Mcdougal, Myres S. (1906–1998)

Myres Smith McDougal, together with Harold Lasswell, founded the New Haven School (Policy Science School) of Jurisprudence. McDougal was a [Page 1006]brilliant scholar, a great teacher, and a role model to generations of students.

Born in Burtons, Mississippi, McDougal studied classics and law and taught classics for two years at the University of Mississippi. He became a Rhodes Scholar, studying law at St. John's College, Oxford University, where he was much influenced by legal historian Sir William Holdsworth (1871–1944) and by international jurist James Brierly (1881–1955). McDougal's achievement at Oxford was double firsts: a BA and a BCL. In 1931, he came to Yale Law School for a JSD, undergoing a conversion from a legal positivist to an American legal realist.

When McDougal joined the Yale law ...