Remembering my First Law Teacher: Walter Berns 1919-2015

Walter Berns, with whom I studied American constitional law as undergraduate, passed away Saturday.   He was a student of Leo Strauss, and a conservative, who supported capital punishment and opposed transnational governance.  Even if, as I argue in my recent book, Strauss himself was not a real conservative, there could be no doubt of Berns' credentials in that regard.  His views may have tested more than once my openness to learning from those with whom I disagreed, but he was-quite simply-a great teacher.  He inspired a life-long fascination with the law and he predicted indeed, when I was around 19, that the law would be my destiny, my vocation.  Unlike Allan Bloom, who may not have been as conservative as Berns in fact, Berns treated left-leaning students with respect; his fearsome style of argument was balanced by kindness, extraordinary decency, and compassion in his dealings with individual students. As well as humor-an example:  I remember Berns pretending to get incensed on one occasion when I labelled him a conservative-"I'm not a conservative, Mr. Howse," he snapped, "I'm a reactionary!"  

There was something poetic in Berns' conservatism, rather unusual for America, I'd say.  His invocation of Shakespeare and Milton was neither snobbism nor great books-conservatism but an expression of an unusual literary sensibility.  As was his commentary on Lincoln's speeches, to give another example.

Berns was not trained as a lawyer and (to my knowledge) he never held a position in a law school.  No matter-he was one of the best law teachers I ever encountered.    A very good example that teaching the law is, ultimately, a humanistic calling, something that goes outside the bounds of narrow professional or disciplinary specializations.