Harvard Law Prof, 83, Dies

Arthur T. von Mehren ’42, a trailblazer in the study of international law who taught at Harvard for nearly half a century, died of pneumonia on Jan. 16. He was 83.

“He was essentially a Harvard lifer,” said his son Peter A. von Mehren ’77. “He arrived at Harvard in 1939 when he was 17 years old and spent the rest of his life there. He devoted his entire life to being a scholar in the Harvard community.”

Von Mehren grew up in Minneapolis during the Depression. He and his twin brother Robert became local legends when one was accepted to Harvard and the other to Yale. After graduating from Harvard College in 1942, von Mehren went on to place first in his class at Harvard Law School (HLS), where he served as president of the Law Review. He earned a doctorate in government in 1946 and entered the HLS faculty.

As a professor, von Mehren specialized in international and comparative law and conflicts of law. He spent time in Switzerland, Germany, and Japan studying international legal systems, and facilitated an exchange program between Japanese and American professors in the 1950s.

“I think what he really did was to open up the study of law after the second World War,” said son George M. von Mehren ’72.

Von Mehren was known for his gentle, mild-mannered nature, and his love of interaction with students. His assistant Brad Conner said von Mehren was “always generous in what he shared with you if you asked him a question.”

“When I was young, my father used to bring foreign students home for the holidays,” said Peter von Mehren. “He wanted to reach out to his students in the same special way they had reached out to him throughout his life.”

His knowledge of the law had romantic benefits as well. After hearing the young professor expound on the legal prowess of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, von Mehren’s future wife, Joan, knew she had found a keeper.

“I knew I’d never meet anyone as charming, interesting, and witty as him,” she said. They were married 58 years.

In addition to being a scholar of international law, von Mehren played a role in foreign policy, heading the American delegation at the Hague Conference in Private International Law in 1966.

“Many of the treaties he designed are still in effect now and will be for a long time,” Conner said. “He had the foresight to see where things were going, which was very important for the country.”

In 1991, he was named the Story professor of law, emeritus at HLS. He continued to teach classes on commercial arbitration and remained in close contact with his students until December. A prolific author, he has three books being published in the next few months, according to his wife.

“My father had two great loves: his scholarship and teaching. He was never really hard to get along with except when he was grading exams because he was upset about the students who hadn’t done well,” George von Mehren said.

“When someone in one of his classes had an insight which he had never thought of,” he added, “that would send him to the moon.”