The Prosser Letters: Scholar as Dean

What is it about?

Examining a previously unexplored trove of letters, this article sheds new light on the thinking and work of William L. Prosser, the past century’s leading torts scholar. In these letters to family written while dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Prosser candidly describes his approach to scholarship; the development of his casebook, the second edition of Prosser on Torts, and some of his most well-known and influential articles. Moreover, Prosser provides his often-cynical impressions of the legal process; his views of his peers at Berkeley and at other institutions; and his work as dean. The letters also demonstrate some of Prosser’s limitations, including his craving for attention, a sometimes petty personality, and racial and ethnic biases. In all, the letters capture a scholar at the zenith of professional accomplishment in his field, who nevertheless showed signs of the insecurity that would later trigger his resignation from the Berkeley deanship and retreat from the forefront of torts scholarship.

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Why is it important?

This article continues the biographical project of understanding the man widely regarded as the most influential torts scholar of the twentieth century. The most provocative remark in this collection of letters, and the most significant contribution to current tort theory debates, is Prosser's analysis of his effect on tort law. Prosser has long been accused of stating the law in a way that was more to his liking than the sources supported. Moreover, he has been accused of injecting an erroneous theoretical approach into torts. One of Prosser's remarks to his mother indicates he saw himself as altering tort law ("I shall probably be the last of a generation that really made the law of Torts over and did quite a job of it.").