Short Biography on Benjamin N. Cardozo – Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870-1938) was one of the greatest legal philosophers. Born in New York City on May 24, 1870, Benjamin Cardozo was of Jewish parentage; American jurist and writer who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1932-1938).
Educated at Columbia University; Admitted to practice in 1892, he became an expert in the highly technical field of commercial law. For 20 years Cardozo had a successful private practice, specializing in appellate law. He was constantly consulted by lawyers on intricate legal questions and was known as a “lawyer’s lawyer,” arguing complex points before the appellate courts.
He practiced law until he was elected (1913) to the New York Supreme Court. Cardozo was then appointed (1914) to the court of appeals, elected (1917) for a 14-year term, and elected (1927) chief judge of the court, which, largely through his influence, gained international fame.
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His tenure was marked by a number of original rulings, in tort and contract law in particular. In 1921, Cardozo gave the Storrs Lectures at Yale University, which was later published as The Nature of the Judicial Process, a book that remains valuable to judges even today and 3 years later The Growth of the Law appeared.
The Paradoxes of Legal Science was published in 1928. Shortly after he moved to the U.S. Supreme Court his last work, Law and Literature and Other Essays, was published.
Cardozo’s judicial career was one of the most illustrious in the annals of American law. Steward Machine Co. v. Davis (1931), Palko v. Connecticut (1937) are some of the famous cases revealing his extraordinary opinions.
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He died in 1938 at the age of 68. His opinions have been grist for judges well beyond his years of service, placing Cardozo in the pantheon of eminent justices.