David Dudley Field

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David Dudley Field, between 1865 and 1880

David Dudley Field (born February 13, 1805 in Haddam , Connecticut , † April 13, 1894 in New York ) was an American lawyer . Various legislative reforms go back to him, which led to a standardization and simplification of the law in a number of US states. In 1873 he co-founded the Institut de Droit international (Institute for International Law). Four years later he was a member of the US Congress for a short time .

Life

Field was born in Haddam, Connecticut in 1805 , the eldest of four brothers. His father was a preacher and local historian, and his younger brother Stephen Johnson Field was later a Supreme Court judge . He received instruction from private tutors and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown , Massachusetts , which he graduated in 1825. He then studied law in Albany and New York and was admitted to the bar in 1828. In the following years he practiced successfully as a lawyer in New York and wrote a number of papers on various legal topics. In doing so, he became more and more convinced that the common law of that time in the USA, which was based on judgments in precedent cases, required standardization and simplification of the relevant procedural rules. For this reason, he traveled to Europe in 1836 to study the legal systems of England , France and some other countries.

After his return to the United States, he devoted himself in the following decades to the self-chosen goal of standardizing the rules of procedure of common law. For this purpose he published pamphlets and articles in various magazines. In 1841 he ran unsuccessfully for the legislative assembly of New York State . Six years later he was appointed head of a commission to review the state's legal system, and served in that capacity until 1850. In the same year the commission introduced a new civil procedural law adopted by the Legislative Assembly called Field Code went down in legal history. From 1857 to 1865 he was a member of a commission whose task it was to revise the areas of civil and criminal law . The corresponding proposals were only implemented to a limited extent in New York State, but served as a template for corresponding laws in more than 20 other states and in British India .

In 1867 he published a proposal for an international court of arbitration to settle disputes between states. In September 1873 he was involved in the founding of the Institut de Droit international (Institute for International Law) in the Belgian city of Ghent, together with ten other lawyers from different countries . This institution, whose aim is the further development of international law , was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1904 .

From January 11 to March 3, 1877, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives for the Democrats for a short period to fill the vacant seat of Smith Ely , who had previously resigned due to his election as Mayor of New York. He then continued to work as a lawyer until his death. He died in New York in 1894 .

Works (selection)

  • Outlines of an International Code. Second edition. New York 1878
  • Speeches, Arguments and Miscellaneous Papers. New York 1884

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Field, David Dudley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Haddam , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1894
Place of death New York City