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Law and Lawgivers

The dedication, on Palm Sunday, of two clerestory windows located in the east wall of the North Transept completed the trilogy representing the three human enterprises to which the Bible gives major recognition: medicine, law, and education. The new windows, law and education, were designed and executed in the studio of Wilbur H. Bumham of Boston and were given by Mrs. Benjamin DeWitt Riegel of New York in memory of her father and her husband, respectively.

The County Seat Lawyer

The county-seat lawyer, counsellor to railroads and to Negroes, to bakers and to poor whites, who always gave to each the best there was in him- and was willing to admit that his best was good. That lawyer has been an American institution- about the same in South and North and East and West.

Training the Trial Lawyer: A Neglected Area of Legal Education

That a Justice of the United States Supreme Court should help Stanford Law School dedicate its new home is only to observe that comity which one educational institution owes to another. There is more similarity between the two than you may have thought.

Wartime Security and Liberty Under Law

To initiate this series of namesake lecturers is an honor and its association with the memory of James McConnack Mitchell imposes a responsibility. Here in Western New York, when I was admitted to its bar Mr. Mitchell already ranked high in its long list of eminent advocates, jurists and intellectual leaders.

Serving the Administration of Criminal Justice

I am always glad to appear before any function of the American Bar Association because long before I went to Washington I was active in the Association and was honored by it. I was one of the last chairmen of the conference of Bar Association Delegates which evolved into the House of Delegates, and the work of this Association has always been of interest to me. I think every man owes his best efforts to his profession.

The American Bar Center: A Testimony to Our Faith in the Rule of Law

In his address at the laying of the cornerstone of the new American Bar Center on November 2, 1953, Mr. Justice Jackson compared the Western ideal of the rule of law with the barbarian's reliance upon force, recently revived in the modern totalitarian states. The latter part of his address took the form of a legal creed that may well survive the building whose erection it marked.

The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy: A Study of a Crisis in American Power Politics

In January 1941, Jackson, as Attorney General of the United States, published a best seller, The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy: A Study of a Crisis in American Power Politics (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.). In the book, Jackson reviewed the history of the Supreme Court of the United States, the increase in its power through adjudications of the constitutionality of federal and state laws and, in response, President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 effort to resist judicial expansionism through “Court-packing” legislation. (The link shows the dust jacket. A copy of the full text is not available on our website.)

The Case Against the Nazi War Criminals

From the book jacket: This volume contains several of the most significant documents of our era. They are: Justice Robert H. Jackson's opening statement for the United States a the trial of the Nazi war criminals at Nurnberg; the complete text of the indictment of the Nazi criminals; and the text of the four-power agreement upon which the trials are based. These documents are introduced by an explanatory analysis by Gordon Dean of United States counsel.

The Nürnberg Case: as presented by Robert H. Jackson

From the book jacket: Here are the high points of the unique war-criminals trials, from Jackson's preliminary Report to President Truman of June 7, 1945, in complete form, to the closing section of he final Report to the President of October 7, 1946. The Opening Statement and the Closing Speech for the United States are printed in their entirety, as is the speech delivered by Jackson expounding the theory of legality involved in accusing Nazi organizations of being criminal. In 1947, Jackson published The Nürnberg Case (Knopf), which includes his first report to President Truman (June 1945), the London Agreement, Jackson’s opening statement, his legal argument on the criminal charges against indicted Nazi organizations (February 1946), Jackson’s closing address at the trial (July 1946) and excerpts from four of his cross-examinations (of defendants Hermann Goering, Hjalmar Schacht and Albert Speer and defense witness Erhard Milch) during the trial.

The Supreme Court in the American System of Government

In March 1954 the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration invited Mr. Justice Jackson to become the Godkin Lecturer for the academic year 1954-1955. The Justice accepted and chose as his topic for the three lectures, “The Supreme Court in the American System of Government.” February of 1955 was tentatively set as the date for delivery. The Justice began outlining his subject and formulating his ideas soon after he accepted the invitation, and by the end of summer, 1954, he had completed six drafts of the first lecture and two of the second and third. He then reorganized the whole and wrote one more draft of the first two lectures and two partial redrafts of the third. Mr. Justice Jackson died suddenly on October 9, 1954.