. Much of the correspondence in Subseries I.2 discusses Hale's law review articles.


Subseries I.1: Cataloged correspondence



Box 1 Baruch, Bernard M.


Box 1 Beard, Charles A.


Box 1 Berle, Adolph A., Jr.


Box 1 Black, Hugo L.


Box 1 Bliven, Bruce


Box 1 Burlingham, Charles C.


Box 1 Burton, Harold H.


Box 1 Butler, Nicholas Murray


Box 1 Brandeis, Louis D.


Box 1 Cardozo, Benjamin N.


Box 1 Dewey, John


Box 1 Douglas, Paul H.


Box 1 Douglas, William O.


Box 1 Fisher, Walter L.


Box 1 Frank, Jerome New


Box 1 Frankfurter, Felix


Box 1 Gay, Edwin F.


Box 1 Hand, Learned


Box 1 Holmes, Oliver Wendell


Box 1 Johnson, Alvin


Box 1 Lerner, Max


Box 1 Lippmann, Walter


Box 1 Lowell, Abbott Lawrence


Box 1 McAneny, George


Box 1 Moon, Parker T.


Box 1 Pound, Roscoe


Box 1 Robinson, Geroid Tanquary


Box 1 Rosenberg, James N.


Box 1 Seligman, Edwin R. A.


Box 1 Simkhovitch, Vladimir G.


Box 1 Stone, Harlan Fiske


Box 1 Taft, William Howard


Subseries I.2: Arranged correspondence



Box 3 Academy of Political Science meeting, 1930



Box 4 Berle-Hale correspondence


Box 4 Carbons of copies of letters from others praising Hale's articles (originals believed sent to publisher)



Box 2 Carver article correspondence ("Coercion and Distribution in a Supposedly Non-Coercive State")


Box 2 "Commissions, Rates, and Policies" correspondence


Box 2 Commons-Hale correspondence


Box 2 "Conflicting Judicial Criteria of Utility Rates" correspondence


Box 2 Constitutional rights against private individuals correspondence


Box 2 Contract impairment article correspondence



Box 9 Correspondence, 1912-1958



Box 7 Correspondence and manuscripts from Thomas W. Holland



Box 5 Correspondence re: N. T. Guernsey



Box 2 Correspondence with H. G. Brown



Box 3 Correspondence with Nicholas Kelly



Box 6 Correspondence with publishers



Box 5 Correspondence with T. R. Powell



Box 3 Criticism of constitutional system



Box 2 "Duress" correspondence



Box 5 Early letters and materials re: single tax etc.



Box 2 "Economics and the Statesman" correspondence


Box 2 "The 'Fair Value' Merry-Go-Round" correspondence


Box 2 "Force and the State" correspondence


Box 2 "Does the Ghost of Smyth v Ames Still Walk?" correspondence



Box 5 Hale-Arthur S. Miller correspondence



Box 3 Hale's letters to the editor



Box 5 Harvard alumni bulletin, 1912



Box 2 Hope natural gas article



Box 3 "Judicial policy" (Arthur R. Burns), 1941



Box 2 Correspondence on labor legislation as an enlargement of individual liberties



Box 5 Letters, scrap-book material, etc



Box 3 Minna L. R. brief



Box 2 Miscellaneous correspondence



Box 5 Miscellaneous correspondence



Box 3 Miscellaneous correspondence: "Blue Box" (first group)



Box 5 Miscellaneous correspondence: "Blue Box" (second group)



Box 3 Miscellaneous Hale-Stone correspondence



Box 5 Miscellaneous letters


Box 5 Miscellaneous letters and materials


Box 5 Miscellaneous letters and materials



Box 2 Nebbia and Lindheimer articles


Box 2 "Our Equivocal Constitutional Guaranties" correspondence


Box 2 "The 'Physical Value' Fallacy in Rate Cases" correspondence


Box 2 Political and Economic Review correspondence



Box 5 Public lands, 1912



Box 2 "Rate Making and the Revision of the Property Concept" correspondence



Box 4 Research Council in the Social Sciences — letters and reports


Box 4 Sacco-Vanzetti correspondence and materials



Box 2 "The Supreme Court and the Contract Clause" correspondence


Box 2 "Unconstitutional Acts as Federal Crimes" correspondence


Box 2 "Unconstitutional Conditions and Constitutional Rights" correspondence


Box 2 "Law Making By Unofficial Minorities" correspondence


Box 2 "Valuation and Rate Making" correspondence


Box 2 "What is a 'Confiscatory' Rate?" correspondence

Series II: Teaching materials

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.



