International Law Professor Vagts Spends a Lifetime at Harvard

Detlev F. Vagts '48 is the type of widely-read man that Harvard strives to produce.

As Bemis Professor of International Law, Vagts has written or edited more than 50 books over the past 35 years, on countries ranging from Switzerland to Mexico and topics ranging from human rights to tax law.

An exceptionally broad-based scholar, Vagts attended college when the interruptions of the war reduced the time available for reflection, but Vagts has had plenty of time to share his wisdom with Harvard, as he has spent all but eight of the past 54 years in crimson and white.

Fond Memories?

Vagts was born the year of the stock market crash in "a small community" in Washington, D.C.

In high school, no one would have guessed that Vagts would be such a Harvard man, as the schools in the area served as feeders for Yale. After weighing his options, he chose Harvard, which was one of the few available options at the time.

"A lot of men's colleges were not open in '45" due to a scarcity of resources and people caused by the war, Vagts says.

Vagts entered college at the age of 16 and found that he, like many other young students during the war, was pushed to an early graduation. Thus, he associates himself with the "social class" of 1949 although because of his accelerated schedule, he received his degree in history in 1948.

Vagts says his undergraduate career was heavily shaped by the war.

"[College was] not a good time to make permanent lasting friendships" because of the constant interruptions of the war, he says.

The end of the war is still memorable for Vagts. He remembers a history class on the European Renaissance when his professor, Michael Karpovich, walked in and announced the end of the war.

"In many ways [college at the time] was not an ideal experience," says Vagts. "The Faculty was very confused [and the College had a] hurried, make-shift quality."

A resident of Winthrop House, Vagts wrote his senior thesis about another time of turmoil, the French Revolution.

In addition to academics, Vagts was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club.

Vagts remembers his graduating class to be one of the largest ever to graduate from Harvard. His graduating class was one of the largest in history, filled with members of the classes of '43, '44 and '45, when no commencements were held.

"Radcliffe students were swamped [in numbers because] there were ever so many more men than usual," Vagts says.

Harvard Continues

Upon graduation from the College, Vagts went on to obtain a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1951--one of the last classes to have a single sex graduating class.

In 1951, Vagts moved to New York City to work at a big law firm until the "military caught up with [him]."

After serving in the Air Force for several years, Vagts returned to Harvard as a faculty member of the Law School where he has remained since 1959.

In that time, he has established a reputation as an authority on international law.

Smith Professor of Law Henry J. Steiner considers Vagts to be "an exceptionally broad-based scholar" with "overwhelming knowledge of his fields" and their interrelations.

Today, Vagts teaches classes on corporations and international law while supervising the J.D./M.B.A. program.

Vagts has taken several sabbaticals since his appointment to the faculty, including a one year position in Washington at the State Department.

That year, 1976-1977, he worked at the Office of the Legal Advisor during the transition period between former presidents Ford and Carter. Vagts said that it was "interesting to be on the firing line" while helping to negotiate treaties.

Vagts' first book was released in 1965 and his most recent in 1997. He has written on dispute resolution, Hitler's conception of justice, railroads and transnational legal problems.

Vagts has been co-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of International Law as well as an associate reporter for the restatement of the Foreign Relations Law.

"His writing has made important contributions to his field," Steiner says.

He married his wife, Dorothy, whom he met at a party in New York in 1954. They have two daughters, Karen Vagts '79 and Lydia Vagts.