Chafee, Zechariah, Jr.

born Dec. 7, 1885, Providence, R.I., U.S.

died Feb. 8, 1957, Boston, Mass.

U.S. legal scholar.

He graduated from Harvard Law School and joined its faculty in 1916. Concerned about the restrictions on freedom of speech imposed in World War I, he wrote Freedom of Speech (1920), which became a leading text of U.S. libertarian thought. Chafee became recognized as an expert on civil liberties (see civil liberty), influencing Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He was also an authority on equity, negotiable instruments, and antitrust law.

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▪ American scholar

born Dec. 7, 1885, Providence, R.I., U.S.

died Feb. 8, 1957, Boston

      U.S. legal scholar known for his advocacy of civil liberties. His first book, Freedom of Speech (1920), was evoked by measures aimed at political dissenters in World War I. A rewritten and expanded version, Free Speech in the United States (1941), became a leading text of U.S. libertarian thought.

      From 1916 until he retired 40 years later, Chafee was a professor at the Harvard Law School, of which he was a graduate. He was an authority on equity, negotiable instruments, and unfair business competition.

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