Henry Girard Manne was born on May 10, 1928, in New Orleans and was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Central High School in Memphis, and graduated with a BA in economics from Vanderbilt University (1950). Manne received a JD from the University of Chicago (1952), a doctorate in law (SJD) from Yale University (1966), and held honorary degrees from Seattle University, Universidad Francesco Marroquin in Guatemala, and George Mason University.
Manne served in the Air Force JAG Corps, stationed at Chanute Air Force Base (Illinois) and McGuire Air Force Base (New Jersey). He practiced law briefly in Chicago before beginning his teaching career at St. Louis University in 1956. In subsequent years he taught at the University of Wisconsin, George Washington University, the University of Rochester, Stanford University, the University of Miami, Emory University, George Mason University, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. Early in his career Manne pioneered the application of economic principles to the study of corporations and corporate law, authoring, “Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control,” (1965). His book, Insider Trading and the Stock Market (1966) was the first scholarly work to challenge the logic of insider trading laws.
In 1974 Manne founded the Law & Economics Center at the University of Miami (which subsequently moved to Emory University and then to George Mason University School of Law, where it continues). Manne was dean of George Mason University School of Law from 1986 to 1997 and Foundation Professor until 1999. His move to GMU united him with economist James Buchanan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1986 and turned GMU into a global leader in law and economics. Manne transformed legal education by integrating a rigorous economic curriculum into the law school. The school’s Henry G. Manne Moot Court Competition for Law & Economics and the Henry G. Manne Program in Law & Economics Studies are named for him.
After leaving GMU in 1999, Manne remained an active scholar and commenter on public affairs as a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Following his retirement Manne became a distinguished visiting professor at Ave Maria Law School in Naples, Florida. The Liberty Fund, of Indianapolis, Indiana, recently published The Collected Works of Henry G. Manne in three volumes. In addition, Manne was named a life member of the American Law and Economics Association.
Henry G. Manne died on January 17, 2015, at the age of 86.
Learn more about Henry Manne, his fascinating career, and his influences, in a 2012 Interview for the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society.