Douglas B. Maggs was one of the group of faculty that Dean Justin Miller brought with him from the University of Southern California in 1930. The others included John S. Bradway, William R. Roalfe, and Gordon E. Dean. Maggs primarily taught torts and constitutional law but was also involved in the current decisions class that Dean Miller started in 1931. Maggs is remembered for his great attention to detail and intolerance for lazy students. It was noted in the 1952 Prolocutor that “His classes [are] often exciting when a student comes unprepared.”
Maggs completed his A.B. and J.D. degrees at the University of California in 1922 and 1924. After earning an S.J.D. from Harvard in 1926 he began teaching at the University of California. Maggs was hired by the University of Southern California in 1927. He served as a Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the U.S. from 1938-1939 and as the Chief of the Wage-Hour Unit in the Department of Justice in 1939. During World War II he held positions with the Board of Economic Warfare, the Office for Emergency Management, and the Department of Labor. He was a visiting professor at several universities over his career including Kyoto and Doshisha Universities in Japan during 1958 as well as Director of the Kyoto Center for American Studies the same year. He died in 1962. In 1997 he was honored with an endowed professorship named after him. The chair was first conferred on Walter E. Dellinger III.
Sources:
Duke University, School of Law, Bulletin of Duke University School of Law [serial]
Robert F. Durden, The Rebuilding of Duke University's School of Law, 1925-1947 (Part I)[https://perma.cc/K4QM-XH3A], vol. LXVI, no. 3, July 1989 North Carolina History Review 321
Robert F. Durden, The Rebuilding of Duke University's School of Law, 1925-1947 (Part II)[https://perma.cc/V2QP-KHR2], vol. LXVI, no. 4, October 1989 North Carolina History Review 443
Robert F. Durden, The Launching of Duke University, 1924-1949 (1993)
The Faculty, 1952 Prolocutor 5
- Torts
- Constitutional Law
- Conflicts
- Current Decisions
- Seminar in Public Law – Regulation of Business and Business Practices
- Constitutional Law I
- Constitutional Law II
- Seminar in Trade Regulation
- Administrative Law
- Constitutional Law and Federal Courts Seminar
- Civil Procedure II
- Constitutional Law and Federal Courts
- Torts and Introduction to Procedure
- Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Seminar
Articles & Essays
- Congress and Literacy Tests: A Comment on Constitutional Power and Legislative Abnegation, 27 Law & Contemporary Problems 510-536 () (with Lawrence G. Wallace)
- Book Review, Lawyers Guild Quarterly 49-51 () (reviewing C. H. McIlwain, Constitutionalism and the Changing World (1940))
- Book Review, 16 New York University Law Quarterly 330-331 () (reviewing Felix Frankfurter, Mr. Justice Holmes and The Supreme Court (1938))
- Book Review, 16 North Carolina Law Review 321-324 () (reviewing William Draper Lewis, Interpreting the Constitution (1937))
- Book Review, 16 North Carolina Law Review 321-324 () (reviewing Edward S. Corwin, The Constitution and What it Means Today (1937))
- The Increasing Importance of Public Law, 24 Duke Alumni Register, Supplement to the School of Law 3 ()
- Book Review, 7 Journal of Higher Education 169 () (reviewing Arnold H. Bennett, The Constitution in School and College (1935))
- Book Review, 15 North Carolina Law Review 95-97 () (reviewing Irving Brant, Storm Over the Constitution (1936))
- Book Review, 46 Yale Law Journal 196-197 () (reviewing Hugh Evander Willis, Constitutional Law of the United States (1936))
- Book Review, 23 Georgetown Law Journal 964-965 () (reviewing Lawrence F. Schmeckeblier, New Federal Organizations (1934))
- The Constitution and the Recovery Legislation: The Roles of Document, Doctrine and Judges, in Legal Essays in Tribute to Orrin Kip McMurray 339-437 (Max Redin & A. M. Kidd eds, )
- Book Review, 2 University of Chicago Law Review 493-496 () (reviewing Edward S. Corwiin, Twilight of the Supreme Court (1934))
- Congressional Power to Control Cotton and Tobacco Production, 1 Law and Contemporary Problems 376-389 ()
- How the Common Objective of Bar Examiners and Law Schools Can be Achieved, 13 Oregon Law Review 147-151 ()
- Legal Limitations on Governmental Control of Business, 7 Wharton New of Finance and Commerce 7 ()
- The Constitution and the Recovery Legislation: The Roles of Document, Doctrine and Judges, 1 University of Chicago Law Review 665-697 ()
- Book Review, 21 California Law Review 632-637 () (reviewing Bernard C. Gavit, Commerce Clause of United States Constitution (1932))
- Book Review, 4 Southern California Law Review 333-334 () (reviewing D. L. Keir & F. H. Lawson, Cases on Constitutionsl Law (1928))
- Book Review, 4 Southern California Law Review 341-342 () (reviewing Charles Grove Haines, Revival of Natural Law Concepts (Vol. 4 1930))
- Book Review, 4 Southern California Law Review 249-250 () (reviewing Dudley O. McGovney, Cases on Constitutional Law (1930))
- Public Opinion and Crime, 83 Review of Review 71-72 ()
- Book Review, 4 Southern California Law Review 166 () (reviewing Westel Woodbury Willoughby, Constitutional Law of the United States (2d Ed. 1929))
- Book Review, 4 Southern California Law Review 75-80 () (reviewing Jacques Rueff, From the Physical to the Social Sciences (1929))
- Book Review, 4 Southern California Law Review 168 () (reviewing Marshall E. Dimock, Congressional Investigating Committee (1929))
Issues Edited
- Selected Essays on Constitutional Law () (Compiled and edited by a Committee of the Association of American Law School)
