"Radcliffe students were swamped [in numbers because] there were ever so many more men than usual," Vagts says.

Harvard Continues

Upon graduation from the College, Vagts went on to obtain a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1951--one of the last classes to have a single sex graduating class.

In 1951, Vagts moved to New York City to work at a big law firm until the "military caught up with [him]."

After serving in the Air Force for several years, Vagts returned to Harvard as a faculty member of the Law School where he has remained since 1959.

In that time, he has established a reputation as an authority on international law.

Smith Professor of Law Henry J. Steiner considers Vagts to be "an exceptionally broad-based scholar" with "overwhelming knowledge of his fields" and their interrelations.

Today, Vagts teaches classes on corporations and international law while supervising the J.D./M.B.A. program.

Vagts has taken several sabbaticals since his appointment to the faculty, including a one year position in Washington at the State Department.

That year, 1976-1977, he worked at the Office of the Legal Advisor during the transition period between former presidents Ford and Carter. Vagts said that it was "interesting to be on the firing line" while helping to negotiate treaties.

Vagts' first book was released in 1965 and his most recent in 1997. He has written on dispute resolution, Hitler's conception of justice, railroads and transnational legal problems.

Vagts has been co-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of International Law as well as an associate reporter for the restatement of the Foreign Relations Law.

"His writing has made important contributions to his field," Steiner says.

He married his wife, Dorothy, whom he met at a party in New York in 1954. They have two daughters, Karen Vagts '79 and Lydia Vagts.