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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    March 05, 2007

    U.W. legal scholars' work recognized as most influential in shaping American legal thought since 1890

    Wisconsin LawyerWisconsin Lawyer
    Vol. 80, No. 3, March 2007

    Macaulay gave us an entirely new way of looking at contracts, and Galanter shed new light on the predictability of U.S. legal outcomes. Wisconsin is extremely fortunate to have these two outstanding scholars on the law school faculty.

    Kenneth B. Davis Jr.
    Dean, U.W. Law School

    The writings of two U.W. Law School faculty members were chosen as being among the 20 most important works of American legal thought since 1890 in a recently published book. The Canon of American Legal Thought, authored by Harvard law professors David Kennedy and William W. Fisher III, recounts the history of writing on legal thought and decision-making by examining the work of the nation's most influential legal scholars.

    Alongside the work of such historic legal figures as Oliver Wendell Holmes is the work of U.W. Law School professor Stewart Macaulay and emeritus professor Marc Galanter.

    Macaulay and Galanter's widely cited works have been seen as critical in the "law and society" movement in legal thought. The authors included Macaulay's "Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study," 1963, considered a seminal work in bridging legal scholarship and social science; and Galanter's "Why the 'Haves' Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limit of Legal Change," 1974, which examines how the legal system resisted being used as an instrument of social change.


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