The papers of William Warner Bishop, Jr., covering the period from 1928 to 1987, consist of six linear feet of correspondence, course materials, addresses and professional papers. The collection has been arranged into six series: Biographical/Personal; Addresses, Papers, etc.; Associations; Professional Correspondence; and Course Materials. The collection relates mainly to Bishop's study and teaching of international law. Among the more personal files are materials relating to Bishop's lifelong activity with the local area Boy Scouts.
William Warner Bishop, Jr. was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on June 10, 1906, the son of William Warner Bishop (1871-1955), who later became librarian of the University of Michigan, and Finnie Murfree (Burton) Bishop. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1928, spent one year on post-graduate work at Harvard, and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Michigan in 1931. He was admitted to the Michigan Bar later that same year.
Bishop worked as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Michigan Law School from 1931 to 1935. He was an assistant reporter for the Harvard Research on International Law from 1932 to 1935. In 1935-36 he was with the New York law firm of Root, Clarke, Butler, and Ballentine. From 1936 to 1938, he lectured on politics at Princeton. In 1939, Bishop became an assistant legal advisor for the U.S. Department of State. He remained at that post until 1947 when he accepted a position at the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting professor of international law. Bishop accepted a position as professor of international law at the University of Michigan in 1948, a position he held until 1976.
Throughout his career, Bishop held different positions concerned with international law. He was legal adviser to the United States delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers at the Paris Peace Conference in 1946. In 1961 and again in 1965, he was a guest lecturer at the Hague Academy of International Law; and from 1975 to 1981, he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.
An active member of law associations and editorial boards of journals, Bishop was vice-president of the American Society of International Law (1960-1961), honorary vice-president (1969-1982 and 1984-1987), and honorary president (1982-1984). From 1953 to 1955 and from 1962 to 1970 Bishop was editor-in-chief of the American Journal of International Law. Bishop was also co-director of International Legal Studies at the University of Michigan Law School from 1958 to 1976. He held the University of Michigan's Distinguished Professorship Award from 1966 to 1976. In 1977, Bishop was named professor emeritus. Bishop authored the leading law school casebook on international law from the 1950s through the 1970s, International Law Cases and Materials.
On July 19, 1947, Bishop married Mary Fairfax Shreve (died November 18, 1979). They had one daughter, Elizabeth Shreve Bishop. Bishop died December 29, 1987.
