Introduction

Harold J. Berman is one of the great figures in American legal education of the twentieth century. During the war, Berman began to polish his Russian language skills, and he came to the firm conclusion that the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union would be the most important international relationship for the rest of the century. In every way he remains a vital, contributing figure in American legal scholarship and a pathfinder for other legal academics. His activities in improving mutual understanding and in continuing scholarship have continued unabated. He brought with him his own prodigious talents as a teacher and scholar, but more importantly, he has been a mentor to a generation of younger scholars at Emory and the driving force behind the creation of new programs, new courses, new library collections, and new ways of integrating the study of law with other disciplines.