Box 19 Coercion and Distribution in a Supposedly Non-coercive State



Box 3 Columbia School of Law curriculum studies



Box 22 Course material: Notes and miscellaneous exams



Box 23 Course material: Syllabi, exams, grades, Columbia Law Faculty, 1919-1951

Closed to researchers until 2026.



Box 3 Course outline: Law of Industrial Relations



Box 17 Industrial Relations course materials



Box 4 Course outline: Legal Factors in Economic Society



Box 6 Materials: Legal Factors in Economic Society



Box 3 Examinations — Legal Factors course (including precursor)



Box 12 Legal Factors in Economic Society (editions 1-5), 1935-1947



Box 13 Legal Factors in Economic Society (editions 1-5), 1935-1947



Box 14 Legal Factors in Economic Society (editions 1-5), 1935-1947



Box 15 Legal Factors in Economic Society (editions 1-5), 1935-1947



Box 16 Legal Factors in Economic Society (editions 1-5), 1935-1947



Box 5 Materials from instructor period — Columbia economics department, circa 1913-1918



Box 21 Course material: Notes (mainly on Public Utilities)



Box 5 Public Utilities course materials



Box 6 Social Control in Economic Life course materials



Box 3 Outlines for Social Control in Economic Life course



Box 18 Social Control



Box 19 Social Control

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.



Box 6 Amicus Curiae in Sweatt case [Sweatt v. Painter], circa 1950



Box 8 Book review manuscripts



Box 5 Book reviews of Freedom Through Law



Box 7 Chapters from early attempt to systematize legal-economic thoughts



Box 6 Correspondence and manuscripts on international discrimination, 1920-1921



Box 1 Dewey, John cataloged manuscript



Box 3 Gardner's papers on Commons


Box 3 Hague brief re: freedom of assembly



Box 5 Hale's miscellaneous publications



Box 8 Harvard College report, Economics 6, 1905 Spring


Box 8 Harvard College thesis, Government 10, 1905 Spring


Box 8 Harvard College hour exam, report, thesis, Philosophy, 1905 Fall



Box 5 Harvard College lecture notes, Economics 12b, 1905 Fall



Box 8 Harvard College exam, Economics 2, 1906 February 6



Box 4 Harvard Law School lecture notes, jurisprudence, Beale, 1909 Spring



Box 8 Harvard Law School report, Jurisprudence, 1909 Spring


Box 8 Manuscripts, 1916



Box 10 Manuscripts and mimeographs



Box 11 Manuscripts and mimeographs



Box 7 Manuscripts by R. L. Hale



Box 6 Manuscripts of "Coercion and Distribution"



Box 7 Manuscripts, probably drafts of Harvard Law Review volume 53, circa 1939-1940



Box 4 Materials on public utilities



Box 3 Materials re: Freedom Through Law



Box 7 Materials re: Restrictive Covenant Cases



Box 2 Minutes of a seminar on government, 1945



Box 4 Miscellaneous letters, notes and materials


Box 4 Miscellaneous manuscripts by Hale



Box 6 Miscellaneous manuscripts by Hale



Box 7 Miscellaneous manuscripts by Hale


Box 7 Miscellaneous manuscripts by Hale



Box 2 Miscellaneous manuscripts of Hale, circa 1910s



Box 8 Miscellaneous manuscripts, pages, and notes



Box 4 Miscellaneous materials



Box 5 Miscellaneous notes and materials



Box 6 Miscellaneous notes and materials



Box 7 Miscellaneous notes and materials



Box 8 Miscellaneous notes and materials



Box 3 Miscellaneous notes, letters and outlines


Box 3 Miscellaneous outlines and notes re: law and economics



Box 8 Miscellaneous papers



Box 4 New York College Teachers Union, 1940


Box 4 National Lawyers Guild, 1940



Box 5 Political and Economic Review



Box 26 Printed - miscellaneous



Box 27 Printed - miscellaneous



Box 24 Printed works by Robert L. Hale



Box 25 Printed works by Robert L. Hale



Box 4 Publications by Hale in labor law



Box 9 Sacco/Vanzetti material



Box 3 The Valley News editorial



Box 4 University of Chicago Mobilization Conference, 1951



Box 6 Unpublished review of Carver



Box 20 Works by others