He knew why he was here.

• Author: Welch, D. Don
• Position: Vanderbilt Law School professor Harold G. Maier - Testimonial

I will never forget the first time I encountered Hal Maier at Vanderbilt Law School. Hal had chaired a University-wide Reassessment Panel in the 1970s, and from my position in the Provost's Office I had the opportunity to work closely with him on that project for two years. Through those two years, he was full of creative insight, incredibly well-organized, an adept player of university politics, and a delightful colleague. When I came to the Law School in 1984, I was looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with Hal. One of my first assignments as a new junior dean was to find some space in the Law School building that could be reallocated, and I set about to probe all the nooks and crannies to familiarize myself with the building. I was poking around in the Transnational Legal Studies area when I reconnected with my friend. He spied me from the end of a long corridor and shouted: "What the hell are you doing down here!?"

Hal was passionate about his Transnational Legal Studies Program. He was brought to Vanderbilt in 1965 to build an international law program from scratch. In these days of globalization, it is difficult to remember how innovative his work was. In his first year, there were three international law courses at the Law School, all taught by him. There was a testy difference of opinion on campus about whether international law materials should be housed in the Law Library or remain in the University's Central Library ... and there were not many materials in that collection. When Maier was named Director of the Transnational Legal Studies Program eight years later, ten international courses were being taught by six faculty members, a substantial international collection was growing in the Law Library, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law had been established, and the School's Jessup International Moot Court team coached by Hal, had won a national championship.

He was an immediate hit with students. In those days, the students organized an annual Law Day program with an invited speaker and other activities. They dedicated the day to someone each year, and in 1969 they dedicated it to the young Professor Maier, for the second time in three years. He was electrifying in the classroom. Hal did not think in straight lines, and the way he talked was a product of how he thought. This meant that students did not plod along through one case after another, but rather encountered a mind that challenged the normal channels of...