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MSS 94-2

The Papers of John C. McCoid II

Overview

University of Virginia documents realtive to the admission of women, teaching materials and student notebooks.

Dates
1950-1953, 1968, 1972 [Bulk]
Extents
18 items

Scope & Contents

The first part of the collection has 16 law student notebooks created by John C. McCoid II during his law study at Vanderbilt University between 1950 and 1953. The addendum, received in 2016, contains a University of Virginia report regarding the admission of women in 1968, and some correspondence regarding the recruitment of African American faculty members in 1972 and teaching materials.

Collection Description

  •  
    Biographical / Historical

    When John C. McCoid, II, retired from the University of Virginia School of Law after 36 years in 1994, he noted: “I can’t imagine – after having been here – wanting to go anywhere else.” McCoid received his B.A. in 1950 and LL.B. in 1953 from Vanderbilt University, where he was editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review and a Founder's Medalist. He then served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy before joining the Virginia Law faculty in 1957. During his tenure at Virginia, McCoid wrote numerous law review articles and an influential civil procedure casebook: Civil Procedure Cases and Materials (1974). Among the many courses he taught were Bankruptcy, Civil Procedure, Conflicts of Law, Insurance, and Legal Ethics. He became the Armistead M. Dobie Professor in 1970 and the O.M. Vicars Professor in 1987, and was the Hunton & Williams Research Professor in 1990-92.

    McCoid relied upon the Socratic method not only in the classroom, but with his colleagues, working through questions and cases rather than relying upon rules. As his colleague George Rutherglen wrote, “It is rare to find a law professor as interested as John in discovering what the limits of any general statement about the law might be.” This approach earned him the respect of law faculty and students throughout his teaching career. A dozen members of the class of 1971 surprised McCoid by showing up at the last class he taught at Virginia Law. As former student and fellow faculty member Earl C. Dudley put it: “John McCoid walked a wonderful tightrope between gentle decency and bracing intellectual challenge. He was not called ‘The Cobra’ for nothing.”

  •  
    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    The Papers of John C. McCoid were donated to the Law Library by John C. McCoid II in May 1994. The addendum was transferred to the archives in 2016.

item1. Business AssociationsMSS 94-2
item2. ContractsMSS 94-2
item3. Constitutional Law and Federal JurisdictionMSS 94-2
item4. Creditor's RightsMSS 94-2
item5. Criminal LawMSS 94-2
item6. EquityMSS 94-2
item7. Estate TaxationMSS 94-2
item8. EvidenceMSS 94-2
item9. Future InterestsMSS 94-2
item10. [Insurance]MSS 94-2
item11. MortgagesMSS 94-2
item12. [Property]MSS 94-2
item13. RestitutionMSS 94-2
item14. TortsMSS 94-2
item15. Trial and Appellate PracticeMSS 94-2
item16. Trusts and WillsMSS 94-2
seriesAddendum to the Papers of John C. McCoid II, 1952 - 1999
fileUniversity of Virginia, The Law School Procedure I – mimeographed instructional material, ca. 1955Box 1
fileThe Reading Guide, April 1960Box 1
fileLegal Method – schedule, teaching assignments, readings. Fall 1963Box 1
fileVirginia Trial Lawyers Association 6th Annual Seminar, March 25-27, 1965, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VABox 1
fileReport of the Special University Committee on the Admission of Women to the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, November 1968Box 1
fileDebtor-Creditor Relations – materials for students at UVA Law School, 1993Box 1
fileCorrespondence re research on federal courts, 1997-1998Box 1
file“The First Federal Rules of Civil Procedure” – text, ca. 1999Box 1
otherlevelStudent notebooks, 1952Box 2
itemConflict of Laws Notebook, 1952
itemPleading Notes, 1952
English