born Dec. 7, 1885, Providence, R.I., U.S.
died Feb. 8, 1957, Boston, Mass.
U.S. legal scholar.
He graduated from Harvard Law School and joined its faculty in 1916. Concerned about the restrictions on freedom of speech imposed in World War I, he wrote Freedom of Speech (1920), which became a leading text of U.S. libertarian thought. Chafee became recognized as an expert on civil liberties (see civil liberty ), influencing Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He was also an authority on equity , negotiable instruments, and antitrust law .