A Conversation with Myres S. McDougal

Abstract

Myres S. McDougal (1906–1998), a member of the Yale Law School faculty for fifty years, became Sterling Professor of International Law in 1958. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, received an LL.B there, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and earned a J.S.D. from Yale in 1931. He served as assistant general counsel of the U.S. Lend-Lease Administration during World War II. He then returned to Yale Law School, where he and Harold Lasswell developed the influential policy science approach to international law. Some of McDougal’s publications include: The Law School of the Future: From Legal Realism to Policy Science in the World Community (1947). The Public Order of the Oceans: A Contemporary International Law of the Sea (1962, with William T. Burke). Law and Public Order in Space (1963, with Harold D. Lasswell). Human Rights and World Public Order: The Basic Policies of an International Law of Human Dignity (1980, with Harold D. Lasswell and Lung-chu Chen). The International Law of War: Transnational Coercion and World Public Order (1994, with Florentino P. Felciano).