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Samuel Williston
Samuel Williston (September 24, 1861 – February 18, 1963) was an American lawyer and law professor who authored an influential treatise on contracts.
Williston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to a family prosperous from the mercantile trade but whose fortunes declined during his youth, which he recalled, "served as a spur to endeavor."
He graduated from Harvard College in 1882 and worked for three years as a survey assistant for a railroad and teaching at a boarding school. An aunt's bequest enabled him to enroll in Harvard Law School, where he thrived. He was an editor of the first volume of the Harvard Law Review, and in 1888 he graduated first in his class with LL.B. and A.M. degrees.
On September 12, 1889, he married Mary Fairlie Wellman, who died in 1929. They had two daughters: Dorothea Lewis Williston (Mrs. Murray F. Hall), and Margaret Fairlie Williston (Mrs. Chester B. McLaughlin, Jr.).
Early in Williston's career, from 1888 to 1889 he worked as the private secretary to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray. In the summer of 1889, he helped to collate laws from various U.S. states in order to help formulate the state constitutions of North Dakota and South Dakota.
From 1895 to 1938, Williston was a law professor at Harvard Law School, and in 1910, he briefly served as acting dean. In 1903, he was named Weld Professor and, in 1919, was named to the Dane Professorship at Harvard. Students described him as "a gentle, good-humored teacher who charmed his classes with hypothetical cases involving his horse, Dobbin, and who regularly invited students to dine with his family on Sundays," and "a master of the Socratic method."
Amongst his most important contributions at this time were the drafting of four laws aimed at providing national commerce with a legally uniform architecture. The Uniform Laws of Sales (1906), Warehouse Receipts (1906), Bills of Lading (1909), and Stock Transfers (1909) would in fact serve as precedents for the construction of the Uniform Commercial Code some decades later.
The Uniform Commercial Code corrected defects in the Uniform Sales Act, such as the Uniform Sales Act's reliance on title to determine which party (the buyer or the seller) bore the risk of loss. The UCC prescribed rules which allocate the risk of loss that do not depend on the location of title. The need to determine title under the Uniform Sales Act often led to expensive and protracted litigation which the Uniform Commercial Code has eliminated.
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Samuel Williston
Samuel Williston (September 24, 1861 – February 18, 1963) was an American lawyer and law professor who authored an influential treatise on contracts.
Williston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to a family prosperous from the mercantile trade but whose fortunes declined during his youth, which he recalled, "served as a spur to endeavor."
He graduated from Harvard College in 1882 and worked for three years as a survey assistant for a railroad and teaching at a boarding school. An aunt's bequest enabled him to enroll in Harvard Law School, where he thrived. He was an editor of the first volume of the Harvard Law Review, and in 1888 he graduated first in his class with LL.B. and A.M. degrees.
On September 12, 1889, he married Mary Fairlie Wellman, who died in 1929. They had two daughters: Dorothea Lewis Williston (Mrs. Murray F. Hall), and Margaret Fairlie Williston (Mrs. Chester B. McLaughlin, Jr.).
Early in Williston's career, from 1888 to 1889 he worked as the private secretary to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray. In the summer of 1889, he helped to collate laws from various U.S. states in order to help formulate the state constitutions of North Dakota and South Dakota.
From 1895 to 1938, Williston was a law professor at Harvard Law School, and in 1910, he briefly served as acting dean. In 1903, he was named Weld Professor and, in 1919, was named to the Dane Professorship at Harvard. Students described him as "a gentle, good-humored teacher who charmed his classes with hypothetical cases involving his horse, Dobbin, and who regularly invited students to dine with his family on Sundays," and "a master of the Socratic method."
Amongst his most important contributions at this time were the drafting of four laws aimed at providing national commerce with a legally uniform architecture. The Uniform Laws of Sales (1906), Warehouse Receipts (1906), Bills of Lading (1909), and Stock Transfers (1909) would in fact serve as precedents for the construction of the Uniform Commercial Code some decades later.
The Uniform Commercial Code corrected defects in the Uniform Sales Act, such as the Uniform Sales Act's reliance on title to determine which party (the buyer or the seller) bore the risk of loss. The UCC prescribed rules which allocate the risk of loss that do not depend on the location of title. The need to determine title under the Uniform Sales Act often led to expensive and protracted litigation which the Uniform Commercial Code has eliminated.
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