Grant Gilmore

{{Short description|American legal scholar}}

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{{Use American English|date=October 2023}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Grant Gilmore

| birth_date = September 2, 1913

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1982|5|1|1910|4|8}}

| death_place = Norwich, Vermont, U.S.

| occupation = Law professor

| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (1971)
Sterling Professor (1973)

| alma_mater = Yale University (PhD, LLB)

| discipline = Constitutional law

| workplaces = Yale University
University of Chicago
Ohio State University
Vermont Law School

| image = Grant-gilmore.jpg

}}

Grant Gilmore (April 8, 1910 – May 1, 1982) was an American law professor who taught at Yale Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, the College of Law (now Moritz College of Law) at the Ohio State University, and Vermont Law School. He was a scholar of commercial law and one of the principal drafters of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Gilmore attended Boston Latin School and then went on to Yale University, where he earned a PhD in Romance languages. Prior to his career in law, he taught French at Yale University.

He authored a number of books on various areas of commercial law, including secured transactions, admiralty law, and contract law, and also drafted Article Nine of the Uniform Commercial Code. Perhaps his most famous work is his survey and criticism of contract law, The Death of Contract. Gilmore is also known for his quote:

Law reflects, but in no sense determines the moral worth of a society…. The better the society, the less law there will be. In Heaven, there will be no law, and the lion will lie down with the lamb…. The worse the society, the more law there will be. In Hell, there will be nothing but law, and due process will be meticulously observed.

Selected publications

  • Gilmore, Grant. Security Interests in Personal Property (2 Volumes). 1st edition, Little, Brown & Company, 1965; 2nd edition, The Lawbook Exchange, 1999. {{ISBN|1-886363-81-1}}
  • Gilmore, Grant. The Death of Contract. The Ohio State University Press, 1974, 2nd edition 1995, Ronald K.L. Collins, editor: {{ISBN|0-8142-0676-X}}
  • Gilmore, Grant & Black, Charles. The Law of Admiralty. Foundation Press, 1975. OCLC 1228473.
  • {{cite book |last1=Gilmore |first1=Grant |year=1977 |title=The Ages of American Law |work=Storers Lecture Series |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300023529 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/agesofa_gil_1977_00_9874 }} (second edition, with new foreword and final chapter by Philip Bobbitt, Yale University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|9780300189919}})

References