Elliott Evans Cheatham

Cheatham has made a marked imprint through his teaching and his writing on five areas of the law: international law, property, legal education, the legal profession, and conflict of laws. Of these, the legal profession is probably the field where his influence has been most deeply felt. Indeed, it is largely because of his ground-breaking casebook that the subject figures so prominently today in law school curriculums. Likewise, his Carpentier Lectures of a few years ago on A Lawyer When Needed provided the entering wedge into a subject that is of great contemporary significance. What Cheatham has done in the field of the legal profession represents an achievement that few men can rival. But he has done far more. Conflict of laws is the other field of Cheatham\u27s major concentration. In this field too, he has written much and well

American Trends in Private International Law: Academic and Judicial Manipulation of Choice of Law Rules in Tort Cases

The Restatement attempts to provide as much guidance as it is believed the current state of the authorities will permit. Hard-and-fast rules of choice of law are stated in the few situations in which this was deemed possible . Elsewhere formulations of varying degrees of specificity are employed. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the principal weakness of the Restatement is the relatively little guidance that it affords. Properly viewed, it is a transitional document. It was written during a time of change and chaos when there was little indication of the direction that would betaken by future developments in choice of law. This situation persists and is likely to continue during the appreciable future. It is hoped that in due course new rules will be developed or at least that a consensus will emerge with respect to the approach to betaken to choice of law. That will be the time for work on a third Restatement to commence

Commentary on Professor Gabor\u27s Stepchild of the New Lex Mercatoria Symposium: Reflections on the International Unfication of Sales Law

welcome Professor Gabor\u27s analyses of the Hague Draft Convention. 1 The Convention is a natural sequel to the United Nations Sales Convention, which has been ratified by the United States and came into effect on January 1st of this year. This latter convention deals with the substantive law of sales and is designed to play a role for the entire world similar to the one played by the Uniform Commercial Code in the United States. Undoubtedly, many states will be slow to ratify the Sales Convention, and some will not do so at all. Thus, implementation of rules addressing the issue of applicable law in sales, where the states involved have different laws in the area, is desirable. This is the task of the Hague Draft Convention. Professor Gabor argues that the absence of one welldeveloped body of private international law engenders substantial uncertainty and legal insecurity for both United States and foreign citizens contemplating transnational legal relationships. 2 This Commentary will explore the accuracy of Professor Gabor\u27s statement

What makes a law school great?

Of course I have no idea what makes a law school great. I have never really thought about it. There is no reason why a fellow in my lowly position should think about it. You can\u27t arrive at my age and still be reasonably healthy if you do think about it. So I don\u27t know. Dean Ronald Macdonald said why don\u27t you say something about what makes a law school great? My reaction was to shudder. I did think about if for about ten minutes on Saturday and I have come up with the most obvious thoughts, all of which I know you\u27ve heard before. Clearly, you have to ask, great from what point of view? But I don\u27t know if this lawyer\u27s relativism solves anything. I suppose that if the ordinary janitor were walking down the street in search of a great institution, he would look at the building to see if it were just a huddle with outhouses, and things like that. If it were, I guess that he would have a low opinion of the place. I do think that the shell has some significance; and I think that the interior characteristics can be important; for example, how the building is arranged, whether there is carpeting on the floor, (which there certainly is not at Columbia); whether the halls, as at Yale and Columbia, are dark and remind you of a jail. Although these things are important, I am not suggesting that they are the most important factors. But I doubt that any law school without respectable facilities has been thought of as great. Well, what the hell else makes it great? I don\u27t know, but I suppose that when you think of an order of importance, the building ranks lowest